These are specimens of an oakleaf hydrangea plant. All of the associated mounts have leaves from an oakleaf hydrangea, which feature six symmetrical divots in each leaf, giving the leaf seven distinct sections. Some of the mounts have flowers in various stages of blooming, with the buds a light green and the blooms a cream white. The buds and flowers are on the ends of a shoot and form a conical shape altogether, with the overall bundle measuring approximately 18 cm. The leaves vary in size between 8-19 cm and the overall mount measures approximately 41 cm x 29 cm. This specimen description was written remotely based on images as part of Amber Kreiensieck's internship in Fall 2021.
- Catalog Number:
- 400900
- Object/Specimen Description:
- Specimen Count:
- 5
- Collector:
- N. Erwin
- Precise Locality:
NMNH Butterfly Garden
- Locality:
- US Mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, MD, DE, DC, VA, WV)
- Collecting Date:
- 06 Jun 2013
- Collecting Locality:
- North America, United States, District of Columbia
- Upper Level Taxonomy:
- Plantae, Equisetopsida, Magnoliidae, Asteranae, Cornales, Hydrangeaceae
Dicots begin their lives as seeds nourished by two seed leaves (cotyledons). The leaves provide nutrients to the developing seed until it grows its first real leaves that can make food by photosynthesizing. Most flowering plants are dicots, which includes many of the foods humans enjoy: grapes, squash, soybeans, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, etc. You can tell a dicot by its characteristic branching leaf veins. Not only do dicots feed us, they also cloth us; cotton, linen, and hemp are dicots. Because dicots and conifers are the only plants able to form wood, they are central to our building industry. Wood is extra plant tissue for transporting water and nutrients (vascular tissue). It forms when cells specialized for growth (meristems) continue to divide. The result is that the tree grows, adding to its width and height. Maples, oaks, and hickories, all sources of wood, are dicots.