Plant #13: Poison Ivy

Scientific name : Toxicodendron radicans

Common name     : Poison Ivy

Form of plant   : Herb/Shrub/Vine (depends

                  on habitat)

Life style      : Perennial 

Plant group     : Angiosperm-dicot

Leaf structure  : Trifoliate

                  Very similar to box elder

                  The only distinction is 

                  box elder's leaves 

                  oppositely arranged and 

                  poison ivy's is 

                  alternately arranged

Fact            : Produce resin


Pardon for the lateness of the post. I was caught up with the final (which I did pretty well. yipee!) and the weekend. All in all, Botany 100 had reached its end. It was fun and exciting. Learning new things I didn't know before and enhancing the knowledge I had from high school. It was a very productive 3 weeks of summer. Thank you Professor Jerry Davis and my TA, Jane :)

Extra Credit Plant: Painted Nettle

Painted Nettle (Coleus x hybridus)

We got to keep this little guy as a pet plant for extra credit. Weeee. :) It was assigned to demonstrate the method of asexual reproduction of plant (in my case, stem cutting). We have to care for our pet plant for 10 days, which ends on the final day of class. This little guy had survived living with me at the apartment for 8 days now. 2 days to go buddy! You can do it! Do it for the extra credit points! :D

Plant #12: American Elm

Scientific name : Ulmus americana

Common name     : American Elm

Form of plant   : Tree

Life style      : Perennial 

Plant group     : Angiosperm-dicot

Leaf structure  : Pinnately

                  Uneven base

                  Toothed margin

Shade tolerance : Moderate

Fact            : This tree grow up to

                  2 to 3 story high

                  Sporophyte generation

                  are tetraploid

I dissected two flowers today. Youch! But they are perfects, so that made it less painful. hahaha. Oh oh, I love botany documentaries. They are simply amazing. :)

Plant #11: White Oak

yes, it's only been a day and my fern is dying :(

Scientific name : Quercus alba L

Common name     : White Oak

Form of plant   : Tree

Life style      : Perennial

Plant group     : Angiosperm-dicot

Leaf structure  : Simple, rounded tip

                  Short petiole

Leaf arrang.    : Alternate

Fruit name      : Acorn

Fruiting season : Annually

Flower          : Imperfect, monoecious        

Shade tolerance : Yes

I never realized that botany could be so cool and immediately important in our daily life. Before this, I though botany was only good for producing better crop yield, making new hybrid of plant, naming them with weird scientific name and categorizing them into their specific taxa. I even have the active imagination of stereotyping botanist as geeks who (build the greenhouse as their secret lair where they cultivate mutant carnivorous plant near the entrance to keep unwanted people away and) spend their time looking at plants and jotting down some notes. Such a mundane and passive persona. The coolest thing they get is to look at fern plant's sperm cell swimming around through the compound microscope. That is as far as the action gets. But today, I was wronged. Way wrong. Botanist do get a huge piece of the action. I don't know that until I met Professor R Bruce Allison, a leading researcher in tree decay. A superficial introduction of the knowledge: yes, tree does decay. And they do that very similarly to teeth decay. It is due to certain bacteria that invade the tree  forming a cavity inside its trunk. So how is this amazing? Because decayed tree may fall onto the ground any second due to impaired support structure, they are hazardous to surrounding properties and lives. Imagine a decayed oak tree as huge as a two-men-hug stands beside a suburban house or a dense parking lot. Or a summer camp that uses huge decayed elm tree to make swings or tree top obstacle course. Would we know that it is dangerous without the knowledge of tree decay? Or even a ancient tree that had survived until today being made a tourist attraction, a historical monument with sentimental value or a place of worship. Can we possibly begin to convince the local community to amputate the tree without the solid proof through the knowledge of tree decay? I bet no. So botanist got to make the call and chainsaw down many of these bad decaying tree. Like superman taking down bad guys and save lives. So heroic. Cheers to them :D

During Professor Allison's presentation, he showed a photograph of his graduate student inside a decayed tree trunk which they had just amputated in front of a house. The tree was about 3 meters in diameter and the cavity of the decay was about 2 meters in diameter! If you could imagine how that looks like, do you still want to keep that tree standing on your front lawn? :O

Plant #10: Maidenhair Fern

Scientific name : Adiatum petitum

Common name     : Maidenhair Fern

Form of plant   : Herb

Life style      : Perennial (the rhizome)

Plant group     : Pteridophyte

Shade tolerance : Very

Fact            : Live in rich soil


A fern does not have any leaves. The green structures on a fern are called frond. Fern are not exactly your average type of plant. This is mainly because it does not reproduce by seed, but rather by spore. Much like a normal (seeding) plant, many species of the fern carry out photosynthesis. 

Plant #9: Red Cedar

Scientific name : Juniperus virginiana

Common name     : Red Cedar

Form of plant   : Tree

Life style      : Perennial (have stem that can 

                  last throughout the year)

Plant group     : Gymnosperm

Type of Plant   : Conifer 

                  Dioecious

Struc. of leaf  : Opposite, scale-like

Facts           : Evergreen

Plant #8: Horsetail

Scientific name : Equisetum spp.

Common name     : Horsetail, Scouring Rush, 

                  Joint Plant, Snake Plant

Form of plant   : Herb

Life style      : Perennial

Plant group     : Pteridophtyes (seedless)

Struc. of leaf  : Whorled, dried

Facts           : Cone on top

                  Homosporous

                  Bisexual gametophyte

                  Photosynthetic

Plant #7: Jack Pine

Scientific name : Pinus banksiana Lamb

Common name     : Jack Pine

Form of plant   : Tree

Life style      : Perennial (have stem that can 
                  last throughout the year)

Plant group     : Gymnosperm

Type of Plant   : Conifer (have cones)
                  Monoecious (both flowers on 
                  one plant)

Struc. of leaf  : Needles

Common uses     : Paper, firewood

Facts           : Evergreen

Seed cone

Pollen cone

Plant #6: Widow's Tear

Scientific name : Tradescantia ohiensis

Common name     : Widow's Tear, Spiderwort

Form of plant   : Herb

Life style      : Perennial (have stem that can 
                  last throughout the year)

Plant group     : Angiosperm-monocotyledon
                  (seeds and fruits)

Type of plant   : Dioecious (one plant, one sex)

Type of flower  : Imperfect flower 
                  (one flower produce only 
                  one type of gamete)

Struc. of flower: Sepals, stamens, carpels 
                  (no petals)

Leaflet struc.  : Parallel

Plant #5: Box Elder

Scientific name : Acer negundo

Common name     : Box elder

Form of plant   : Tree

Life style      : Perennial (have stem that can 
                  last throughout the year)

Plant group     : Angiosperm-dicotyledon 
                  (seeds and fruits)

Type of plant   : Dioecious 
                  (one plant, one sex)

Type of flower  : Imperfect flower 
                  (one flower produce only one 
                  type of gamete)

Struc. of flower: Sepals, stamens, carpels 
                  (no petals)

Struc. of leaf  : Compound (with 3/5/7 leaflets)

Leaflet struc.  : Pinnately veined

Shade tolerance : Very low

Fact            : Weak steam

                  Larger stem is somewhat red

Dicot of box elder

We had our first test today. I couldn't answer one question and it is about a botany comic strip. darn it. nerd botany punya lawak mne la math geek boleh paham. hahaha. off to purdue in 2 hours for midwest game! yipee!

Plant #4: Columbine

Scientific name : Aquilegia canadensis

Common name     : Columbine

Form of plant   : Herb

Life style      : Perennial (have stem that can 
                  last throughout the year)

Plant group     : Gymnosperm (naked seed/seed on 
                  outside/ seed without fruit)

Origin          : Canada (hence the species name)
Type of plant   : Herbaceous 

Plant #3: White Cedar

Scientific name : Thuja occidentalis

Common name     : White cader

Form of plant   : Tree

Life style      : Perennial (have stem that can 
                  last throughout the year)

Plant group     : Gymnosperm (naked seed/seed on
                  outside/ seed without fruit)

Gender orient.  : Monoecious (single individual 
                  produce both gametes)

Origin          : North America

Char. of leaf   : Scale-like leaf

Char. of stem   : Woody

Special use     : Christmas tree!

Facts           : Evergreen

                  Candy to dear :)

Pollen cone

Seed cones

please don't mind the spelling error on the jar :P

Plant #2: Sugar Maple

Scientific name : Acer saccharum

Common name     : Sugar maple

Form of plant   : Tree

Life style      : Perennial (have stem that can 
                  last throughout the year)

Plant group     : Angiosperm-dicotyledons (it 
                  seeds and fruits)

Char. of leaf   : Palmately veined

Char. of stem   : Woody

Shade tolerance : Yes (very)
Leaves arrang.  : Opposite

Distinction     : Unlike Norway maple, sugar 
                  maple does not have latex on 
                  petiole 
Uses            : Maple syrup, furniture, bowling 
                  pins, baseball bats (recently)
Facts           : the state tree for Wisconsin 
                  (also other states)

Seed of sugar maple, Acer saccharum

Today I've learned the right way to write scientific names for plants. The whole name have to be italicize (or underlined if its handwritten) and only the first word have to be capitalize. Menarik! :)

Plant #1: Garlic Mustard

Scientific name : Alliara petiolata
Common name     : Garlic Mustard
Form of plant   : Herb
Life style      : Biennial (have two years 
                  lifespan)
Plant group     : Angiosperm-dicotyledons (it 
                  seeds and fruits)
Shade tolerance : Yes
Edible          : Yes (leaf and stem)
Origin          : Europe (now plenty in the 
                  States)
Life cycle      : Seed -> rosette -> 
                  tap root -> flower -> 
                  fruit -> seed
Other fact      : Give off garlicky smell when 
                  you squish the stem

Botany 100

Jack-in-a-Pulpit

For the summer, I am currently taking Botany 100 class, Survey of Botany. It is a pretty exciting class and I personally think that it will provide me with the valuable knowledge about this world of His creation. It is a 3 weeks course in the Summer semester (14 days with the Memorial Day out of the calendar).

It is the first day of summer semester and we all already felt the heat. Gosh. It is almost as hot as Malaysia now. Nevertheless, the first day started out just fine, though I wouldn't say it was smooth. A poorly ventilated lecture hall with no air conditioner and a little bit of confusion with the discussion section, thank god nothing really horrible had happened today. As we progressed through the day, it got better. We moved into a larger, air conditioned hall and we performed a outdoor experiment instead of being bored to death in the lecture hall.

We went out to a nearby 'forest' next to lake Mendota for our laboratory activity. For the experiment, we had to choose a 20x20 meters of forest ground as our case study and locate a plant called Jack-in-a-Pultip. The forest was thick with short herbaceous plant. It was so thick that you almost can't see the ground. It was pretty adventurous and challenging navigating through the forest as we cannot step on any of the plants. On top of locating the Jack-in-a-Pultips, we have to record the height and identify the gender. Pretty interesting for a first day. And plus, we have laboratory activity everyday. Hooray for that!

One thing I starting to like about this course is that the lecturer will give the actually plant that we are discussing in class to everyone, everyday. That means we get to learn and keep a plant everyday. All 13 of them! (14 minus the last day which is the final) I like the hands-on element of this class. I am planning to keep all of my plants and build a garden on my balcony. Just like my very own real-life Zen Garden. hahaha. (reference: Plant vs Zombie)

Zen Garden

As from now on, I am going to make this blog a place to write casual journal/notes on this class. Just for the fun of it. And it is also a way to keep me interested while mengulangkaji-ing this course. :)