Wildflower Lab Report

By Jocelyn Gabrielle Motley

Angela Colegrove
Biology

Introduction
This semester the Biology classes have been working on the Wildflower Project. This project
allows us to explore the diversity and beauty of life in the DC-Maryland area. It allows us to
learn earth sciences in the classroom and out in the field. How Does Each flower we explore
differs from the other and shows us a range of what life can be? Are Commonalities easily
identifiable between flowers in the same family? Lastly How does location affect the type of
flowers collected.

Materials

● Newcomb's Wildflower Guide

● A large book ( to press flowers )
● A device ( to keep a database )
● A camera
● Paper towels
● Self Adhesive Pages
● Photo Album Or Binder
● Various Art Supplies

Procedures
1. Collect the Flowers
1.1. Gather Materials to go flower picking. This includes your Newcomb's Wildflower
guide, Sticky notes and a pencil. Make sure you have a partner to go with you
1.2. Go to your flower picking location
1.3. Search for flowers. Once you have found one look for identifying traits like
number of petals, if it has basal leaves, or how the leaves are placed.
1.4. Identify your flower by creating a 3 digit code using the 3 classifications
1.5. Proceed to the Locator Key in your book and use the 3 digit code to find the page
number
1.6. Identify your Flower
2. Enter Flower Into Database
 2.1. Create a Database on Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, here you will keep track
of each flower you have collected.
2.2. On Line 1 from A-L enter the subtitles Scientific Name, Common Name, Family
Name, City, County, State, Habitat, Date collected, ID Book, Page Number, and
Notes In that order
2.3. Enter the flower into the database
2.3.1. Enter the scientific name
2.3.2. Enter the common name
2.3.3. Enter the family name
2.3.4. Enter the city it was found in
2.3.5. Enter the county it was found in
2.3.6. Enter the state it was found in
2.3.7. Enter the the habitat it was surrounded by
2.3.8. Enter the date collected
2.3.9. Enter the ID book used
2.3.10. Enter the page number it was on
2.3.11. Lastly enter the notes ( if any )
2.4. Repeat for each Flower picked.
3. Pressing the Flower
3.1. Get a paper towel
3.2. Lay the flower on the paper towel
3.2.1. Make sure the the leaves and flowers are laying flat
3.3. Fold the paper towel over itself
3.3.1. Use tape or staples to keep it closed if necessary
3.4. Place in a book or under something heavy so it can be completely pressed
4. Labeling
4.1. Open a Google Doc
4.2. Open the Add-On Avery Label Merge, If you do not have it download the Add-on
to your google account and continue with step 4
4.3. Connect your database and add each header to the white box in the middle of
your page
4.4. Merge the document and the database. From there Avery Label Merge will open
a new document that includes your labels
5. Mounting
5.1. Collect your mounting materials. This includes the self adhesive sheets, your
binder, Construction paper and your labels
5.2. Pull back the plastic film on your sheet and place the flower and its
corresponding label on the sticky paper
5.3. Recover the paper with the film and press the air bubbles out.
 5.4. Repeat 5.3 and 5.4 until you have mounted all of your flowers
5.5. Organize the flowers in groups by family
5.6. Use the Construction paper and Art supplies to create a label to each family
grouping Ex: “Arum,Violet, and Buttercup”
5.7. Place your Labels and mounted flowers in your binder. The family labels should
be placed in alphabetical order and each flower in the family should be placed
behind the label.
5.8. Optional: If you would like to can use your art supplies to decorate the exterior of
your binder

Discussion

The Wildflower Project has allowed me to explore the differences in botanical life near me.
During this field experiment, not only did I get the opportunity to master ecological sciences, but
I also engaged in a hands-in project, using the tactile “part” of my brain to truly learn from this
project. With each flower picked you get a better understanding of which flowers grow in which
areas and how a flowers environment effects it’s traits. As with every project there are trials,
tribulations and hurdles you run into. At times during over the past few weeks the work seemed
tedious and unaccomplishable with the lack of flowers I was finding. But I think it was each
deadline that kept us motivated and held us accountable throughout the whole project. As the
process continued I found it easier to identify flowers if there was common trends in certain
families. The practice of constantly looking for similarities in one flower to others was a trick I
was glad to learn as it sped of the process of identifying flowers. From collecting my data I saw
that I often picked my flowers in the morning I think this is why I had trouble getting a ‘perfect’
pressing. If I were to go midday, when the sun was at its highest point and the flowers were fully
open It would have resulted in a better pressing. Personally if I were to go back and do this
project any differently the most important change to make would have been being weary of
when I picked my flowers and how well I pressed them. Another clear trend I saw in my data is
that wildflowers tend to if not always be smaller to its counterparts like bulb flowers or human
curated flowers. I believe that this happens because the wildflowers stems are much skinnier
than other types of flowers because of this is would be harder for the wildflower to hold up more
weight. Since it is so small it stays closer to the forest floor and doesn’t get the opportunity to
use extra sunlight and rainfall to grow any larger. The final common trend I found in my data
came after each flower was picked and pressed. As I mounted my flowers that once had the
prettiest yellow, purple, pink, and green hues the color was no longer there. But it just went to
show me the importance of the factors of life to living things. Without water, respiration and
nutrition these flowers lost everything that made them so beautiful. To me this proved to be a
good lesson for my future hikes, camping trips and other outdoor excursions. I should leave
nature alone so it can preserve its own beauty

Conclusion
Over the past months this project has truly deepen my understanding of biology and life
sciences. In the beginning of this project I had many questions that I was able to explore over
the duration of this project. As I looked for answers to all three of my base questions I was able
to branch off and think about other things relating to those question. Unfortunately I was not
able to draw conclusion to all of my questions, the one I am regarding to asked if location
affected the type of flowers I collected. During this project the area I collected flowers from was
very concentrated, in fact all but 2 of my flowers were collected here on Sandy Springs campus.
But I was able to explore the answer to the rest of my questions. Looking specifically at the
commonalities in traits of flowers in the same family we can see how the flowers are connected
in a structural aspect. For example if you were to look at the mint family you would see that all
the mint flowers I have collected have an irregular shaped flower and purpley , green leaves.
We can also see that the flowers are stout and have many leaves along their stem. These
commonalities are why they are in a family together and why we can easily identify that it
belongs to that family. Being able to recognise the similarity allows us to grow as student
scientist and be able to quickly identify wildflowers. As the weeks of the wildflower project
passed, identifying the flowers became easier than the last. Next we can see how looking at
each flower shows diversity in life. As we learned from our genetics unit there can be multiple
different outcomes for the same type of flower due to the parents phenotypes. As I did this
project with my peers despite have the same flowers as other you could recognize little
differences in each flower. This stands for all life reproductions; even though I have very similar
facial structures as both of my parents there are still differences that aren’t shown on either of
my parents. Just because the trait wasn’t presented in my parents didn’t mean it eliminated the
chances of me or my siblings having it. Doing this project helped me realize that the basis of life
and genetics is the same across all living things, from wildflowers to humans. If I were to do this
project all over again I would want to explore how the amount of flower species changes if there
were more wildlife present and I would also want to explore how climate changes the flowers
available by compare and contrasting flowers collected in a different climate. In conclusion I
would say that Sandy Springs Friends School is a campus with fertile soil and well taken care of
greenery. This is supported by our data because I was able to collect 40+ flowers (despite
losing some in the process) all on one campus and still have them all differ in species. If this
was not true I, and all my peers would not have been able to complete this project as efficiently
as we did on other campuses with poorer quality forest.