Trees & Leaves's Journal

I decided to locate the sugar maple tree, or Acer saccharum, on the phylogenetic tree. In descending order, it is classified like so:
All life, domain: Eukaryotes, kingdom: Plantae, phylum: Spermatophyta, sub-phylum: Angiospermatophyta, class: Dicotyledonae, order: Sapindales, family: Sapindaceae, sub-family: Aceraceae, genus: Acer, species: Acer Saccharum

An adaptation that my observed species have in common can be seen in their leaves. Their leaves are all thin, green, elevated, and spread out as widely as possible. This is to ensure that the largest surface area is exposed to the most sunlight possible.

A unique adaptation I observed in the sugar maple tree is the presence of an extremely thick layer of leaf litter situated around the tree's spread roots. After further research, it was confirmed that this is the sugar maple's way of maintaining the pH of the soil surrounding its roots at optimum level.

Out of my ten observations, I decided to locate Viburnum acerifolium on the phylogenic tree, and I discovered that it was placed as follows in descending order: Eukaryotes, Diphoda, Steptophyta, Euphyllophyta, Mesangiospermae, Eudicots, Gunneridae, Pentapetalae, Asterids, Campanulids, Dipsacales, Adoxas, Viburnum, Viburnum acerifolium. As I look at the placement of the species on the phylogenetic tree, it is under the genius Viburnum and species of acerifolium, which contains 18 different species within. One structural adaptation that could be observed throughout the group's observation was the colour traits of the plants, as the leaves and different plants were all green. A structural adaptation I found within my observations was that majority of the plants and leaves had wide-shaped leaves, possibly due to the plants trying to absorb for sunlight for energy.