SEM Pictures

Pollen Grain                                                                          Texture

False Cedar Pollen (Cedrus deodara)

Magnification: 2000x

Taken by: Ms. Lindahl and our group (Emily, Abe, Luis, Anastasia)

___________________________________________________________________________

Pollen Grain                                                                         Texture

Daisy Pollen (Bellis perennis)

Magnification: 2000x

Taken by: Ms. Lindahl and our group (Emily, Abe, Luis, Anastasia

_________________________________________________________________________________

Pollen Grain                                                                Texture

Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica)

Magnification: 2000x

Taken by: Ms. Lindahl and our group (Emily, Abe, Luis, Anastasia)

400X Microscope Pictures

 Daisy Pollen (Bellis perennis)
Magnification: 400 X
Taken by: Anastasia Meunier
















_________________________________________________________________________________


Fuchsia Pollen (Fuchsia magellanica)
Magnification: 400X
Taken by: Anastasia Meunier














_________________________________________________________________________________

False Cedar Pollen (Cedrus deodara)
Magnification: 400X
Taken by: Anastasia Meunier

Leica Pictures

_________________________________________________________________________________

          Daisy (Bellis perennis) 

            Magnification: 35X

           Leica Stereo Microscope

            Taken by: Emily Robinson & Group

 

This a very detailed picture of the center of the Daisy. The carpels of the Daisy are very visible, each little carpel is a small flower of its own. Together all of the carpels make up the center of the Daisy.

 

 

This a detailed picture of the pollen grains that are on the Daisy. The yellow stands out strongly, making it easy to identify the Pollen.

 

This is also a close up picture of the pollen grains, once again the yellow color of the pollen makes it easier to locate it. The pollen is a lot of parts of the Daisy, its on the Carpels, on the Sepals, and on the Petals as well.

_________________________________________________________________________________

      Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica)

     Magnification: 35X

Leica Stereo Microscope

Taken by: Emily Robinson & Group

 

This is an amazing picture of all of the pollen grains that the anther of the flowers has caught.

 

This a very detailed picture of pollen grains that are located on the anther of the flower. Notice that the color of the pollen grains are distinct, because they are white.

 

This is a magnificent picture of the pollen grains that are located on the flower. This is an excellent photograph to see how closely the pollen grains are clustered together.

_________________________________________________________________________________

               False Cedar ( Cedrus deodara)

                Magnification: 35X

                 Leica Stereo Microscope

                 Taken by: Emily Robinson & Group

 

This is a picture of the pollen grains at the top of the pollen cone. The pollen is easy to identify because of its yellow color.

 

 

 

This a very clear and detailed photograph of the pollen grains that are located on the pollen cone of the tree. This photo shows how clustered the pollen grains are and also shows how much pollen is located on the pollen cone.

 

This is a detailed photo of the pollen grains that are on the pollen cone of the tree.

Experimental Question Analysis

Analysis

Original Hypothesis: Animal and/or Insect pollen will be bigger, much more rigid and sticky, so it has a better chance of sticking to its subject, while wind dependent pollen will be lighter, smoother, and much smaller making it able to travel far in the wind.

      Throughout this research project we found that the pollen morphology of the Daisy (Bellis perennis) was much more rigid and spiky. All of our background research and microscope usage supported our hypothesis in this sense, because we knew that the Daisy depended on an insect to carry its pollen to another flower, therefore giving it the duty to make the surface of its pollen grain one that can easily stick onto its pollinator. As for the Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) we thought its pollen grains would also be more rigid in order to make it easy to stick onto its pollinator, but what we found was not quite the same. Instead it was more smooth and round, but while looking at our background research on the Fuchsia we began to understand why this might be: because instead of depending on its pollen to strongly attach onto its pollinator, it depends more on the pollinator shaking some of it off the anther and having it land onto their body while the pollinator is feeding, creating that cycle of pollen transportation and flower reproduction. As for the morphology of our wind dependent plant; False Cedar (Cedrus deodara) we were spot on when guessing its shape. After taking multiple pictures of the pollen and using the SEM, we found that the pollen grains were in fact very small, slim and round, making it easier to catch a drift of wind for transportation to its pollination destination.

Our team assumed that the Fuchsia and Daisy would be more closely related to each other rather than being related to the False Cedar, which turned out true considering that they are both angiosperms and rely on pollinator, while the false cedar is a gymnosperm who relies on the wind as its pollinator. But what came to us as a semi-shock was that the False Cedar and Fuchsia were more closely related to each other rather than the Fuchsia and the Daisy when the morphology of the pollen grain was the determining factor. This was because of the slim, round shape of the Cedar and Fuchsia pollen grains compared to the spiky, rigid morphology of the Daisy pollen.

All in all, our data has answered all of our questions and given us even more information that we ever expected and our hypothesis was supported to some extent, but the morphology of the Fuchsia pollen was our only misjudgment. 

Background Research

Daisy:
-The scientific name of the daisy is Bellis perennis
-Insects are attracted to this plant
-The pollen gets stuck on the outer wall of the flower and when the insect goes to the flower to feed, the pollen gets stuck on the insects body parts. Then the insect goes to other flowers to feed and thats when the pollen is transferred.

Fuchsia:
-Scientific name is Fuchsia magellanica
-Humming birds are attracted to fuchsias
-The humming bird is attracted to the bright red pedals
-When the bird is drinking the plants nectar the pollen falls onto the head of the bird and when the bird goes to other plants to feed the pollen falls off and goes to the other plants. That's how it goes from flower to flower.

False Cedar:
-Scientific name is Cedrus deodara
-This plant is wind pollinated
-It creates a large amount of pollen so when it catches in the wind it has a greater chance of being transferred to a plant of the same species.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/22440556.jpg
http://olafnijenkamp.nl/img/plantafbeeldingen/2406338000008A.JPG
http://www.pfaf.org/Admin/PlantImages/CedrusDeodara.jpg

Pollination Background Research

Pollination Background

Pollen: A male sex seed contained in tough exteriors called pollen. 

Pollination: The transfer of a pollen grain to a receptive female stigma for reproduction.

Wind (abiotic) Pollination:

Plants that depend on wind pollination tend to have much many more pollen grains, because they get to put in all their energy into making lots of pollen, rather than having to produce nectar, aroma, flowers, etc. Physical environment has a large amount of control on the success of wind pollination. Wind pollination will likely be most successful if these ideal physical attributions are met:

• Must have large amounts of pollen grains.
• Must have some aerodynamic properties. 
• The flower must have appropriate placement on the plant, as well as the plant having appropriate placement in order for maximum possibility of being released in moving air.
• Pollen must be released at the correct time of day and season for maximum chance of catching downwind. 
• Must be relatively close to compatible plants. 
• Plant should be in an environment relatively open and free of non compatible objects (buildings, etc.)
• Environmental cues to let flower know when to release pollen.
• Appropriate wind velocity to ensure transportation.
• Relatively low humidity or rainfall.

Pollen of wind dependent plants: Pollen grains of plants have a wide range of size and shape, but wind dependent pollen grains tend to be relatively small and thin for maximum aerodynamicity. They also tend to have a smoother structure.

Animal (Biotic) Pollination: 

Animal mediated pollination is a mutualistic relationship between both the animal and the plant. Animals benefit the nutrition from the pollen/nectar while plants of course benefit from the dispersion of pollen to as many plants as possible, and as far as possible. Plants that depend on biotic pollination have lower amount of pollen, because they spend more energy on aroma, nectar and flowers. These flowers characteristics (aroma, nectar, flowers) of animal dependent plants attract the animals to the plant, starting the reproduction system:

• The plant attracts the animal (with aroma, flower, nectar, access to nectar).
• The pollen attaches itself to the animal of insect once it lands and starts feeding on the plant.
• When the animal/insect leaves the plant and goes to the next plant it brings the pollen grains with it and the pollen grains land onto the stigma of the new plant.
• After reaching the stigma, the pollen grain germinates and grows a tiny pollen tube that stretches down the style and into an egg-filled ovary. 
• The pollen fertilizes the egg and begins to form into a seed.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=l87M-VWKUoUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA97&dq=wind+pollination&ots=CKrG3cb5LJ&sig=-xG4kpxkwxh6wl7_kRwqk0HKxqM#v=onepage&q=wind%20pollination&f=false

http://www.infoplease.com/dk/science/encyclopedia/pollination.html

http://wolfweb.unr.edu/~ldyer/classes/396/plantanimal.pdf

http://whyfiles.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/bee_pollen2.jpg

http://s878.photobucket.com/user/rainwalker_51/media/violetear.jpg.html
wind pollination

Protein Sequence Based Phylogeny

Analysis: The phylogenetic trees that we have created are in agreement. In terms of pollen morphology relations, the Daisy (Bellis perennis) and Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) are closer related to each other then either are to the Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodar.) From what we know about the Daisy flower and the Fuchsia, it makes sense that they are closer in relation, because they are both angiosperms that rely on a subject to bring them the pollen they need in order to reproduce. Fuchsia relies on hummingbirds while the Daisy relies on insects such as bees. The Deodar Cedar is much different from these two plants since it is a gymnosperm and relies solely on wind pollination for its annual intake of pollen. 

Pollen-Morphology-Based Phylogeny

Pollen-Morphology-Based-Phylogeny