In the morning I looked at some of the many Canavalia flowers I gathered as samples. I think total I gathered 6 different samples all from different fields (Zwai and Soddo) and different plots. So many flowers to look at under the microscope! I didn't get to looking at all of them yesterday. I only observed 2 different accessions. The first flower I looked at was from the plant that I produced the seed pods from! I am still very puzzled about this. The week before when I looked at some of the anthers I couldn't find any pollen and on the anthers I looked at yesterday I couldn't find any either. Somehow though, in earlier samples that I examined, I claimed to have found pollen, and now 2 seed pods have produced after I hand pollinated the flowers! So there has to be pollen, but I can't find any in these samples anymore...
Because I was unsure, I asked Dr. Jean if she could have a look to see if she found any pollen on the anthers or stigma. She couldn't find any either, but said that the anthers appear to have already opened up and released all of the pollen. They've dried up already. She looked at a younger flower that hadn't opened up yet thinking that maybe the anthers on that one would contain pollen, but found the same thing. The first flower had the petals opened up, and the second one still had all of the pistils (anther+filament=pistil) encased in the petal. Even that one appeared to have the anthers opened up and dried out with no pollen. Dr. Jean said that plants/flowers that do this self-pollinate and not cross-pollinate... Hmm... Well that doesn't help... During my research at the beginning, I found a large list of plants and whether they self- or cross-pollinate, and out of the 10 or so Canavalia's listed, 4 of them said it cross-pollinates and the others didn't have any pollination process listed. Also, the seed pods that were produced came from when I hand pollinated the flowers. Or at least I'm assuming because that was where I did my pollination... It's been growing in Zwai for over 5 years, so it wouldn't just now produce seeds. It doesn't work like that, so I'm still trying to figure all of this out. I'm still very confused, but I'm hoping I will get the opportunity to talk to Dr. Jean about it this coming week to discuss everything and figure everything out.
I observed one other sample of Canavalia sp. just to compare the pollen of it to the other sample I was looking at. That, of course, didn't help too much beings I didn't find any pollen on the other sample. The pollen I found on that sample though was huge! The grains are so large and there's so much on the anthers! Also, the stigma was covered in pollen grains and was a nice golden color! If only the other Canavalia was like that... Oh well! I got seed pods so I'm good!!! :)
I spent a long time observing those, and then I worked some more on my report beings it's due in a little over a week! That came so fast! I'm not too concerned though because I have a lot of it done. I just need to add in my conclusions and appendices, then edit it! :)
At the end of the work day we stopped in Dr. Jean's office to talk to her for a bit, and we discussed the date of Millie's and my seminar! I remember thinking at the beginning of this internship how far away that is, and here it is already! It's scheduled for this coming Friday! Most of the members from the Genebank attend as well as a few others who want to come. It a small group that shows up; maybe 20 people. Which is good! I'm totally okay with a small group! Millie and I are doing our seminar together because we've done everything together. All of our tests, field and farm visits, and everything else is the same. The only difference is our plant species. We'll do everything together, but then split off and each talk about our own plant species, what we did, the results from the various tests, and suggestions of what to do in the future if our hypothesis wasn't correct. Lei might also be doing her seminar with us. She leaves the Thursday after us, so she might do hers with us, or wait until the next week. I'm so excited for it though!!! I can't wait! But... Millie and I still have to make our powerpoint and decide what all we want to say and include... That's what I'll be doing most of this coming week! Working on the seminar and finalizing my final report!
I didn't forget to take a picture of my lunch don't worry! I still didn't go for the injera today. I got the Italian Dish, which was baked noodles with cabbage topped with meat sauce. Of course I got my bread roll as always! I finally got dessert today! It was breaded pineapple, and then it was fried. Then drizzled with chocolate sauce! Yumm! I thought I deserved a little treat today:)
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| Pasta! |
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| Mmmmmm:) fried pineapple with chocolate:) |
This morning, Millie and I decided to go to Bilo's Pastry again for some juice and pastries. Of course! The juice we ordered this morning was mango and banana. I haven't had the banana one yet, so it was good to try something different! I'm still trying to figure out what exactly it is. It seriously is a mix between fruit juice and a smoothie. I don't know. I mean it's thick, but there's no added ingredients. It just blows my mind! Our pastries were interesting.
It was kind of funny. Since neither Millie and I can speak Amharic except for the VERY basic words, and most workers speak some English, but it's extremely limited, ordering things is always fun! I described the 2 pastries in their counter that we wanted to try (we would share both of them so that we got to try each), but the serve didn't understand what I was saying, so he walked over to the counter and started pointing at the different item they had. Our table wasn't exactly the closest to the counter, so it was difficult to see what he was pointing at, and neither of our gestures were getting us anywhere... It was kind of funny for a while because both the server and I were pointing left and right and up and down and trying to understand the other while doing this! It wasn't working, so after a few chuckles from the both of us, I decided to go over next to him at the counter and point directly to what Millie and I wanted. So much easier! We ordered a croissant, (but not in croissant form/shape) and a type of bread. The croissant was very buttery, but I loved how it was flaky. So tasty! The other item I ordered was a type of bread. It was really sweet and the top was covered with powdered sugar! Can't beat that right?:)
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| Banana and mango juice! (Aka: spritz, but no one calls them that for some reason!) |
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| The sweet bread! |
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| The croissant that's not really a croissant! |
Other than that, Millie and I haven't made any plans for tomorrow, but we'll see if someone snatches us up! You never know with people around here! :) Well that's all for now folks! I can't believe this is my second to last weekend here though! It's all going so fast! Slow down!!!! :)
I also hope that Trey, my mom, and all the other members from my church have a great time on the church retreat in Colorado! I really wish I could be there to help out with you all, but I'm still glad I'm here:) Have a great time! (but don't have fun white water rafting because I'm not there:)...)
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