Really Weird
Plants
Poetry Book
by
Mrs. Shellenberger’s First Graders
November 2006
We dedicate this book
to
all the botanists in the world
and
Ms. Lundgren
and
Ms. DeGroat.
How We Did It!
We started by sketching a plant and labeling the plant parts:
leaves, flower, seed, bud, stem, and roots. Then we looked at all
the plant books. We studied the pictures. People started to look
at weird plants, like the ones that catch and eat bugs.
When we went to the computer lab, we looked at plant
websites. There were so many weird plants that we decided to
make a list of them.
Ms. Shellenberger got the list of plants and asked, “Which
plant do you want?” We said the water wheel, or indian pipe or
octopus plant.
We looked at the books again and found a picture of our plant.
Then we drew our plant on our research page. Ms. Shellenberger
photocopied the pages in the books. We worked on highlighting
words. We wrote the highlighted words on our research paper.
We wrote down words we didn’t know, words we liked or important
words.
We went to the art room to make a collage of our plant. We
used scraps of odd papers. We looked at the pictures to see what
color the plant was. We looked at the books to see what shapes we
could see. Then we drew on the back of the paper. We had to find
details. We cut and glued the pieces on.
When we went to the computer lab, we looked at websites
with poetry. We read a lot of poetry books.
We thought about our plant - what it’s like. Our research
paper said, “notetaking and notemaking.” On one side we wrote
facts and on the other side we wrote reminds me of. We wrote
key words and words we liked.
We asked wondering questions. We made connections to
other things. We kept on thinking about it and came up with more
stuff.
Some people had 30 words. We selected 13 or more best
words. It could also be a clump of words, like “rattle snake venom.”
We decided which words and wrote them on our cards. We mixed
the words around. Sometimes we traded in our words for other
words. We could only use 9 words or clumps of words. The pattern
1
for the poetry was:
2
3
2
1
Finally, we had the words the way we liked and then we glued
them down.
The last thing we did was hang the pictures and the poetry up
in the hallway.
written by Lauren, Danny and Sukhmai
Venus Flytrap
I’m growing one
green pink
eating pie
have teeth flies get trapped it is good
flies get trapped
I love the Venus Flytrap
“porcupine”, said the fly
Venus flytrap
Blake
Upas Tree
Upas tree
tree
dog barking
rattle snake venom
human heart
my sister beating me up
me bleeding
wrestling match
painful
Caleb
Mistletoe
mistletoe
special organs
orange
haustoria
haunted history
skin
helps others
toes
fruit
Camille
Butterwort
butterwort
irresistible
killer plants
greasy sandpapery leaves
shiny appearance
fungus
digest
exoskeleton
flying insects
Chamiqua
Touch-Me-Not
touch
me
ball
not
people serving you
sensitive
mommy
myself
rain
Dakota
Water Wheel
water wheel
ferris wheel
wheel
plankton
catches
traps
Sponge Bob
small animals
water
Danny
Dodder
the dodder
botanical
dots
monstrosities
pests
mistakes
vines
forgotten
vampires
Duncan
Rafflesia
rafflesia
largest
jungle
flower
roots
leaves
lacking
wildgrapes
rotten meat
Eriq
Pitcher Plant
waxy
drawing
gigantic
the tropical
pitcher
plant
jungle book
jungle vine that
is as long as 50 feet
Gracyn
Golf Ball
golf ball
fleshy
sand
white stem
dunes
roots
attach
victim
rare
Grant
Star Fish
slippery
star
gooey
fish
leaves
lands
dinner
digest
gulp
Haylee
Corpse Lily
rotting
died
largest
stinks
corpse
huge flowers
lily
skunks
animal
Jaz’men
Sundew
digestive juices
shiny drop
sticky fruit
sundew
droplets
deadly
victim
tentacle
absorbed
Jilly
Indian Pipe
decaying leaves
sugary
forest frog
robber
color leaves
fungi
juices
steal food
apple juice
Lauren
Gemsbok Cucumber
vine
Gemsbok
aardvark
cucumber
buries
cactus
the seed
stores water
germinate
Lucian
Ball Moss
ball moss
plants
fleshy
leaves
green
white fuzz seeds
stalks
live
slender round
Madelyn
Bluebonnet
blood
flowers
pebbles
indians
seeds
folk
bluebonnet
tales
birds
Madison
Medusa Snake Tree
monster
Medusa’s
red catkins
snakes
cats
one foot
reptiles
big
chenille
Nancy
Living Rocks
succulent plants
living
desert
flat
avoid
rocks
stemless
insects
clump-farming
Parker
Strangler Fig
tropical
strangler
strangling
fig
destroy its host tree
food rots
tree trunk rots
frogs live in tropical forests
Fig Newtons
Reece
Bladderwort
door
trapdoor
bladderwort’s worts
animal
swimming animal
frogs
frog worts worts
prey
Shep
Octopus Plant
octopus
plants
fly
digest
prank
arms
bother
tentacles
glisten
Sukhmai
Website We Used…
http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/2003/archives/2003/in_the_garden/gardening_styles_and_features/
weird_plants
http://www.rareflora.com/unusual.html
http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa062702a.htm
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0827_030828_weirdplants.html
http://www.blackjungle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=BJTS&Category_C
ode=CP
http://www.weirddudesplantzoo.com/
http://www.plantingscience.org/
http://www.botany.org/bsa/misc/carn.html
http://www.flytraps.com/
http://www.kathimitchell.com/plants.html
Books We Used…
Plants of Prey by Densey Clyne
Meat-Eating Plants by Penny Harwood
Wacky Trees by Dorothy M. Souza
Venus Flytraps, Bladderworts: and Other Wild and Amazing Plants
by Monica Halpern
Hungry Plants by Mary Batten, Paul Mirocha
Carnivorous Plants by Adrian Slack, Jane Gate
Carnivorous Plants
by Dwight Kuhn (Photographer), Elaine Pascoe
Plants Bite Back! by Richard Platt
Carnivorous Plants
They are not really meat eaters, rather they are insect eaters. They really do not eat the prey. Rather
they trap the prey, then it dies and rots. The nutrients and amino acids from the rotting insect are
absorbed by the leaf. Most of these plants live in very poor soil, so this is how they get the nutrients
they need to grow.
Spring Close Trap on Prey
When an insect enters the trap and touches the trigger hairs, the trap closes to trap the prey.
Triggers on Venus fly trap. The
triggers have to be touched two times
to trigger the trap to close.
Venus Fly Trap
(Dionaea muscipula)
Venus Fly Trap
Trap Prey in a Funnel
Insect crawls down the tube or funnel shaped leaf. The cannot crawl out because the sides of the leaf are
too slippery or they have downward pointing hairs that keep them from crawling back up.
Purple Pitcher Plant
(Sarracenia purpurea)
Nepenthes
(Nepenthes alata)
Pitcher Plant
(Sarracenea flava)
(Darlingtonia Californica)
Trap Prey with Sticky Fly Paper
The leaves are covered with glandular hairs that secrete a sticky fluid. When an insect contact the leaf,
it gets stuck in the sticky fluid.
Sun dew (Drosera)
Plants That Rise From the Dead
Resurrection Fern
(Selaginella lepidophylla)
The resurrection fern live in very dry climates. When there is not enough rain, it dries up into a
shriveled up ball. It can remain this way for years. When it finally rains, the dry leaves absorb the water
and unroll. Once it is hydrated, the plant turns green and grows. As long as you keep it watered, it will
grow into a nice little plant. If you stop watering it, it will dry and form a ball. So it never really "rises
from the dead". It is always alive, even when it is dried out (kind of like dry seeds).
Plants That Can Strangle
Ficus seeds will germinate in the branches of a tree. It will them make roots
(adventitious roots, that grow down the trunk. Once the roots reach the
ground, they grow into the soil. The roots get larger in diameter each year
and will eventually completely surround the tree. Thus, the fig eventually
strangles the tree. It could do the same to you - if you stayed in one place
and did not move for a couple of decades!
Strangler Fig
(Ficus)
Plants That Stink
The flowers stink like rotting meat or a rotting animal. Why? To attract flowers to pollinate the flower.
Stapelia
(Stapelia gigantea)
Corpse Lily
(Amorphophallus titanum)
The corpse lily is one of the largest flowers in the
world. And it stinks like a rotting animal, hence the
name corpse lily.
The stapelia plant makes a flower that smells
like rotting meat.
Plants Look Like Rocks
Some plants or their seeds look like small rocks or pebbles.
Living Rocks
(Lithops)
Texas Bluebonnet Seeds
(Lupinus texensis)
Living rocks are small succulent plants that live in
the desert. You may never notice them because
they grow flat with the ground and look exactly like
a rock. Why? Probably to avoid insects and
rodents seeing them and eating them for their water.
Bluebonnet seeds look like little pebbles. Why?
So birds will eat them thinking they are the
pebbles they need to digest their foods. But the
seeds a very hard and some are not digested.
Therefore, the birds spread the seed in their
droppings.
Plants That Grow In Air
These are epiphytes that grow up in the air on something else. The mostly grow on the barks of trees.
Their roots attach to the bark. They roots catch debris they falls from the trees and that wash down the
trunks when it rains. They get all their nutrients from the nutrients that wash down the trunks and from
the debris as it decomposes.
Ball Moss
(Tillandsia recurvata)
This is a native Texas bromeliad. It is
common in south central Texas. I
have seen it growing on power lines in
the Goliad area.
Epiphytic Orchid
Epiphytic Bromeliad
(Cattleya)
(Bromeliad)
Many tropical bromeliads are
Many tropical and semiepiphytes. They grow on the tropical orchids are epiphytes.
trunks of trees.
They grow on the trunks of
trees.
Plants That Move
Touch-Me-Not or Sensitive
Plant
(Mimosa punica)
The Touch-Me-Not plant will
fold up its leaflets and droop
its leaves when it is touched
and at night. Why? It may
close them at night to conserve
water. It may close them when
touched so they are not as
visible to be eaten by grazing
animals.