LOS FLORES :)

For today's class, we had some time to truly relax and enjoy the world around us. :) By doing so, we went out to explore on campus and marvel at how complex yet simple life is --- finding three different types of flowers and one has to be from a tree. Here are the flowers I found:

I. I found this pretty flower outside of museum. This type of dreamy flower grows from a tree. The color of this flower is a soft white-greyish purple. It grows at the tip of branches and forms a bell looking shape. Also, it grows out with leaves. The pedals of this flower are narrow and long that the pedals form a bell shape and closes up (almost) at the top. The pistil part (stigma, style, ovary and ovule) of this flower locates deeply inside, and the stamen part (anther and filament) of this flower grows shorter than the pistil part (surrounds the pistil). In that way, the longer pistil would attract insects and entices the insects to go further down to the stamen part and pollinate. As mentioned before, this type of flower does not have a bright color. Thus, it attracts small insects, such as ants. Also, it is because of the special structure of this type of flower that small insects get into the flower more easily than bees do. The scent of the flower is very light, and the texture of the flower is soft and fuzzy. Inside of the flower is white. Also, the flower blossoms at the very tip of the branch with tiny leaves around it, and the leaves open up outwards (pointing to the ground).

The tree!

Leaves and flowers 

Bell-shaped flowers

Leaves!

Detailed flower (pistil and stamen)

II. This beauty was found outside of South Hutch. This is a type of roses with bright yellow(with a little bit of white) --- very eye-catching :) Although the position of this flower is on the ground, the flower is on the top of the bushes where makes it completely exposed to sunlight. This yellow rose is very open to pollen transport, and I found bees constantly surrounding the flower as well as some small flies. I could barely see the pistil part of this flower as the stamen part, especially the anthers are all packed together. The texture of the flower is soft and smooth; yet, it has horns on the stem and sharp edges on the leaves. These intense structures are primarily for defense against predators, which they developed throughout evolution. 

The beauty! 

Thorns

Sharp leaves

III. This flower was found outside of science building. Unlike the previous two flowers, the last one is relatively small.  Even though it is tiny on sizes, its color is really nice that it is purplish blue and near the center of the flower is white, which is eye-catching (attracting small insects, such as ants and flies). Also, the shape of its pedals is butterfly looking. Furthermore, the receptacle and sepal of the flower are a little bit red, and the texture of the flower is smooth. Last but not least, it is open to pollen transport.

  The diagram below is a very simple explanation for the structure of a plant. As shown in the diagram, the roots keep the plant anchored in place and also allow the absorption of water. The stem transports the water and nutrients throughout the plant and holds the leaves in the perfect position to capture the prime amount of sunlight. The leaves undergo photosynthesis to give the plant energy and produce oxygen.

   As for the coevolution of pollination of the flower, some plants are wind-pollinated, which means they rely on the wind to carry their seeds around to regrow as plants are fixed. However, some plants are insect-pollinated. This type of pollination is a mutualistic relationship since plant's pollen is sweet to smell that attracts the insects. Then, the flower is food source for the insects, and the insects would carry the pollen around which spreads the seeds around. Food for the bugs, reproduction for the plants. In addition, pollen is located differently on each flowers; furthermore, the flowers have different colors and smells. These characteristics are products of coevolution, since different flowers attract different insects or birds to help pollinate the flower and maintain species of the flower. At the same time, these birds and insects that feed on these flowers coevolved in a way to be able to feed on these flowers so these birds and insects could maintain their species as well.