Project

Project: Plant Structure Forensics (20 pts)

Group 1

Your neighbor’s new puppy dog was digging in the ground of their backyard area, sniffing at and eating what looked like some roots of the mayapple plant. The mayapple plant roots are edible, but its stems are poisonous. The dog coughs up some of what it ate and falls over and dies. As a concerned pet owner, your neighbor brings what was coughed up to you and wants to know if she should take her dog to the vet to have it’s stomach pumped out or not. You take some of the pieces from what was thrown up and make a slide of the sections. So far all of the sections have been roots. You have one last section to examine. You are to determine:

  1. (5 pts) Is the mayapple a monocot or a dicot? ___________________________

  2. (5 pts) Is the last section you examine part of a root or a poisonous stem? _________________

  3. (10 pts) Based on your analysis, did the dog die of eating mayapple?

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Group 2

Your neighbor’s new puppy dog was eating some tall grasses, which are normally not poisonous, from their backyard area. The dog keels over and dies. You do an autopsy on the dog and cut open it’s stomach. You take some of the pieces from what was in it’s stomach and make slides of the plant sections. So far all of the sections have been grasses. You have one last section to examine. You are to determine:

  1. (5 pts) Are grasses monocots or a dicots? ___________________________

  2. (5 pts) Is the last section you examine part a grass or not? _________________

  3. (10 pts) Based on your analysis, did the dog die of eating grasses?

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Group 3

Your neighbor’s little boy was playing with your son and you caught them eating some of the leaves and stems in your perennial garden. One of the plants in the garden is the poisonous nightshade plant. You yell at them to stop. When you ask them what they have eaten, they can’t remember what they tried and what they didn’t try. The one neighbor boy starts to complain of an upset stomach. You run and give both boys ipecac. You catch their vomit in separate zip-lock baggies. They might need to have their stomachs pumped out. Being the scientist that you are, you analyze the contents by making thin sections of the stems and examine them under the microscope. So far all of the sections have been monocots. You have one last section to examine. You are to determine:

  1. (5 pts) Is nightshade a monocot or a dicot? ___________________________

  2. (5 pts) Could the last section you examine be from nightshade or not? _________________

  3. (10 pts) Based on your analysis, should you take the boys to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped out or not?

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Group 4

Your neighbor comes running to you with her pet cat. They thought they saw the catch chasing a mouse up a poison sumac bush. The neighbor thought she saw her cat clawing at the branches and possibly chewing on some of the limbs. The neighbor runs out to where the cat is, but it’s too late. The cat is convulsing and then dies. The neighbor brings you a limb that she thinks was from the poison sumac. Being the scientist that you are, you analyze a section from the limb. You are to determine:

  1. (5 pts) Is poison sumac a monocot or a dicot plant? ___________________________

  2. (5 pts) Is the “limb” that the cat brought back indeed a limb and is it from a poison sumac? _______________________

  3. (10 pts) Based on your analysis, did the cat die from eating poison sumac?