Plant Parts & Dissection

The purpose of this lab is to really get our hands dirty looking at plants and their structures. So far we have looked at plant structures as a means of identification but we have not taken an in-depth look at plant physiology. Here we will (i) dissect a flower, (ii) dissect a seed, and (iii) perform an additional dissection of your choice. We will also chat about the botany we see in the grocery store every time we shop.

the lab activity

1. You must find a flower. You can feel free to choose any flower you want. It can be from the store, from a park, from your home gardens, etc. (just make sure its legal!). If you have a choice larger flowers may be easier to dissect and see the structures than smaller flowers. Conduct your flower dissection more or less along the lines of the video below in the background info - make sure you find as many analogous structures mentioned in the video in your specimen. Take a few pictures of your process and label as many parts as you can either through annotating your images with text or taking individual photos of structures and adding captions accordingly. Remember the variety of flowers dissected in this video as well as a dandelion.

2. You must dissect seeds (both a monocot and a dicot). Use the video below as your guide. If you don't have iodine no worries...it will be a bit more challenging to see but you should be able to see the embryo and the endosperm even without staining. Label as many parts as possible.

3. Your choice! I have listed a few more sample activities below: (i) what makes stinging nettle sting? (ii) identifying N-fixing root nodules in the family Fabaceae, (iii) and tracing vascular bundles in celery. These are just examples of something you could pick. Feel free to choose them or any other plant physiology activity dealing with the physical structures of plants and how they function.

4. Botany in the Grocery Store - learn about the botanical parts of plants that we eat every day. Watch the videos in the Background section. Provide a one paragraph description about your ruminations over plant parts (root, stem, leaf, petiole, etc.) and food

what to hand in on your website

• Annotated flower dissection - complete with pictures and captions showing your process and identifying the structures you have found [25 points]

• Annotated seed dissection (monocot and dicot) - complete with pictures and captions showing your process and identifying the structures you have found [15 points]

• Annotated process for activity of choice regarding plant structures and function [10 points]

• Paragraph reflecting on the above 3 activities - What were you able to learn by physically dissecting structures rather than watching videos? Was it important? Why? [5 points]

• Paragraph description about your ruminations over plant parts (root, stem, leaf, petiole, etc.) and food [5 points]

Background - dissections

background - Botany in the Grocery Store

other resources...

Basic Flower Structures

Basic Flower Types

Inflorescence Types

Dry Fruit Types

Fleshy Fruit Types

Seed Dispersal Methods

Stem