Fern

Ferns are a kind of seedless vascular plant that develop haploid spores in order to reproduce. In a typical fern life cycle, the parent fern will produce haploid spores inside of multicellular structures called sporangia, which are found on the underside of the leaves of a mature fern plant in groups or clusters known as sori (Cordle et. al. 2007). Once the spores are produced they will disperse and will eventually undergo mitosis under favorable conditions in order to produce small gametophytes which will eventually mature and produce eggs and sperm in female and male gametangia, respectively. When conditions are ideal, meaning water is present, the sperm will be released and swim to the eggs within the female gametangia in order to fertilize them (Cordle et. al. 2007). This fertilization results in a diploid zygote which is supported by the original gametophyte while it undergoes mitosis and develops into an embryo which…

1. What does the specimen look like? For plants, provide a “press” of a leaf and stem from the plant (see D2L for instructions). For animals and fungi, provide a detailed sketch (photographs will not be accepted). The specimen is a plant with compound leaves that are made up of smaller leaflets growing symmetrically on either side of the rachis. 2. What is the common and scientific (genus and species) name of your specimen? There will be resources in the lab to help you identify the correct…

A hundred million years ago a dark green, feeble Lexovisaurus emerged from a shiny, white egg. This Lexovisaurus’ name was Jacob, Jacob started walking towards a wet, lively fern plant. Jacob was obviously hungry after spending weeks in an egg so he immediately started eating. His small brothers came to eat the same fern plant because they were all born in the same nest. Lexovisaurus looked a lot like Stegosaurus but Lexovisaurus had more spikes. While the baby Lexovisaurus were eating, a bulky…

The ferns that we used in the experiment are called Ceratopteris richardii (C-ferns). These ferns were used because of their exclusive properties in development and in the plant life cycle. In these plants, the haploid and diploid stages exist independently, making it easier to study them without influencing the cell life cycle. The haploid stage is the gametophyte stage and the diploid is the sporophyte stage. The second exclusive property that these plants possess is the fact that the spores…

The moss Physcomitrella patens is an attractive model system for plant biology and functional genome analysis.(1-7) It shares many biological features with higher plants (vascular plants) but has the unique advantage of an efficient homologous recombination system for its nuclear DNA.(2,3) This allows precise genetic manipulations and targeted knockouts to study gene function, an approach that due to the very low frequency of targeted recombination events is not routinely possible in any higher…

For this assignment I interviewed Todd Metevia the Head grower at Timbuk Farms in Granville, Ohio. Timbuk Farms is a retail and wholesale grower and distributor. The crop I decided to question about was Coleus. They produce plugs of Coleus that are then sold wholesale to other nurseries. Coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides) is a commonly grown ornamental plant due to its attractive foliage. Coleus is native to subtropical and tropical areas of Asia and Australia. Although not grown for flowers…

Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) Buckthorn is a large shrub or a small tree which may grow six meter in heights. Its is found in many light shaded areas also is tolerant , of many soil types from well drained sand to clay. Leaf may be a dull green / dark green color with a light green on the other side of the leaf. Buckthorn out competes native plants for nutrients, light , and moisture and degrades the wildlife habitat. This causes many other native plants to be endangered and die , since it…

Coriander is a spice that comes from the seed of the cilantro plant. Though it was originally grown in Iran, coriander now grows wild over most of Western Asia and a Southern Europe. The earliest evidence of coriander is in Neolithic cave dwellings. King Tutankhamun's tomb is said to have contained flowers from the coriander plant. It was known to be grown in Greece, too, first starting in the early BCs. In early history, it was often used as a perfume. Coriander was taken to America in 1670 by…

Have Japanese Beetles? Check and Control Lawn Grubs Now! Japanese beetles are one of the garden’s biggest summer pests! They eat their way through our roses, fruit trees, shade trees and even our veggie garden. It seems their stomachs are never full. And to a certain degree, that’s true. They lay eggs that turn into grubs and eat your lawn in late summer and again in spring. Then, those grubs turn into Japanese beetles–ready to do it all over again! It’s time to stop the madness. Control…

Who’s the better reproducer? With time comes change and with change comes evolution. Organisms are classified into three distinctive groupings: Bacteria, Archea, and Eukarya and the kingdom of plants (Plantae) falls under Eukarya. It could be argued that plants are one of the most valued organisms on Earth. Not only do they provide oxygen for the oxygen dependant organisms, such as mammals through the process of photosynthesis, but, they also provide stable conditions and habitats for other…