Writing in Biology - Section 1

The plant sample given out in class,  I believe, is a compound leaf; it has three main leaf parts similar to a clover. The three leaf parts are connected to the stem at the same point; the stem itself was redish-maroon and  1.75 cm. The three leaf parts were different sizes and shapes, the main part (middle) was larger than the other two being 4.25 cm it is also a spade like shape with indentations. The outer leaves were smaller the right one being 3.5 cm and the left being 2.5cm presumably because it was damaged the most.  The overall plant piece is 6 cm tall and 5.5 cm wide. Both the peripheral leaves were damaged and had leaf minor damage on them. There was also many small bumps on the leaf, my best guess as to what these would be it either eggs of the leaf minor moths or possible just something the leaf grew into and absorbed because it is a crawler type of plant. The leaves all were firm and would return to its form, which I found intersting, they were quite structured with many viens and a thick waxy top layer.

The professor gave us a leaf and told us to write about it for 15 minutes. The bag that the teacher took the leaf out from had a napkin. I wonder what that is for. the bag was also kind of foggy. is it to keep the leaf from wilting? as for the lave that was given to me, there are three leaves on the small structure. a large one and two comparatively smaller one on either side. two of the leaves, the big one and one of the smaller ones have brown spots on the side of it. it spirals from the stem of the leaf to the other end of the leaf. It looks kind of like a path that a small bug would eat through except that there are no big empty spots where is only brown spots that becomes lighter at some places and darker in others. the feel of the leaf is mostly dry in the feeling that while it has been a while since someone has picked off the leaf, it isn't dessecated that if some pressure is applied and the leaf is bent slightly the leaf would snap off in a billion piece. on the back of the leaf, the brown spots are slightly lighter in most places, although there are some part of the leaf that is just as darker as the front of the leaf, there are less of it, and the darker patterns are more circular, giving off the appearance of a spots that have been connected by lighter brown rather than  a lighter brown crawling across the leaf, getting larger and darker as it goes on. how large the spots do not seem to affect the color of the spots. there are areas where the spot is quite large but the color is not as dark as some of the smaller area that is near the end of the leaf. 

the stem of the leaf is reddish-pink with the darkest color at the point where three of the leaves join together. the color there is similar to rhubarb almost where the color is vastly more blue-tinted rather than orange-tinted. looking at the end of the stem, the leaf appears to almost be ripped apart from the tree because while the outside of the stem is pink the inside is green. the inside is also fibrous, with uneven strands, giving the impression that the leaf is ripped apart from the tree rather than cut with a scissor or fallen from the tree naturally. The fibrous inside is slightly glossy that gives an impression of being wet or at least there used to be some liquid on the stem. it's the glossiness where a sugary viscous drink is spilled over ona surface and after it has been dried, there are sticky spots that when the light hits it just rights it becomes shiny as though there is a waxy varnish on the surface.  the stem's color fades at the middle of the leaf, it fades not in a rainbow-like way where the color goes from red to orange to yellow to green, but from red to pink to yellow. 

The leaf is also not completely flat. when the stem is placed parallel to the desk, the largest leaf floats upwards and one of the smaller leaves ( the one with brown spots) have a noticeable slant facing the larger leaf. ok, so apparently the leaf is a compound leaf and what I've been calling leaf is called a leaflet. anyway, the entire leaf is 5.5 cm from stem to leaf. the stem is 1.5cm, which is surprising because I thought that it would be longer. across the leaf from the tip of one of the smaller leaf to the other is about 5 cm, making the leaf sort of square-shaped. and pleasing the eye.  compared to others, my leaf is darker than the one that professor is holding up and lighter than the leaf that the person next to me has. the leaflet is 3.2cm, 2.4cm and 2.6 cm, which is also surprising because I thought that the 2.6 cm one would be larger. Since that leaf has a gradient of lighter green and a darker green, the color may have influenced me to think that the 2.6 cm leaf was larger. 

The green, veiny, three-leafed object held together by a reddish-brown stem was placed in front of me. At first glance, it was obvious to see the shapes of each of the three leaves were very similar but not quitely exact, making the leaves unique from each other. As the reddish-brown stem continues to where it meets the leaves at a single point, a color change from reddish-brown to a yellow is oberved. From there, this yellow vein runs from the base to the tip of the leaf, with more and more veins branching off of the main one. Looking even closer, a color of yellow runs around the perimeter of the leaves. The yellow perimeter runs around all the leaves and is joined at the base of the leaves at the reddish-brown stem. The sizes of the leaves on the left and right have a very similar length and width. The leaf in the middle is much taller and wider than the two on the sides. To be exact, the length from the base of the middle leaf to the tip is 5.0 cm, while the lengths of the two side leaves have an average length of 3.5 cm. The only leaf that was significantally different than the other two was the leaf on the left side that had a big brown spot on it. Besides the very small imperfections between the three leaves, the leaf as a whole was somewhat vertically symmetrical.

On initial observations of the leaf, there is a single pink stem that further branches out into 3 different leaves. The stem is fuzzy and feels softer, contrary to once the leaves begin to grow out, that fuzz is replaced with a waxy coating on the top of the leaf, and the softness of the stem is replaced with slicker, more slippery feeling. The leaves are almost exactly symmetrical in shape and size, with the center leaf being larger in both aspects. They all exhibit a broader shape at the head of the leaf, and narrow down once they get closer to the stem. The leaves are a dark, shiny green and have yellow veins running through them in a very uniform fashion. Every vein has smaller tributary veins breaking off of them, and even smaller ones breaking off of those as well, which seems to go on indefinitely to the naked eye. While the leaves display a rich, dark green color, the middle leaf has a distinctively large brown spot, which is a sign of decay and death. There is also a small “wiggling” pattern coming off of the spot. This is due to a small moth larvae hatching in between the leaf layers and eating its way out of the leaf. Very small dark spots were noticed on every leaf as well, sort of like freckles. While the top of the leaf is shiny and vivid, the underside is more pale and dull and looks its unfinished compared to the top side. The leaves also have some lighter patches of green mixed throughout. 

    As far as more analytical descriptions on the leaf, there were 4 or 5 small dark spots on the left leaf, while 4 were observed on the middle leaf and 3 were seen on the right leaf. The leaf in its entirety measured in at 7.0 cm in length, and 6.0 cm in width. The left leaf alone measured in at 3.3 cm in length and 2.3 cm in width. The right leaf came in almost exactly the same as the left one, with a 3.1 cm length and a 2.4 cm width. The middle leaf was larger, and came in at 4.6 cm in length and 3.3 cm in width. All these measurements relayed that not only were the leaves in a symmetrical shape and size pattern, but also that the length measurements were always approximately 1 cm more than the width measurements.

Observations:

- Compound leaf

- Three leaflets

- Glossy on one side and rough on the other

- Red Stem

- Purple bumps on all three leaflets

- Two leaflets identical (teardrop shape), big leaflet kite shaped

- Black spots on the midrib

- Yellow outline of the whole leaf

- Flat leaf

- White powder on the end of stem

- 8 cm height, 7.5 cm width

- 2 Leaflets yellower as compared to the third

Paragraph:

The sample given by Professor Brewer in class was a compound leaf (was open from one point in different directions, like a palm). It appeared to be plucked from a plant having red stem. The end of the stem was large- bulb like. The leaf had yellower outline and was waxy on the upper part as compared to the lower part of the leaf. The upper part of the leaf also appeared dark green as compared to the lower part. The leaf had three leaflets, two of which were of the same size and appeared to be identical whereas the bigger leaflet was kite shaped and different than the other two. Two small leaflets were teardrop shaped and had purplish spots on them. One of the leaflets also had purplish bumps which made the plant look malnourished or diseased.  The leaf was overall a littl dried out. All three leaflets were pale green (yellowish green) in colour but one of them was darker than the other two. The midrib of the bigger leaflet aso had black spots which were evident. The purple spots on the leaflets also followed a curvy pattern. Leaflets also seemed to have little hair coming out of them. Red stem also became yellower as it extended through the leaves as the midrib. Veins of the leaf also followed a beautiful pattern and looked like alveoli of the lungs. Veins were lighter in color as compared to the color of the leaf. At last, odor of the leaf cannot bedescribed but the leaf had a very distinguishable scent.

I saw a green leaf. This leaf divided in 3 smaller leaves in which some areas may be rotten or mal-nurished in the time they were still attached to the earth. It appeared to be an unhealthy leaf. It had many veins, and smaller sized veins within the larger ones. It had a hole in the first leaf to the left. The edges were curvy, resembling a wave. I noticed that most leaves have smooth edges, unlike this one. When it comes to identifying its color, it had a vibrant green color, resembling the grass. On the back of the leaf, it had a transluscent light green. Within the rotten areas, there were squiggly brown lines that I am yet to find out their significance,and some parts ofthe curvy lines are darker than the others. I would assume that the rotten parts were some sort of insect leaving its markings, or a lack of nutrients in that leaf. Additionally, it smelled extremely fresh, as if it had been picked off its original home not too long ago. It was rough like a sand paper, and not smooth like most fuzzy summer leaves. It was extremely thin, in which it feels as if you are holding a piece of paper. it is not very strong nor rigid and it could have been ripped very easily. If you had fit it in my palm, it layed perfectly, so I would assume I could compare it to the size of an average woman's palm. The dimensions were 70 x 80 mm. The length is 70 mm and the width is 80 mm. To enter my leaf in depth, and to analzye it so deeply that we can find it if it was mixed with the rest of the leaves, I could see that the very first leaf to the left (if the whole leaf was facing you) has a hole in it. The squiggly lines are found right at the tip of the leaf, in the third subdivision of the veins. The top middle leaf, facing up,has a squiggly line in the 6th subdivision of the veins. Finally, th 3rd leaf, facing right, had the biggest set of squiggly lines, one in the right half subdivision of veins facing up, and one in the second half facing down. I also knew it is my leaf based on the way it was cut. The cut is on an angle, but the left side is the more potent angle.

Given the leaf of an unknown plant, my observations included the color, texture, shape and smell: green and waxy on the top and fuzzy pale green on the bottom with paler green and yellow tinted veins. There were also characteristic brown marks caused by damage, most likely by an organism given the unpredictable and un-uniform shape and of the damage. I noted the smell resembling a musk and dirt or dust scent, as though it was plucked from a dry and often tread path. The general shape of the leaves was diamond and the edges of the leaves were scalloped with soft hairs on the edges. The stem was red and this red color extended into the veins of the leafs growing from the stem. All the leaves grew from the same point of the stem, with three leaves, one large center leaf and one smaller leaf on each side of the center leaf.

The object I am observing in this draft is a group of leaves detached from an unkown plant. It contains a stem and and three small leaflets that come off of a main joint near the center. The leaves are a dark green color on the top-side, which are glossy and reflect light when angled properly, and a lighter green on the bottom. If light is shown on the back the front shows a scaly pattern and is slghtly transluscent. The leaves are flexible and very light. The top leaflet in particular has some interesting discoloration to it that appears to be a snake like mark on the right side which is much darker than the rest of the leaf. This particular leaflet opens up much like a fan and has identical rounded edges starting about half-way up the leaf to the end which both sides meet at the tip forming a point. The leaflet on the right side is small, much smaller than the leaflet on the left and the top. It also has a curved pattern edge starting about half-way up the leaflet, however, it isn't as symmetrical as the top leaflet. The curved pattern on the upper side of the leaf is smaller than its lower half. On the lower portion of the right leaflet a small lump con be found on the track of a vein on the lower half. The left leaflet is similar to the right, but larger. It has a similar ridge pattern and a similar lump near a vein. The leaf has an earthy smell and a waxy texture. The leaflets are 55mm across from one point to another and about 60 mm from the top leaflet to the stem. The stem itself is much sturdier than the rest of the leaflets, has a red color on the top, and a lighter red color on the opposite side. The end of the stem is bulbous and contains no roots.

In the analysis of the plant sample given, several observations can be made. Firstly, the sample appears to be a compound leaf structure. The compound leaf is composed of two horizontal leaves and one larger vertical leaf, all originating out of a single junction point on the stem. Upon initial observation of the stem itself, it appears to have a reddish hue that changes with intensity throughout the compound leaf structure. From the cut point on the stem, it is faintly red in color. Then, directly after the junction point of the three leaves, it sharply intensifies in this red hue, then quickly fades upon traveling into the leaf itself. Other observations of color can be made as well. In all three leaves, there are spots of brown discoloration, presumably dead cells, that are located more towards the edge of the leaf. In the left horizontal leaf on this particular sample, however, there is a larger pattern of dead cells more towards the center of the leaf. The brown discoloration appears to be a snake-like structure, possible the result of some kind of parasitic larva that uses the plant as a host during its early development. Additionally, there is a semi-waxy coating to the top of the leaf, giving the leaf a dark green appearance and presumably assisting in protection of the leaf and unwanted, rapid water loss. Through this coating, the plant's vascular system is visible, with vein-like structures reaching across the leaf and back into the central stem. There is a certain symmetry in the entire compound leaf structure itself, though not in the leaves individually. The larger vertical leaf is symmetrical, with 5 ridges at the tip of the leaf. Both side leaves, however, are not symmetrical. Each have 3 ridges on the south side of the leaf, but to the north there are no ridges whatsoever.

The plant sample given out in class is a compound leaf; it has three main leaf parts similar to a clover. The three leaf parts are connected to the stem at the same point; the stem itself was redish maroon. The three leaf parts were different sizes and shapes, the main part (middle) was larger than the other two being 4.25 cm it is also a spade like shape with indentations. The outer leaves were smaller the right one being 3.5 cm and the left being 2.5cm presumably because it was damaged the most. Both the peripheral leaves were damaged and had leaf minor damage on them. The leaves all were firm and would return to its form. The overall plant piece is 6 cm tall and 5.5 cm wide.