Member Blogs

We're proud to have some pretty awsome Biodiversity Club members that have a passion for Biology and nature.  One of our members has a great blog on Michigan's plants.  Visit it at http://wildmichigan.wordpress.com/.  Do you have a biodiversity-related blog, or do you know of someone else who does?  Let us know so we can feature it on our "links" page.  Don't forget to check out our links page for links to other great websites!

Michigan's Rare Goldenrods

Saturday February 18, the Biodiversity Club attended the Michigan Botanical Club’s meeting at Grand Valley State University, where Dr. Pam Laureto,  PhD and Biodiversity Club advisor, gave a presentation on Michigan's rare Goldenrods and her research regarding Houghton's Goldenrod and the naming of a new species: Voss's Goldenrod.  The following are notes from her presentation:

Michigan’s Rare Goldenrods – Dr. Pam Laureto – MCB-WPC past MBC president, current MBF President

Goldenrods belong to genus Solidago L. and family Asteraceae.  Solidago comes from Latin words “to become whole” because of supposed medicinal properties.  About 100 species: most are North American.  There are 23 species of goldenrod in Michigan. 

Goldenrod identification – structures used for identification: the “head” (the capitulum) is made of many inflorescence – outer disc florets are “perfect both male and female while inner florets are pistilate (only female parts).  Goldenrods are self-infertile plants.  At the base of the floret is the achene which is the fruit holding the seeds.  The involucre is made of the phyllaries which are shingle-like structures enclosing all of the florets.  Heads are part of a large structure called the capitulescence (an inflorescence of an inflorescence).  The different capitulescence shapes are: flat-topped, racemiform, or paniculiform, which contains open-lax, wand, club, axillary, pyramidal, and nodding shapes.

Growth form can also be used for goldenrod identification – positions of basal leaves, basal rosette, mid-stem leaves, upper stem leaves, and position of capitulescence all are used to determine a goldenrod’s species.

Note: GOLDENRODS DO NOT CAUSE HAY FEVER!  They are insect pollinated ( an important food source of nectar and pollen for insects), not wind-pollinated.  Their pollen is sticky and fairly large sized, so it doesn’t blow around in the wind.  Ragweed causes fall allergies, not goldenrod.

Some rare goldenrods:

Solidago albopilosa – White-haired Goldenrod.  It only exists in 3 counties in KY, and is nationally recognized as a rare species. 

Solidago shorttii – Short’s Goldenrod, only 13 known populations in the Ohio River area; federally recognized as endangered. 

Solidago spithamaea – Blue-ridge Goldenrod.  It lives in rock outcroppings in Blue Ridge Mountains of TN and NC, and is federally recognized as a threatened species.

Solidago houghtonii – Houghton’s Goldenrod, another federally threatened species.  Lives mostly in Michigan and Ontario, with 1 population in NY. 

Douglass Houghton (1809-1845) discovered a new species of Goldenrod on August 15^th 1839.  Houghton’s Goldenrod has a flat-topped inflorescence, short rhizomes, grows in clumps of many individuals that are all clones, and has a basal rosette of leaves.  An individual lives about 10-12 years, and flowers the 2^nd year of growth and then every other year.  An individual can produce new lones each year to keep genetics going for years after parent plant dies.  It mostly grows in the upper Michigan area near the northern parts of the great lakes, Lake MI and Lake Huron.  Growth patterns associated with the Niagara Escarpment because of dolomite limestone (an alkaline substrate) habitat specificity.  There are about 70 known populations, but some populations contain only a few individuals.

It is an allohexaploid species: Houghton’s Goldenrod has 54 chromosomes.  It is a species that is the result of hybridization between two genetically different parent species.  It has 3 different parental species involved:  S. ohioensis, S. ptarimcoides, and S. riddellii.  Solidago houghtonii likely formed only once. 

NEW SPECIES: SOLIDAGO VOSSII – Voss’s Goldenrod, Pringle and Laureto, 2010. This was discovered in central northern MI, Crawford county.  Dr. Voss noted this plant as being Houghton’s Goldenrod.  Jim Pringle felt that it was morphologically different from Houghton’s.  It was found to have 72 chromosomes – octoploidy.  Dr. Laureto picked up the work from there and followed it through up to naming the species and publishing in the MI botanical in 2010.  Growth patterns associated with the alkaline wet prairie fens by Lake Maurgarete.  Vossii is the only octoploid species of goldenrod.

The lecture was absolutely fascinating, and all of the members who came out to hear it were rewarding with  a very interesting presentation!

Michigan's Native Bumblebees

Saturday, February 4^th, several members from the Biodiversity Club were able to attend an excellent program on Michigan’s native bumblebees.  The program was put on by the Land Conservancy of West Michigan, an organization of over 2,200 members protecting thousands of acres of land from the eight counties of west Michigan.   It was held at the Howard Christensen Nature Center in Kent City, a land preserve protected by the LCWM.  Before the program started, we were able to look around the different displays in the conference building at the nature center.  Then Michelle Harris, a coordinator for the organization, gave a brief run-down of the Land Conservancy and its various programs.  Jacqueline, the stewardship coordinator, then presented the program on bumblebees and their adaptations to thrive in Michigan’s climate.  Did you know that bumblebees rapidly vibrate their wings to help heat their bodies, much like we would shiver?  Did you know that they practice a special type of pollen-gathering technique called “buzz pollination,” where they cling upside down to a flower and shake it to force the pollen to fall out onto their hairy bodies, making them the only type of insect able to pollinate tomato plants?  Did you know that bumblebees smell with their antennae, and actually develop individual taste preferences for certain flowers?  Jackie also covered the decline of bumblebee populations caused by a decrease in habitats (there’s no sources of food for bumblebees to forage in massive cornfields or completely urbanized areas), overuse of pesticides and herbicides, and diseases brought in from bumblebees used to commercially pollinate greenhouse-grown produce.  Afterwards, Jackie opened up the presentation for questions, which ranged from general physiology and phenology of bumblebees to conservation and safe pesticides. 
Pictures from the event to come!

"I Can't Live Without You!" -- Mutualistic Relationships

Mutualism is a form of symbiosis in which two organisms of different species interact and depend on each other in a way that benefits both organisms.  When speaking of mutualism, some of the most common examples used include the clown fish and seas anemone (a relationship where the clownfish lives among the sea anemones poisonous tentacles and thus is safe from predation by other species of fish – and research shows that anemones as well benefit from hosting clownfish.  For a very thorough analysis of this relationship, check out http://clownfishandseaanemones.blogspot.com/).  Another very common example is the relationship between the oxpecker bird and large mammals such as rhinoceros, elephants, zebra, and cattle.  The oxpecker flies behind the moving herds and is rewarded with insects that the herds stir up, and when the herds are at rest, the oxpecker takes the liberty of landing on individuals and picking insects off the bodies of the large animals.  In return, the oxpeckers benefit their mammalian hosts by both sounding alarms when predators, such as lions or cheetahs, are sighted, and by removing nuisance parasites, such as ticks, from their hosts’ coats.  But here’s a very important mutualistic relationship that you probably don’t know about: that between the root nodules of legumes (such as soybeans, peanuts, and alfalfa) and a certain type of bacteria: Rhizobia.  This relationship is extremely important to supporting and maintaining soil nutrient integrity and ultimately, life on earth. 

Legumes have a fibrous root structure, and their roots contain little “nodules.”  These nodules are home to a host of bacteria from the Genus Rhizobia.  These tiny organisms complete a very important task: nitrogen fixation.  Nitrogen, one of the ten elements essential for life, exists as a diatomic gas molecule under standard conditions, but is unusable for plants in its natural inorganic state.  That’s where Rhizobia comes into play.  The bacteria turn the root nodules of their legume hosts into nitrogen-fixing workshop, where they fix nitrogen into ammonia and other usable nitrates.  The plant is then able to use the products of the nitrogen-fixation chemical reactions to form amino acids, nucleic acids, and other products necessary for life.  Their nitrogen-fixation also provides considerable nutrient-return to the soil, ensuring that the soil will remain nutrient-rich enough to support plant life.  As for the bacteria, their benefit is in the form of a hospitable environment in which to live and propagate, and some of the plant’s sugars as an energy source.  Think about that next time you eat a bowl of black bean soup!  For a more detailed analysis of this relationship, check out http://www.jic.ac.uk/science/molmicro/Rhizo.html. 

So, it’s your turn: what’s an example of a cool mutualistic relationship in nature that you find interesting?  Why is that relationship significant?  How would it affect that community or ecosystem if one partner in the relationship were eliminated? 

       

We're Going Online!

Bio Blog.  What comes to your mind when you hear that phrase?  For me, I think of posts filled with facts and pictures and everything I love about Biology and the natural world.  We are the members of Grand Rapids Community College, and that is what we want to bring you in this blog.  We want to share our stories and the fun things we learn and do through our activity in college and the Biodiversity Club.  We want you to experience what we enjoy.  We want to immerse you in our world.  So welcome to the wide, wonderful world of Biology, biodiversity, and a group of students working to educate others and increase awareness of the natural world.  It's going to be a wild ride, so get ready.  Go wild with GRCC's Biodiversity Club! 

Questions?  Contact one of the club officers.  Are you a student of GRCC?  Join the club online at orgsync.com!

Turkey Buzzard in a grove of White Mangroves, Everglades, Florida

Did you know that the the leaves of a Sensitive Plant, Mimosa strigillosa, will fold and curl up if touched?