Friday, March 13, 2015

Biology & Nature Study– Dog Violet “Viola Labradorica”

The spring has sprung here.  I know that must be so frustrating to hear for those of you in the arctic Midwest and east coasts… but here, it’s come early and I am singing praises!  There are so many theories on why the weather would be effected this way that I don’t feel qualified to add my own…  but for this short time, I am trying not to worry about the drama of the weather and just enjoy the weather!

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Dog Violet!  How I love this little plant!  It is such a tiny flower but oh so lovely.  It is a ground cover in my yard.  The white ones (“Viola Reichenbachiana”) come out first with their cute little white faces.  I asked my neighbor two years ago if I could have some and I planted them under my grape arbor.  They have now taken over and cover both sides of the ground.  My hope is that next year I will have to trim them back because there are too many!

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The blossoms are only about 1/2 an inch wide and 3/4 of an inch tall.  The leaves get bigger but still lay close to the ground.  They are found on page 477 in the Handbook of Nature Study.

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I added them into my nature notebook and the kids added them into theirs as well. 

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White Dog Violet pollen under the microscope.  The pollen is so tiny that I wasn’t even sure the pollen was on the slide!  When I looked, this is what I found:

40x magnification:

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400x magnification:

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It is interesting to see that it is most like the Flowering Quince in pollen shape and structure.   I doubt that means anything, but I am looking further into pollen sciences to see.  So far, it’s been fruitless as far as lesson material.  Most ‘pollen experts’ are also forensic experts.  They know about the pollen and what it looks like so they can best guess where dead bodies they find originated from.  Morbid, huh?  I plan on keeping up the search so I can share something less disturbing with the kids about people who study pollen. 

Happy Homeschooling!

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1 comment

himanshu singh bhadoriya said...

hey, your nature notebook part is very interesting ,i keep too my hobbies in my notebook for my collection.

Hobby

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