Chapter 37 Lecture Enrichment Ideas
Actual specimens of wood, slides of tree cross-sections, maple syrup tapping, etc. will help illustrate some of these concepts for students, including some who have never ventured into the woods.
Describe the use of potting soil, which is completely organic matter, and how this is different from the soil of our yards. Explain why many plants grow better in such an environment.
Give an example of the cohesion-tension model that students know about from their own experience such as having blood drawn at the doctor's office, where the blood fills the capillary tube without suction. Discuss how the same thing is going on in a plant's xylem, but that there is also a pull exerted by the evaporation of water from the stomates as water moves out from the spongy mesophyll air pockets.
Elaborate on the uses of various minerals in the plant, such as nitrogen in proteins and nucleic acids, magnesium in chlorophyll, and other mineral ions in various hormones and enzymes. (Table 37.1)
Note that Marcello Malpighi is also the same individual after whom Malpighian tubules are named; some early biologists were amazingly eclectic and this researcher was particularly observant of detail.
Describe the benefits to the plant and its symbiote in the relationships between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria or between many forest trees and their mycorrhizae. Mention the relationship between the death angel mushroom or the edible truffles and oak or apple trees, for example, and their mycorrhizae.
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