Naturalist Perspectives Assignment 5

Location: Between the park and a house on the way back from Winter Hill Community Innovation School
Date: 4/18/17
Time: 12:40 pm
Weather Conditions: Sunny. Slight breeze. 48℉.

There are mostly plant cells nearby, but also probably micro-organisms and bacteria. I can't actually see any, but there are generally loads of bacteria in nature, since they are an essential part of the larger ecosystem. There aren't a lot of trees, but there are lots of smaller plants and flowers, like the yellow ones in the picture below.

The cells in my body are doing their usual thing, receiving and sending out signals, and carrying essential nutrients and oxygen through my body. Some of my cells are reacting to the sensory input of the feel of the flower petals and the warmth of the sun. Cells in my eyes are part of translating the light waves reflecting of of the things around me and communicating the colors to my brain.

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Naturalist Perspectives Challenge: AWEsomeness

Location: Wendell St and Oxford St Date: 5/2/2017 Time: 4:30 PM Weather: Sunny and nice. 57℉. Most of the time when people talk about awe, they talk about things that are either extremely big or extremely small. Sometimes, though, it can happen with color. I came across this person's backyard while I was wandering around and talking to my cousin on the phone. She is an art student and we had just been talking about her final, which involved mixing paints, and led to a discussion about the perception of color. In the midst of that discussion, I walked past this garden, and it was a literal blaze of color. This picture does not even do it justice. there were even more plants in the area off to the left. My brain felt saturated with color, in a way that does not usually happen. I stopped talking midsentence and just stared. The plants are obviously natural, in the sense that no one came by, Alice in Wonderland style to put paint on them, but they are also obviously unnat

Naturalist Perspectives Challenge: Breaking Buds

Location: 10 Wendell St Date: 4/23/2017 Time: 3:30 PM Weather: Sunny. 54℉. Location: 10 Wendell St Date: 4/27/2017 Time: 4:00 PM Weather: Sunny. 57℉. Location: 10 Wendell St Date: 4/30/2017 Time: 3:30 PM Weather: Cloudy and gray. 50℉. This is a tulip. There are more than 3,000 naturally occurring and genetically cultivated varieties of tulip worldwide. Genetically, they are in the same family as lilies, onions, and asparagus. Tulips open and close their petals in response to heat and light. This is a fantastic example of cells being responsive to their environment. By closing, the tulip protects its reproductive organs and ensures that the pollen stays dry.

Naturalist Perspectives: Invasive Species

Location: 29 Harrison St, Newton, MA Date: 4/23/2017 Time: 2:00 PM Weather: Sunny with some cloud cover. 54℉. If you look in the background of this picture, you will see a large yellow mass covered in flowers. This plant is called the forsythia tree and it is an invasive species that can be found here and in my hometown of Armonk, N.Y.. It can be recognized by its lack of leaves, rounded overall shape, and vibrant yellow flower. Forsythia are described as colonizing plants. They are native to Asia but will grow in almost any sunny location. It does not support insects or birds native to the Northeastern US in any way. Its roots have colonizing suckers that can push out other species of plant nearby and change the topography of a landscape. For this reason, they are often planted on hills (as pictured above). Over time, they can help level out the area. Many landscapers recommend replacing forsythia with spicebush, which can better support the other forms of life.

Biology Spring 2017 - Naturalist Perspectives

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