sunflower

Name of your plant: sunflower 

First Part – structures found in diagrams – comparison – structures on your plant

Plant Structure 8 points	How is your flower similar to the one in the textbook? RESPOND IN EITHER	How is your flower Different from the one in the textbook? ROW BUT NOT BOTH
Stem Example	The stem on my flower  is longer and thicker and has thorns on it
1  roots	I found the sunflower in the root which is a support system for the flower. The stalk of the flower along with hard soil root provides support to the tall plant. This is somewhat similar to what I have studied in the textbook.	When I tried to pluck the flower, I found out that the root and stalk of the plant are strong enough. The flower is not as delicate as it appears in the textbook.
2  leaves	Leaves are large; green in color. They grow from the sunflower stock. They are the main component of the photosynthesis for the flower. The leaf has small hair. A small structure, known as petiole connects the leaf to the stalk. The hair on leaves protect flower from external attacks. I found out these structures with the help of my textbook.	Structure of the plant was difficult to locate in reality because book contained more detailed images. The images in a book cannot give us real experience of a flower. Though, it’s difficult to locate each and every feature of a flower with human eye.
3  buds	At the end of the stalk are the buds, it faces the sun all the day. The repositioning of buds stop when the flower opens. The sunflowers remain opens at the east direction. I followed my textbook information to get more information about bud.	There was no difference between book and real flowers’ bud.
4  disk flowers	The process of pollination is responsible for producing seeds. At the top of the stalk is the flower head. There are many small flowers in the flower head. There are five brown petals joined together, they are known as disk flowers. This is not similar to my book as I did not find small flowers in the disk flower as mentioned.	The book mentioned that there are many small flowers in the disk flower; I did not locate them in reality. The reason for this is that the human eye cannot capture such tiny details in a flower.
5  ray flowers	The outer circle of the flower, also called petals, yellow in color. They enhance beauty of plant. They appeal pollinators. The ray flowers look exactly like they were shown in the textbook.	There was no difference from textbook. The ray flowers in textbook were of different color but I found only yellow colored petals.
6  stem	There are many layers of vessels in the stem of the flower which helps in providing nutrients and moisture to the flower during different phases of development. The stem of the plant holds a single flower and grows without branching. I tried to focus on the stem but did not find it as interesting as in the textbook.	There was a huge difference in stem as mentioned in the textbook and reality. The layers of vessel were not easy to locate.
7  phyllary	On the outer side of flower head are bracts which are green in color. The structure is similar to textbook.	I had to focus a lot to view the phyllary.
8  receptacle	The thick part of the stem which facilitates growth of the flower. This was difficult to locate as compared to textbook.	This structure is very different as it is shown in the textbook. The thick part of the stem is rough and it’s very rough.
Male or Female	I think it’s a female because I found out it was a complete flower. It contains reproductive organs like pistil.	Which structures are present? At the base of petal, there are leaf like small structures known as pistil are the female sex organs like ovary and ovule. One has to focus a lot to get insight into reproductive organs of the flower.

Second Part - 

Describe the smells of the structures of your plant. 2 points	Sunflowers have a pleasant, sweet smell. They do not have over scent. The sweet smell is like candy or sugar. One has to keep the sunflower close to nose to feel the smell. The smell is not kind of perfumery. I feel that sunflowers have an odd smell.
Describe the texture of some of the different structures of your plant. 2 points	Sun flowers are hairy, rough, vertical, branched upward, four to sixteen inch long, supported by long stalks in the soil. The disc flower is brown in color and ray flower is yellowish. The disk flower shows whether the flower is male, female or infertile. The sunflower structure is intricate enough.

Third Part – critical thinking – structure function

Structure chosen for Analysis	Your prediction of why the chosen plant structures evolved to look like they do 5 points each 20 total
Ray flowers	This is the outer circle of the flower which is yellow in color. This is usually mistaken as petal. The ray flowers contain reproductive organs like stamen and pistils. The ray flowers attract pollination for disk flower. The ray flowers are located next to the sepals. The ray flowers connect to the receptacle. Their seed is smaller in size. They are infertile in nature but get the shape of petal by connecting to receptacles.
disk flower	disk flowers are brown in color. they contain many small flowers into the flower head.
receptacles	receptacles are the thick part of the sunflower which helps in growth.
roots	the flower grows from the soil with strong roots. the stalk of the flower provides support to the long straight flower structure.
petals	the petals are also known as ray flowers.