- Plants in Palm Canyon (Rainforest Ecosystem): The environment is hot with excess rainfall. The abundance of water can feed plant but can also cause flooding and soil erosion. Plants in rainforest ecosystem grow rapidly and they use up organic material from decomposing animals and plants quickly. This causes the poor quality of soil. The soil is usually wet. The plants have many broad, thick leaves which prevent sunlight from getting in the forest. Some plants (tallest plants) are under sunlight for long period of time and some don’t get any sunlight which makes the great amount of diversity in rainforest. Most plants’ leave have a drip tips where the rain can flow to the ground, it is important because excess water can be harmful. Some leaves are covered with wax to be water proof. That’s why the leaves and stem of plants in rainforest ecosystem are tending to be smooth. Fibrous root of plants can stabilize the plant in wet, loose soil. Veins around the plant grow upward trying to get sunlight.
Plants within Desert Garden:
- Golden Barrel Cactus and Wolly Cactus have needles instead of leaves. The photosynthesis reaction thus can only happen on the stem. Stem of the cactus is usually green and thick which indicates the location of water storage. Aloe Cameroni and Aloe Bainesii have thick, hard leaves with small needles on them. The water storage and photosynthesis happen on their leaves. Their stems have brownish color. Top of the stem is smooth and the end of the stem is rough. Smooth part of the stem is covered by a wax layer which protects the surface of the plant from losing water. Ponytail Palm has a cone shaped stem attached to the ground. The water storage is at the end of the stem. These plants don’t have too many leaves and none of them is tall.
Plants within Palm Canyon:
- Banana tree is the shortest plant. It has fruit but doesn’t have too many leaves. Banana tree grows itself without being surrounded by too many plants which makes it unique. This is due to the large amount of water banana needs for its fruit. Elephant’s ear is the only plant which has branched vein on its leaves. Its leaves are not long, compared to other plants, but are broad. Its leaves are not completely smooth, indicating it has the worst water proof system. Fan Palm is the highest plant which gets some amount of sunlight. Its leaves are the thinnest and also lack of wax.
Taxonomic scheme on :
Aloe Cameroni:
Kingdom Plantae -- Planta
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants,
Class Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass Liliidae
Order Liliales
Family Aloeaceae
Genus Aloe L. – aloe
Aloe Bainesii:
Kingdom Plantae -- Planta
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants,
Class Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass Liliidae
Order Liliales
Family Aloeaceae
Genus Aloe L. – aloe
Ponytail Palm:
Kingdom Plantae -- Plantae
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass Arecidae
Order Arecales
Family Arecaceae
Genus Acoelorraphe H. Wendl. – palm
Golden Barrel Cactus:
Kingdom Plantae -- Plantae
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida -- dicots
Subclass Caryophyllidae
Order Caryophyllales
Family Cactaceae -- cactus
Genus Echinocactus Link & Otto -- barrel cactus
Wolly Cactus:
Kingdom Plantae -- Plantae
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida -- dicots
Subclass Caryophyllidae
Order Caryophyllales
Family Cactaceae -- cactus
Genus Mammillaria Haw. -- fishhook cactus, globe cactus, pincushion cactus
Species Mammillaria nivosa Link ex N.E. Pfeiffer -- woolly nipple cactus
Banana:
Kingdom Plantae -- Planta
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass Zingiberidae
Order Zingiberales
Family Musaceae
Genus Musa L. – banana
Fan Palm:
Kingdom Plantae -- Plantae
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass Arecidae
Order Arecales
Family Arecaceae
Genus Chamaerops L. -- fan palm
Clivia:
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Tribe: Haemantheae
Subtribe: Cliviinae
Genus: Clivia
Elephant’s ear:
Kingdom Plantae -- Plantae
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass Arecidae
Order Arales
Family Araceae
Genus Xanthosoma Schott -- elephant's ear
Philoden:
Kingdom Plantae -- Plantae
Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- vascular plants
Division Magnoliophyta --flowering plantsplantes
Class Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass Arecidae
Order Arales
Family Araceae
Genus Philodendron Schott – philodendron
Conclusion:
The data supports my hypothesis. The phenotype is largely influenced by the environment in which plants are living. Plants in the same environment have more similarities to each other because they need to adapt to the harsh environment. My dichotymous classification key divided the plants based on their difference in appearance but they are not significant. The website divided the plants based on the basic characteristics which can truly distinguish plants.
Evaluation and improving the future investigation:
The data processing was hard because of the plants I chose in the desert garden were not diverse. Among 5 plants I had two cacti and two aloes. It made the evaluation of adaptation of plant to the harsh environment difficult due to lack of data. For future investigation, I recommend choosing plants which don’t belong to the same order. The dichotymous classification key is too shallow. It didn’t divide plants based on the phenotype characterized by each group. If there are more plants with same leave color, but with different vein patter, this type of classification (my dichotymous classification key) would provide wrong information. The dichotymous classification key should be made based on characteristics based on the structure of the plant.
