Virtual Pathology Lab
A 14-year-old girl presented with a three-week history of symptoms of fever, sore throat, a slightly swollen spleen, and swollen lymph glands.
The patient has an elevated white blood cell count and an increase in atypical white blood cells.
This patient is being diagnosed with Mononucleosis because of her persistent symptoms of fever and swollen lymph nodes.
A 14-year-old boy presented at the doctor’s office with flu-like symptoms
The patient has an elevate white blood cells count and mainly neutrophilis are present.
This patient is being diagnosed with a Bacterial or Viral Infection due to his elevated white blood cell count and flu-like symptoms.
A 20-year-old female presented to the doctor’s office in September with concerns about fatigue. She had worked as youth camp counselor during the summer.
The patient has typical concentrations of blood cells found in their smear.
The patient has been diagnosed normal and healthy as of now.
Journal
1. In what ways do normal red and white blood cells differ?
Red blood cells are for transporting oxygen. White blood cells are the cells of the immune system and are responsible for defending the body against disease and foreign entities. White blood cells also contain a nucleus while red blood cells do not.
2. Which type of white blood cell would you expect to be most common in a normal blood smear?
The most common white blood cells found in a smear would be Neutrophil cells which are 40% to 75% of all the white blood cells.
3. A differential count of white blood cells from a patient gable the absolute number of lymphocytes as 8000 per mm3 and the total number of white blood cells as 12,000 per mm3. Calculate the percentage of lymphocytes in this sample of white blood cells. Is this a normal or abnormal percentage? Explain your answer.
Normal results for lymphocyte count would be between 20% and 40%. This patient appears to have at leafs 60% and is classified as abnormal.
4. Describe the difference between a communicable disease and an inherited disease. Use examples you have studied in this exploration to supper your description.
In inherited disease is a genetic disorder that you were born with such as anemia. A communicable disease, or contagious disease, is passed through an infected person such as mononucleosis.
5. Why are white blood cells in a stained blood smear usually counted at low power under a microscope? Explain your answer.
At lower power it is easier to spot the nucleus in white blood cells which makes them easier to count.
6. Why is the presence of a larger than normal number or neutrophils indicative of an infection? Explain your answer.
Neutrophils are responsible for fighting infections and are present at the first signs of inflammation. Higher than normal counts of these phagocytes are indicative of an infection.
7. Why would you not expect to see tissue macrophages in a blood smear? Explain your answer.
Tissue macrophages are found in tissue like connective tissue and would not be probably to spot in a blood sample.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
WORLD POPULATIONS LAB
1. Proceed through the tutorial. Approximately when was the bottle half full?
The bottle was about half full at 11:59
2. Then answer the next question.
3. Did anything surprise you about these two parts?
I guess seeing the numbers on paper and seeing how much resources we have used up and how much we have left was shocking to realize.
4. “Any time living things are allowed to reproduce freely, their numbers increase exponentially not linearly. And when people talk about “steady growth,” they mean exponential growth then, too” Why do you think people might have trouble understanding exponential growth?
People may think that exponential growth means a steady incline in population growth although
what they do not realize is that exponential means the rate at which it increases is doubling so that it increase faster and faster.
5. Whenever you hear that something is growing by some percentage, or that something is growing steadily, what rule should you remember in order to understand exponential growth?
The rule of 70 states that in order to estimate the humber of years for a variable to double, take the number 70 and divide it by the growth rate of the variable.
6. “When our consumption of a resource (energy, for instance) grows steadily, the doubling time takes on an even scarier meaning.” What is that scarier meaning?
That scarier meaning is of course the fact that our generation has used up more of the resource than all of history before us.
7. “…if we keep increasing our energy consumption like this, we’ll use more energy in the next 25 years than we’ve produced in all of history up to now.
8. “There are those who say we don’t need to worry about running out of oil, because there’s still lots of oil left in the grouse. Experts believe that over the past 150 years we have used up about half the total oil on Earth. In other words, our oil supply “bottle” is still haf full.” But if we keep doubling our population, what will happen?
If we keep doubling our population then the resource supply is going to run out before our next doubling.
THE PEOPLE PARADOX VIDEO
About India
1. Compare the education of the residents of north and south India. How how does this correlate with the number of children women bear?
The education of a culture is directly correlated with how many children the average women does bear. Since the women in Southern India are more educated it means that they are having less children on average.
2. Who are the “gatekeepers to health services” in India?
Husbands and mother-in-laws are the “gatekeepers to health service” in India.
3. Why might sons be preferred in India? A son is preferred in India because of their ability to care for their parents when they get older.
4. India demographic pyramid? What implications does this have?
In the India demographic pyramid it shows half of the population to be at the age for reproduction. Unless changes are implemented in the North’s education, and total average new children is decreased, total population is going to grow at an exponential rate.
5. Why are daughter often considered a burden in India? Often daughters are considered a burden in India because they are not supposed to stay with the family and help out. They are usually married in arrangement and the parents are expected to provide a sum of money called a dowry.
6. How did Abidi Shah change the lives of the young women in the village? Abidi Shah has implemented health services and educational reforms that have been successful in encouraging young women to become independent by learning carrier skills and practicing forms of contraceptive.
7. What are the obstacles for women and employment in India?
The biggest obstacle for women and potential employment in India is that there are simply not enough jobs to support them.
8. What is the knife-edge that India sits upon?
The population of India is growing exponentially and surpassing there economic yield. There are shortages in both employment and natural resources.
About Japan
What is the “revolutionary change” that is happening in Japan
The change in Japan is the amount of children they are allowed to have leaves them with a declining population rate.
2. If fertility stays at 1.3, Japan’s population will shrink in half.
3. What are two reasons Japanese women want to work?
Japanese women want to work because they can not have has many children now. Also women in Japan want to work because of the desire for financial gain.
4. The newswoman and her family had problems with childcare arrangements. What is the relationship between declining birth rates and childcare?
Many Japanese women work long hours and have trouble finding daycares that are open at the right hours that would allow them to keep a job. Because of this many people in Japan choose to have kids later in life or not at all which leads to more of a decline in birth rate.
5. Who cares for elders in Japan? Traditionally the daughter-in-law is supposed to take care of her husbands parents. Many women now work long hours which leaves no one to care for the elderly.
6. What does Japan’s age structure look like? What implications does this have?
Since Japan’s present fertility rate is 1.3 this is eventually going to lead to a lack of youth and works that essentially support the economy. Soon there is not going to be enough people to support Japans economy and would eventually have to bring in outside help from immigrants.
7. How might immigration help solve this problem?
Immigration would allow the economy to thrive by supplying new citizens to support the economy.
8. What is the average family size worldwide? The average family size has less than 2 children.
9. Many countries encourage families to have more children. It has been found to be easier to reduce fertility than to raise it.
Sub-Suharan Afica
What does sub-Saharan Africa’s age structure look like? What implications does this have?
The age structure in sub-Saharan Africa has a small middle and top with a large base. This is due to the fact that many adults are dying from the Aids virus. The potential consequences for this type of structure is a country full of kids with very little adults to take care of them.
2. What situations create tremendous pressures to immigrate? Declining amount of available resources of job opportunities leads to incentive to immigrate.
3. Describe the demographic transition as exemplified in Kenya (starting at 40:21 and in text)
The death rate in Kenya is rising.
4. Death rates from HIV/Aids life expectancy has declined from 65 to 49 years.
5. Women in Africa might have to make a choice between reproducing and risking HIV infection.
6. Explain how the economic gains of Asian Tigers came about.
Since the birth rate has decrease it has left more money for employment and job opportunities.
7. The key to population stabilization key is the education and liberation of women.
8. Why should we care about other countries? Because humans are the same species regardless of what country they are from and we should be helping humanity out as a whole.
9. What are two things that struck you most strongly about the situations in this video?
The differences between India and Japan were shocking and the fact that even with the measures implemented for population control their economy is going to still have issues in the near future. Also what struck me as a potential solution was the fact that education has been shown to have a positive decrease in population growth. Educating the masses could prove beneficial for population control.
1. Proceed through the tutorial. Approximately when was the bottle half full?
The bottle was about half full at 11:59
2. Then answer the next question.
3. Did anything surprise you about these two parts?
I guess seeing the numbers on paper and seeing how much resources we have used up and how much we have left was shocking to realize.
4. “Any time living things are allowed to reproduce freely, their numbers increase exponentially not linearly. And when people talk about “steady growth,” they mean exponential growth then, too” Why do you think people might have trouble understanding exponential growth?
People may think that exponential growth means a steady incline in population growth although
what they do not realize is that exponential means the rate at which it increases is doubling so that it increase faster and faster.
5. Whenever you hear that something is growing by some percentage, or that something is growing steadily, what rule should you remember in order to understand exponential growth?
The rule of 70 states that in order to estimate the humber of years for a variable to double, take the number 70 and divide it by the growth rate of the variable.
6. “When our consumption of a resource (energy, for instance) grows steadily, the doubling time takes on an even scarier meaning.” What is that scarier meaning?
That scarier meaning is of course the fact that our generation has used up more of the resource than all of history before us.
7. “…if we keep increasing our energy consumption like this, we’ll use more energy in the next 25 years than we’ve produced in all of history up to now.
8. “There are those who say we don’t need to worry about running out of oil, because there’s still lots of oil left in the grouse. Experts believe that over the past 150 years we have used up about half the total oil on Earth. In other words, our oil supply “bottle” is still haf full.” But if we keep doubling our population, what will happen?
If we keep doubling our population then the resource supply is going to run out before our next doubling.
THE PEOPLE PARADOX VIDEO
About India
1. Compare the education of the residents of north and south India. How how does this correlate with the number of children women bear?
The education of a culture is directly correlated with how many children the average women does bear. Since the women in Southern India are more educated it means that they are having less children on average.
2. Who are the “gatekeepers to health services” in India?
Husbands and mother-in-laws are the “gatekeepers to health service” in India.
3. Why might sons be preferred in India? A son is preferred in India because of their ability to care for their parents when they get older.
4. India demographic pyramid? What implications does this have?
In the India demographic pyramid it shows half of the population to be at the age for reproduction. Unless changes are implemented in the North’s education, and total average new children is decreased, total population is going to grow at an exponential rate.
5. Why are daughter often considered a burden in India? Often daughters are considered a burden in India because they are not supposed to stay with the family and help out. They are usually married in arrangement and the parents are expected to provide a sum of money called a dowry.
6. How did Abidi Shah change the lives of the young women in the village? Abidi Shah has implemented health services and educational reforms that have been successful in encouraging young women to become independent by learning carrier skills and practicing forms of contraceptive.
7. What are the obstacles for women and employment in India?
The biggest obstacle for women and potential employment in India is that there are simply not enough jobs to support them.
8. What is the knife-edge that India sits upon?
The population of India is growing exponentially and surpassing there economic yield. There are shortages in both employment and natural resources.
About Japan
What is the “revolutionary change” that is happening in Japan
The change in Japan is the amount of children they are allowed to have leaves them with a declining population rate.
2. If fertility stays at 1.3, Japan’s population will shrink in half.
3. What are two reasons Japanese women want to work?
Japanese women want to work because they can not have has many children now. Also women in Japan want to work because of the desire for financial gain.
4. The newswoman and her family had problems with childcare arrangements. What is the relationship between declining birth rates and childcare?
Many Japanese women work long hours and have trouble finding daycares that are open at the right hours that would allow them to keep a job. Because of this many people in Japan choose to have kids later in life or not at all which leads to more of a decline in birth rate.
5. Who cares for elders in Japan? Traditionally the daughter-in-law is supposed to take care of her husbands parents. Many women now work long hours which leaves no one to care for the elderly.
6. What does Japan’s age structure look like? What implications does this have?
Since Japan’s present fertility rate is 1.3 this is eventually going to lead to a lack of youth and works that essentially support the economy. Soon there is not going to be enough people to support Japans economy and would eventually have to bring in outside help from immigrants.
7. How might immigration help solve this problem?
Immigration would allow the economy to thrive by supplying new citizens to support the economy.
8. What is the average family size worldwide? The average family size has less than 2 children.
9. Many countries encourage families to have more children. It has been found to be easier to reduce fertility than to raise it.
Sub-Suharan Afica
What does sub-Saharan Africa’s age structure look like? What implications does this have?
The age structure in sub-Saharan Africa has a small middle and top with a large base. This is due to the fact that many adults are dying from the Aids virus. The potential consequences for this type of structure is a country full of kids with very little adults to take care of them.
2. What situations create tremendous pressures to immigrate? Declining amount of available resources of job opportunities leads to incentive to immigrate.
3. Describe the demographic transition as exemplified in Kenya (starting at 40:21 and in text)
The death rate in Kenya is rising.
4. Death rates from HIV/Aids life expectancy has declined from 65 to 49 years.
5. Women in Africa might have to make a choice between reproducing and risking HIV infection.
6. Explain how the economic gains of Asian Tigers came about.
Since the birth rate has decrease it has left more money for employment and job opportunities.
7. The key to population stabilization key is the education and liberation of women.
8. Why should we care about other countries? Because humans are the same species regardless of what country they are from and we should be helping humanity out as a whole.
9. What are two things that struck you most strongly about the situations in this video?
The differences between India and Japan were shocking and the fact that even with the measures implemented for population control their economy is going to still have issues in the near future. Also what struck me as a potential solution was the fact that education has been shown to have a positive decrease in population growth. Educating the masses could prove beneficial for population control.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Introduction.
Today I am going to dissect a chicken leg. The purpose of my lab is to become more familiar with tissue, bones, and tendons. Seeing how muscles attach to bones and tendons is another important part of this lesson.
Procedure:
Put on gloves, if you have them.
2. Thoroughly rinse and dry one chicken leg. Place it on a plate or tray.
3. Examine the outside skin tissue.
4. Using scissors and a sharp knife, begin to work slowly and carefully to cut the skin and peel it away from the muscle below. Notice the clear connective tissue that holds the skin to the muscles. As you peel off the skin, you may need to cut away some of this connective tissue. Work slowly and carefully with scissors and knife until all skin is removed.
5. Connective tissue appearance.
A. Describe the appearance of the connective tissue.
The tissue was gelatinous, tough, and stretchy. It was mostly white or light in color.
B. What type of connective tissue is this? Epithelial Tissue.
6. Observe the yellowish clumps of fat tissue found outside the skin.
A. Describe the fat. The fat was slightly yellow in color and soft to the touch.
B. What are at least two of its functions? Two of the functions of fats are store energy and insulation.
C. Give the biological rem for the type of cells that store fat. Lipids
7. Observe bundles of pale, pink muscle tissue surrounding the bones.
8. Observe, with your naked eye, bundles of muscle tissue surrounding the bones. Separate the bundles of muscle by separating them out with your fingers. Begin by Inserting your thumb in to the muscle of the lower leg. You will need to push forcefully through the connective tissue covering the muscle, but it will give way at the natural separations between the muscle bundles.
Continue separating the muscle by forcing your thumb and fingers through the muscle until you are able to distinguish several separate bundles.
A. Describe the arrangement of the muscle bundles. The bundles of muscle were almost stacked on one another.
B. Do you see just one muscle, or are there many muscles present? There are several muscles.
C. How can you tell? They are kind of outlined and you can see them stacked on each other. Also you can see different tendons attached to different muscles.
9. The strong, shiny, white cords, called tendons, hold the muscle to the bones. Some of these tendons will pull away from the bone as you separate the muscle bundles.
Find the tendons of the chicken leg. Using the dissection scissors, cut across the tendons at Line A. Observe the numerous tendons and pull the freed muscles down and away from the bone, as if you were peeling a banana. Be careful you don’t cut any ligaments that attach bone to bone. Look closely at the ligaments.
Examine the two bones in the lower leg. The large bone (Bone A) is the tibia. The small, toothpick-like bone (Bone B) is the fibula.
A. What sort of connective tissue are tendons composed of? Tendons are fibrous connective tissue composed of collagen.
10. Skeleton Muscle function.
A. What are skeletal muscles? Skeletal muscles are attached to bones.
B. What are their functions? Muscles are responsible for movement of the body.
11. Remove a single muscle by cutting the tendons and peeling the muscle away from the bone. Nerves are generally thin, threadlike, white strands found between the muscle and the nearest bone. Look for the nerve in your specimen. The texture is much different from a tendon or bone. It is rather slippery.
A. Did you find it? Yup
12. Remove the muscle that covers Join B by cutting parallel to the femur, up ward toward the backbone. Remove pink muscle tissue until you see a shiny white sheet of ligament that cover the joint. Present is an exterior ligament that hips the femur in the hip socket.
A. What type of connective tissue compose the ligaments? Ligaments are fibrous tissue
13. Remove all remaining muscle to expose the bones of the chicken leg.
14. Cut onto the hinge joint by cutting into the top of the covering of the joint from the femur side. It will become apparent that you must remove the kneecap are to expose the menisci and ligaments within. Pull up on the kneecap are and cut through it with the scissors. You will have cut through the bursa, a sax that acts as a shock absorber for the knee joint. These are found in every joint.
15. Pull the covering back and look into the inside of the joint. You will see more white bands of ligaments holding the bones together. Observe the shiny, white layer covering the ends of the bones is cartilage. It helps the bones slide smoothly when the leg bends.
16. Bend the specimen at Join B and rotate the femur in all directions. Refer to pages 113-115 in your text book and answer these questions.
A. What type of joint is this? A ball and socket joint also known as a synovial joint
B. What type of movement is being demonstrated? The synovial joint is able to move by bending, extending, and rocking back and forth.
17. Cut the ligaments at the joint between the upper and lower leg. Examine how the bones fit into each other.
A. Describe the texture of the ends of the bones at the joint.
The texture at the ends of the bones is very smooth.
B. What is the specific name of this type of connective tissue? Hyaline Tissue.
C. What occurs when the cartilage at joints wears away? Arthritis.
D. How is a joint of this type built to delay this event? The joint has many protective layers such as muscles and tendons. The join itself is surrounded by a liquid to help mobility.
18. DO NOT BREAK THE RAW CHICKEN BONE. THERE IS DANGER FROM BONE FRAGMENTS FLYING OUT. If you could see inside the bone
A. What soft material would you find? Bone Marrow
B. Name three specific types of cells present here. We will not break it open. Osteoblast, osteocyte, and osteoclast.
C. Name three functions of bone. Bones produce blood cells that nourish the body. Bones provide support for the body. They also serve as storage for minerals such as calcium and phosphorous.
19. Explore and examine all the parts before cleaning the area.
20. Dispose of materials as directed. Using warm water and soap thoroughly wash all tools and materials, including your hands and the surface you worked upon.
Today I am going to dissect a chicken leg. The purpose of my lab is to become more familiar with tissue, bones, and tendons. Seeing how muscles attach to bones and tendons is another important part of this lesson.
Procedure:
Put on gloves, if you have them.
2. Thoroughly rinse and dry one chicken leg. Place it on a plate or tray.
3. Examine the outside skin tissue.
4. Using scissors and a sharp knife, begin to work slowly and carefully to cut the skin and peel it away from the muscle below. Notice the clear connective tissue that holds the skin to the muscles. As you peel off the skin, you may need to cut away some of this connective tissue. Work slowly and carefully with scissors and knife until all skin is removed.
5. Connective tissue appearance.
A. Describe the appearance of the connective tissue.
The tissue was gelatinous, tough, and stretchy. It was mostly white or light in color.
B. What type of connective tissue is this? Epithelial Tissue.
6. Observe the yellowish clumps of fat tissue found outside the skin.
A. Describe the fat. The fat was slightly yellow in color and soft to the touch.
B. What are at least two of its functions? Two of the functions of fats are store energy and insulation.
C. Give the biological rem for the type of cells that store fat. Lipids
7. Observe bundles of pale, pink muscle tissue surrounding the bones.
8. Observe, with your naked eye, bundles of muscle tissue surrounding the bones. Separate the bundles of muscle by separating them out with your fingers. Begin by Inserting your thumb in to the muscle of the lower leg. You will need to push forcefully through the connective tissue covering the muscle, but it will give way at the natural separations between the muscle bundles.
Continue separating the muscle by forcing your thumb and fingers through the muscle until you are able to distinguish several separate bundles.
A. Describe the arrangement of the muscle bundles. The bundles of muscle were almost stacked on one another.
B. Do you see just one muscle, or are there many muscles present? There are several muscles.
C. How can you tell? They are kind of outlined and you can see them stacked on each other. Also you can see different tendons attached to different muscles.
9. The strong, shiny, white cords, called tendons, hold the muscle to the bones. Some of these tendons will pull away from the bone as you separate the muscle bundles.
Find the tendons of the chicken leg. Using the dissection scissors, cut across the tendons at Line A. Observe the numerous tendons and pull the freed muscles down and away from the bone, as if you were peeling a banana. Be careful you don’t cut any ligaments that attach bone to bone. Look closely at the ligaments.
Examine the two bones in the lower leg. The large bone (Bone A) is the tibia. The small, toothpick-like bone (Bone B) is the fibula.
A. What sort of connective tissue are tendons composed of? Tendons are fibrous connective tissue composed of collagen.
10. Skeleton Muscle function.
A. What are skeletal muscles? Skeletal muscles are attached to bones.
B. What are their functions? Muscles are responsible for movement of the body.
11. Remove a single muscle by cutting the tendons and peeling the muscle away from the bone. Nerves are generally thin, threadlike, white strands found between the muscle and the nearest bone. Look for the nerve in your specimen. The texture is much different from a tendon or bone. It is rather slippery.
A. Did you find it? Yup
12. Remove the muscle that covers Join B by cutting parallel to the femur, up ward toward the backbone. Remove pink muscle tissue until you see a shiny white sheet of ligament that cover the joint. Present is an exterior ligament that hips the femur in the hip socket.
A. What type of connective tissue compose the ligaments? Ligaments are fibrous tissue
13. Remove all remaining muscle to expose the bones of the chicken leg.
14. Cut onto the hinge joint by cutting into the top of the covering of the joint from the femur side. It will become apparent that you must remove the kneecap are to expose the menisci and ligaments within. Pull up on the kneecap are and cut through it with the scissors. You will have cut through the bursa, a sax that acts as a shock absorber for the knee joint. These are found in every joint.
15. Pull the covering back and look into the inside of the joint. You will see more white bands of ligaments holding the bones together. Observe the shiny, white layer covering the ends of the bones is cartilage. It helps the bones slide smoothly when the leg bends.
16. Bend the specimen at Join B and rotate the femur in all directions. Refer to pages 113-115 in your text book and answer these questions.
A. What type of joint is this? A ball and socket joint also known as a synovial joint
B. What type of movement is being demonstrated? The synovial joint is able to move by bending, extending, and rocking back and forth.
17. Cut the ligaments at the joint between the upper and lower leg. Examine how the bones fit into each other.
A. Describe the texture of the ends of the bones at the joint.
The texture at the ends of the bones is very smooth.
B. What is the specific name of this type of connective tissue? Hyaline Tissue.
C. What occurs when the cartilage at joints wears away? Arthritis.
D. How is a joint of this type built to delay this event? The joint has many protective layers such as muscles and tendons. The join itself is surrounded by a liquid to help mobility.
18. DO NOT BREAK THE RAW CHICKEN BONE. THERE IS DANGER FROM BONE FRAGMENTS FLYING OUT. If you could see inside the bone
A. What soft material would you find? Bone Marrow
B. Name three specific types of cells present here. We will not break it open. Osteoblast, osteocyte, and osteoclast.
C. Name three functions of bone. Bones produce blood cells that nourish the body. Bones provide support for the body. They also serve as storage for minerals such as calcium and phosphorous.
19. Explore and examine all the parts before cleaning the area.
20. Dispose of materials as directed. Using warm water and soap thoroughly wash all tools and materials, including your hands and the surface you worked upon.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Personal Field Trip #2
Eucalyptus deglupta
A pretty tall tree, also known as Rainbow Eucalyptus, it is only found natural in the northern hemisphere. It has a unique multi-colored bark that makes it stand out from other trees. The bark is shed at different times which is what gives it the different colors. It is known for having blue, orange, purple, and maroon colors showing in the bark. It has green oval shaped leaves that come to a point some times taking on a curved shape inclining towards that of a scythe.
It can grow 8 feet a year reaching a height of 200-250 feet and a diameter of 8 feet wide.
Its a very tropical tree preferring average monthly rainfall to be at least 150 mm and a warm temperature of 70-90 F.
In 1870, the Eucalyptus tree was planted in Maui and at first seemed like a nice addition for a pleasant aromatic plant to grow here. The issue is that these trees are virtual monocultures which means they end up choking out all surrounding native plant life much like a weed would do.
Coccinia grandis
Ivy Gourd can grow up to 4 inches per day making it extremely invasive. It forms into dense blankets that end up stealing sunlight and nutrients from other plants. It was first intro ducked at as a food crop although quickly developed a reputation for infestation. It has been prepared in the use of medicinal tonics to alleviate symptoms of scabies as well as an effective anti-histamine.
Ivy Gourd This white flower, with five pedals and oblong red fruits, ends up attaching to shrubs, trees, houses, porches, fences, and telephone poles. If gone unattended then the Ivy Gourd can create a dense canopy that can suffocate other hosts under a its blanket of vines.
Arundo donax
Giant Reed prefers damp soils and forms into dense strands. It can grow up to 20 ft tall and sometimes reaching heights of 33 feet in the proper conditions. It has a hollow stem that averages 2 centimeters in width. The leaves are a grey-green color and come to a tapered tip. It is similar in appearances to the common reed (Phragmites australis) or bamboo (Subfamily Bambusoideae).
Giant Reed flowers during late summer with feathery plumes of 40 to 60 centimeters although are mostly seedless or with infertile seeds. Reproduction mostly happens vegetively by underground rhizomes. These rhizomes are very tough and fibrous and climb into knotty matts that can reach 4 feet into the earth. This allows the Giant Reed to be well adapted to floods and also increase its ability to invade areas of non native plants.
Giant Reed has also caused issues since its introduction as a non native species to the local native ones. This reed spreads rather quickly and can end up blocking streams and water flow which can inevitably lead to erosion and flooding. It can grow up to 20 feet tall.
12. Name five ways non-native invasive plant species can alter ecosystems.
Non-native plant species are invasive because of the way they displace native species and high jack nutrients for themselves. They can filter out sunlight from native species and use up precious water reserves. Another way they can alter ecosystems is by poisoning other animals and plant species.
Work Cited:
http://www.mauiinformationguide.com/invasive-species.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_deglupta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundo_donax
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