Ishane leaned against one of the gardening tables as she waited for the second years to settle in. She smiled, feeling better than she had since school had ended last year, if only for the fact that Tynan was no longer at large. The new school year brought more changes than just new and foreign students. Not bad changes really, though the 24 hour formality mode meant that she was wearing clothing that was a bit too nice for a greenhouse than she was comfortable with. Hence the apron, even though Ish hoped this lesson wouldn't require her to get dirty.

When it seemed that everyone had arrived, Ishane closed the greenhouse doors. Several of the students took that as the signal for the starting of class and began pulling out their quills and parchment. though there were several in the back who continued to chatter.  Slightly irritated, Ishane pulled out her wand and pointed it upwards, a flick of her wrist making it let out a bang similar to a starting gun. "Class has started, everyone. Please quiet down."

Ishane walked to the front of the class and leaned against the table again, putting her wand back into its special apron pocket. "Today we will begin our unit on the different climates that are found on our planet. This unit will cover the main enviorment types, what plants are found in them, and how plants have adapted to live in them."

"This lesson is very important to the foundation of Herbology, though it might not seem like it at first. Plants have very specific requirements to grow properly such as water, sunlight, and nutrients. Most of these we went over last year, but they all have an extra layer of complexity to them depending on the plant. The easiest way to find the ideal set of requirements any plant is looking for is to recreate the environment that it's found in naturally.

"To make things easier, I have these guides for you," she flicked her wand at a stack of booklets on her desk, sending one into the hands of each student. "Don't worry about the size. You won't be required to memorize everything in here, but I do want you to know the basics and have access to the rest."

"To begin, what do you picture when you hear the word desert? How about rainforest? Or prairie?"

Pax had been vaguely worried that with all the time spent away from school, it might be difficult for him to get back into the swing of things at Hogwarts, but so far, he decided things were going all right for the most part. He hadn't forgotten any of his school supplies or turned up late as of yet. And now, sitting in one of his better classes, he was feeling tentatively confident. He was sitting as close to Eirene and Noriko as he could get, and twisted around in his seat to offer a smile and a wave to Mary Beth, Drea, and Philo when he managed to catch sight of each of them.

He looked with interest at the booklet that settled neatly on the desk in front of him, smiling a little at Professor Blair's assurance that they wouldn't need to memorise anything. He had a feeling that wouldn't stop Eirene. He shot a quick glance to Noriko, silently hoping there wasn't any mention of people-eating plants or the like that might give her a scare.

Pax's thoughts were brought back to earth when Professor Blair posed a question to the class and, pleased that he had a ready answer, he immediately put his hand up. 'Well, in a desert, the plants would have to be really tough to survive. 'Cause it's really hot in the day and really cold at night, and there's hardly any water. And there's no soil, just loads and loads of sand. Cactuses-- um. Cacti? Well, they can live there I guess 'cause they've adapted so they can stand the temperatures and don't need much water.' Realising he still had his arm raised, he lowered it slowly. Remembering too late that Eirene usually liked to be the first to answer, he gave her an apologetic look.

Harper was glad to be back at Hogwarts. The summer had seemed to drag on and on and she missed everyone she had met the year before. It was kind of silly in a way, she thought. At least, her mother had laughed at the fact all school year she had been writing about missing home and the moment she was home, she missed being at school.

She hoped that this year was going to be better than her first year. Pulling her mane of red hair back into one of her many colorful ribbons, she looked around the classroom. She hadn't really gotten to know anyone that well, but this year was going to be different, Harper promised herself. Besides, there were even 3 times as many older students to get to know with the visiting schools. She hoped that the competitiveness didn't get into their heads and the only sane ones were the younger years.

She listened as Professor Blair gave directions and smiled. Thank goodness. Memorizing was not one of her strong points. She was about to raise her hand when Pax answered Professor Blair's first question. She couldn't help but giggle slightly at the extremely apologetic glance her housemate sent Eirene. When it didn't look like the Ravenclaw was jumping at the bit, Harper put up her hand and answered another question. "Well, when I picture a rainforest, I think of lots and lots of different types of plants all together. There's multiple layers of them too, like the tallest trees and then the medium sized ones, and then the undergrowth where there's almost no sunlight. They probably need lots of water to survive, or the amount they get would overwater them."

She finished talking, her high-pitched Irish accent tapering off. She didn't know how much information her professor wanted. 

Mary Beth waved brightly at Pax as he entered the room, but her glee at seeing her quidditch partner was short-lived as the loud bang signaling the beginning of class sounded. She was actually pretty good at Herbology, but the unfortunate truth was that her brain was like a sieve when it came to schoolwork and as such she was more or less praying that she'd be able to dredge up any kernel of information that would prove she had attended the previous year of school.

She slouched down in her seat as she took the booklet- oh, God, it was huge- and looked it over warily. Professor Blair had said they didn't need to memorize all of it, but nonetheless Mary Beth was convinced that "not a lot" to a teacher often meant something completely different than it did to a kid. "Deadly," she said under her breath, setting it down on the table dejectedly.

She was impressed with Pax and Harper's answers, though there was only one biome remaining to describe and she had no bleedin' idea what a prairie was. Further slouching. No eye contact. Don't move. They can't see you if you don't move.

Classes always seemed more fun the first weeks back. Obderedria was surprised at how much she had missed Herbology. Having a dwarf peach tree for a potted plant was actually easy to take care of, excluding the times of moving it to and from school. She felt staying in the habit over the summer would help her in the coming lessons.

She waved back to Pax and a few others. It was odd how everyone in her year weren't first years anymore but they didn't look too different. Certain changes notwithstanding that she and Dahlia had confided with each other, those were secrets. Hopefully, though, the class would be quiet unlike last year where you had Erik and Eirene fighting over pebbles, Philo yacking at the sight of cherries and fertilizer and Heliotrope getting enthralled by the locked barrel of gillyweed.

When Professor Blair asked the question, Obderedria heard an extra 's' in 'desert' and was thinking in terms of pudding before Pax gave the proper explanation and she felt foolish at herself for thinking that. She did know one terrain off the top of her head.

"A prairie has more grasses and smaller plants, wide open spaces that have to survive on less rain. America has a lot of prairies." A tidbit her mum talked about when growing up in the States, with the Great Plains of the midwest.

Ishane smiled as the students eagerly answered her question. Interestingly they were all Hufflepuffs, Tappy would be so disappointed. "Thank you Wintergreen for your description," she smiled at him reassuringly before addressing the rest of the class. "Indeed when most people hear the word desert they picture something like the great dunes of the Sahara or the scrubby landscape of the Mojave desert, dry, hot and mostly barren. But actually deserts are only classified by the amount of precipitation they get, either in rain or snow. This is why the Antartic Desert is actually the largest desert by area on the planet even though it is locked in ice."

"O' Malley has also given us a great description of a rainforest." Ishane nodded to the girl with a smile, "Rainforests have a staggeringly diverse amount of flora and fauna. Some estimate that around 40% to 75% of all life is found in the rainforest. Also as Miss O' Malley stated, a mature rainforest has layers, four of them to be specific: the emergent layer, the canopy, the understory and the forest floor. Very little sunlight reaches the lower layers, the understory and the forest floor only receive 5% and 2% of the total sunlight respectively. And, obviously, they are very very wet, receiving at a minimum 1750 to 2000mm annually. That means that the driest rainforest still receives over three times as much rain as the wettest desert."

"And finally for the simple prairie. Miss Pienas is correct, a prairie is a flat, open land covered in grass that has cold winters and moderately hot summers. The term prairie is a regional term rather than a actually separate classification and is used almost exclusively to refer to grasslands in North America like the Great Plains of the United State's midwest."

"Now," Ishane pushed off of the table and went over to one of a series of doors at the back of the greenhouse. "I want everyone to grab something to write with if you'd like and your booklets and line up in front of me, we're going to be taking a... field trip, of sorts."  As the students arranged and gathered their stuff Ishane called out, "Don't bother bringing any parchment, your booklet's have places for notes."

"Everyone ready?" Ishane looked around for consent, "Okay then, everyone grab an umbrella and please follow me." Stepping through the door Ishane and the students emerged into an elarged greenouse that was carefully crafted to mimic the canopy Amazon rainforest. The group stood on a wide wooden platform which exited onto a rope bridge with chest high net walls that disappeared off into the canopy. Several treetops towered above the group, nearly blocking out the cloud covered sky and concentrating the light rainfall into large warm drops.

Everything around them was covered in thick green moss, vines and ferns. Spots of color could be seen through the trees as several orchids and other flowers showed their spectacular color. While the greenhouse didn't contain any real animals, their calls echoed throughout the room. On the other side of the glass walls the forest appeared to go on forever. Ishane was quite proud of her illusion, it had taken several hours and the help of  a swarm of house elves to set up the multiple rooms in time for her first class.

"This is the canopy of a typical tropical rainforest, which is the very top of the forest. We're about 35 meters above the forest floor or about 12 stories or so for comparison.  Around 50% off all life forms in the forest are found in this layer, both plants and animals. Unlike our own homeland, tropical rainforests don't have seasons beyond the 'dry' and the monsoon. Both temperature and sunlight rarely, if ever, change throughout the year."

"Now then," Ishane adjusted her umbrella, "Does anyone have any questions before we begin our canopy walk?"

During the question-answer session, Eirene had bent her head over her notes, writing down everything she could manage about the various environments that made up the foundation of Herbology. She glanced up once to give Pax a tight-lipped smile when he answered the teacher, and tried to refrain from fidgeting in her seat. Not raising her hand was killing her!

When the professor led them through the doors, Eirene followed with her booklet under her arm and an open umbrella over her shoulder. A few of the students did not seem to know how to hold up one properly, so she kept frowning and huffing at those who nearly whacked her in the face with the pointy umbrella parts as they crowded to get through.

Eirene stood by Pax Wintergreen. Safe Hufflepuffs!

She gasped at the sight of the Amazon rainforest, the bright greenery around them, and the bird calls in the distance! It was like the forbidden forest from another country, and they were allowed in because the professor said so!

"Professor?" Eirene raised her hand high in the air, unable to resist. "How long will this last? Can we keep it like this for a while? If we're good?" She sounded genuinely excited, but sent a warning look around at the other second-years, especially the Gryffindors and the troublemakers. They had better not ruin it!

Eirene was trying something new this year, really taking Professor Trishna's advice to heart. She was focusing on keeping up her grades and getting O's in all of her classes. This had the side effect of not worrying as much about how many points she earned, or if the professors had smiled at her during lessons. Of course, she'd still sent her professors (and the tournament professors from other schools) fruit baskets as soon as the Sorting Ceremony had ended. She had her limits!

Don't set fire to the greenhouse...Pay attention...Don't fall asleep...Take notes..Don't 'accidentally' add salt pinched from breakfast to Rene's soil. 

This, apparently, was part of the recipe to doing better than last year in this class.  But, if that was really the case, why'd they stick this class - or any class - right after lunch?  Mairead's belly was more full of bread and shepherd's pie and pumpkin juice and cookies - it was fuller than it had been in over two months.  Overfull belly plus end of summer afternoon plus greenhouse warmth equaled ...

Well, it meant Mairead needed toothpicks if she was going to have any chance of staying awake.  To top it all off, the greenhouse had turned into a bloody nature program.  A little bit of annoying-voiced brownnosing from a particular Ravenclaw and Mairead's eyes finally drooped closed. 

Hopefully, either Tynan or Keegan would prod her if she started snoring.  And, fill her in on if she missed anything important. 

Ishane smiled at Eirene, happy that someone was really enjoying her hard work. "It will be up for at least as long as we're in this unit Miss Antonopoulos. That should be around a couple of months. After that we'll see." Ish redirected her attention to the rest of the class, "No one else have any questions? Good, we'll be moving on then."

She went over to stand next to the rope bridge, "Everyone this way please. Single file." As the students began filing out Ishane noticed one being left behind. Irritated, she cast a quick poking spell to wake Mairead up. "Wake up Miss ó Fearghail, this is no time for nappin'.

Ish turned and followed the students across the rope bridge. The next platform was embedded into the trunk of a large fig tree. The tree appeared to have melted like wax onto the back half of the platform and railings. Long stringy roots cascaded down from thick branches that were covered with passion flower and cassabanana vines and several different kinds of orchids. On the other side of the platform stood a large acerola tree, heavy with bright red, ripe fruit and filling the air with a sweet scent.

A quick spell dried off the platform and Ishane gestured for the second years to sit. "Plants in a tropical rainforest don't have seasons, they have cycles. Since there is no winter season tropical plants don't have a hibernation period every year and therefore continue to grow year round. Each plant goes through the phases of flowering, fruiting and then waiting at different times of the year than other plants. This is why the acerola tree behind me is fruiting while the vines behind you are not."

"The one exception are the fig trees like the one behind you. Figs in tropical locations produce fruit almost year round, and are a vital source of food for many different birds, monkeys and bats. So, can any of you think of any other effects to the rainforest that having a lack of seasons causes? Aside from the year around supply of fruit?"

Pax gazed raptly at the rainforest Professor Blair had created for them. His thoughts echoed Eirene's pretty accurately; he thought it would be fantastic if they could keep the illusion in place. Imagine being able to go and visit a tropical jungle any time you wanted; or any location you could magically replicate, for that matter! Pax really hoped he could master charms and transfigurations enough to one day be able to produce this kind of enchantment.

As he walked along next to Eirene, being careful neither to spear her with the spokes of his umbrella, nor to look too pleased that she had come over to stand by him, he chanced a glance backward to Mairead, and gave her what he hope would be interpretted as a sympathetic look. The Gryffindor must still be getting used to being back in the school schedule, and it was no fun trying to learn when you felt sleepy. With any luck, the exciting surroundings might perk her up a bit.

Once he had sat down on the platform Professor Blair led them to, Pax carefully positioned his umbrella to shield his booklet from the rain, and set about dutifully taking notes in the space provided as their teacher started to explain to them about the growing cycles of rainforests. At her question, he twirled his quill in his fingers thoughtfully.

'Well...' he began hesitantly. 'I guess there would also be animals to eat the fruit all year round. Since, um, since plants don't hibernate, that means animals must not either, right? Because, um, because there's no winter. So, wait, does that mean the weather is always the same as well? Like, it's always raining? Like, in the dry season, is it really dry, or does that just mean it rains less? And then in the monsoon season... Would, would there be floods, maybe?' Pax glanced around to his classmates, suddenly self-conscious. 'Or... maybe the plants are so thirsty that they just drink all the rain really quickly...' He trailed off, rather hoping someone else would jump in. Pax was only comfortable rambling when he knew exactly what he was talking about.

Something prodded Mairead in the shoulder and the girl pushed herself out of the desk and to her feet.  She retrieved her notebook from her bag and shoved it in her pocket before joining the file of students heading towards the door by the rope bridge.  Falling in line behind O'Malley, Mairead started across the bridge, pausing every so often to peer over the side. 

It was a very very long way down.  Mairead had to give it to Professor Blair; she might have actually found an effective means of keeping Mairead from wandering off.  Not that Mairead wasn't going to keep an eye out for the perfect opportunity.  "Are there animals in here?" Mairead's voice rose up but was slightly muted by the dense, humid, tropical air.  "Or - they just plants?" 

Mairead meandered slowly over towards one of the chairs and took a seat.  A good bit of what Professor Blair was saying was registering.  There were no seasons; trees grew year round.  "So, they get big," Mairead said.  It was a simpler observation than Pax' ramblings about hibernations and floods and thirsty trees.  "How can they stay up?  They look so bloody heavy."

Erik wasn't particularly interested in paying attention in Herbology that day, if they weren't playing with plants, Erik rarely ever did--or ever looked liked he was anyway. Instead, he just stuffed the pamphlet into his robes, casually passed by the umbrellas, and let it rain on his head throughout the entire walk. But with the way Eirene flung around her umbrella the little Gryffindor had to wonder if staying dry took priority of avoiding death by parasol.

Eirene's warning glance was met by Erik's dull, soaked, and unamused stare.

So when everyone stopped to sit down the Gryffindor took a place by Eirene, as he dripped with rainwater from his hair to his eyebrows. And to add insult to injury Erik bent his head down and then shook the heavy water from his hair, trying not to get miss Snobbalopoulus wet, but his skill with keeping everyone dry was probably on par with Eirene's skill of holding an umbrella. Then Erik proceeded to spike up his wet locks of hair as everyone went on to answer questions and such.

"It's a rainforest," Erik interjected bemusedly, after Pax had finished, "It's always raining, like 80 inches a year or something."

The Gryffindor Collins continued to style his damp hair, with his eyes rolled up towards the sky as he added, "So animals and plants keep growing and growing and changing..." And that's when Erik's attention span for the topic had left the building, and he continued to fascinate himself with how weird he could make his hair.

Humidity was probably the only other way to make Heliotrope close to "perky" without resorting to Cheering Charms, which few would dare try again. When she walked into the rainforest greenhouse, she stared wide eyed at everything. Unlike the others in class she hadn't opened her umbrella, instead loosening her house tie and collar from her neck.

That wasn't the only stimulation. Her hands lingered over everything, the leaves and vines, the rope bridge. When they sat at the first outpost she found a bent leaf by her seat, almost snapped off. She picked it and felt the rough texture on the underside. She played with the leaf when the conversation went on around her.

Rainforests needed plenty of water, was what Heliotrope glean from the conversation. But that wasn't enough, she lived in a vast lake and even with all the water the colony was not overrun with weeds.

"Nutrients," Heliotrope said, almost a croak. "The plants need nutrients with all their water to keep growing." There was one steady supply of nutrients the colony worked to ensure for their harvested gillyweed. kept to the lower layers of the loch. If the colony had lived in a river, the rule would be 'do not relieve upstream.'

"Where do the rainforest animals flush their shree?" Though the last term dipped into mermish, the tone was very similar to another word.

Charles was following Heliotrope along the rope bridge, looking rather more comfortable than most of the class, possibly due to the fact that he knew his shoes had a Gripping Charm on them, so he would not be falling off. His father's paranoia about his brother's and his safety could be useful sometimes.

Sitting down on the first outpost, he answered Mairead's question himself. "Its' a little more complicated than this, but essentially, only the top of the plant normally moves from straight up, so the rest of the plant supports the weight. Similar to how you don't overbalance if you tilt your head, but if you lean too far over, you will fall. it's the same with trees. If the base of the tree tilts enough, the tree will fall." Charles said, then heard Heliotrope's question.

 "I don't think most animals do, Heliotrope." Charles said, amused at the question. then, he gave his answer to the professor. "A lack of seasons would mean that you would get taller deciduous trees, since they would be able to grow year-round, rather than only when they have leaves for photosynthesis" Charles said.

Ishane smiled gently at Pax, "You are correct Mister Wintergreen. Animals living in a tropical rainforest don't hibernate. Also the dry, wet and monsoon seasons are more relative to the rainfall levels for the forest overall, not to world wide rainfall levels. Rainfall does fluxuate during the year where some months can recive twice the amount of rain of others. The time of year this happens depends upon the location of the rainforest your talking about."

"It's a rainforest," Erik interjected bemusedly, after Pax had finished, "It's always raining, like 80 inches a year or something."

Ishane sighed as when spotted Erik after he piped up. She had no idea whether he just liked being contrary or was just weird in the head but right now he wasn't causing a disruption. If he wanted to get himself soaked to the bone and risk getting sick that was on his head. "Actually Mister Collins 80 inches is actually quite low for a rainforest. Most experience a yearly rainfall of 140 to 175 inches per year but it can be much much higher depending on where you're located. For example the city of Lloro, Colombia is the wettest place in the world receiving over 520 inches (13210 milimeters) of rain per year. "

"Are there animals in here?" Mairead's voice rose up but was slightly muted by the dense, humid, tropical air.  "Or - they just plants? So, they get big," Mairead said. "How can they stay up?  They look so bloody heavy."

Its' a little more complicated than this, but essentially, only the top of the plant normally moves from straight up, so the rest of the plant supports the weight. Similar to how you don't overbalance if you tilt your head, but if you lean too far over, you will fall. it's the same with trees. If the base of the tree tilts enough, the tree will fall.

"Unfortunately  Miss ó Fearghail there aren't any real animals in here with us." She gave the girl an apoligetic look. "As nice as that would be, most if not all of the animals that are found in a rainforest are illegal to export unless it's going to a zoo. And Mister Harcroft is somewhat correct, though there's more too it than that. The angle of a trunk does play a part but trunks are rigid structures like bones, and are more inclined to brake at their bending point than uprooting themselves. Trees are supported  in two main ways, a straight thick trunk and by their roots."

"To build off of Mister Harcroft's earlier example, a tree's trunk is thicker on the bottom than on the top much like your feet. When you're standing straight all of your weight is concentrated on your feet. Standing with your feet further apart increases your stability. Or," Ishane's smirked in amusement, "you could even add more feet, like what the fig tree behind you does.Root's increase a tree's stability even more. The roots bury themselves into the soil to give the tree both a grip on the ground and allows the weight of the soil to add more stability, somewhat like burrowing your feet and ankles in a really thick mud."

"Nutrients," Heliotrope said, almost a croak. "The plants need nutrients with all their water to keep growing."

Deciding to ignore question about animal leavings Ishane focused on Heliotrope's herbology related question. "Correct Miss LeJean, and it's specifically a lack of nutrients that's a big problem in the rainforest. The heavy rainfall washes away nuetriants that would come from weathered rocks and the lack of a dormant period means that any new nutrients added to the ecosystem gets sucked up quickly. Decaying plants and animals are the only new source of nutrients introduced naturally to the forest."

"A lack of seasons would mean that you would get taller deciduous trees, since they would be able to grow year-round, rather than only when they have leaves for photosynthesis."

"Actually that's not true, Mister Harcroft. A deciduous tree is one that looses it's leaves during part of the year, i.e. winter, and since there are no seasons in a tropical rainforest then all the trees here are evergreen." Ishane smiled kindly at Charles and decided to let him save face by moving on.

 Ishane moved over to the rope bridge they had yet to cross, "We're going to be moving on to the understory layer now, come along." She lead them across the bridge to a platform that was far too small for the class to stand on with an open end above a mesh netting road. Both the netting and a thick cable several feet above the net went off into the trees. "The understory is almost 15 meters below us so to get there quickly we're going to be using a zip line."

Ishane held up a trolley with a set of handles in one hand and a harness  in the other. "You'll be using these. They're simple to use, for the harness first  step through the leg holes like so and then secure it to your legs, and then secure the torso section" Ishane demonstrated how to secure the harness  while she talked and then helped  the student's with theirs.

When she was fully satisfied that the students were securely strapped in Ishane picked up one of the trolleys and snapped it into place on the cable. "When it's your turn sit on the edge of the platform. I'll link you to your trolley," Ishane held up a pair of carabiners that hung from straps from the trolley, "and then you can push off. When you get to the next platform gravity will slow you down so you can just stand up. To unhook yourself just unclip the carbiners and lift the trolley off the cable, but make sure your clear the area quickly so the person behind you doesn't run into you. You can set the trolleys off to the side but don't take off your harnesses, we'll be using them again shortly."

"So," Ishane smirked, "Who want's to go first?"