The Nature of Things - Smarty Plants

SBI3U

Independent Study Week 8

1. What is Dr James Cahill Studying?

He is studying if plants behave like animals as well as plant behaviours. Like,

growth, movement and looking for food (Venus fly trap)

2. What are the main resources that a plant needs to survive?

Light (photosynthesis), nutrients and food.

3. How much of the plant is found above the ground?

20% of the plants are found above the ground. 80% of the plants are found
below the ground.

4. How are Grizzly bears and plant roots similar?

Both grizzly bears and plant roots move around looking for food or nutrients and
once they find a spot that has either of those things, they stop moving or
growing and intake as much of the nutrients or food that they can.

5. How does the daughter plant choose its host plant?

It chooses its host plant based on sniffing out its victim on the chemical a
plant gives off when it breathes. It also chooses on a plant bases on how easy it
is to attach to the stem of the plant. The daughter plant has no roots and cannot
produce its own food. It lives entirely on a host plant it has 72 hours to find the
host plant or it will die. Or it will take its tiny teeth like probes and pierce the
stem and grow into the victim and drain it of its life giving sap.

6. What does the Tomato plant do in response to the daughter plant attack?

The tomato releases the chemical equivalent of a scream. Many plants emit a
chemical SOS smell when they are under attack. Humans can smell these
chemicals as well. An example of this smell is the smell of freshly cut grass or
the smell of flowers in a vase.

7. When plants call for help, who are they calling?

The plants are calling for reinforcements, insects that eat that insects that want
to eat the plant.

8. How does the Wild Tobacco plant defend itself? (There is more than 1)

Wild Tobacco defends themselves by releasing a chemical when herbivore attack

that can poison any organism that has muscle known as nicotine. Another
defence it has is, it releases an SOS chemical message that drift up into the air
that is picked up by the enemy of the organism that was not affected by the first
chemical released. This plant also has trichomes along its stem, that caterpillars
love but when they eat these trichomes it gets a very bad case of body odour
whecj informs predators.

9. How does the Spotted Knap-weed compete for territory?

The Spotted Knapweed competes for territory by releasing a chemical called

catechin in the roots of the plant which kills off a large amount of native grasses.
Which allows this weed to capture and hold huge swaths of territory.

10.

What evidence supports the idea of Kin-recognition?

The relative of roots of a plants restrained their root growth while strangers grew
more roots to compete for food.

11.

What is the cooperative trade-off between Fungi and tree roots?

The cooperative trade-off between fungi and tree roots because of the fungi
cannot produce its own food so they tap into the roots of trees and other plants.
The trees roots provide the fungi with carbon- based sugar, and the fungi returns
the favour by providing the trees with nutrients. Many plant species depend on
fungi for survival. Fungi also depend on the roots of trees and plants in order to
survive as well.

12.
Describe the experiment that showed that mother trees were sharing
carbon with their offspring.

This experiment was done by injecting radioactive carbon 14 into an older mother tree
which is an element the tree naturally absorbs to produce its food. A few days the amount
of radioactive carbon that has gone is measured using a Geiger counter. The carbon 14 has
spread out to other trees but also to the youngest trees (its offspring) that need a lot of
food to grow.