SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany Midterm Spring 2005

  1. B Agathis robusta
  2. I Araucaria columnaris
  3. G Asplenium nidus
  4. J Cyanobacteria
  5. D Dicranopteris linearis
  6. H Lycopodiella cernua [Lycopodium cernuum]
  7. A Nephrolepis [biserrata]
  8. E Phymatosorus scolopendria [Microsorum scolopendria]
  9. C Selaginella
  10. F Thelypteris maemonensis
  11. R locally considered a treatment for diabetes: Morinda citrifolia
  12. N diarhea: Guava
  13. M fever: Clerodendrum inerme
  14. S head cold, sinus congestion: Ocimum sanctum
  15. P pink eye/conjunctivitus: Scaevola taccada
  16. Q skin fungus including ringworm: Cassia alata

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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

21. Why are there no baby Cook Island Pines on Pohnpei?
All of the Cook Island pines on Pohnpei are male trees which produce only pollen. There are no female trees on island.

22. What is the function of the phloem (layer two) in the diagram? Phloem carries sugars and starches produced by photosynthesis in the needles or leaves to the rest of the plant, often especially down to the roots for storage as starch.

23. What is the function of the secondary xylem (layer four) in the diagram? The xylem, including the secondary xylem, carries water absorbed by the roots up to the leaves. Water is used in photosynthesis and transpiration.

24. 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.

25. Explain the differences between monocots and dicots as illustrated by the following diagram: When the seed of a monocot sprouts, the first leaf is a single initial leaf. The number of petals on the flower are a multiple of three including three: 3, 6, 9,... etc. The leaves typically have parallel veins and the vascular bundles of phloem and xylem are usually distributed throughout the stem of the plant. When the seed of a dicto sprouts, the plants puts out an initial pair of leaves. The number of petals on the flowers is four, five, or a multiple of four or five. The leaves have a "netlike" or "weblike" pattern of veins. The vascular bundles of phloem and xylem are found only in an outer ring just under the bark or skin of the stem.