We can work on “What Plants Talk About?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrrSAc-vjG4
Essential concepts: Adaptations, survival, ecosystems, chemical warfare, non-verbal communication, “animal-like” behavior, Spotted Knapweed infestation, oxalic acid, C14 radioactivity, Wild Tobacco Plant predation, pollination, kin recognition, “mother” tree, fungal network.

Part I. Introduction

  1. List several ways in which plants differ from animals.
  2. What do scientists think plants can do?

Part II. Predation and Foraging Behaviors: Venus Fly Trap, Plant roots and Dodder Vines (or Devil’s Hair!)

  1. How does a Venus Fly Trap find food?
  2. How does a plant’s roots act when searching for food? What happens when the roots find a patch of nutrients? How is this similar to animal behavior?
  3. Dodder Vines (or Devil’s Hair) are rather creepy! What are they? and how to they find nutrients?
    Part III. Self-Defense: the Wild Tobacco Plant, Utah
  4. What are some ways that plants respond to perceived or actual threats?
  5. There are 4 ways the native Wild Tobacco plant protects itself. BE NEAT and BE DETAILED. This is a most awesome plant! INCLUDE NAMES OF INSECTS: Horn worm Caterpillar, Big-Eyed Bug, Hawk Moth. Hummingbird. EXPLAIN THE PROCESSES.
    a. Chemical toxin- b. Chemical SOS- c. Tricones- d. Change Pollinators: (there are several changes to the Tobacco Plant in this method of defense – name them)

Part IV. Warfare: Spotted Knapweed and the Lupine Plant, Montana

  1. Spotted Knapweed is an invasive plant. List some of the problems these plants have caused on Montana ranches.
  2. There are no natural predators of this plant here in the USA. What methods have ranchers used to try to control the spread of Knapweed? List 2 methods.

Did these methods work?

Why might this be the case? What is special about knapweed here in the US vs Europe?

  1. How do plants respond to the presence of other plants? Can plants be territorial? Explain the behavior of the invasive Knapweed and the native Lupine Plants in Montana.

Part V. Family Affiliations: Do plants recognize their own kin/relatives? Sea Rocket, kin, non-kin relations.

  1. What happens when roots do not recognize their own kind?
  2. What happens when they do?

Part VI. Communal Affiliations: Fungal roots and forests
Can trees have relationships with other organisms? How might this be occurring?

  1. What amount of plant mass is observed aboveground?
  2. Can fungi and trees live as a colony, communicating with friends and foes alike? Describe in detail how fungal roots and forests look out for each other as a community creating a healthy ecosystem.

Part VII. Family Affiliations: Douglas Fir trees, C14 radioactivity, Geiger counter, saplings.
Do mother trees nurture their young?

  1. Describe what happened during the Douglas Fir C14 radiation experiment. Bullet your notes.
  2. Where did the great majority of the Carbon-14 food end up?

Part VIII. Conclusions:
What is your reaction to this film? List some ways that it has changed or enlightened your perspective of plants.

Sample Solution

In only a few odes does Pindar not mention family members: Ol. 1, Ol. 4, Ol. 9, Pyth. 3, Pyth. 12, and Isthm. 3. In a number of these, the paternal and familial absence may be able to be rationalized: the victor is either a ruler or politically or socially prominent and thus the ode focuses attention on them, or at any rate participates in a rather complex political context (Ol. 1 for Hieron; Pyth. 3 for Hieron);[10] in another two cases the father’s name appears in an earlier ode for the same victor, and thus perhaps familial self-identity had been fulfilled (Hieron’s father’s name appears in another ode as well: Pyth. 1.79; Ol. 4 for Psaumis of Kamarina, whose father Akron is named at Ol. 5.8, and his sons at 5.23; Isthm. 3 for Melissos of Thebes, whose father is named at Isthm. 4.45). Pythian 12 and Olympian 9 stand out, since they lack any explicit reference to the father, clan, or family of the victor. Pyth. 12 praises the victory of Midas of Akragas in the aulos competition at the Pythian Games; significantly, it is the only extant ode to praise a victor in a musical contest. While Strauss-Clay suggests that the absence of Midas’ father and family is explained by his professional standing as an aulos player, Maria Pavlou offers a convincing and subtle explanation that situates the absence of family in the context of Akragrantine politics.[11] She suggests that Midas’ victory is an agalma for the city, since Akragas itself receives an extended encomium (Pyth. 12.1-5), and she argues that Midas’ victory ode was commissioned by the then-ascendant Emmenidae (perhaps Theron himself), in order to stress their power, and to relate them to a celebration of Akragantine culture. Thus Pythian 12 does not offer evidence that lower-status athletes (if, indeed, Midas was lower-status) would not celebrate their fathers, but rather indicates the potential utility of an epinikian victory to the political program of an aspiring tyrant.[12] Consequently, Ol. 9 is alone in its complete absence of a literal family or ancestry, or at least, it is the only ode in which an obvious explanation does not appear to be forthcoming through the political or social context of the poem, and the lack of father’s name cannot be explained because of any known personal political prominence or a powerful patron. Even if Epharmostos’ family had not had previous athletic success, family could still appear, since in other odes victory acts retroactively to glorify otherwise obscure ancestors (e.g., Nem. 6.17-29). Aside from Epharmostos, the ode mentions one other apparently historical individual, Lampromachos, whose presence has sparked much ancient and modern discussion.[13] He is introduced as a cause for the poet’s presence at the celebration of Olympian 9 (82-84): Because of guest friendship and achievement I have come to honor the Isthmian fillets of Lampromachos, when both won their victories in one day. The scholiasts are divided on the meaning of: 123a and 123c regard Lampromachos as a proxenos in the technical sense, while 123d and 123e consider to be equivalent to in this passage; finally, 125c considers Lampromachos a kinsman of Epharmostos.[14] Modern scholarship has been similarly divided.[15] While the institution of proxenia existed in the fifth-century, it is not certain that an >

In only a few odes does Pindar not mention family members: Ol. 1, Ol. 4, Ol. 9, Pyth. 3, Pyth. 12, and Isthm. 3. In a number of these, the paternal and familial absence may be able to be rationalized: the victor is either a ruler or politically or socially prominent and thus the ode focuses attention on them, or at any rate participates in a rather complex political context (Ol. 1 for Hieron; Pyth. 3 for Hieron);[10] in another two cases the father’s name appears in an earlier ode for the same victor, and thus perhaps familial self-identity had been fulfilled (Hieron’s father’s name appears in another ode as well: Pyth. 1.79; Ol. 4 for Psaumis of Kamarina, whose father Akron is named at Ol. 5.8, and his sons at 5.23; Isthm. 3 for Melissos of Thebes, whose father is named at Isthm. 4.45). Pythian 12 and Olympian 9 stand out, since they lack any explicit reference to the father, clan, or family of the victor. Pyth. 12 praises the victory of Midas of Akragas in the aulos competition at the Pythian Games; significantly, it is the only extant ode to praise a victor in a musical contest. While Strauss-Clay suggests that the absence of Midas’ father and family is explained by his professional standing as an aulos player, Maria Pavlou offers a convincing and subtle explanation that situates the absence of family in the context of Akragrantine politics.[11] She suggests that Midas’ victory is an agalma for the city, since Akragas itself receives an extended encomium (Pyth. 12.1-5), and she argues that Midas’ victory ode was commissioned by the then-ascendant Emmenidae (perhaps Theron himself), in order to stress their power, and to relate them to a celebration of Akragantine culture. Thus Pythian 12 does not offer evidence that lower-status athletes (if, indeed, Midas was lower-status) would not celebrate their fathers, but rather indicates the potential utility of an epinikian victory to the political program of an aspiring tyrant.[12] Consequently, Ol. 9 is alone in its complete absence of a literal family or ancestry, or at least, it is the only ode in which an obvious explanation does not appear to be forthcoming through the political or social context of the poem, and the lack of father’s name cannot be explained because of any known personal political prominence or a powerful patron. Even if Epharmostos’ family had not had previous athletic success, family could still appear, since in other odes victory acts retroactively to glorify otherwise obscure ancestors (e.g., Nem. 6.17-29). Aside from Epharmostos, the ode mentions one other apparently historical individual, Lampromachos, whose presence has sparked much ancient and modern discussion.[13] He is introduced as a cause for the poet’s presence at the celebration of Olympian 9 (82-84): Because of guest friendship and achievement I have come to honor the Isthmian fillets of Lampromachos, when both won their victories in one day. The scholiasts are divided on the meaning of: 123a and 123c regard Lampromachos as a proxenos in the technical sense, while 123d and 123e consider to be equivalent to in this passage; finally, 125c considers Lampromachos a kinsman of Epharmostos.[14] Modern scholarship has been similarly divided.[15] While the institution of proxenia existed in the fifth-century, it is not certain that an >

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