Today was the first meeting of BIO 255: General Ecology and my students impressed me with their background knowledge of natural history on and near campus. They walked in early morning grayness through a falling sleet that one woman aptly described as "slushies from the sky."
I challenged them to consider a camelia blossom I collected just outside the classroom moments before class. They brainstormed a variety of explantions focused on anthropogenic microclimates associated with the building (i.e. warm thermals and artificial light) as well as referencing the fact that late December was unseasonalbly warm (which might have triggered blooming). They also came up with the idea that the plant may have evolved to bloom early to reduce competition for pollinators and with a with a bit directed questioning came to consider the likelihood the plant evolved somewhere other than the Willamette Valley.It was pleasing to later read the NYT at lunch and see that my prompt was in perfect alignment with a question to the Science Times "Flowers in Winter"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/what-pollinates-flowers-that-bloom-in-winter.html?_r=1&ref=science . Our campus has a pretty interesting variety of ornamental plants with Asian origins in bloom or ready to bloom that I hope to profile in coming days.
