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