Working on our projects!

This week flew by! I don't even know where it went! I feel like it was just Monday! I've almost been here 2 weeks already. Only 6 Wednesday-Friday's left! Millie and I were just talking about how we feel like we just got here! I have no idea how it went that quickly. I guess that's good because that means everything is going well. Better than dragging on that's for sure!

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. We did the same exact things today as we did yesterday, so I didn't want to repeat everything...

On Wednesday, Dr. Jean went to Zwai (one of the fields that Ricardo is studying and creating his thesis off of) to assist Ricardo in observing the field. My plant, Canavalia sp. is located in that field. This is the one that is flowering, but not producing any seeds. It's difficult to work with it because it's not grown in the greenhouse, so whenever I need more flower to dissect, work with, and study, I need to tell whoever is traveling to that field to gather me some samples from all the different development stages. I can't just go on my own because it's about a 2 hour drive to get there... Not exactly the nearest to get to... It's also a challenge because no one knows what the species of it is. They only know the genus, so it's difficult to research a plant with a genus that has over 40 species to it. It can somewhat narrow it down to a few because of it's petals and look, but that doesn't narrow it down too far... Woo! Challenge accepted:)

These past 2 days were successful though with my research though! I think I have a couple ideas of the issues! We were all given a sheet with all the information that ILRI knows about the plant. Some have more than others. Luckily, my sheet for Canavalia sp. included that it's from the region of Mwanza in Tanzania. Also, the exact location this plant was taken from was the beach of Saanane Island in Lake Victoria. It also said that the annual average temperature in the region was 23 degrees Celsius. This is slightly different from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's temperature... It's not too far off, but Ethiopia's is roughly 18 degrees Celsius. This could have some effect on the plant. Also, in it's origin, the annual average rainfall is 1000 mm and Ethiopia's is 1165 mm. That is quite a bit of a difference when it comes to watering a plant. Also, there was a huge difference in altitude of both areas. Tanzania has an altitude of 1002 meters and Ethiopia has one of 2300 meters. This causes a change in oxygen levels, sunlight, temperatures, rainfall, and many other factors. There were many other weather and environmental factors that varied quite a bit, but those were the main ones.

Because it isn't seeding, Dr. Jean thought there wasn't any pollen on the anthers or stigma. During my dissections yesterday, I only came across 2 flowers with pollen on it, but there were only slight traces. There was only one anther out of the 39 total anthers (only 4 flowers total) that had pollen on it. This flower measured 2.9 cm from the tip of the petal to the bud. The pollen wasn't even very thick on it, only slightly apparent. All the other anthers were a pale yellow and wrinkly. The other flower with pollen on it only had a few grains of pollen on the outsides of the filaments. This flower measured 2.3 cm. The other flowers that didn't have any pollen on them measured 1.8 cm and 1.4 cm. Based off these observations, it seems like the more matured flowers contain pollen, but it's not very much, so I have to figure out why that is. Also, because there is pollen, why aren't any seeds being produced?

The flowers I sampled

All of the flowers Dr. Jean collected for me

Today I dissected 5 more flowers. The more samples and data I have, the better my records and observations will be. Today, I found pollen on 3 of the 5 samples! This was very surprising now. There were 21 out of 50 total anthers with pollen on them. This was great to see! Some of the pollen was just starting because it wasn't in solid grains yet. It was in much tinier grains and very little of it. There were 2 flowers that had very developed pollen though. It was in very large grains. Very crystal-like and it would just fall off the anthers. All the ones with pollen on the anthers also had pollen on the filaments. One had it going down the style, and another had it on the tip of the stigma. These flowers with pollen on them measured 1.5, 3, and 3 cm. The two that didn't contain any pollen measured 1.3 and 0.8 cm. So why isn't this flower producing seeds if the pollen is visible on the anthers, style, and stigma?!

5 anthers with pollen on them

Stigma with pollen grain on it
(the shiny spot on the top left of it)

Another idea I have as to why it won't produce seeds is it's not getting pollinated properly. Through all my research the past 3 days about Canavalia sp., I came to find its pollination system: out-crossing. Out-crossing is to cross animals or plants by breeding individuals of different strains but usually of the same breed or species. In other words, using pollen from a different plant but of the same species to pollinate the plant. I think this is part of the issue because they only have one Canavalia sp. plant. (Or so they think...) There is another plant about 100 meters from it that is from the same genus, but it produces seeds perfectly. Because this plant is producing just fine, and the one I'm researching about isn't, they think they're different species. I guess the only way to find out if this is the problem it to take pollen from the perfectly fine flower and use it to pollinate the one that isn't producing and see if in 2 or so weeks it the pollen has been germinated. I don't know when I will be able to do this since it's such a drive to get there. Dr. Jean said that we will take a trip down there on June 30th, so that will probably be when I try to pollinate it. Hopefully that's what the problem is! I just hope they're of the same species! (But realistically thinking it most likely isn't the same species since one is producing perfectly and the other isn't...) Good thing I have 6 more weeks to work on this! I'll need all the time I can get!

While working, I couldn't help but notice all the movement outside. The women (and one lone man) were preparing some of the very small plots right outside the window of the herbarium! The work they do looks so challenging and tiring. I don't think I could do that all day for weeks on end...

All the women use very short and small
hoes to work the soil

Enough about work. Time for food! Yesterday and today Millie and I made our own dinner in our nice little hostels. It's so much fun! It's kind of a pain though because neither of her burners work in her room, so we have to use mine. It works just fine, but it kind of gets annoying having to walk from room to room just to use the burners. We make it work though! It's so much fun to walk to the grocery store and plan out what we want to make for the next couple days for some of our meals! Yesterday we cooked kidney beans, and had those, carrots, green beans, green peppers, mango, and bread with peanut butter! And always tea! It tasted so delicious!

Tonight, we also made our dinner and it was so scrumptious! We boiled some macaroni noodles and mixed that with some tomato paste and mushrooms. Yumm! We also cooked up a mix of 3 different beans: green beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas. Along with that, we had some carrots and of course tea again!

While Millie and I were enjoying our meal, a cat came creeping by our hostel. My first thought was, "Aww how cute. A little kitty!" That thought quickly turned into, "Oh my gosh! I left my door open!" Before I could get up to close my door, the kitty was already a foot into my room! It darted under my bed, but as soon as it realized I hurried into the room, it scrambled out the door! I shut my door quick before any other animal came creeping in! Millie and I then resumed our meal when a few minutes later, the kitty came walking by and meowing. It looked so hungry, so Millie took a tiny helping of our macaroni and put it out on the sidewalk for it to eat something. It was hesitant as first, but then became more comfortable and started eating. We then fed it a little bread. The next thing we knew it was gone!

Hesitant at first...

Then realized how hungry it was

It was a pretty exciting past 2 days and I can't wait for our second weekend here! I can't believe it's here already! It seems like we just had the weekend! It's going to be a pretty relaxed weekend thank goodness! Millie and I don't have too many plans. We're going to spend our morning in the Zebu drinking coffee, messing around on our laptops, and watch some of the World Cup! It's so cool to be here during it! Everyone here is so excited about it! It's all anyone talks about! I love it! I would compare soccer here to football and the Super Bowl in the United States, but even more enthusiastic. (Probably because this includes more than just one country...) Minor detail! Other than that, we really don't have any plans unless Dr. Jean calls us and wants to take us to a few places around Addis. She wasn't sure if she would be able to or not, so that's a maybe. Other than that, we're just going to relax and enjoy the weekend:)