Dichotomous Table Lab
Essay Preview: Dichotomous Table Lab
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Wildflower Dichotomous Key
1A. One Stem
Go to 2
1B. Multiple Stems
Go to 3
2A. Three Large Leaves below small flower
Trillium
2B. Different appearance
Go to 4
3A. Arrow-shaped leaves
Arrowhead
3B. Five-petaled flower with 4 leaves
Violet
4A. 2 large leaves at top
May apple
4B. Different appearance
Go to 5
5A. Bell-shaped flower
Bellwort
5B. Almost Spherical flower
Clover
Pre-Lab
1. At each step, the dichotomous key provides 2 choices.
2.Some differences include lack of hind legs, flattened tail, external gills, and different spot patterns and colors.
3.Some of the apparent similarities between the salamanders of the genus Ambystoma are being black with white spots.
4. It would be a good idea to first separate the flowers by if they have one or many stems, or if they have leaves.
5. You could separate by color if you had live flowers.
Analysis and conclusions.
1. Some of the basic differences between the salamanders were the shape of the tail, the number of limbs, external gills, color, and presence of spots.
2. Yes, there are some limitations because some people may interpret the descriptions differently abd pick the wrong ones, which is a problem.
3. I think that the shape of the petals of the trillium and the violet are similar enough that they could possibly be from the same genus.
4. Shape of petals, number of leaves, number of stems, and shape of leaves could all be used to find similarities and differences.
5.I think the the salamanders of the Ambystoma genus are closer than the Mud puppy and the Newt because they are of the same genus, while the other two are members of the genuses