These are branches from a slippery elm tree. There are three 2-D botanical mounts associated with this catalog number. The branches are thin and have offshoots, both of which have buds and flower clusters attached directly to the branch pieces. The branches are dark brown and range from 25 cm-42 cm in height and 9cm-23 cm in length. The tallest botanical mount measures approximately 42 cm x 27.5 cm. This specimen description was written remotely based on images as part of Amber Kreiensieck's internship in Fall 2021.
- Catalog Number:
- 400852
- Object/Specimen Description:
- Specimen Count:
- 3
- Collector:
- N. Erwin
- Precise Locality:
Lovettsville, Furnace Mountain
- Locality:
- US Mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, MD, DE, DC, VA, WV)
- Collecting Date:
- 07 Apr 2013
- Collecting Locality:
- North America, United States, Virginia, Loudoun County
- Upper Level Taxonomy:
- Plantae, Equisetopsida, Magnoliidae, Rosanae, Rosales, Ulmaceae
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.