Guys my proposal got accepted by a program thats highly competitive and got the funding confirmed hollly molly nevery kill yourself !! This is genuinely insane because after this project I get to make a research paper with my name on it.... my goodness. Here's some photos from the research im doing that looks like art <3
These are stomata!! Stomata are pores that facilitate rhe exchange of carbon required for photosynthesis in a plant.
Image on left is Psidium guajava and the image on the left is Eucalyptus robusta. Just look at how different the shape is.... plants are so awesome.
For a final project I had to conduct an experiment and my experiment was observing species richness of floral visitors in urban areas and natural areas for Sida fallax! I got to take a lot of really cool photos and see so many cool bugs. I dont have an ID for all of these unfortunately but I did get some help with identification with an entomologist.
Photo 1 is a type of Hoverfly, photo 3 is in the Ceraptina genus and the last photo is in the Hylaeus genus.
If anyone wants to try to ID, you're free too! I do not know much about bugs but they're very important for plants so we always cross paths.
I wanted to talk about plant form and function and the information you can gather about the environment once you learn about the plants in your area.
The plant on the top is a species from the Cyanea genus. What can be inferred from the curved flower is that the pollinator is something that can reach the nectar while effectively pollinating at the same time. When you look at local fauna, there are only a hand full of birds that have coevolved those curved beaks. The brighter leaf colors also indicate that it grows in a shaded area not burdened by constant sun. The fruits are small and black meaning that it's easily dispersable by a smaller animal, I actually don't know what animal disperses this fruit, I want to say a bird.
The last 3 plants share similar traits that have the same function. The first 2 images are Sesbania tomentosa and the 3rd image is vitex rotundifolia. Both these plants look silver/pale in color due to the thick amount of hairs on the leaves. The various hairs slow down gas exchange from the pores (stomata) within the leaf, essentially slowing down evaporation and conserving water. This is because the environment these plants thrive in are in the heat and the sun.
Another trait shared by these 2 plants are the shape of the flowers, having that lip part on the bottom typically means that these are bee pollinated. For vitex rotundifolia, the lip provides an area for the bee to land while it collects pollen and nectar on the inside. Theres also nectar guidelines (the white coloration amongst the purple) that help lead the bees to the correct place. For Sesbania tomentosa, the lip is referred to as the "keel" of the flower. What happens is when a bee lands on the keel, the keel opens up to reveal the anthers (male organ) and pistil (female organ) of the plant and puts all the pollen onto the bee's body while the bee is getting nectar. This is characteristic of all flowers shaped like this.
This is an example of an Exoneura bee triggering an Aotus flower's keel to open. Notice how the reproductive parts are exposed when the bee lands and now it gets to collect the pollen. (Not native to where I live, I believe this is from Australia.) If interested heres the website I pulled the photo from:
Different bees use different strategies when it comes to tackling a pea flower.
Moral of the story is that you can learn a lot about the environment, the climate, and the animals that pollinate or predate the plant once you learn about plant form and function.
Here is my first dump of native plants!! Here's the species list in order of how they're presented
Vitex rotundifolia. This is a plant in the mint family! And has square stems characteristic of that family, though some eucalyptus also have square stems. Lovely minty/sage scent when picked.
Sida fallax. Very pretty coastal plant that has different ecotypes. Either a sprawling plant on the ground or a tall shrub. It's petals are uneven with one petal bigger than the other, you can determine if the flower is a righty or a lefty depending on which side has the bigger petal. In the photo attached, both flowers are righty.
Abutilon menziesii and Abutilon incanum. The first plant is endemic while the 2nd plant is indigenous. Still a very beautiful genus with pretty flowers!
Tetramolopium humile. A very small plant that's hard to miss in person, it tends to grow close to big rocks. It looks a little weedy in my photos but I promise they have some really pretty flowers. I just happened to catch it when it was forming achenes. This is a plant in the Asteraceae family which contains sunflowers! Very wide range of plants this family has.
Brighamia insignis. Beautiful succulent looking plant in the Canpanulaceae family (lobeliads). It produces these very long tubular flowers that coevolved with specific moths! Unfortunately the moth that mainly pollinated the plant has gone extinct and wild populations of this plant has been on the decline. Though there is a lot of greenhouses growing this plant and many have it as a house plant. I do own this plant myself and it's growing just fine! I'm very excited for it to flower so I can hand pollinate it.
Portulaca lutea. An indigenous coastal plant that is very succulent looking. It's not often I catch it flowering and I'm so happy I got a few photos of it happening on different occasions. This is a widespread genus with some edible plants in it! With some research, I've found that this species shoots can be eaten (Uphof, 1959) but its not well documented compared to Portulaca oleracea also known as purslane. It's common to eat where I live and I've had food with it before, it's a foragers food.
Saw a bunch of beautiful seals and even got to catch this interaction between a mom and a pup. You can barely hear it but they are making "ough" sounds its so silly.
Quite a significant sight since these birds are so rare these days. They're only visible at very high elevations due to avian malaria. Both the mosquitoes and parasite for avian malaria cannot withstand the colder temperatures and high elevations.
Vaccinium reticulatum with flowers going into fruit and a ripe fruit. These are "blueberries" that are red! Only found in cool climates at high elevations.
Coprosma montana. Despite the species name, they are not in or from montana. These are dioecious plants (separate male and female plants). They're highly characteristic with super long stigma for female plants (They look like little bunny ears!) And long dangly stamen for male plants.
Geranium cuneatum. Highly specialized geranium to it's natural habitat with hairs on the leaves that give it this silver look. Identifiable via the clawed ends of the leaves, parallel vennation, and when in fruit, cranesbill shaped fruit. Hence the common name for the whole genus Geranium is "Cranesbill". Again only found in high elevations.
Super fun but exhausting field work the past weekend. Saw so many reef fishes!!! And learned so much surveying techniques..... now I have to do a bunch of data calculations 😔.
There weren't too many native plants in this area and I didn't really take a photo of said native plants but! Here is a list of the ones I saw with descriptions:
Thespesia populnea
A tree that can grow quite wide and tall, often lower to the ground than other trees. It has heart shaped leaves and long petioles! The flowers are also quite pretty, similar looking to hibiscus flowers.
Fimbristylis cymosa
Small little sedge with these distinct fire work like parts at the end of each stem.
Cordia subcordata
Trees that can grow very tall and have a wide canopy! The flowers are small and orange eith small fruit that are super lightweight for dispersal in water.
Lycium sandwicense
A small woody plant that grow expansive on coastal rocks. It has small succulent looking leaves and small red fruit reminiscent of a tomato (it is in the solanacea family!) (Same family as tomatoes)
I will attached photos for each plant in a reblog <3
