Diario del proyecto Very Very Nice Flowers

This French Hydrangea was found in an urban area within Vancouver. According to OneZoom, phylogenetically, hydrangeas are within the domain, Eukarya, kingdom Plantae, order Cornales, family Hydrangeaceae, genus Hydrangea, and species Hydrangea Macrophylla. Ancestral clades from which the French Hydrangea descend include, in chronological order, Embryophyta, Tracheophyta, Spermatophyta (angiosperms), and Eudicotyledons.

An adaptation unique to hydrangeas is the presence of poisonous glycoside amygdalin in many of its structures, including its buds, flowers and leaves, which breaks down to produce cyanide in many organisms' metabolisms. This serves as a defense mechanism against predation by many herbivores and omnivores and has helped the hydrangea species succeed in growing and proliferating.

The most notable adaptation common to all of our observations is aesthetic beauty - despite all other differences, each flower has attention-catching shapes and vibrant colours to attract pollinators, helping the plant proliferate. This visual adaptation is extremely important to the evolutionary success of all of the observed flower species.

This French Hydrangea was found in an urban area within Vancouver. According to OneZoom, phylogenetically, hydrangeas are within the domain, Eukarya, kingdom Plantae, order Cornales, family Hydrangeaceae, genus Hydrangea, and species Hydrangea Macrophylla. Ancestral clades from which the French Hydrangea descend include, in chronological order, Embryophyta, Tracheophyta, Spermatophyta (angiosperms), and Eudicotyledons.

An adaptation unique to hydrangeas is the presence of poisonous glycoside amygdalin in many of its structures, including its buds, flowers and leaves, which breaks down to produce cyanide in many organisms' metabolisms. This serves as a defense mechanism against predation by many herbivores and omnivores and has helped the hydrangea species succeed in growing and proliferating.

The most notable adaptation common to all of our observations is aesthetic beauty - despite all other differences, each flower has attention-catching shapes and vibrant colours to attract pollinators, helping the plant proliferate. This visual adaptation is extremely important to the evolutionary success of all of the observed flower species.

This French Hydrangea was found in an urban area within Vancouver. According to OneZoom, phylogenetically, hydrangeas are within the domain, Eukarya, kingdom Plantae, order Cornales, family Hydrangeaceae, genus Hydrangea, and species Hydrangea Macrophylla. Ancestral clades from which the French Hydrangea descend include, in chronological order, Embryophyta, Tracheophyta, Spermatophyta (angiosperms), and Eudicotyledons. An adaptation unique to hydrangeas is the presence of poisonous glycoside amygdalin in many of its structures, including its buds, flowers and leaves, which breaks down to produce cyanide in many organisms' metabolisms. This serves as a defense mechanism against predation by many herbivores and omnivores and has helped the hydrangea species succeed in growing and proliferating. The most notable adaptation common to all of our observations is aesthetic beauty - despite all other differences, each flower has attention-catching shapes and vibrant colours to attract pollinators, helping the plant proliferate. This visual adaptation is extremely important to the evolutionary success of all of the observed flower species.

The common jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), also known as spotted touch-me-nots, was a plant found along the Jock River. Through OneZoom, the common jewelweed is identified as part of the Eukaryote domain, Plantae kingdom, the order Ericales, the Balsam family (Balsaminaceae), Touch-me-not genus (Impatiens), and the capensis species. Some of their known ancestors are green plants (Chloroplastida), land plants (embryophyta), vascular plants (Tracheophyta), seed plants (Spermatophyta), flowering plants (Magnoliopsida), and eudicots (Eudicotyledons).

An adaptation that all observations have in common are the green leaves being under the flower. The leaves are green due to pigments (chlorophyll a and b) that aid in photosynthesis: the metabolic process plants use to create their own glucose source. The leaves are under the flower so the glucose created can go up the phloem (cells that transport plant food) to nourish and bloom the flowers.

One unique adaptation of the common jewelweed is this species, at maturity, creates seed pods that explode when touched. This process aids the spotted touch-me-not in distributing its seeds.

Team, O. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.onezoom.org/life/@Impatiens_capensis=488923?img=best_any&anim=flight#x580,y703,w0.9332

Hayashi, M., Feilich, K. L., & Ellerby, D. J. (2009). The mechanics of explosive seed dispersal in orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2682495/

I choose Pygmy Water-Lily from my observations. To determine the phylogeny placement, I first noted that this species clearly belongs to Plantae and it has flowers. This quickly helped me to narrow down my choices to angiosperms. Since water-lily is a common plant, so it wasn't difficult to locate genus Nymphaea by following picture of the descendants from each splits on the Tree of Life from OneZoom.

One adaptation of all the observations in the project is that flowers are always at the tip of the plant. I suppose this is evolved in order to best attract pollinators like insects. It would be less visible to them if flowers are hidden behind leaves or in between branches.

A special adaptation from one of my observations, the water lilies, is that their flowers close around sunset but open again tomorrow sunrise. It is speculated that water lilies do so because their pollinators are diurnal. Opening petals every morning can prevent the pollens from being eaten by nocturnal animals. This can also protect the flower from nighttime frost or morning dew. In my observation I have included pictures taken in the afternoon and at dusk, showing the difference in the status of petals. This habit gives water lilies the common name of "sleeping lilies" in Chinese.