St. Louis Zoo and Insectarium

After the field project presentations and clean-up the field equipments in the lab, all the students decided to go to St. Louis Zoo (free, by the way) to pay Mr. Ed Spevak and the insectarium a visit.

Before heading back to the apartment to put my stuff away first, I came across this Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) on the sidewalk in the drizzling rain.  I gently picked it up and put it on a tree where it has more shelter.  What a beauty!


We were at the zoo with only about 1.5 hours to spare before closing, so we only had time to visit the insectarium.

Fast-forwarding the days

After the somewhat relaxing day-off on Saturday, the remainder of the week became incredibly busy in carrying out our field projects and staying late in labs to get results.

2012/4/23

Another student's project - use staining techniques to stain scent glands on different parts of flowers, as well as using SEM to look at the structural differences between the parts.

Being a tourist in St. Louis

A cloudy day today.  Good enough to go outside and explore downtown St. Louis with most of the group.

Walking towards the Gateway Arch.


WOW!  It's more impressive than this photo looks.

Bees and birds and a wedding

Yesterday (20th), we learned about pollinator foraging behaviours and the techniques they used when visiting different type of flowers and inflorescence in order to maximize their gain and minimize the loss.  We also began brainstorming about our field projects, and another student and I were thinking of teaming up to study what are the effects of ants on stigma receptivity and pollen germination.

This morning was a lecture on abiotic pollination - wind and water.  In the afternoon, we were off to the botanical garden to bag some flowers and start on our project.

Carpenter bee stealing nectar from the columbines.

Last few on Earth - Umbrella dracaena

Today is day four of the field course, and we learned about floral rewards to the pollinators, including nectar, pollen, resins, oils, gums, perfumes, floral and ovarian tissue, prey, sex, and shelter.

For this course, we had to conduct a small project related to pollination biology.  So in the afternoon, we were wondering around MBG trying to find topics and plants that interest us.

Inside the Climatron, we came across this precious Dracaena umbraculifera - only 16 individuals left on Earth and none left in the wild.  I am not sure if I should be happy to see it still surviving in here or sad to hear that it is one of the 16 left in this world.

Wandering around MBG

We learned the different types of floral advertisements that attract pollinators, ranging from vision, olfactory, nectar, texture, chemosensory, thermosensory, and timing.

In the afternoon, we were asked to collect flowers (given permissions) from the botanical garden and learn some techniques back in the lab.

I took some photos as I go along collecting flowers that interest me - mostly small or dioecious flowers, since my project focuses on Shepherdia canadensis.

Green Frog

Shaw Nature Reserve

In the morning we learned about the botanical and floral diversity in pollination biology. For example, the different mating and breeding systems for plants, as well as the history of categorizing flower types to better associate the pollinators and the appropriate pollinator syndrome.

Photographed a Syrphid during a break.


Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis)

In the afternoon, we headed to a different part of Missouri Botanical Garden outside the city. It is called Shaw Nature Reserve.

Arriving at St. Louis & Visiting Cahokia

After a long drive yesterday, we were only about four hours away from St. Louis by nighttime.  We decided to spent a night in Pontiac, Illinois.  Nothing too impressive about the city from our hotel close to the highway.

Agriculture lands next to the hotel.

Holiday Inn.