Chapter 11 Adopt a specie

Dear Mrs. Jones,

I have accumulated the information you requested. In this report you find the selective potential breeding of the Styrax platanifolius. Here is the classification information on thr Texas Snowbell.

• Kingdom- plantae
• Phylum- Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
• Class- Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
• Order -Ebenales
• Family- Styracaceae
• Genus- Styrax
• Species- Styrax olatanifolius- sycamoreleaf snowbell
• Subspecies-Styrax platanifolius texanus

Texas Snowbells are really easy to keep up. Here are some examples of its adaptations.

v Texas Snowbells grow in crevices along streams, dry creek beds, and also steep limestone. These beautiful plants last for a long time, their budding time is in March and last till August.

v Underneath the leaves is a fuzzy texture that leaves a shimmer when the wind blows back and forth. The buds on these flowers resemble a bell. The bust of color usually a yellow and white color, brings life to the surrounding.

v The way these plants reproduce is through a seeding process. When the plant is in the budding process which is in April they have fruit capsules. These capsules contain seeds which split open in August to September.

I have chosen this plant for our selective breeding process. I believe that this plant would bring a beautiful touch to someone’s back or front yard. These plants are easy to grow, easy to keep up, and they are bring a visually pleasing appeal to any flower bed. These flowers resemble a bell, with the different look to the flower people would love to add something different to their collection of plants.

These beautiful plants are endangered, they can only be found in two locations in Texas. If it would be possible to take some seedlings and plant them in a very friendly kept place with no animals around, these plant will flourish with life. The question that we would need to ask is how fast will these plants reproduce without any animals eating them up. What usually causes these plants to stop growing would be the animals that eat off of them. If we could know how much we could grow in a certain amount of time, we would know how long we would need to reproduce in masses. What we would also need is the ability to create a climate like Texas, in which these plants grow in.

I can only see benefits to this process, these plants are endangered. If we could create a way for these plants to not become extinct I think we would be doing a great deed. Creating these plants for people who would really enjoy them would be a great profit for us. A lot of people would buy them because they look different, which then would increase the amount of Texas Snowbells. Never the less we would be helping out these plants from becoming completely extinct. Thank you for your time and I hope you would consider this idea of breeding these endangered Texas Snowbells.

Sincerely,

Lauren Fluellen

Plant profile.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=STPLT

Texas snowbells (Styrax texanus)

Help save theTexas Snowbell Styrax Texanus

The plant that I chose is a Texas Snowbell, it belongs to the Plantae kingdom. This plant is a endangered specie and has been endangered since 1984. The Texas Snowbell is a flowering plant, it is described to hang upside down off of the stem. It usually is has a white bud that resembles a bell, and when it opens has a yellow stamen.

The Texas Snowbell can only be found in three counties in Texas Edwards, Real, and Val Verde Counties. The Texas Snowbell obtains food through photosynthesis. This plant lives near gravel streams.

Global warming can effect this plant that if the streams dry up then there would be no way this plant would survive. The reason why this plant is endangered is because dear, goats, and other animals eat on the plant. This evidence shows that since global warming has occurred in the last ten years there isn’t enough food for animals to eat. These plants produce beautiful flowers and I think it would be horrible if these plants become extinct.

Cited reference:

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Specie report. April 2004. Texas Snowbell
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=Q224

Texas Parks and Wildlife. Feburary 7, 2007. Texas Snowbell
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/endang/plants/snowbell.phtml