Solo The Science of Plants II

[Kaidan Arianos]

Timestamp: 15th of Fall, 512 A.V. Arriving to class on time, Kaidan took a seat behind the big box table that happened to be their lab tables. Where they would perform experiments upon plants and the like. He was especially excited about today, because they would be doing dissections of plants, so he could finally see what they looked like on the inside, in a safe manner, and without having to travel outside of the city to view some of the more exotic plant life that happened to be growing there. As the professor walked in, and set his stuff down, he began to drone on about what they'd be doing that day. "Today, we will be starting our first plant dissection," he said. "The first plant we will be dissecting will be the Trumpet Pitcher... It is a commonly found plant within the forests on the outskirts of Zeltiva. What you'll find interesting about this plant is that it is one of the few carnivorous plants within this world... one of the few that won't go after you and try to kill you that is. It feeds on insects, by utilizing a sticky nectar substance around the lip of the pitcher to attract them, and then a secondary substance that acts like a narcotic, which will cause them to fall inside for the Trumpet Pitcher to start digesting." "Are there any questions before we begin with the dissection?" he asked, and Kaidan thought there for a moment, before raising his hand. "Yes Kaidan?" the professor asked. "Why does the trumpet pitcher need to eat insects. Is there some reason that it's not getting it's nutrients from elsewhere?" asked Kaidan as he looked up towards his professor. "The reasoning is, at least we believe what it is, is that they cannot live in soil that has the proper minerals for them to soak up. They're too sensitive to those minerals, and thus, have to obtain them elsewhere, that being the insects..." he said. Kaidan made sure to put that within his notes, and then the teacher's assistant began to pass out two different pots to each student. One pot had the trumpet pitcher with a flower, and the other had one without a flower. "We'll start with the flowering trumpet pitcher in order to show you some of the parts you might not have seen before in your last assignment of looking at flowers around Zeltiva in order to gain a better understanding of the parts of a flower," said the professor. "First things first, the flower of a Trumpet Pitcher plant is very very delicate, so be extra careful when handling it, lest it could fall apart on you, and the experiment will be over for you," he said. "Now, I want you to look at the flower, and see if you can Identify the Sepals for me. What's another name for all of the Sepals combined?" Kaidan raised his hand, and the teacher called on him. "It's called a Calyx, Professor," he said, and then looked at his own flowering Trumpet Pitcher, identifying the calyx as the green leafy portions that laid directly behind the flowering petals. "Good good, and what is the group of petals called?" he then asked. Again Kaidan's hand shot up before anyone elses, and the teacher once more called on him. "It's called a corolla," he stated plainly. "Well, it seems as if somebody has been studying the notes he took," said the teacher with a grin upon his face. "Now, I want you to look at the Trumpet Pitcher's flower, and see if you can identify the Style, the Stigma, and the Anthers. I know we talked about these parts briefly, so I want to see if you can properly identify them on this plant... I'll walk around the room, and you can show me, and point to them identifying them for me," he said. And thus he began to walk from student to student, looking at each of their plants, and allowing them to show him exactly where these parts happened to be at. When he came around to Kaidan, he smiled, and said, "Now Kaidan, where are the Style, Stigma, and Anther on the flower of a Trumpet Pitcher?" Kaidan took the trumpet pitcher plant, pulling it closer to them so they could see the flower better. He then took out his quill, and utilized it as a pointer. Pointing to the elongated flat shaped structure that came out of the center of the corolla, he said, "This is the Style..." He then pointed to the tips of the elongated flat shaped structure on either end, and said, "These are the stigma..." and then he pointed to the yellowish hued pollen collectors that hung above the flat-shaped style. "These are the Anthers..." The professor looked towards Kaidan and nodded. "Now, from the last lecture, can you tell me what each of these three structures are for?" Kaidan cleared his throat, and then said, "The Anther's are the male portion of the flower. They create the pollen needed to pollinate the ovules. This flat shaped style is absolutely terrific because as the pollen drops from the Anther's, it catches it, allowing the primary pollinators, those being bees, to collect the pollen at the same time they are collecting the flower's nectar. Also, the bees must get into the area where the pollen is collected, and it isn't easy doing so. And the fact that the stigma happen to be on the underside of the Style, means that the flower will avoid self pollination..." He hoped he had repeated what the professor had told them about self pollination and pollinators correctly, as the professor indeed nodded, and said, "Good job. That is very correct. But here's the question, what attracts the bees to the stigma so that they can pollinate the other flowers and completely stop self pollination. Is there an aversion that they have to the pollen of the same plant where they pick it up at? Think about it, and maybe at the end of the class period once we've finished the dissection, you'll have an answer for me."

[Kaidan Arianos]

As the class went on, the professor continued with his lecture and demonstration of the experiment. Now they would move onto the actual cusp of the experiment, the main portion, aside from the flower, the really interesting part of the plant. Kaidan continued to watch the professor as he spoke about the plant in a matter-of-factly manner. ”We will now speak on the parts of the pitcher of the plant,” said the professor, a grin upon his face as he looked at each of the students. ”It is divided into five different parts, each of them having a unique function to the plant. The only one whose function we don’t know of is the fifth part, and it is only in one species of Trumpet Pitcher. So let us start off, from the top apparently, does anyone remember what the top of the plant is called? The flap that sits above the pitcher? I want you to examine that, and see if you can’t tell me the name of it, or remember the name that we discussed in a prior class. It is the first part of a pitcher plant.” Kaidan looked towards the yellowish green flap that sat above the pitcher of the trumpet pitcher, and lifted it up with his finger a bit, to see the inside of the pitcher. It was filled with dead fly exoskeletons, as well as a strange looking liquid. Hrm, he thought. And then after a few moments when no other student had answered, and the professor was looking a bit impatient, he raised his hand and said, ”Isn’t it called the Operculum?” he asked as he looked up towards the professor. ”Finally, someone had the answer to that question, I was afraid you were all sleeping yesterday during class as I droned on about what our experiment would be today,” he said, a hint of angst in his voice. ”Well, at least you guys and girls are listening to some of the things I’m saying. And good job Kaidan, Operculum is definitely what the flap on top of the Trumpet Pitcher is called. That is considered part one of the Trumper Pitcher.” Kaidan nodded, satisfied with the information, making a few notes on his paper, before the professor continued on. ”Now, part two of the Trumpet Pitcher is called the Peristome and Trap Entrance. This is where, say a fly will fly in, and be attracted to the Peristome by the nector it produces. It’s a sweet smell that attracts flies and other insects to it. Now, the trap entrance has what looks like a lip around it’s edges, and it is very waxy, so the insects that land on it, will tend to slip down inside of it. If they try to fly out, that is why the Operculum is there, in order to bounce them back into the trap entrance. If you look at the Operculum, you’ll see that it is semi-transparent. That is to make the insects believe that they can fly right out of there, confuse them, and cause them to slam into it, thus knocking them back into the trap entrance,” said the professor, smiling towards the students as he spoke. ”Now, we will be removing the operculum from the Trumpet Pitcher without a flower on it, so that you can get a full view of the insides of the trap entrance and peristome. Take out the knife sitting next to you, and being very careful, cut the stem of the Operculum near the trap entrance of the Pitcher plant in order to remove it…” As the professor instructed, so Kaidan did. Taking out the dissecting knife, he would make a quick slice into the stem of the Operculum, cutting all of the way through it, in order to reveal the entirety of the trap entrance and what was buried deep within it, mostly fly exoskeletons, and the gross looking greenish liquid that was within it as well. ”Now that you have all done that, we’ll move onto part three of the Trumpet Pitcher plant,” spoke the professor and pointed to his own Trumpet Pitcher plant that was in a pot directly in front of him. ”If you’ll look on the inside, you’ll be able to see these very very very fine hairs that are beyond the trap entrance, and the waxy surface. Once an insect has made it this far down within the trap, it is very unlikely they’ll ever be able to get out. The super fine hairs prevent that from happening, as an insect cannot climb when the hairs are pushing it downwards. Plus the interior is very waxy as well.” Kaidan himself looked deep into the pitcher plant, carefully holding it so that he could see within it, and see the fine looking hairs that were pointed downwards. Hrm, he thought, no wonder there are a ton of fly skeletons in there. Looking up towards the professor, his hand shot up as he had a question to ask. ”Yes Kaidan, what is it? Did you have a question about the Third part?” asked the professor. ”Actually, I was thinking of skipping forward to what’s within the liquid, all of the fly skeletons that are within there… Why does the skeleton remain, and not the entire fly get digested?” asked Kaidan, with a very serious look upon his face as he looked towards the professor of botany. ”Well, the reason is simple, the digestive fluids which are secreted from part three, only digest a portion of the fly. The Exoskeletons as they are called, are made of chiton, and too hard for the digestive liquid in a trumpet pitcher, to digest. There is your answer, now onto part four of the trumpet pitcher,” said the Professor. Kaidan nodded, and continued his examination of the trumpet pitcher plant. ”I want you to take your dissecting knives now, and starting from the top of the pitcher plant, the trap entrance, slice directly vertically downwards, to release the liquid from inside of the plant, so that we can view the very bottom portion of the pitcher of the plant.” Kaidan sighed. He had already taken away the operculum, so he figured that doing this wouldn’t matter as the plant lost one of it’s most important parts via the operculum, the ability to keep the insects within the pitcher. So, he started at the top, and began dissecting downwards, making a straight cut downwards in order to release the liquid from inside of the plant. As it began to ooze out, a stench came with it, and Kaidan almost had to plug his nose to keep from vomiting from it. That’s just great, he thought, and then finished his cut, to release the last of the liquid. ”Now that everyone has done that, look into part four, the very bottom, and notice the thicker hair down there. That is to completely entrap the insects that get caught within the pitcher, so there’s absolutely no chance of escape. The Trumpet pitcher then digests them to fulfill it’s nutrient requirements, in order to survive,” stated the professor, almost blankly as if he had given this lecture fifty hundred times beforehand. He must really know what he is talking about, thought Kaidan, and he was glad to have a professor that knew what they were talking about. Examining the inside of the trumpet pitcher plant, Kaidan pulled it open very carefully, so that he could see the larger hairs that were in the bottom of it. ”Interesting!” he blurted out, and then blushed a bit as the person sitting next to him gave him a glare. He had not been so lucky with dissecting his plant, or cutting in a straight line, so unfortunately he didn’t get a good view of the bottom of the pitcher planet. The professor walked over towards Kaidan, and standing next to him, he said, ”Well, apparently Kaidan thinks something is interesting class, would you care to share what that is Kaidan?” As he asked the question, suddenly all eyes were on Kaidan, and the young man gulped a bit. Looking up towards the teacher, trying to ignore the twenty pairs of eyes staring at him, he said, ”Well, I just thought it was interesting how the hairs were so fine, then got thicker as they got deeper into the pitcher. It’s almost as if the plant grows in such a way that it knows how to entrap it’s prey perfectly… By the way, I was thinking about the answer to the question you posed earlier, and well… it’s the way the flower petals are shaped. As the bees try to escape out from under them, well, they are directed away from the Stigmata, so they can’t self-pollinate the flowers…” As he said it, he blushed a little bit more, hoping he got the answer right by a series of self-deductions he had made based on the shaping of the flowers he was working with. ”Good enough answer, Kaidan,” said the professor, whom then turned towards the rest of the class. ”You should all have paid a bit more attention like Kaidan’s been doing. Apparently he has a vested interest in this class that the rest of you should have…” And the professor then walked back up towards the front of the classroom. The younger man next to Kaidan whispered to him afterwards in a snide voice, ”Show off…” The professor didn’t seem to hear it though, and began with the next portion of his lecture on Trumpet Pitchers. ”Now, we shall speak about the environment that they grow in…” he stated, and so Kaidan began listening intently, in hopes of learning more about one of the plants that grew around Zeltiva in the temperate coastal climate area…

[Kaidan Arianos]

"As you probably already know, if you've gone outside the walls of Zeltiva, towards the mountain range, you've seen quite a few deciduous trees there. We went over this our very first day in class. Well, these trumpet pitchers, generally grow in swampy areas, or wetlands of sorts, but because we're so close to the coast, and the weather is temperate, plus we have all four seasons, it provides just enough of a balance in order for the Trumpet Pitcher plants to grow," said the professor. Kaidan listened intently as the man began to drone on about the environments that the Trumpet Pitcher grows in. He looked down towards his dissected one, and thought about it. The soil is nice and wet, they must have transplanted these a few days ago in order to get them to class in time. Looking back up towards the professor, he grinned a giddy grin, eager to learn all there was to learn about plants that were around the Zeltivan area. Even if they were outside of the city limits, he was glad that the professors took the time to go harvest some for courses like this, to dissect and do intimate studies with the plants. He continued to take his notes on what the man was speaking about next, about the type of climate they grew in best. "They typically grow in warm-temperate coastal climates, with a distinct summer, and a distinct winter. This is because they are a perennial plant," he stated matter-of-factually. Kaidan thought about this for a moment, and then wrote it down within his notes. "The soil is usually made up of moss, and sand, and being a coastal city, we tend to have both," the professor droned on about it. Kaidan continued to take notes, and write down all that the professor was saying, so that he'd be able to study it later. "A lot of times, the plants will be near running water, where they are unable to directly place their roots, or the soil will be poor in nutrients. That is why the plants are carnivorous, and feast on insects in order to gain the potential nutrients they need to survive," he finished speaking, but only briefly, and Kaidan managed to catch up to him in his notes. "Now, we shall go onto the different species of Trumpet Pitcher, and oh yes, there are a variety of species all over Mizahar," he said, looking around the classroom. "Can anyone think of possibly how the species are divided? or what divides them up into the different classifications?" Kaidan thought for a moment, and then raised his hand, but another student was called on first. "Are they classified by color?" asked the other student. "Yes, they are classified by color," said the professor. "Very good... anything you wanted to add Kaidan?" he then asked, all eyes directed towards the apparent know-it-all in the class. Unfortunately, Kaidan didn't know of anything other than color that might make each plant distinct, so he sadly shook his head no to the professor's question. "Pity," he said, but then continued on with is portion of the lecture, leaving Kaidan with a semi-particular empty feeling on the inside. But it fled after a few moments, and he was quickly back to taking notes upon the different species of trumpet pitcher plant that there happened to be in Mizahar. "There are a total of 8-11 species of trumpet pitcher plant, and possibly a few of those haven't been discovered yet. It is very likely that this carnivorous plant has been mutated by magics of the Valterrean at certain points in it's history, and so we cannot accurately account for every living species there is, as some may have died off or gone extinct of the past five hundred years from our prior records. Also, some might have mutated and evolved. Unless we cataloged every single plant out there in the world of Mizahar, we woulnd't know which ones were extinct, or mutated, and wouldn't be able to guess at how many species there happened to be!" exclaimed the Professor, truly getting into his teaching of the plants known as Trumpet Pitchers. "The ones you have before you are Yellow Pitcher plants, as you can see they have a yellowish-green tinge upon their pitchers, which gives off a distinct yellow color. That's the reason for them being named that. Other pitcher plants you may encounter out there are the Parrot Pitcher plant, the Purple Pitcher plant, the Green Pitcher plant, and the Hooded pitcher plant. We won't really be going over all of the various species as you just need to know the basics of how a pitcher plant operates... which we've already accomplished. Now, for review!" said the professor, whom then began to ask his question to see if anyone could remember and answer the mechanisms behind the pitcher plants carnivorous nature. "How does a Trumpet Pitcher plant capture and devour it's prey? What are the steps that it takes?" he asked, and Kaidan, determined to answer the question with expediency this time, shot his hand up almost before the question was finished being asked. "Alrighty then Kaidan, take a shot at it!" spoke the Professor, whom awaited Kaidan's quick response. "Okay, so first, a fly travels under the Operculum, and lands upon the lip of the Peristome. It is so waxy, that the fly starts to slip into the trap entrance. If it tries to fly out, the Operculum happens to be semi-transparent, so the fly thinks it's flying out of the pitcher plant. But when it hits the Operculum, it becomes disoriented and falls back into the pitcher of the plant. Once it's through the trap entrance, there are tiny fibrous hairs that are pointed downwards, so that if it tries to climb back up, it has an exceedingly difficult time doing that. This part of the plant is also where the caustic liquid is secreted, and the flies start to dissolve. As the fly sinks further and further down into the caustic liquid, they dissolve everything but the exoskeleton, and in the final part, absorb the nutrients that have just been dissolved. Oh, and there are thicker fibers down in the final part that definitely keep the fly from escaping, and allows the digestive liquid to do its work." said Kaidan, taking a deep breath once he finished in order to calm himself down, as he just gave a mouthful of an answer to the class and Professor, and he was semi-embarrassed by it, given he didn't know if it was the correct answer or not, although he had an inkling it was correct as they had just gone over it in class. The professor smiled, and turned to the rest of the class and said, "Now, if we have an essay question like that on an exam, I want you to answer it exactly how Kaidan just did. It was definitely a good enough answer that i'd have given at least a B or even an A for. Good Job Kaidan!" As the teacher showered Kaidan with praise, Kaidan didn't feel like he should be praised for it, given he had just recycled all they had learned that day and regurgitated it out in a swift smaller answer than how the professor had explained it. But then the professor said, "Very good today class, don't worry about the plants, we'll take the non-dissected ones back to transplant them back into the forest, and the dissected ones will be disposed of properly. Have a good day, and I shall see you all tomorrow!" And with that, the class on dissection of Trumpet Pitcher plants was completed. Kaidan left there a bit more knowledgable about flowers, pitcher plants, and their carnivorous mechanisms that he had learned about before the class had started...

End.

[Echelon]

Adventurer's Loot A Gift Experience is its own reward. Kaidan's Loot : Kaidan Arianos Skill XP Reward Botany +1XP Intelligence +1XP Lore: Botany: Characteristics of Trumpet Pitcher Taking Notes Over Achiever Botany: Common Plant Reproduction Botany: Technique Examining Plantlife Excitable Student Botany: Identifying Factors Items or Consequences: None Notes: I appreciated the clear research you did for this thread, and that you focused on a specific peace of knowledge which Kaidan learned, not just broad generalizations. However, points were docked for a general lack of creativity on how this knowledge was gathered. Unique situations stick in your character's mind more vividly. Thus, more XP. (Let's talk about classrooms. It seems clear to me that your writing style and Kaidan's temperament is much better suited for a more personalized learning experience. Classrooms are not the primary way to learn at the university. A strong student balances personal study time in the library, with a healthy amount of autonomy in experiments then finally a strong personal relationship with a professor skilled in your area of study. It should be the goal of every good student to become a personal apprentice to their professors. Only the most basic of knowledge can be learned in public lectures. Forge a personal relationship. Bring him a warm drink, invite him to your place for dinner, ask him for help on an interesting experiment. Do something that connects to him personally. I want to read Kaidan's story of how he learned botany. Not a story of how the University teaches it to every student like they are all molded the same. That is simply not what UoV is about. Think this over, and I look forward to your next learning thread. Hopefully it will be more personal.) - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, please PM me.