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While walking between campus and home each day, I pass along
a natural grassland next to an iron smelter. Two of the most unlikely
"sister" species occur in this grassland: Cannonus
erectus and Cannonus platyphylla. Both species have
very attractive flowers, but neither species ever seems to attract
any attention by pollinators (typical for the genus), and so I
am guessing that each is self compatible. Once a month I spend
a day in this grassland measuring a number of key plant features:
leaf water potential (units are MPa), leaf angle (units are degrees
from the horizontal), and maximum leaf width (units are mm). All
of the values within a column are statistically different from
each other if the differ by more than 0.15 units.
|
C. erectus |
C. platyphylla |
C. erectus |
C. platyphylla |
C. erectus |
C. platyphylla |
|
Water potential |
Water potential |
Leaf angle |
Leaf angle |
Leaf width |
Leaf width |
|
(MPa) |
(MPa) |
(degrees) |
(degrees) |
(mm) |
(mm) |
| Feb 1 |
-1 |
-1.2 |
5 |
5 |
16 |
32 |
| Apr 1 |
-1.5 |
-2.1 |
30 |
6 |
18 |
21 |
| Jun 1 |
-2.5 |
-3.3 |
55 |
6 |
15 |
15 |
| Aug 1 |
-3 |
-3.7 |
70 |
5 |
16 |
12 |
| Sep 1 |
-3.5 |
-4.2 |
84 |
10 |
15 |
11 |
After collecting the data this past summer, I realized that
there were indeed some very interesting patterns in the data.
Oh my gosh, I hope that I can remember to get these data published
as soon as possible, because one of these sister species may have
real horticultural significance for gardens in drier parts of
the Midwestern US. However, tonight Winthrop is coming to town,
and you know how it is - when the "W&W" Weatherly
boys get together; we have a wild and wooly time whooping it up
in our search for wyverns and phlogopites.
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