User:Chaleb96/sandbox

Wikipedia Reflection
I was initially surprised at how easy it is to edit wikipedia. The simple program language for wikipedia formatting makes sense to me, and I had a fun time with it. I chose to edit the Vaccinium deliciousum page, since it is my favorite plant, and it seemed like it was lacking some information and was short compared to other similar plant species articles. The short description of the plant was good, but I wanted to include why the plant is important to the environment, as well as a couple of things about its physiology. First, I edited the description of the plant just a bit to include some clarifications on leaf size and berry size. The citation for the description was from the early 1900's, so I added another citation from a more recent publication. I added a picture of the full plant from my own photo library, and included the previous photo which just showed the fruits later on in the article. I added a section on physiology of how the plant survives cold and why it is so tasty, and I added an ecology section about how humans and animals use the plant. I did some minor edits for my peer reviews, and I made some suggestions about how other students could incorporate their original material into the current article that they were working on. To be honest, I didn't really get much valuable information from my peers about my article, other than to add more information in the physiology section. I have not yet received any feedback after my edits went live. This assignment was very fulfilling, not overly work intensive, and it gave me a lot of freedom to write about whatever i wanted. I hope my article can contribute to the knowledge of other plant enthusiasts in the pacific northwest that enjoy spending time in alpine environments, and like learning about edible plants in our area.

To Be Reviewed
Ideas: The current article has a good description that I might change a bit.





Description
Vaccinium deliciosum is a low growing, deciduous shrub that grows in colonies, and is generally matted and rhizomatous. It is native to the Cascades and surrounding mountain ranges near the west coast of North America, from British Columbia to northern California. It is generally found in subalpine and alpine meadows and clearings, generally in moister areas. Its leaves are small and oval shaped, between 1.5 and 5 cm in length. The flowers are small, light pink, and urn-shaped. Its fruits are bilberries that are dark blue with a powdery coating, and are less than a centimeter wide. This species can sometimes be confused with Vaccinium caespitosum which grows in wetter areas in the same region. V. deliciosum has a powdery coating on the underside of its leaves, while V. caespitosum does not.

Physiology
Studies show that the intense flavor of the fruits of this plant come from at least 31 different aromatic flavor compounds V. deliciosum, like other plants that live alpine communities, have adapted to survive in growing seasons as short as three or four months. From late fall to spring, the plants rely on snow cover to insulate them from temperatures more than several degrees below freezing. Blossoms can become damaged and summer growth can be stunted if the plants experience a hard frost below negative four degrees celsius if unprotected by snow. t

Ecology
The berries are an important food source for black bear, birds, and rodents, while rabbits and deer eat the foliage. The berries are a favorite among humans, due to their intensely sweet flavor, and can be eaten fresh, dried, or cooked in various dishes. The berries were a staple in the diet of Native Americans in the Columbia Plateau region, who would often travel long distances to harvest the berries. Some tribes even performed prescribed burn to create more favorable habitats for the plant. After natural and intentional forest fires in alpine communities, V. deliciousum is oftentimes one of the most successful surviving plant species. Although it is possible to transplant and cultivate cuttings of the shrub, it oftentimes has difficulty growing at elevations below 2000 ft.

Potential Ideas drafting
Thermotropism; this page looks fairly short, and It would be cool to add more about rhododendrons as well as roots in other plant studies. EDIT; on second thought, all of the scholarly articles that I can find about thermotropism are very old.

Vaccinium deliciosum article ideas
Vaccinium deliciosum is my favorite plant, and I would love to add more to this article. WikiProject Plants/Template has some great advice on how to edit plant species articles.

There is at least one error (leaf blades are not up to 5 cm long) which can probably be attributed to a citation from 1901. I also have pictures of the whole plant, which are not currently included in the article. gallery>

examples of possible content
Studies show that the intense flavor of the fruits of this plant come from at least 31 different aromatic flavor compounds (I edited the page to include this)   Another article talks about the berries as food for wildlife, native americans, and how it can be used in modern cooking. This UW Burke museum page is a much better resource for describing the plant. This species can sometimes be confused with Vaccinium caespitosum which grows in wetter areas in the same region. V. deliciosum has a powdery coating on the underside of its leaves, while V. caespitosum does not. (i can cite the book form of this citation as well.) This article has some detailed information about plant reproduction and propagation that may or may not be appropriate for wikipedia.

potential plant species to add to
Trillium ovatum Tsuga mertensiana

Practice with writing and citing!
Canyons on Mars suggest that its landscape experienced floods many years ago. Mars does not have a magnetic field on a global scale.

Botany page
I thought that the organization of this article was well done, with a brief overview, then history, then fields of botany, but I would have put the "importance" section towards the end instead of with the "Scope" section. The "medicine and materials" section could be placed down with the "importance" section. There is a lot of information about plant hormones in the article which seems out of place compared to the relative length of other sections. There does not seem to be any controversial information or opinions in this article, although I may have missed something. The cited references mostly are comprised of scientific journal articles as well as some informational books, and they all seem to be reputable sources. The talk page mentioned that the article could use more wiki links to some complex scientific topics, but I think that there is a good amount of links. The article is rated as Good, since it meets the 6 standards.

Plant physiology page
The biggest problem with this article is that it has very few citations. The article has some sections that have zero citations. Like the talk page for this article suggests, it could use some expansion and explanation in scientific areas like "the calvin cycle". It could use a lot more information in the Economic Applications section, which does not have any citations at all. I would add two short overviews of different forms of agriculture and other plant physiology applications. If more information on certain topics was added and if many citations for all the information were added, this page could be moved up to a "good" rating.