109 BIO Plants in the World Instructor Hollister Lectures 11 Starchy Staples & Wood Study Questions 1. What is the importance of the potato? How is it that a potato producer can claim that growing potatoes provides the world with more protein than wheat or rice when wheat and rice actually contain a higher percentage of protein in their tissues? a. The potato is important because it provides more protein per unit land of area and it has more nutritional value, caloric content and yield per land area unit than any other crop 2. What is the origin of the potato? a. South America 3. Why was the potato only slowly accepted in Europe? a. People believed that because it was part of the nightshade family that it was poisonous. Eventually they realized it was not poisonous. 4. What is the nutritional value of green potatoes? a. Nothing, it is poisonous (if ingesting large amounts) . 5. What part of a plant is a potato? a. Stem 6. What is the eye of a potato? a. Nodes 7. What are seed potatoes? a. Seed potatoes are sections of potatoes that you can plant so it will grow a new potato. 8. How have potatoes extended the duration of wars? 9. What was the role of Phytophtora infestans in Ireland? Why did so many people die? Crops have failed in other regions without mass starvation, why was it so terrible in Ireland (read your book, or other sources)? a. Infected tubers made the potato cultivation in Ireland dwindle, and there was nearly no potatoes that survived the disease. Many people died because of starvation, they were dependant on potatoes. It was so terrible in Ireland because the Irish were so dependant on the potatoes. They were a source of food and income. They ate 8-12 pounds of potato each, daily.
10. Why are potatoes so important in Northern Europe? a. They can grow in cold climates and are cheap. 11. What is the origin of sweet potatoes? a. South America 12. What type of climate do sweet potatoes grow in? a. Tropical and Warm temperate climates 13. What organ is a sweet potato? a. Root 14. Why should you not eat raw cassava? a. It has traces of cyanide in it, which if not processed it will poison you. 15. How is cassava planted? a. By the root 16. Why is cassava generally not exported? a. Because 17. What food common in Michigan do people eat that is derived from cassava? a. Tapioca pudding b. 18. What is rather unique about the origin of cultivation of yams? a. There is evidence that it was cultivated in Africa over 5,000 years ago 19. Why do the yams of one region generally look distinctly different form the yams of another region?
20. What cultural significance do yams play in many regions?
21. What common starchy fruit do people often eat? Why should you wash your hands after touching What it? region of the world is it grown in? a. Plantain b. c. 22. What is secondary growth? a. Growth in diameter b. Lateral meristem 23. What are the two cambiums? How are they different from meristems?
a. Vascular cambium b. Cork cambium 24. What is the anatomy of wood (what are all the parts)? a. Inner to outer most: heartwood, sapwood, vascular cambium, [ living phloem, {cork cambium and phelloderm, cork} periderm ] bark 25. What is bark? a. Living phloem and the periderm (cork cambium and phelloderm, and cork) 26. What is the function of xylem? Phloem? a. Xylem: conducts water Phloem: conducts organic material 27. How does the vascular cambium form xylem and phloem? Which is produced on the outer side? Which is produced on the inner side? a. b. Xylem c. Phloem 28. What is the difference between fascicular and interfascicular cambium? a. Fascicular cambium is inside the vascular bundle while the interfascicular is outside of the vascular bundle.
29. What is a Periderm? a. Cork cambium and cork 30. How do the periderms lead to cork production? a. It contains cork cells, and once these cells die, they produce cork. 31. What is the difference between early wood and late wood (structurally or morphologically how are they different and why)? Can you see the difference? a. Early wood has low density, produced early in the season with high resources and lots of water. Has large xylem cells for water conduction b. Latewood has high density, produced late in the season with limiting resources and water. It has tightly packed cells and small condensed xylem. 32. If you are in a region with no winter do you still see growth rings? a. No, you need to have a climate that changes. 33. Gymnosperms are referred to as soft woods, why? Is gymnosperm wood really softer? a. No, it has to do with the sturdiness of the cell walls. 34. How do we refer to angiosperm wood? a. Hardwoods
35. What morphological differences exist between hardwoods and softwoods? a. Density, type of cells present.
36. What is an embolism? Why is softwood less likely to form embolisms than some hardwoods?
37. What is a ray cell? a. Inserted so that the spacing between rays remains more or less the same as the diameter of the tree increases. 38. Why is heartwood darker than sapwood?
39. Why is the cambium often considered a diffuse sink? What does this imply about cambial production? a. When there isn't enough resources for the plant to be completely healthy the cambium "survives" in this order: fruits & flowers leaves shoots roots radial growth 40. What factors control cambium production? a. Water, temperature, nutrition, light 41. How do we build a tree ring chronology? Can you use dead wood? Fossilized wood? a.