Collection 2: Katie Harrison

I just wanted to add these pictures of my Aunt Sue's garden to the blog, because I wasn't able to really personalize many of my photos that I took when I visited her and I wanted to be able to prove that these pictures are in fact mine, not Google's or anybody elses (I have all the pictures from this post on my phone and camera, too :) ). The first picture is pretty much showing most of the backyard gardens, the second shows the big "island" garden where I found my hummingbird, the third is of the koi/frog pond, and the fourth is of my aunt by the pond with a tamed frog that hopped onto her arm. As for the pictures towards the bottom, I wasn't able to stick anything in the shots because the animals were moving too fast or the camera needed to be zoomed in.

Angiosperm: Angiosperm plants are those that flower and produce seeds or fruits. This cleome plant in my aunt's garden is an angiosperm plant because it produces seeds in pods and is a flowering plant.

Autotroph: An autotroph is an organism that gains its energy from organic food molecules instead of eating another organism. They usually are photosynthetic organisms. These ferns and other plants from my aunt's garden are autotrophs.

Commensalism: when two organisms' interaction causes one organism to benefit while the other is unaffected. This squirrel's nest at my aunt's house is an example of commensalism because the squirrels are able to make a home, while the oak tree is unharmed by the squirrels.

Littoral zone organism: an organism that thrives in the shallow part of a lake, where photosynthesis still can occur. My aunt has a koi fish pound, which happens to have a family of Leopard frogs living in it. I saw five different tadpoles, all about two and a half inches long, right under the surface of the water, eating algae. The second picture was taken later in the day, so the sun had moved and created a reflection on the pond. I had to use my hand to block out the reflection so the tadpole could be seen underneath the surface of the water. I thought it was a pretty nifty picture, so I added it too.

Pollinator: A pollinator is an organism that transfers pollen from one plant to another. Examples of pollinators are butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. T his female Ruby Throated hummingbird at my aunt's house was actually feeding from a flower, which I've never seen before; usually I only see them at the hummingbird feeder.

Exoskeleton: An exoskeleton is the outer skeleton of most arthropods. This is when the skeleton of an organism is on the outside of the body, while the organs are on the inside of the body. In this picture is a cicada's exoskeleton shell which was recently molted; a cicada has to shed the exoskeleton when its body grows underneath the shell.

Tendril of a plant: Tendrils of plants are the stems that climb, attach, and support the growing plants. The tendrils of this Morning Glory on my deck already climbed the small trellace that's in its pot and the railing, so they are starting to attach to one another.

Anther and filament of a stamen: The anther and filament are the male reproductive parts of flowers, where the pollen is held. The anther of this lily is the brown structure that resembles rice at the end of the thin, white structures called filaments.

Ectotherm: An ectotherm is an organism with a body temperature that varies with it's surroundings. An example of an ectotherm is this oceanic sunfish, because the fish needs to bask in the sun and warmer water to heat up its body up after long, deep dives. On July 23, my family went on a whale watch cruise up off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, and while searching for whales, we came across this gigantic fish (yes, both pictures are of the same fish. I know, they look completely different, but I blame it on the cell phone camera). At first, the spotters on the ship thought it was a shark because the fish's dorsal fin was sticking out of the water, much like a shark's would. The marine biologist on the boat estimated this oceanic sunfish to weigh about 200 pounds and be about 5 feet wide by 5 feet tall, which is relatively small compared to the average weight of these monster-size fish (2,200 lbs). I took great interest in these fish, and found out that they eat mainly jellyfish and can even jump out of the water, up to 10 feet in the air! The picture on the left was taken with my camera as the sunfish was basking, while the one on the right was taken with my phone right before it completely flipped over and disappeared under the boat.

Eukaryote: A eukaryote is an organism that is made up of cells that contain a membrane enclosed nucleus and organelles. All animals, plants, and fungi contain these complex cells. During the whale watch, we encountered a pod of these friendly Common Dolphins, nearly 150 strong. The dolphins surrounded the boat, and literally everywhere you looked, there were dolphins jumping and flipping out of the water. I could hear them whistle to each other right next to the boat, and I even saw a few calves, or baby dolphins. They looked like swimming footballs. The adult dolphins were about 5-7ft long, while the calves were about 3 ft long. I was really excited to see these guys because this was my first whale watch, and my first time seeing dolphins in the wild and not at Sea World.

Aashika

Eukaryote – an organism whose cells contain nuclei. The presence of a nucleus is the key characteristic differentiating a eukaryote from a prokaryote. The squirrel on the ledge is a multi-cellular organism and a eukaryote.

Frond - an often large, finely divided leaf. The leaf of a fern plant is an example of a frond. I took the following pictures amid multiple ferns in my music teacher’s backyard.

Fruit: dry with seed – Dry fruits are one of two broad categories of seed-bearing fruit, in which the entire pericarp becomes dry once the fruit reaches maturity. The acorns from the oak tree in my backyard are dry fruits with seeds.

Fruit: fleshy with seed – Fleshy fruits are the second of two broad categories of seed-bearing fruit, where the pericarp and the rest of the fruit are made up of succulent tissues. The apple from the crab-apple tree in my backyard is surprisingly small, no larger than the size of one or two acorns, in fact. It is a fleshy fruit containing seeds.

Gymnosperm cone – a cone-shaped structure with seeds that are not enclosed by a protective fruit. Our pine tree, for instance, produces pine cones which are gymnosperm cones. When these pine cones fall in optimal soil, they grow into new pine trees.

Lichen – a complex organism that consists of a fungus in symbiotic union with an algae, typically found on trees and rocks. The lichen that I found was greenish in color, and it was growing on a couple damp rocks by my friend’s pool.

Pollen – powdery yellowish grains or spores that serve as the fertilizing element of flowering plants. We planted cantaloupe in our garden this year, and although no fruits have come up yet, plenty of cantaloupe flowers abound; each cantaloupe flower has a yellow center containing pollen.

Pollinator – an agent, often times an insect, that carries pollen from one flower to another to accomplish fertilization. A butterfly is an example of a pollinator. As the butterfly draws up a flower’s nectar with its proboscis (a mouthpart that acts as a straw), its legs accumulate pollen. Then the butterfly flies over to another flower and pollinates it.

Herbaceous stem – a green, brittle plant stem with little or no woody tissue. The banana pepper plants in our garden are annuals, meaning they die after one season and we have to plant new ones in the spring. Basically, the stem has only a year to mature before the winter chill gets to it; thus, banana pepper plants have green, herbaceous stems.

Woody stem – a stem of a plant that has been growing for over two years, thickening and accumulating woody tissue. Herbaceous stems grow thick and woody after two years of life, which is why most plants with woody stems are perennials. This oak tree branch has a woody stem.

First 10 "collected" items for AP Bio

These needle like trees are considered a leaf of a gymnosperm. Gymnosperms lack the fruits and flowers of that of the angiosperm. Their leaves are usually needle like, with the leaves almost becoming part of the stem.

On this piece of bark are a few patches of lichen which can simply be called fungus. A lichen is parasitic and can take over and drain the nutrients from a tree or its host. Like this fungus poison ivy can also wrap itself around a tree until no further sunlight is penetrating through to the tree eventually killing the tree.

This is a deciduous leaf. deciduous means to drop or shed off at a certain seasons. this leaf has fallen from the tree and matches the simple opposite description of leaves. meaning is has bilateral symmetry and for the most part has a simple outline.

This is my Coleus Doing well i would like to think, anyway this picture is demonstrates the xylem of a plant. the xylem is a tube that carries water from the roots to the leaves to help nourish and feed the rest of the plant.

The small stem looking objects inside of this petunia are called anthers. the long tall stem in the center is actually the ovary of the flower but the rest of them are anthers. the anthers are where the pollen is held. and when bees or birds brush by and pick up this pollen and/or drop it off the flower can then be fertilized.

This tall non-flowering plant has a very large stem. within this stem is a tube like organ called the phloem. the phloem is responsible for carrying and dispersing the nutrients absorbed by the roots to all other plant parts where it is needed.

This is a snail shell, home to what i now know as a gastropod. a gastropod is an organism belonging to the mollusk family, who lives in a shell. most gastropods have long tentacle like eyes. this shell happens to be empty. this either means it died, or possibly took a trip to France in which case someone ate them for dinner.

This is an empty muscle shell, it once was a littoral zone organism. this means this organism lives anywhere in between where land touches the water, and out into the water where there is a sufficient amount of light for plant growth on the floor of the body of water. I picked this shell up in surf city LBI, making my body of water touching land the ocean.

This is an ectothermic organism, a.k.a. my 3 goldfish. ectothermic means they are cold blooded animals.

This is Sampson one of my foster pups i just recently adopted out to a good home he is a great example of eukaryote. he is filled with eukaryotic cells. this means his cells have an enclosed nucleus, and that his cells are surrounded and enclosed by a membrane.

other five pictues

From now on all my pictures will be on the same post, unfortunately I'm too lazy to fix my older posts so you'll just have to deal with it.
Plants will usually produce thorns in order to deter herbivores from eating said plant. While it works against most animals some will adapt new ways to nullify the threat of thorns. Still, it keeps most beasts away, so why mess with success?

Eukaryotes, such as the frog in this picture (it's there, just look really hard) are one of the most diverse domains of organisms. They can range from being a single-celled protist to complex animals such as cuttlefish, even to simple plants like daisies. The one thing they all have in common is that their cellular structure is organised and contains a nucleus where all the genetic information is held.

Deciduous leaves don't change orange in the fall, they turn green during the spring and summer. The green color is caused by the chlorophyll it produces in order and when winter comes the plant has adapted to shed those leaves due to not having enough sun during the cold season, pretty much its better to fast than waste energy trying to create barely any food at all.

Conifer leaves, commonly known as needles, are specifically designed to be able to endure cold weather and be able to produce chlorophyll even during seasons of less sun. It is mainly achieved due to the waxy skin and small shape of the needles.

An Angiosperm is a plant that produces a nectar filled flower to attract insects. doing so covers the insect in pollen which is then carried to the next plant. Through this method is the plants reproduction obtained.