Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Grassy grass plant.svg

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File:Grassy grass plant.svg, not featured[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 19 Aug 2013 at 03:17:18 (UTC)
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A diagram of a typical lawn grass plant.
  1. Which group of grasses is shown here? I'm guessing Poaceae?
  2. If Poaceae: They often (always?) have nodes along the culms.
  3. I know it's supposed to be a rather simplified diagram, but I'm missing the parallel nerves running along the leaves.
  4. Once again, I don't see why it's necessary to convert text to paths in a simple diagram like this. It makes translations unnecessarily complicated – took me a while to figure out how to enable the hidden text layer.
  5. What's so special about the crown that it deserves a little crown drawn behind the label?
  6. What does the "Dinkelberg." mean (only visible when opened in e.g. Inkscape)?
Cheers, --El Grafo (talk) 09:49, 12 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It's Poaceæ. The source I used didn't show any nodes. Are they along the flowering culm? I never included the leaf veins before, but if it's that important I can add them. The text is in paths for typographical reasons, I have a short tutorial on how to make and use the invisible text layers. The "Dinkleberg" is a Fairly Odd Parents reference ;) (neighbors feuding over lawn quality), the faint crown behind the "crown" label is an extension of that joke. The crown of a grass plant is also the core and most important part of it, because that's where all the other parts come from.—Love, Kelvinsong talk 13:14, 12 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I think the veins would be a nice touch since all grasses have parallel ones (other than many "flowers"). Might be informative for people who didn't now that yet, but I wouldn't insist on them. I also don't care too much about most of the other points I mentioned, so let's go directly to the interesting one, the nodes:
I'm not really an expert for grass (though I've got some background), so I've checked some descriptions of the poaceae family and they all mentioned that the stem/shoot (=culm, but as far as I get it not necessarily = flowering culm) is devided by nodes (with the spaces between them being the internodes – same thing as with the stolon and rhizome). See e.g. [1] or [2]. They are of some importance in terms of stability, because those are the points where the stem is not hollow (think of Bamboo!). Those are also the places where the leaves are actually attached to the stem. Note that the leaves may wrap around the stem, so the nodes are often positioned several centimeters below the point where the leaves spread away from the stem (that section with the ligule etc.) or even covered by the next leaf that comes up from below.
Here are some illustrations that show this rather nicely: File:472 Alopecurus pratensis.jpg, File:Illustration Phleum pratense0.jpg, File:Illustration Avena sativa0.jpg, File:Illustration Aira flavescens0.jpg. File:Maize_plant_diagram.svg shows how this could look like in an SVG. To get a feeling for this, it might actually help alot to just head outside, find a place where the grass is allowed to grow for a while without mowing, grab some flowering examples from as many species as possible (chances are good not to accidentally grab something else as long as it looks like typical grassy grass ;-) and the culms are round and hollow) and start ripping gently peeling off some of the leaves. It's OK, it's for the sake of science. But don't you dare having fun with that! ;-)
Cheers, --El Grafo (talk) 15:24, 12 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Okay I've added in the nodes. I get it now!—I always thought the stem was compressed down in the crown, and its just the apical bud that shoots up to make the inflorescence. So it's the whole crown that elongates to elevate the apical bud? I also added in some faint leaf midribs (but they're not that visible in real life). I got rid of the crown icon, but I left in the Dinkleberg cause that's not really hurting anyone is it? Please refresh page to get the new thumbnail & picture.—Love, Kelvinsong talk 16:15, 12 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I get it, the stem is actually more or less compressed down there after the winter until the plant starts growing vertically again (wheat in spring vs. wheat in the early summer). Assuming of course that you have a climate with actual seasons, not taking into account possible differences between annual and perennial plants etc. – but again: I'm not an expert. --El Grafo (talk) 09:24, 16 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Confirmed results:
Result: 6 support, 0 oppose, 0 neutral → not featured. /A.Savin 21:33, 19 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]