Goldenrod Transect Dataset

In this experiment, a dataset was collected for 25 goldenrods in the grasslands in York University. To begin, a transect was laid down randomly within the grasslands at Pond Rd. in York University. I walked along the transect and recorded the distance of goldenrods, plants with bright yellow visible flowers, on both sides of the transect in meters. After recording the distance, the height of each goldenrod was measured with a spare transect. To measure the height, I held the transect vertically, starting from the highest point of the plant, the flower, to base of the stem. The height was also measured in meters. Then I counted the number of alive leaves for each goldenrod for which I had already measured the distance and the height. I defined alive leaves as all the leaves that had not dried up. After counting the leaves, I checked the goldenrod to see if it had any flowers. I recorded the each goldenrod. Some goldenrods had a bundle of flowers at the top of the plant. These bundles consisted of small flowers in close proximity to one another, which were separated by small branches bearing no leaves. As a result, I defined each bundle as 1 flower. Lastly, I examined the surrounding of each goldenrod for other plants. Using a scale of 0-3 in terms of crowdedness, each goldenrod was either assigned a 0 if it was in an open area, 1 if there were some plants near the goldenrod, 2 if there were quite a few plants surrounding the goldenrod and 3 if the goldenrod was surrounded by a very crowded bunch of plants within 50cm.