The Privates Lives of Plants: Plant Politics Name______
In the fourth video the intriguing relationship between plant communities is looked at up close and personal. It’s all about dominance. And the theme for this volume might be “here today and gone tomorrow and then back again next year”. Nature provides occasional shocks in the environment. Fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, glaciers, blizzards, etc. These events can destroy dominant partners in a plant ecosystem and allow less dominant types to flourish. But their time is limited and they must work fast.
1. The foxglove plant lies dormant (seed) for many years. What does it take to allow the foxglove community to reestablish, flower and produce seed?
2. Birch trees are early colonizers of any opening in a forest or in some case a wet grassland. They ______and thus become feeble and spindly, which thins the stand. Often they are replaced as the dominant species by ______trees, which produce natural ______to keep certain types of insects from eating their leaves. The leaves that do fall to the forest floor are helpful to the plant community because they provide______. Also the insects that survive are themselves a food supply for ______. Do you get the sense of community here? a. Speaking of community, why are the bluebell flowers in such a hurry to bloom in the springtime?
3. We talked about some forest species doing well in low light; 10-20% of total light. Other species do not do so well. Once they germinate, how do they obtain full sunlight? a. Where does the Australian rattan plant grow? What is it doing there?
4. So, some plants can get up into tree tops as described in Question 3. How do some other species find their way up into tree tops?
5. What is unique about the basket fern? I don’t have any plants that behave like that in my garden. (wish I did).
6. I saw a stranger fig tree in the rain forest in Belize once. I tried to explain how this neat plant grew, but my son just rolled their eyes and walked away. So, how does the strangler fig “do its thing”. Try and do a better job than I did. Thanks! (Remember, it is all about dominance)
7. Fungi are neither plant nor animal, but they parasitize almost all living things for their food source. They______plant leaves and sometimes use nets to catch falling leaves. Fungi produce a______that breaks down______in leaves, and believe it or not they also “lasso” ______in the soil with their filaments to extract______.
8. Explain the relationship between rotting tree trunks on the forest floor in the Pacific Northwest and sprouting seedlings.
9. Fire and the act of burning are often serious and harmful events in nature, but in the case of the mountain ash (eucalyptus) fire is often helpful.
a. What causes these trees to burn so furiously?
b. What is often the beneficial outcome?
c. How are the trees seeds protected?
10. In Africa, acacia trees are in competition with grasslands and prairies. If only the acacias were wiped out things would be great for the grasslands.
a. How are elephants involved in this standoff?
b. Are the elephants “farming the grasslands” or are the grasslands using elephants to achieve their objectives?
11. Defend or refute this statement: “Wheat seems to have taken advantage of man, as man has taken advantage of wheat”. Can a plant really take advantage of mankind? Explain why or why not.