SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany Midterm Fall 2006: Some possible answers

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

Primitive plants hike 17.

  1. Latin binomial: Phymatosorus scolopendria
  2. Local name: [your local name]
  3. Traditional use: [your local use but typically for mwarmwar or diarhea]

Seedless vascular plant presentations

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. Public plant knowledge is that which everyone commonly knows. Private plant knowledge is held secret by a person or family. Ethnobotanical experience has been that public knowledge plants are actually often more effective (more efficaceous) for their particular recommended uses than secret cures. In addition, public plant knowledge can be shared, with credit given to the source, so others can benefit from that knowledge. Finally, secret "plant potions" are often simply mixtures of known single-plant medicinals in the public domain.
20. For flowering plants the leaves, flowers, and fruit must be collected.
22. The description must be from another STATE. Mwoakilloa and Pohnpei island are in the same state.
22. 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.
24. Use the samples in class to do the following matching of gymnosperm leaf types:

  1. H 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.