My Science Fair Project By: Kira Garcia

Question How will soaking the Pohuehue seeds in salt water and fresh water affect the germination and growth of the plant?

Background Research The Pohuehue is a seed that floated to Hawaii. It is a morning glory. It's vine can grow up to 15 feet or more. The Pohuehue plant and seed are endemic and indigenous to Hawaii. The Pohuehue seed's natural habitat is the beach. The Pohuehue seed grows in the sand. The pohuehue plant and seed are Endemic and Indigenous to Hawaii because the Pohuehue seed floated to Hawaii and is only found in Hawaii. The Pohuehue seed defends itself with it's steams and leaves. It's predators' are Herbivores. The flower is used as medicine to heal the ill. This plant is a Morning Glory. Most Morning Glory Flowers unravel into full bloom in the early morning. Morning Glory prefer full solar throughout the day and mesoic soils. In some places such as Australian bushlands some species of Morning Glory develop roots and tend to grow in dense thickets which causes it to grow bigger and grow over other plants which causes weeding. There are over 15,000 varieties of Morning Glory including shrubs and trees. Morning Glory is found in the tropical America and areas in Asia, tending to grow in subtropical and more temperature climates. Morning Glory reproduces by producing clusters of round seed pods on the vine. The seeds turn dark brown as they are mature, and their shells harden. Morning Glory blossoms to eight inches across, but the average is four inches. The vine can grow a length of ten feet or more, with heart shaped leaves. Morning Glory is an annual seed that re-seeds every year. It comes in a variety of colors and most often blooms in the morning. Germination is the process by which plants, fungus and bacteria emerge seeds and spores, and begin growth. The most common example of germination is sprouting of a little seedling from a seed.

Hypothesis If I soak the Pohuehue seeds in salt water and fresh water then, the seeds that were soaked in salt water will grow better because salt water is usually the water that the Pohuehue seed gets watered with.

Variables Independent Variable: salt water vs. fresh drinking water Dependent Variable: the growth of a plant Controlled Variable: soil the Pohuehue seed is planted in. Amount of water and sunlight. Time amount being soaked in water.

Materials clear plastic cups sand fresh water salt water Pohuehue seeds ruler

Scientific Procedure 1.Soak half of the seeds in salt water and other half of seeds in water for 2 days. (48 hours) 2.Plant 2 seeds in each of 6 plastic cups filled with sand, and mark cups salt water and fresh water 3.Measure plants for 2 weeks with a ruler. 4.Graph measurements on a graph. 5.My plants were not growing so I asked my fourth grade teacher and he said to scrape them on concrete or a nail file so I did. I rub it gently against concrete and planted them.

Data and Results My seeds did not grow and all my data has a zero on it. I tried modifying the experiment a number of times but the seeds did not sprout.

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