One Zoom
The silver maple can be found within the genus Acer. It’s most recent ancestor is also the most recent ancestor to the red maple; this indicates that the silver and red maple are very closely related. The Silver maple falls within the family of Sapindaceae which has 2312 species in total. More broadly it falls within the clade of Mesangiospermae, a clade that consists of flowering plants, all of which have developed from a single common ancestor.
One adaptation that all of the observed species have in common is that they all possess green leaves. This is because plants possess a pigment called chlorophyll which transmits green light while absorbing red and blue light; the ideal wavelengths for photosynthesis fall within the red and blue ranges, making chlorophyll an effective pigment for photosynthesis. So, through natural selection, the majority of plants have adapted to possess chlorophyll and in turn the colour green.
One unique adaptation from my observations was the leaf size of the colt’s foot. Compared to the other observed plants, the leaf size of the colt’s foot was significantly large. This is a beneficial adaptation as it increases the efficiency of photosynthesis; bigger leaves have more stomata which increases the rate of gas exchange with the environment and thus increases the rate of photosynthesis.
