SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany Midterm Spring 2005 • Name:

Botanical latin binomial matching

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

1. B Agathis robusta
2. I Araucaria columnaris
3. G Asplenium nidus
4. J Cyanobacteria
5. C Dicranopteris linearis
6. H Lycopodiella cernua [Lycopodium cernuum]
7. A Nephrolepis [biserrata]
8. F Phymatosorus scolopendria [Microsorum scolopendria]
9. E Selaginella
10. D Thelypteris maemonensis

Primitive plants hike 20 Jan

11. 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.

1. Latin binomial: For example: Lycopodium cernuum
2. Local name: kidi en mal
3. Traditional use: cockroach repellent, decoration

Seedless vascular plant presentations 27 Jan

12. 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 plant presentations 15-17 Feb

13. Define the term culture bound syndrome 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.

14. Describe a healing use of a plant. The catch: you cannot describe a use for the plant you presented, you must describe a use of a plant described by another member of the class. Include the name of the plant presented by that member of the class.
For example: Mercy. Noth or thoeth. [Scaevola taccada] The juice of the fruit can be squeezed into the eye to cure pink-eye. The leaves, when used with guava leaves, are boiled and used for pregnant women after birth to help clean them out prior to their first post-partum period. The stem is used to cure stomach ache, two drops of the juice from the stem.

Botanic garden field trip 22 Feb

15. Give the latin binomial and English name for the plant in the botanic garden that is used as a waker-upper beverage (drink) every morning by millions of people around the world.
Coffea arabica or Coffea robusta: coffee

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

Gymnosperm presentations 01 Mar

17. Give the leaf shape (type of leaf) for the gymnosperms in the above diagram:
 A. needle
 B. awl
 C. strap

18. Name the tree in the botanic garden that featured leaf type C above.
Agathis robusta

19. 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. The seed may also be designed to be carried by wind to facilitate spread of the tree.