Welcome to an overview of what Economic Botany has to offer.
It will be a distance learning course this spring 2000, so below are highlights of what I plan
to be doing in the TopClass format
LECTURE 2 HIGHLIGHTS FOR BIOLOGY 03074, ECONOMIC BOTANY:
FLOWERS; PLANT CLASSIFICATION; ECOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE
Text for both editions: Chs. 5, 6, 8, 11, 25 (aspects)
Possible web site: http://www.colby.edu/info.tech/BI211/Families.html
(Colby College course web page with plant family identifications and photos)
The flower is a modified stem with four different organs in its flower. From the outside in, these are:
sepals: green and the most leaf-like
petals: with specialized coloration
stamens: male part of the flower, produces pollen
carpels: female part of the flower; in ovary, produces ovules, which fertilized become seeds
Wind-pollinated f lowers do not have much of sepals or petals in contrast to insect-pollinated flowers
Inflorescences (flower clusters) fall under two general categories: open, e.g., snapdragon spike (no terminal flower) vs. closed, e.g., strawberry cyme (with terminal flower).
A fruit is an ovary that has developed and matured, so that all fruits arise from flowers
Two major types of flowering plants: monocots and dicots:
dicots: flower parts in 4/5s, 2 cotyledons, vascular bundles in ring in stem, secondary growth with vascular cambium monocots: flower parts in 3s, 1 cotyledon, vascular bundles scattered through stem, no vascular cambium
Abbreviations for the floral whorls: Se-sepal; Pe-petal; St-stamen; Ca-carpel
DICOTS: Rosaceae: the rose family. The flowers typically have the basal parts fused into a cup, the petals and sepals flaring out from the rim, and numerous stamens surrounding the carpels, e.g., Rosa, rose; Malus, apple.
Apicaceae (Umbelliferae): the carrot or parsley family. Se-5; Pe-5; St-5; Ca-2, with flowers in compound umbels, and aromatic leaves with sheathing leaf bases, e.g., Apium, celery; Daucus, carrot.
Solanaceae: the nightshade family. Se-5 fused; Pe-5 fused; St-5; Ca-2 fused, with berry fruits and fused petals, e.g., Solanum, nightshade, potato, eggplant; Lycopersicon, tomato.
Lamiaceae (Labiatae): the mint family. Mints generally produce aromatic oils. Easily characterized by square stems, opposite leaves, and bilaterally symmetrical flowers. Rosmarinus, rosemary; Mentha, mint, peppermint.
Asteraceae (Compositae): the sunflower family. Inflorescence a head or capitulum, or where many flowers are behaving as one;fruit are achenes (sunflower seeds). Helianthus, sunflower; Lactuca, lettuce.
MONOCOTS: Liliaceae: the lily family. Se-3; Pe-3; St-6; Ca-3 fused. Perennial herbs from underground stems (bulbs, rhizomes, or corms). Aloe; Asparagus; Lilium.
Ecology is the study of the relationships of organisms to their environment and to other organisms.
biome: large complexes of communities, climate dependent (temperature and precipitation), e.g., forests
Agroecosystem: domesticated ecosystem that is solar-powered but with additional factors: auxiliary energy sources in form of processed fuels; diversity purposefully reduced to maximize yield of only a few crops
|main page| |background| |03028: Physiology| |03048: Anatomy|
|03050: Invertebrate Zoology| |03051: Vertebrate Zoology| |03074: Economic Botany|
Please send comments and questions to: cronewil@hvcc.edu
Copyright 1999 by Wilson Crone
External and unofficial links are not endorsed by Hudson Valley Community College
This page updated on October 4, 1999