Bibliography

Bibliography

Biology Online. (2000, January 1). Plant Meristems and Growth - Control of Growth &

Development. Retrieved April May 2, 2009 from http://www.biology/-

online.org/3/7_meristems.htm

Burdzinski, Carrie & Wendell, Douglas L. Mapping the Anthocyaninless (anl) Locus in Rapid-

Cycling Brassica rapa (RBr) to Linkage Group R9. Retrieved on April 26, 2009 from

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2048511

Col, Jeananda. (2003-2009) Leaf and Leaf Anatomy. Retrieved on May 3, from

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/plants/leaf/

Government of Canada. (1999, April). The Biology of Brassica rapa L. Retrieved on April 28,

2009 from http://www.maltawildplants.com/CRUC/Docs/BRSRA/BrassicaRapa.pdf


Kimball, John W. (2003, August 7). Germination of seeds. Retrieved on April 27, 2009 from

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/G/Germination.html

Swamy, G Sivakumar. (1998, July). How do Plants Absorb Nutrients from the Soil? . Accessed

April 29. 2009 from http://www.ias.ac.in/resonance/July1998/pdf/July1998p45-52.pdf.

University of Hamburg. (2009). Lifecycle. Retrieved on April 27, 2009 from

http://www.biologie.uni/-hamburg.de/b-

online/library/fast/www.fastplants.org/Plant/LifeCycle_body.htm

University of Wisconsin. (2009) Life Cycle of Rapid Cycling Brassica rapa. Retrieved on April 27,

2009 from http://www.fastplants.org/img/sandbox/uploads/61.file.pdf

**Authors' Note: Do to the formatting of the site, there were errors in trying to make the bibliography double spaced and indented on the second line of any and all run-on sources. If you would like, I would gladly provide a hard copy of a properly formated bibliography.

Day 36 - April 27, 2009 (Conclusion)

This will, unfortunately, be my last journal.

I am on my last stages of life, and I don't want to trouble you with my decay. Soon my pods will begin turning yellow-brown. That means that my seeds are mature and no longer need me alive in order to survive. They will also begin to dry out, making them capable of being replanted. Shortly after, my leaves will finish drying out and so will my stem, as my internal moisture diffuses into the air. Then, I will wither, dry out, and unavoidably die and decompose. Decomposition is natural, though. All living things must decompose in order to return nutrients to the soil.

My goal is complete. I have successfully created several potential offspring. I've outlined the processes and internal regulations that I have, including my germination, vascular tissues, transport, respiration, photosynthesis, mitosis, meiosis, pollination, and my death. I've shown you my most intimate and detailed views of both my structure and my anatomy. I hope that you, my readers, have enjoyed this journey through my life - from seed to seeds.

Until we meet again in the lives of my offspring,

B. Rapa

Day 33 - April 24, 2009

Very little is changing now on the outside, however, on the inside.. Well, that's a different story. My seeds are continuing to mature and develop, like I mentioned on my last journal.
My body is winding down. My leaves are continuing to die as they're ability to function is no longer effective. All my stored nutrients are going into my upper body through my vascular tissues to provide fuel to my future offspring. I've lost almost all my petals, which were originally used to attract insects to spread my pollen. Those that are left are drying up and falling off.
Other than that, there isn't much more to add. I'm dying, and I'm alright with that. My time is naturally short -- 40 days at best. All I can hope for is that my offspring will continue my genetic continuity. I hope that both I and my breeding plant are homozygous dominant, that way all my offspring will be tall like me!
Until next time,
B. Rapa

Vascular Tissues: The tissues within the stem and veins of a plant. They contain properties found within leaf veins. They are used to transport water, food, and minerals through cellular diffusion and active transport.

Homozygous Dominant: A biological term meaning that a gene carries two alleles [traits] which are dominant. This means that this allele is active over other less dominant or "recessive" alleles.

Day 30 - April 21, 2009

I've basically halted all further vertical growth... I'm at 28.5 cm as of now! As you can see from my picture, all of my flowers have been fertilized and are growing healthy, plentiful pods. Unfortunately, I only have, at best, 5-10 days left to live. My existence, and thus my purpose, is just about carried out. Generally, I exist to reproduce. My goal is to produce many seeds from my single seed-body. The only further growth that I'll experience is the further loss of chlorophyll from my leaves and the maturity of my pods.





My leaves are naturally turning yellow and brown. You see, I have organelles called plastids. These are the organelles that I use to hold starches, pigments, and most of all perform photosynthesis. To prepare for my death, and my lack of need for energy, my chloroplasts begin shutting down. This makes the dominant green pigments fade and the yellow, orange and brown pigments from my chromoplast come through. The chromoplast had these pigments synthesised already, as they assist in photosynthesis.
Wish me luck in my last few days.


B. Rapa

Day 24 - April 15, 2009

Hello, readers! I have some big news today.

I'll be purposely fertilized via pollination with another plant and my "matchmaker" dried bee. The hair on the bee will trap the pollen, which will transfer between us two plants. However, over the course of my stay among the other Brassica Rapa plants, some pollen has been unavoidably distributed into my early blossoms. What does that mean, you ask? Well, that means that the some pollen has met the eggs in my ovules and they developed into plant zygotes. From there, my flowers were double-fertilized -- meaning that a second grain of pollen fused with the polar nuclei. This forms an endosperm nucleus.
Within each pod (matured fertilized flower), this fertilization occurs to about 5-20 seeds. With each seed with my pods, they'll mature and develop into seeds with a plumule. This contains the apical bud with the meristem and the two food-storing (from the endosperm) cotyledons. The nutritious wall of the ovule will also help coat my seeds... I'm going to be a parent!
There's also going to be chemical inhibitors in my seeds to prevent them from growing until they are leeched away.
Until next time,

B. Rapa

Zygote: A diploid cell which results from the junction of two gametes (male+female). This is also referred to as a fertilized egg.

Polar nuclei: The two nuclei in a [haploid] gamete within the embryonic sac within the ovule.

Endosperm nucleus: A second fertilized nucleus which is used for food for the embryo.

Pod: The name of the vessel that contains the seeds of a plant throughout their development.

Apical bud: The bud found at the tip of the stem. It contains meristematic cells.

Bee Carrying Pollen:

Image from:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Bees/Images/bee_pollen_macro.jpg

Day 21 - April12, 2009

Oh dear, I feel so exposed! My reproductive organs are now beginning to come out into the open! Within the next three days, all my flowers will be opened and I'll be able to reproduce with the best potential. I cannot asexually reproduce, so [artificial] pollination will have to be my fair shot at finding my botanic soul mate. Now that my flowers are opening, perhaps I should explain my anatomy. In the middle of my flower I have a pistil, which contains my stigma, style and ovule. My pistil is my female organs. Quite literally, when I am pollinated, pollen will be trapped in this tube and used to fertilize the eggs. On my male anatomy, I have my filament and anther, which forms my stamen. My filaments support my anthers. In turn, my anthers hold sacs of pollen which can be caught on insects and breezes to allow pollination. Here's a graphic image of my insides (18+ Only; Mature Botanical Content):

Image from: http://www.shaneeubanks.com/images/016_flower.jpg

Anyways, I'll keep you posted on my development.

B. Rapa

Asexual Reproduction: Reproduction that occurs with no outside/supplementary fertilization.

Pollination: The process in which plants are fertilized by the transfer of pollen into the stigma.

Day 18 - April 9, 2009

Lots to see today! I've significantly grown -- to 16.5 cm! My roots are taking advantage of the slow-release fertilizers and my cells are using the 24-hour light to their advantage! Speaking of roots, did I ever mention that I have a taproot root system? Most dicot plants -- like me -- have this type of system. Basically, my roots are more than capable of holding and transporting food for me. Of course, the food absorbed by my roots is transferred up my stem in vascular tissues -- similar to my leaf veins.

I have one primary root, with branching secondary roots, which makes up the taproot system. It looks something like this:

Image from:http://www.cactus-art.biz/note-book/Dictionary/aaa_Dictionary_pictures/Taproot_system.jpg