Master Gardener Training Series: Botany
Have you ever looked at a piece of celery, a carrot, an apple, or a strawberry? I mean really looked at it…like under a magnifying glass? Yeah…me neither until this week in my Extension Master Gardener Training. What I saw was amazing! You can literally see how plants work just by examining the things that we see regularly just a little bit closer. There are lines, dips, and curves within these everyday foods that tell the story of how they grew. When you understand this, it’s hard not to be enamored by simple fruits and vegetables. Today, I will be digging into an extensive series recapping my Master Gardener Training through the Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Hanover Master Gardener Association. ⚠ Warning…this may get a bit geeky and scientific, but I love that kind of stuff and I love that the Extension Master Gardeners only use scientifically backed information when they are giving advice making them super trustworthy. You can read more about this program by reading my post from last week here. Each week, I’ll recap some fun facts from my lessons, and share any resources that I learn about to help us all become better gardeners. Let’s dig in.
What is Botany?
Our instructor this week, Barb Swedo, described Botany as “The study of what makes plants tick.” ⏰
5 Fun Facts:
Plants have mouths!
The underside of a leaf contains many stomas that open and close to allow for the transpiration of gases like CO2 and Oxygen. In the video below, you can see the little mouths or pores breathing away.
Leaves leave scars.
When a leaf drops from a branch, it leaves behind a scar. It’s not super obvious on most trees, but it’s there. Pictured here is the leaf scare on the highly invasive, Tree of Heaven. Its leaves are an excellent example of a compound leaf so the petiole (leaf stalk) is quite large. When these leaves fall, they leave quite the mark. Much like our own scars, trees show growth and beauty through theirs.
Goldenrod isn’t causing your allergies…here’s why?
Goldenrod gets a bad rep. It’s beautiful and showy in the fall with its beautiful golden and pollony plums. Our backyard backs up to a small meadow and I think the goldenrod is just glorious. Unfortunately, my kids have allergies some kind of bad this time of year, however, it’s not from the goldenrod, it’s from a less show plant that happens to bloom at the same time…ragweed. Ragweed molecules are made so they fly through the air whereas golden rod pollen molecules are sticky and must be transfered to other plants via pollinators.
Tree Knots were branches that a tree grew around.
https://climatekids.nasa.gov/tree-rings/
Most of us know that you can count the rings on a tree to know how old it is, but what I didn’t know was that knots on cut wood are actually where branches once were. The branch fell and it didn’t just say welp…I’m broken so I can stop growing. It grew around where the branch used to be. It’s wounds…often hidden…become part of their core. I also didn’t know that you could tell the difference between Spring and summer growth and fall growth. The lighter color is from the beginning of each growing season. The molecules are more spread out thus giving a lighter color and the darker color is from the end of the growing season when the molecules are more compressed together. You can see if the growing conditions were optimal each year of the tree’s life based on how much spacing is between the rings.
Grass Cries for Help!
There’s scientific evidence that shows that many plants have Green Leaf Volatiles that help them communicate with other plants of their kind and even some insects. The smell of grass is a perfect example of this. That lovely fresh-cut grass smell is grass sending out hormonal signals to their blady little friends to tell them to watch themselves…danger is imminent. Fortunately for us, grass hasn’t adapted against the lawn mower yet so your perfectly manicured lawn isn’t in any kind of danger….YET!
BONUS: Use Plant Identification Apps
Here are some phone apps that were recommended as good tools to use for plant identification. I’ll add a caveat here though…these apps utilize Artificial Intelligence. They are not always accurate, but most of the time they get you at least in the ballpark of what a plant is.
When I first started reading about botany, it was abstract and difficult to understand. It took visuals in class and an incredible instructor to help it become less cloudy. I found this study to be fascinating and I hope these little snippets maybe make you go Wow! too! Everything we experience in plant and animal life revolves around different types of tissues. The overlap between plants and animals is striking to me and I learned that nature and human existence are interconnected more than I ever knew. I am reminded of the depth of this with each passing day.
Keep Blooming,
Nicole Dillon, Breemar Flower Farm
