Without leaves, other things
are visible. Tree bark and branches. Bird
and squirrel nests and mistletoe. Different
plants such as ferns, mosses, and
liverworts. All of these thrive in the cool
wet conditions of a
Bay Area winter.
Seeds
In November, we
celebrate Thanksgiving and the harvest. In the
natural world, the growing season is over, and many
plants have gone to seed.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and find as many
different kinds of seeds as you can. They might be
at the tips of stalks of grass, in pinecones, among
the petals of a flower, or inside a fruit.
Then look around your kitchen to find examples of
seeds that might be there. Here are a few hints. One
kind of seed tastes really good with jelly in a
sandwich. Another kind makes the bread for that
sandwich. Still others might be in your breakfast
cereal. If you make some brownies, you might add a
few of these seeds to the batter.
If you want to learn more about seeds, here are some
great websites.
What's in a rice grain and how does it grow?
http://www.riceweb.org/Plant.htm
For a detailed look at a seed:
http://www.leubner.ch/anatomy.html
http://www.flash.net/~ben8403/seedanat.html
Dew, frost, rain, and
snow
If you fill a glass with
water and ice and leave it on the table, before long
water drops will appear on the side of the glass.
The glass isn't leaking. The water actually comes
out of the air.
The air around us contains water vapor. The warm
room air can hold more water than cold air around
the cold glass so the water in the air becomes
liquid and coats the glass. We call this
condensation.
Condensation also happens outside. On your way to
school in the morning, you might see dew on the
grass or, if it is cold enough, frost.
Condensation can also happen way up in the air. The
water may coat a tiny dust particle. When enough
water has attached to the dust particle, a drop of
water forms and may fall to the ground as rain or,
if it's cold enough, as snow.
Keep your eye open for condensed water outside. Look
for the dew or frost or rain, and think about the
water on the side of your glass.
If you want to learn more about water vapor, here
are some great websites.
How does dew form:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/jul2000/962721935.Ph.r.html
A more detailed explanation of how dew and frost
form:
http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~cortinas/1014/l12_2.html
LICHENS
Jim Conrad
(backyardnature.net, reproduced with permission)
Structurally,
lichens are among the most bizarre of all forms of life.
That's because every lichen species is actually composed
of two, possibly even three, other distinct species of
organisms. One species is a kind of fungus, usually the
other species is an alga, but sometimes it can be a
photosynthesizing bacterium known as a cyanobacterium.
Sometimes all three organisms are found in one lichen.
The drawing at the right gives an idea of what fungal
hyphae wrapping around an alga cell might look like at
the microscopic level. Since fungi are not even
considered to be plants, and algae and bacteria usually
look nothing like lichens, what lichens do is almost
like merging a shrub with a dog to produce something
that looks and lives unlike either shrub or dog!
For more information on lichens and
other winter plants, see
www.backyardnature.net.
