Dichotomous Table Lab

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