back to Time-lapse content

black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

Ecology- Black locust is leguminous tree species occurring throughout much of the eastern United States. Because black locust is a legume, it can affect soil fertility. The implications of being a legume and the legume lifestyle are discussed in more detail here redbud. Black locust can become weedy. For exampe, it has expanded its native range in the United States and it has also beome an invasive weedy tree species in parts of Europe and elsewhere.

Development- This sequence shows the emergence of seedlings from the soil and their subsequent growth. They appear to dance back and forth. This is because cell division often occurs in radial patterns causing stems to spin as elongation radially occurs. Actively growing apical meristems (and meristem tissue in general) are present in both shoots and roots. Meristem tissue is equivalent to stem cells in the sense that these cells are undifferentiated. Botanists have known for some time how to clone entire plants from meristem cells.

alternate video format (H.264)

This sequence was shot over 10 days at a frame rate of one every 30 minutes using a Digital Canon Rebel tethered to a laptop running the program RemoteCapture 2.7.