SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany Midterm Fall 2005 • Name:

Plant recognition matching

Samples of the following plants are labeled with letters. Write the letter in the blank next to the correct name.

  1. P Agathis robusta (kauri)
  2. I Araucaria columnaris (cook island pine)
  3. G Asplenium nidus (bird's nest fern)
  4. J Cinnamomum carolinense (caroline island cinnamon tree)
  5. A Cyanobacteria
  6. L Cycas rumphii (cycad)
  7. C Dicranopteris linearis
  8. B Lycopodium cernuum (lycopodium)
  9. K Morinda citrifolia (noni)
  10. O Myristica fragrans (nutmeg)
  11. D Nephrolepis [biserrata] (sword fern family)
  12. F Phymatosorus scolopendria (scented fern)
  13. M Piper nigrum (black pepper)
  14. N Piper ponapense (pohnpei pepper)
  15. H Selaginella
  16. E Thelypteris maemonensis

Healing matching

Samples of healing plants are labeled with letters. Write the letter in the blank for the plant that is used in treating the following:

  1. R baby growth in uterus, 4 or 8 fiddleheads
  2. U diabetes, constipation, high blood pressure, massage
  3. S diarhea (boiled to form tea)
  4. T fever, bad armpit smell (used in a bath)
  5. Y toothache, head cold, sinus congestion

Primitive plants hike 19 January

22. Choose any one plant from our hike beyond the FSM China Friendship center. Give the Latin binomial for the plant you have chosen. Write down also the local name in your language if the plant has a name in your language. Write down a local traditional use for that plant here in Micronesia.

  • Latin binomial: For example: Lycopodium cernuum
  • Local name: kidi en mal
  • Traditional use: cockroach repellent, decoration
  • Seedless vascular plant presentations 26 January

    23. Mosses, ferns, and other "primitive" plants share some common features and needs in their reproductive cycles. What are those features/needs?
    The primitive plants reproduce by having a sporophyte produce spores. The spores lead, in each, to a stage that produces swimming sperm which require water to reach and fertilize the egg. Thus these plants are dependent on water and tend to live in wet places.

    Healing plants 31 January

    24. Define the term culture bound syndrome ("cultural disease")and give an example of a culture bound syndrome in Micronesia.
    A syndrome or disease that is unique to and found only in one culture. The illness is typically not recognized as being an illness by those from other cultures, or they see it as having completely different causes. Soumwahen eni is an example. Culture bound syndromes are typically curable only by traditional medicinal practitioners from the culture in which the disease is found.

    Healing plant presentations 9 and 14 February

    25. Describe a healing use of a plant. The catch: you cannot describe a use for the plant from your state, you must describe a use of a plant described by another member of the class who is from a different state. If you can recall, also include the name of the plant presented by that member of the class.

    Botanic garden field trip 16 February

    26. Why are there no baby Cook Island Pines on Pohnpei?
    All of the trees are male trees.

    27. While in the garden Lee Ling spoke about the importance of nutmeg. Nutmeg is so very important that the textbook also covers this topic at length. What is the importance of nutmeg?
    But for nutmeg, you would not be taking this midterm, nor would you have to learn English. Nutmeg changed EVERYTHING. It is not merely a spice and preservative, there are many of those and none changed your islands, impacted your cultures, or brought devastating diseases to these islands. Nutment started a chain of events that you live with to this very day. Nutmeg first brought Europeans into the Pacific long before the whalers and missionaries. Everything else followed. No nutmeg in the Pacific and those of you from Pohnpei would be sitting in traditional wear around a sakau stone showing proper respect for our elders instead of sitting here listening to a crazy white guy. And don't take this the wrong way, but the rest of you wouldn't even be on this island.

    Gymnosperm presentations 23 February

    28. Use the samples in class to do the following matching of gymnosperm leaf types:

    1. I awl shaped: Araucaria columnaris
    2. L palm-like: Cycas rumphii
    3. P strap shaped: Agathis robusta

    29. What key features distinguish gymnosperm reproduction from the reproduction of the more primitive seedless vascular plants such as mosses, lycopodium, ferns?
    Gymnosperms use pollen to carry the male gametes, the sperm, to the egg. The sperm is no longer a swimming sperm but rather lands on the egg. Water is no longer critical to the reproductive cycle. The fertilized egg does not develop directly into a plant, but rather into a seed which contains nutrients to help the new tree get started in life. Seeds are a vast improvement on spores, which provided no initial food for the young plant. The seed may also be designed to be carried by wind to facilitate spread of the tree.