Protractor-based floral orientation measurement (Boraginaceae)

Knowledge graph centered on Protractor-based floral orientation measurement (Boraginaceae) with 31 nodes and 109 connections. Top connected: Hummingbird, Bombus, Bombus terrestris, Bombus appositus, Bombus impatiens.

Method synopsis

A standardized method for measuring floral orientation using a protractor with suspended weight to determine the angle of flowers relative to vertical axis.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 1 paper using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — The function of floral orientation in bluebells: interactions with pollinators and rain in two species of <i> Mertensia </i> (Boraginaceae) (2019), Journal of Plant Ecology. Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Measure natural floral orientation
   Attach a suspended weight to the centre of a protractor, hold the straight edge tangential to the flowering stem, and record the angle between the suspended weight and the straight edge. Measure each stem three times to calculate a mean angle, then multiply by -2 to represent mean floral orientation in a 180° context where 0° is completely pendant.
   Quantities: 71 M. brevistyla stems and 89 M. fusiformis stems measured at KP in 2014Duration: Single measurement session in 2014Conditions: Field conditions during flowering season
   Equipment: protractor, suspended weight

Typical Equipment

• protractor
• suspended weight

Output Measurements

• floral orientation angle in degrees

Papers Using This Protocol (1)

Species Studied With This Protocol