Thursday, March 5, 2009
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By Angela Carson (Bookerc1)March 6, 2009
The teachers at Dee-Mack Primary and Jr. High School now have a new example to use when explaining the meaning of the word "metamorphosis." The can point out the window, and demonstrate how a bare, muddy patch of grassy yard has undergone a wonderful transformation into a blossoming, fragrant butterfly garden for the school!
Back in 2004, someone at Dee-Mack Primary and Junior High School, a small school district in Central Illinois, stumbled across information about a grant, Greening Schools, offered by the Environmental Protection Agency. The grant offered $2,500 for the purpose of creating a natural habitat with native Illinois plants on school grounds. The information made its way into the hands of Michelle Jacobs, an elementary teacher at the time, and the first stage of the project was begun!
The first challenge was to gather the documentation to demonstrate where the butterfly garden would be located and how it would benefit the school in order to apply for the grant. The selected location is highly visible, directly between the building and the parking lot, and right along the sidewalk that nearly every student walks down every day. At the time, it was a bare, flat expanse of grass, with patches that deteriorated into tempting puddles of mud every time it rained. The area is bordered by sidewalk on three sides, with a chain-link fence along the parking lot on the fourth side.
Our school was awarded a grant of $2,500, and then the real "get your hands dirty" work began! With the help of Kathy Friend, a local Master Gardener and active member of the Mackinaw Garden Club, the teachers and administrators compiled a list of native plants, per the requirements of the grant, which were either host plants for the caterpillars, or nectar-providing plants for the mature butterflies. Much of the money for the grant went toward purchasing the plants, which are listed at the end of the article.
Before a single plant was purchased, the area had to be prepared for planting. Some local landscaping businesses donated the dirt, compost, and mulch, and delivered it by the truckload. Once the piles were dumped, the students got to work, beginning with the junior high students distributing the dirt throughout the area and creating berms to add some dimension and interest to an otherwise unexceptional flat, square block.
The butterfly garden quickly became a community project, as the scope of the garden expanded far beyond what the grant alone could provide. Three benches were donated by the PTO, First Security Bank, and the Mackinaw Garden Club. Nearby garden centers offered discounts and donated additional plants. Local recycling, construction, and landscaping companies provided young trees, newspaper, mulch, rocks, dirt, and skid loader services for a day.
Once the heavy digging was done, the younger students got involved. Working in teams, the junior high students dug holes, and the kindergarten through third graders inserted the selected plants, under the guidance of their teachers. Though the list of plants seems long, the garden looked a bit bare and forlorn with all the tiny plants spaced out across it. As we all know, perennials take a while to establish, and it is important to keep in mind their final size when determining how far apart to space them!
Gradually, the plants achieved maturity, and filled in the empty spaces. Many dropped their seeds happily over the winters, and any that escaped the scavenging birds sprouted to add to the fullness of the garden. In the three years since the garden was started, many parents, teachers, and community members have added more plants, carefully dug from their own yards, to increase the beauty and color of the area. As the garden has changed and grown, it has strayed a bit from its original designation as solely for native Illinois plants, but it has become a place of beauty and inspiration for young and old alike.
Now, when the first graders learn about living versus non-living things in science, their teacher takes them right outside their own school door to explore the reality of it. The kindergarteners can find food sources for the Painted Lady butterflies they've raised in the classroom, right in our own butterfly garden, and can observe which flowers attract the newly released butterflies. The second graders who find a stray toad on the playground at recess immediately think to carry him around the building (with teacher permission, of course!) and set him free in the butterfly garden, where he can find shade and plenty of prey to keep him well-fed. As the children learn the life cycle of plants, the wonder of seeds, and the basics of caring for living things, they have only to consider the plants they planted themselves not so very long ago.
As parents arrive to pick up their children at the end of the day, they can pause andwonder at the number of butterflies gathered on the buddleia adjacent to the parking lot. Parents and grandparents who linger to allow their children to play on the playground can rest on a bench, surrounded by flowers and trees, with their young charges in plain sight. As the plants mature, the students can revisit them, and note how much they've both grown since those little hands first patted the soil around the fledgling plants.
As a teacher at Dee-Mack Primary and Jr. High School, I plan to make good use of the butterfly gardens. This past fall, I took an on-line class about native Illinois butterflies through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and garnered a wealth of lesson plans and information. You will find your own local DNR and Extension Services to be fantastic sources of information about the butterflies in your own locality!
Below are the plants originally purchased for our butterfly garden. The students planted four of each type. Click on any plant to navigate directly to the Plant Files entry regarding it.
Asclepias tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies'
Bellflower Platycodon 'Mariesii'
Buddleia 'Black Knight'
Buddleia 'Royal Red'
Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'
Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise'
Coreopsis 'Moonbeam Zagreb'
Coreopsis 'Rising Sun'
Echinacea Purpurea 'Bright Star'
English Lavendar 'Lavendula angustifolia'
Hemerocallis 'Jeune Tom'
Hemerocallis 'Pandora's Box'
Hemerocallis 'Pardon Me'
Liatrus spicata 'Floristan White'
Liatrus spicata 'Kobold'
Mondarda 'Jacob Cline'
Monarda 'Petite Wonder'
Nepeta 'Blue Wonder'
Ornamental Oregano 'Rosenkuppel'
Penstemon 'Prairie Dusk'
Penstemon 'Husker Red'
Phlox paniculata 'Bright Eyes'
Phlox 'David'
Phlox 'Miss David' (perhaps Phlox'David's Lavendar?')
Russian Sage Peroskia atriplicifolia
Salvia 'May Night'
Salvia 'Purple Rain'
Schizachyrium scoparius 'Little Bluestem'
Sedum spectabilis 'Frosty Morn'
Sedum 'Neon'
Stachys byzantina 'Helen Von Stein'
Thyme, Lemon (Thymus citriodorus)
Verbascum 'Cherry Helen'
Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard'
You can find the name of any of the plants pictured above by hovering your mouse over the photograph for a few seconds. They are all examples of the varieties planted in our butterfly garden. I would like to thank the many photographers who have taken the time to submit their pictures to Plant Files. Dave's Garden is a much richer, lovelier place because of it! Pictures of individual flowers above can all be found in Plant Files, and appear courtesy of these Dave's Garden members:
Marna Towne (Mrs_Ed), for the Blue Swallowtail butterfly above on the phlox
Wallaby1, for the Comma butterfly on Sedum 'Frosty Morn'
Ninepatch, for Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise'
Knifophia, for Verbascum 'Cherry Helen'
Ann Chapman (Galanthophile), for Salvia 'May Night'
Jill Nicolaus (Critterologist), for Black Swallowtail on Buddleja
Daylily SLP, for Echinacea 'Bright Star'
E. S. Winston (esw), for Penstemon "Prairie Dusk'
Victor Carrano (victorgardener), for Phlox 'David'
Daryl Carlyle (daryl) for Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'Many thanks to the teachers and administration at Dee-Mack Primary and Junior High School for sharing their time, memories, and pictures for this article! In particular, I'd like to recognize Michelle Jacobs, now the Assistant Principal, who provided copies of the original invoices and the "before" picture, and Maureen Springer, a physical education teacher, who provided the picture of the early plantings.
Tia
Plant Article
By Angela Carson (Bookerc1)March 6, 2009
The teachers at Dee-Mack Primary and Jr. High School now have a new example to use when explaining the meaning of the word "metamorphosis." The can point out the window, and demonstrate how a bare, muddy patch of grassy yard has undergone a wonderful transformation into a blossoming, fragrant butterfly garden for the school!
Back in 2004, someone at Dee-Mack Primary and Junior High School, a small school district in Central Illinois, stumbled across information about a grant, Greening Schools, offered by the Environmental Protection Agency. The grant offered $2,500 for the purpose of creating a natural habitat with native Illinois plants on school grounds. The information made its way into the hands of Michelle Jacobs, an elementary teacher at the time, and the first stage of the project was begun!
The first challenge was to gather the documentation to demonstrate where the butterfly garden would be located and how it would benefit the school in order to apply for the grant. The selected location is highly visible, directly between the building and the parking lot, and right along the sidewalk that nearly every student walks down every day. At the time, it was a bare, flat expanse of grass, with patches that deteriorated into tempting puddles of mud every time it rained. The area is bordered by sidewalk on three sides, with a chain-link fence along the parking lot on the fourth side.
Our school was awarded a grant of $2,500, and then the real "get your hands dirty" work began! With the help of Kathy Friend, a local Master Gardener and active member of the Mackinaw Garden Club, the teachers and administrators compiled a list of native plants, per the requirements of the grant, which were either host plants for the caterpillars, or nectar-providing plants for the mature butterflies. Much of the money for the grant went toward purchasing the plants, which are listed at the end of the article.
Before a single plant was purchased, the area had to be prepared for planting. Some local landscaping businesses donated the dirt, compost, and mulch, and delivered it by the truckload. Once the piles were dumped, the students got to work, beginning with the junior high students distributing the dirt throughout the area and creating berms to add some dimension and interest to an otherwise unexceptional flat, square block.
The butterfly garden quickly became a community project, as the scope of the garden expanded far beyond what the grant alone could provide. Three benches were donated by the PTO, First Security Bank, and the Mackinaw Garden Club. Nearby garden centers offered discounts and donated additional plants. Local recycling, construction, and landscaping companies provided young trees, newspaper, mulch, rocks, dirt, and skid loader services for a day.
Once the heavy digging was done, the younger students got involved. Working in teams, the junior high students dug holes, and the kindergarten through third graders inserted the selected plants, under the guidance of their teachers. Though the list of plants seems long, the garden looked a bit bare and forlorn with all the tiny plants spaced out across it. As we all know, perennials take a while to establish, and it is important to keep in mind their final size when determining how far apart to space them!
Gradually, the plants achieved maturity, and filled in the empty spaces. Many dropped their seeds happily over the winters, and any that escaped the scavenging birds sprouted to add to the fullness of the garden. In the three years since the garden was started, many parents, teachers, and community members have added more plants, carefully dug from their own yards, to increase the beauty and color of the area. As the garden has changed and grown, it has strayed a bit from its original designation as solely for native Illinois plants, but it has become a place of beauty and inspiration for young and old alike.
Now, when the first graders learn about living versus non-living things in science, their teacher takes them right outside their own school door to explore the reality of it. The kindergarteners can find food sources for the Painted Lady butterflies they've raised in the classroom, right in our own butterfly garden, and can observe which flowers attract the newly released butterflies. The second graders who find a stray toad on the playground at recess immediately think to carry him around the building (with teacher permission, of course!) and set him free in the butterfly garden, where he can find shade and plenty of prey to keep him well-fed. As the children learn the life cycle of plants, the wonder of seeds, and the basics of caring for living things, they have only to consider the plants they planted themselves not so very long ago.
As parents arrive to pick up their children at the end of the day, they can pause andwonder at the number of butterflies gathered on the buddleia adjacent to the parking lot. Parents and grandparents who linger to allow their children to play on the playground can rest on a bench, surrounded by flowers and trees, with their young charges in plain sight. As the plants mature, the students can revisit them, and note how much they've both grown since those little hands first patted the soil around the fledgling plants.
As a teacher at Dee-Mack Primary and Jr. High School, I plan to make good use of the butterfly gardens. This past fall, I took an on-line class about native Illinois butterflies through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and garnered a wealth of lesson plans and information. You will find your own local DNR and Extension Services to be fantastic sources of information about the butterflies in your own locality!
Below are the plants originally purchased for our butterfly garden. The students planted four of each type. Click on any plant to navigate directly to the Plant Files entry regarding it.
Asclepias tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies'
Bellflower Platycodon 'Mariesii'
Buddleia 'Black Knight'
Buddleia 'Royal Red'
Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'
Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise'
Coreopsis 'Moonbeam Zagreb'
Coreopsis 'Rising Sun'
Echinacea Purpurea 'Bright Star'
English Lavendar 'Lavendula angustifolia'
Hemerocallis 'Jeune Tom'
Hemerocallis 'Pandora's Box'
Hemerocallis 'Pardon Me'
Liatrus spicata 'Floristan White'
Liatrus spicata 'Kobold'
Mondarda 'Jacob Cline'
Monarda 'Petite Wonder'
Nepeta 'Blue Wonder'
Ornamental Oregano 'Rosenkuppel'
Penstemon 'Prairie Dusk'
Penstemon 'Husker Red'
Phlox paniculata 'Bright Eyes'
Phlox 'David'
Phlox 'Miss David' (perhaps Phlox'David's Lavendar?')
Russian Sage Peroskia atriplicifolia
Salvia 'May Night'
Salvia 'Purple Rain'
Schizachyrium scoparius 'Little Bluestem'
Sedum spectabilis 'Frosty Morn'
Sedum 'Neon'
Stachys byzantina 'Helen Von Stein'
Thyme, Lemon (Thymus citriodorus)
Verbascum 'Cherry Helen'
Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard'
You can find the name of any of the plants pictured above by hovering your mouse over the photograph for a few seconds. They are all examples of the varieties planted in our butterfly garden. I would like to thank the many photographers who have taken the time to submit their pictures to Plant Files. Dave's Garden is a much richer, lovelier place because of it! Pictures of individual flowers above can all be found in Plant Files, and appear courtesy of these Dave's Garden members:
Marna Towne (Mrs_Ed), for the Blue Swallowtail butterfly above on the phlox
Wallaby1, for the Comma butterfly on Sedum 'Frosty Morn'
Ninepatch, for Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise'
Knifophia, for Verbascum 'Cherry Helen'
Ann Chapman (Galanthophile), for Salvia 'May Night'
Jill Nicolaus (Critterologist), for Black Swallowtail on Buddleja
Daylily SLP, for Echinacea 'Bright Star'
E. S. Winston (esw), for Penstemon "Prairie Dusk'
Victor Carrano (victorgardener), for Phlox 'David'
Daryl Carlyle (daryl) for Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'Many thanks to the teachers and administration at Dee-Mack Primary and Junior High School for sharing their time, memories, and pictures for this article! In particular, I'd like to recognize Michelle Jacobs, now the Assistant Principal, who provided copies of the original invoices and the "before" picture, and Maureen Springer, a physical education teacher, who provided the picture of the early plantings.
Clematis Columbiana
- Natural Habitat: Open woods
- Species: Clematis columbiana (rock clematis)
- Genus: Clematis L. (leather flower)
- Family: Ranunculaceae (buttercup family)
- Order: Ranunculales
- Class: Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons)
- Division: Magnoliophyta (flowering plants)
- Kingdom: Plantae (plants)
stem
root
Leaf
Followers
About Me
9.3: Reproduction in Flowering Plants
*Pollination: The transfer pollen grains from the anther to the stigma.
*Fertilization: Fusion of male and female gametes.
*Seed Dispersal: Mechanisms for distributing seeds away from the parent plant.
1) Explain the conditions needed for the germination of a typical seed.
-Seed dormancy increases the chance that germination will occur at the appropriate time.
*Fertilization: Fusion of male and female gametes.
*Seed Dispersal: Mechanisms for distributing seeds away from the parent plant.
1) Explain the conditions needed for the germination of a typical seed.
-Seed dormancy increases the chance that germination will occur at the appropriate time.
9.2: Transport in Angiosperms
1) How do root systems provide a large surface area for mineral and water uptake by means of branching and root hairs?
-Extensive branching of roots increases the overall root surface area exposed to extracellular fluid.
-Individual root epidermal cells grow extensive elongations greatly increasing the surface area of individual root epidermal cells to extracellular fluid.
2) List ways in which mineral ions in the soil move to the root.
-Diffusion of mineral ions down concentration gradients.
-The flow of water in the soil carrying ions.
-Mineral ions move into fungal hyphae and then from the hyphae into the root.
3) Explain the process of mineral ion absorption from the soil into by active transport.
-The oxidation of ATP provides the energy for protons to be pumped from the inside to the outside of root epibermal cell membranes forming hydrogen membrane potential.Cations and anions are driven from the extracellular fluid into the introcellular fluid through membrane channels.
4)Explain how water is carried by the transpiration stream.
-When the xylem cell dies at maturity, it leaves a continuous microtube for transporting water and dissolved mineral ions.
-During evaporation, water vapor diffuses from the moist air of the spongy mesophyll where water potential is higher.
-The cohesion of water molecules, due to hydrogen bonding enables transpiration to pull water up the narrow xylem vessels without these columns of water breaking.
-The adhesive attraction of water to xylem vessel walls moves them up to the stem against gravity.
-In transpiration, solar-powered from the leaves creates a continuous transpirational pull transmitted all the way from the leaves to the roots.
5) Explain how abiotic factors affect the rate of transpiration in a typical terrestrial plant.
-Light:Guard cells close the stomata in darkness, so transpiration is much greater in light. Open stomata increases the rate of diffusion of carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis but also increasing transpirational water loss through stomata.
-Temperature:The rate of transpiration water loss is doubled for every 10 degrees Celsiusin temperature.
-Wind and humidity: Wind removes water vapor from the leaf, therefore reducing water potential around leaf and increasing the water potential gradient between the leaf and its surroundings and increasing the rate of transfirmational water loss. As humidity decreases, the water potential gradient increases between the leaf and its surroundings and therefore increasing the rate of transpirational water loss.
-Extensive branching of roots increases the overall root surface area exposed to extracellular fluid.
-Individual root epidermal cells grow extensive elongations greatly increasing the surface area of individual root epidermal cells to extracellular fluid.
2) List ways in which mineral ions in the soil move to the root.
-Diffusion of mineral ions down concentration gradients.
-The flow of water in the soil carrying ions.
-Mineral ions move into fungal hyphae and then from the hyphae into the root.
3) Explain the process of mineral ion absorption from the soil into by active transport.
-The oxidation of ATP provides the energy for protons to be pumped from the inside to the outside of root epibermal cell membranes forming hydrogen membrane potential.Cations and anions are driven from the extracellular fluid into the introcellular fluid through membrane channels.
4)Explain how water is carried by the transpiration stream.
-When the xylem cell dies at maturity, it leaves a continuous microtube for transporting water and dissolved mineral ions.
-During evaporation, water vapor diffuses from the moist air of the spongy mesophyll where water potential is higher.
-The cohesion of water molecules, due to hydrogen bonding enables transpiration to pull water up the narrow xylem vessels without these columns of water breaking.
-The adhesive attraction of water to xylem vessel walls moves them up to the stem against gravity.
-In transpiration, solar-powered from the leaves creates a continuous transpirational pull transmitted all the way from the leaves to the roots.
5) Explain how abiotic factors affect the rate of transpiration in a typical terrestrial plant.
-Light:Guard cells close the stomata in darkness, so transpiration is much greater in light. Open stomata increases the rate of diffusion of carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis but also increasing transpirational water loss through stomata.
-Temperature:The rate of transpiration water loss is doubled for every 10 degrees Celsiusin temperature.
-Wind and humidity: Wind removes water vapor from the leaf, therefore reducing water potential around leaf and increasing the water potential gradient between the leaf and its surroundings and increasing the rate of transfirmational water loss. As humidity decreases, the water potential gradient increases between the leaf and its surroundings and therefore increasing the rate of transpirational water loss.
9.1: Dicotyledonous Plant Structure
1) What are 3 differences between the structure of dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants?
-Monocots have one cotyledon and dicots have two two cotyledons.
-Monocots have floral parts in multiples of 3 while dicots have floral parts in multiples of 4 or 5.
-Monocots have fibrous roots while dicots tend to have taproots.
2) Explain the relationship between between the distribution of tissues in the leaf and the functions of these tissues.
-Waxy cuticle: Released by the epidermis and covers the top and bottom leaf surfaces. It reduces water loss because it is impermeable to water.
-Epidermis: This covers the leaf surfaces and protects against infection and conserves water.
-Xylem: This distributes water and minerals to cells throughout the leaf.
-Phloem: This collects sucrose for distribution of photosynthetic products to non-photosynthetic parts of plants.
3)Dicot plants have apical and lateral meristems that generate new cells for growth of the plant.
-Apical meristems, which are located at the top of the root and stem, increase the length of the plant and produce new leaves and flowers.
-Lateral meristems, which are located in vascular bundles, increase the diameter of the plant and the root.
-Monocots have one cotyledon and dicots have two two cotyledons.
-Monocots have floral parts in multiples of 3 while dicots have floral parts in multiples of 4 or 5.
-Monocots have fibrous roots while dicots tend to have taproots.
2) Explain the relationship between between the distribution of tissues in the leaf and the functions of these tissues.
-Waxy cuticle: Released by the epidermis and covers the top and bottom leaf surfaces. It reduces water loss because it is impermeable to water.
-Epidermis: This covers the leaf surfaces and protects against infection and conserves water.
-Xylem: This distributes water and minerals to cells throughout the leaf.
-Phloem: This collects sucrose for distribution of photosynthetic products to non-photosynthetic parts of plants.
3)Dicot plants have apical and lateral meristems that generate new cells for growth of the plant.
-Apical meristems, which are located at the top of the root and stem, increase the length of the plant and produce new leaves and flowers.
-Lateral meristems, which are located in vascular bundles, increase the diameter of the plant and the root.