This is a really cool topic to test AJ. I'd love to read about it and any experimentation you did. Here are the ways I would test it if it were me:
Part 1: Settle on a standard measurement for how intense of a tail shape you have. I would do (length of tail)/(length of pod) which should give you a number between 0-1 based on how intense of a tail you have.
Part 2: Plan to analyze and test for three factors here.
- Whether or not a flower "annual ring" clinging to the swelling ovum will form a stronger tail than those pods without an annual ring.
- Whether or not a pod with a clinging "annual ring" will have the same effect on tail length if the flower/ring is removed early in pod development
- Whether you can determine what factors about this annual ring, if anything, will force the plant to form a stronger tail.
Let me elaborate.
Here is a rough procedure you should follow: Grow many scorpion plants. I would grow at least five to have a real good data set. Indoor growing would be the best because you have the most control over your environment and where the light hits, but it is not necessarily vital for the experiment.
To test the first of the three factors you should mark multiple pods from two categories: Pods with an attached annual ring, and pods without. Measure tail factor when ripe and analyze for a difference. This is relatively easy.
For the second factor you will need to take other pods with annual rings, and then carefully remove the rings without damaging the pod or calyx. Grow them until ripe and measure tail factor. Compare these numbers to the pods with the annual rings still on. This is to tell you which is the horse and which is the cart in this experiment, ie, Does the pod grow a longer tail because the flower gets stuck on, or does the flower get stuck on because of the way the pod and tail is going to grow?
For the third factor you will need to get creative. Take a bunch of pods WITHOUT the annual ring stuck on. You want to test what about the ring might be causing stronger tails to grow: is it pressure on the outsides of the pod restricting growth, or lower light conditions underneath where the ring would be? Could it be both? You want to try to get the ring of whatever you're putting on the pod to be as close to where the true flower would land on the pod, and if possible, try to replicate the flower as much as possible. Here are some things that you might be able to try:
low light, low pressure:
-Draw a ring on the pod with some sort of marker. I would imagine you'd want a reflective color such as white or silver but you can try different colors
low light, high pressure:
-A rubber band from someone with braces might work well. Try to get a thin one because you don't want it to be too tight on there.
-Opaque tape cut into a thin ring wrapped around the pod
high light, high pressure:
-Clear tape cut into a thin ring and wrapped around the pod
high light, low pressure:
-Control, do nothing
Test for tail factor in all of these and see if you can make any conclusions based on them. None of them will replicate natural conditions very well so this might give you very good insight on what's happening, or it might not tell you anything at all. It's still a very useful thing to test for and put in the report, especially if you want really good evidence of what's happening. Also, if you find a way to grow gnarly tails, you might find a cool way to grow long-stingered show pods artificially!
I can probably write a 20 page report on that without any stretching of the material. If you need more you might even be able to get multiple spring constant value rubber bands to test the pods with and see if they have any difference. You might even try two or three rubber bands on one pod if you can fit to see if that changes it any further. That's another several pages right there.
I know it's long and confusing but I'm tired from writing code all day so I hope that helps!
