UW Hitchcock Hall

Lat: 47.651908772042475, Lon:-122.31143038717448
Day, 2012
4/10/12
1:30-2:30

Today we started class at the Hitchcock Hall building where Susan set up a whole bunch of cards with old plants glued to them. We looked at three cards from two different species. I observed Geranium robertianum L. and Polystichum munitum.

Geranium robertianum, also known as “Stinky Bob,” is a very leafy plant with a few pink/purple flowers scattered around and is found in deciduous forests. The three I chose to observe were from British Columbia in July 1999, the Cedar River Watershed in May 2001, and Skagit County in August 2009. One difference I noticed was that in 1999, this particular plant had many flowers whereas from 2001 to 2009 this number decreased. Another difference was that the sample from Skagit County had the same leaf structure as the other two but the leaves were much smaller and had a reddish-yellow tint rather than the green observed on the other two. However, it is hard to know for sure if these differences were actually caused by differences in time and location or whether it was just because the plants were very old and discolored.

I looked it up but couldn't find any information on whether Geranium robertianum has seen a decline in flowers over the years. Based on that, I'm guessing the difference in number of flowers was probably just a result of these plants being glued to cards and age. However, as for the difference in color of the leaves, I found that in more shady areas the leaves will be green until Autumn and will appear reddish when grown in dry sunny areas. That makes sense because the samples with green leaves were collected in July (British Columbia), and May (Cedar River Watershed). Also, the more reddish sample was collected in August (Skagit County), the beginning of Autumn which explains why there was only some red/yellow on the leaves. Perhaps the sample from Skagit County was also collected somewhere dry and sunny, which would also account for the redness.

Geranium robertianum
Polystichum munitum

Posted on May 21, 2012 09:41 PM by lisad22