Analysis

Phylogenetic Tree

Looking at our pollen morphology, the Rhododendron and and Kangaroo Paw shared more similarities leading us to believe that they were closer in relation. However, when looking at the protein sequences we found that the Kangaroo Paw was actually closer in relation to the Kris Kringle cactus. This makes sense because the Kangaroo Paw and Kris Kringle cactus are both plants that live in warm climates while the Rhododendron lives in temperate climates.

Original Scientific Question

"If our hypothesis is supported, we expect to find pollen which live in wet climates to have more protrusions or "spikes"while ones in dry climates have a smooth outside.
If our hypothesis is rejected, we will not see these physical features on the pollen grain which help it maneuver it's environment."

Upon beginning this experiment we believed that wet climate plants would have "clingy" pollen while dry climates had "airborne" pollen. Our hypothesis was semi correct. Kangaroo Paw which comes from a hot climate, while shriveled up appeared to be round/ airborne without any spikes. This matched our hypothesis for pollen and dry climates.The Kris Kringle cactus which resides naturally in a warm but humid climate displayed protrusions in the pollen grain. At first we did not understand why the Kris Kringle would have spikes, however after learning that they are from humid climates, their pollen morphology made sense.
The morphology of the rhododendron however did not show anything that looked "clingy" which is why we decided to group it with Kangaroo Paw in our initial tree. We thought that it would have spikes considering that it came from a wet climate. The rhododendron did not match our initial hypothesis.