Cnidaria

Feeding:

•  feed in several ways
• predation on corals, absorbing dissolved organic chemicals, filtering food particles out of water, getting nutrients from algae with their cells
• depend mostly on absorbing dissolved nutrients uses tentacles to capture food
• tentacles have rows of cilia whose beating creates currents that flow towards the mouth

Respiration:

• there are no respiratory organs and cells layers absorb oxygen and expel carbon dioxide into the water

Circulation: 

• they lack a circulatory system because they do not need one

Excretion:

• canal like cavity in they bodies for ingestion, digestion
• gas is eliminated by diffusion
• solid waste is dissolved 

Response/ Movement:

• muscle surrounding cavity relaxes and contracts, causing it to move back and forth
• as water moves in one direction, it moves in opposite way

Reproduction:

• sexual and asexual
• assexually with diffusion
• sexually with the ova and sperm being released from the gonads and gastroderms

Flower Dissection

PART ONE

 Labelling:

Ovary cut in half:

- looks like a tube like structure running up it

Pollen close up:

-look like little pumpkin seeds with a line running up the middle

PART TWO

-pollination is sexual reproduction in plants. It is how the pollen is transferred to the female egg.

-pollen, anther, stigma, ovule

-self fertilization occurs when the pollen from an anther fertilizes the eggs on the same flower

-cross-fertilization occurs when the pollen is transferred to the stigma of an entirely different plant

-this plant in an angiosperm because only angiosperms can bear fruits or flowers

Monocot or Dicot

I did the opposite of what I had in post #1 so I could compare them.
So for example, if I had a dicot leaf in my first post, I'll post a monocot leaf in this one.

Dicot Root

(does not have the "T" that the monocot root has)

Monocot Stem

(the little "skulls" are scattered throughout, whereas in the monocot stem it was along the edges)

Dicot Leaf

(vascular bundle seems smaller and the circles along the edge are smaller)

Venus Flytrap Video

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=venus%20fly%20trap&sm=12

I always knew that venus flytraps are one of the most interesting plants of all time. Except I never understood HOW exactly they are able to sense prey on them. I also never figured out what happens to the prey once it's been "ingested."

However, this video plus some addition research helped me figure this out.

Basically, the prey lands on the sensitive surface of the open trap. If the prey isn't able escape, it continues to sort of "stimulate" the inside surface of the lobes, and this causes a response that forces the edges of the lobes to close together and that eventually seals the trap and forms a 'stomach' where digestion happens. Digestion is initiated by enzymes by the glands in the lobes. Digestion takes about ten days, and after that the prey is turned into chitin (nitrogen-containing polysaccharide; it helps build the cell wall). The trap reopens afterwards, and is ready to consume the next victim.

Tooooooo cooooooooooool ahhhhhhhh.

Interesting Plant - Strangler Fig

The strangler fig is probably the coolest thing ever.

It kills.
:O

There are many different species of Strangler Fig, but they all are basically the same thing. They're strange because they will grow up and down. Down so they can choke the living tree of all the nutrients, and up for sunlight. They often outlive the host tree by years, sometimes forming hollow cores that house the "spirit" of the old tree.
These "figs" can live up to thousands of years.

Acorns vs Pine cones

Acorns grow on oak trees and are the seeds for them, while pinecones contain seeds and are from pine trees. Acorns fall to the ground and are eaten by animals to spread their seed. Pinecone seeds fall to the ground and are dispersed by the wind. The trees that acorns grow on are deciduous whereas pine cones grow on coniferous trees. Acorns have one seed and pine cones have multiple.

My sad looking mouse composed entirely of acorns, pinecones, yarn and glue