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Epiphytic
An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phorophytes. Epiphytes take part in nutrient cycles and add to both the diversity and biomass of the ecosystem in which they occur, like any other organism. In some cases, a rainforest tree's epiphytes may total "several tonnes" (several long tons). They are an important source of food for many species. Typically, the older parts of a plant will have more epiphytes growing on them. Epiphytes differ from parasites in that they grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily affect the host negatively. An organism that grows on another organism that is not a plant may be called an epibiont. Epiphytes are usually found in the temperate zone (e.g., many mosses, liverworts, lichens, and algae) or in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bromeliad
The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ''Pitcairnia feliciana''. It is among the basal (phylogenetics), basal families within the Poales and is the only family within the order that has Septal nectary, septal nectaries and Ovary (plants), inferior ovaries.Judd, Walter S. Plant systematics a phylogenetic approach. 3rd ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc., 2007. These Ovary (plants), inferior ovaries characterize the Bromelioideae, a subfamily of the Bromeliaceae. The family includes both epiphytes, such as Spanish moss (''Tillandsia usneoides''), and Terrestrial plant, terrestrial species, such as the pineapple (''Ananas comosus''). Many bromeliads are able to store water in a structure formed by their tightly overlapping leaf bases. However, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cactus
A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek word (''káktos''), a name originally used by Theophrastus for a spiny plant whose identity is now not certain. Cacti occur in a wide range of shapes and sizes. They are native to the Americas, ranging from Patagonia in the south to parts of western Canada in the north, with the exception of ''Rhipsalis baccifera'', which is also found in Africa and Sri Lanka. Cacti are adapted to live in very dry environments, including the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. Because of this, cacti show many adaptations to conserve water. For example, almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts adapted to store water. Unlike many other succulents, the stem is the only part of most cacti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fern
The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients, and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase. Ferns have complex leaf, leaves called megaphylls that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns. They produce coiled Fiddlehead fern, fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate (Polypodiidae (plant), Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, Psilotaceae, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns. The fern crown group, consisting of the leptosporangiates and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tillandsia
''Tillandsia'' is a genus of around 650 species of evergreen, perennial plant, perennial flowering plants in the family (biology), family Bromeliaceae, native to the forests, mountains and deserts of the Neotropical realm, Neotropics, from northern Mexico and the southeastern United States to Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to central Argentina. Their leaves, more or less silvery in color, are covered with specialized cells (trichome, trichomes) capable of rapidly absorbing water that gathers on them. They are also commonly known as air plants because they obtain nutrients and water from the air, not needing soil for nourishment. They have a natural propensity to cling to whatever surfaces are readily available: telephone wires, tree branches, bark, bare rocks, etc. Their light seeds and a silky parachute facilitate their spread. Most ''Tillandsia'' species are epiphytes – which translates to 'upon a plant'. Some are aerophytes, which have a minimal root system and grow on shifti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phorophyte
In botany, phorophytes are plants on which epiphytes grow. The term is composed of ''phoro'', meaning bearer or carrier and ''phyte'', meaning plant. Commensalistic interactions The epiphytes benefit from the habitats provided, but the phorophyte is unaffected. In other words, the obligate epiphytes utilize phorophytes as habitats, without parasitizing them.Sáyago, R., Lopezaraiza-Mikel, M., Quesada, M., Álvarez-Añorve, M. Y., Cascante-Marín, A., & Bastida, J. M. (2013). Evaluating factors that predict the structure of a commensalistic epiphyte–phorophyte network. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1756), 20122821. Phorophyte specificity Different phorophytes provide different conditions to the plants, which grown on their surface. The bark pH, degree of bark shedding, the presence of milk sap and the density and size of bark lenticels influence the occurrence of epiphytes. Bark ornamentations affect the establishment of seeds and the chemical co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Moss
Spanish moss (''Tillandsia usneoides'') is an Epiphyte, epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America (as far south as northern Patagonia), the Southern United States, and West Indies. It has been naturalized in Queensland (Australia). It is known as "grandpa's beard" in French Polynesia. It has the widest distribution of any Bromeliaceae, bromeliad. Most known in the United States, it commonly is found on the southern live oak (''Quercus virginiana'') and bald cypress (''Taxodium distichum'') in the lowlands, swamps, and marshes of the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states, from the coast of southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to southern Arkansas and Texas. While it superficially resembles its namesake, the lichen ''Usnea'', it is neither a lichen nor a moss (instead being a member of the bromeliad family, Bromeliaceae), and it is not nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), mutualistic relationship.Introduction to Lichens – An Alliance between Kingdoms . University of California Museum of Paleontology. . Lichens are the lifeform that first brought the term symbiosis (as ''Symbiotismus'') into biological context. Lichens have since been recognized as important actors in nutrient cycling and producers which many higher trophic feeders feed on, such as reindeer, gastropods, nematodes, mites, and springtails. Lichens have properties different from those of their component organisms. They come in man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropical Rainforest
Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn). Tropical rainforests are a type of tropical moist broadleaf forest, that includes the more extensive seasonal tropical forests. True rainforests usually occur in tropical rainforest climates where no dry season occurs; all months have an average precipitation of at least . Seasonal tropical forests with tropical monsoon climate, tropical monsoon or tropical savanna climate, savanna climates are sometimes included in the broader definition. Tropical rainforests ecosystems are distinguished by their consistent, high temperatures, exceeding monthly, and substantial annual rainfall. The abundant rainfall results in nutrient-poor, leached soils, which profoundly affect the flora and fau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as cyanobacteria, ''Chlorella'', and diatoms, to multicellular macroalgae such as kelp or brown algae which may grow up to in length. Most algae are aquatic organisms and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem, and phloem that are found in embryophyte, land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds. In contrast, the most complex freshwater forms are the Charophyta, a Division (taxonomy), division of green algae which includes, for example, ''Spirogyra'' and stoneworts. Algae that are carried passively by water are plankton, specifically phytoplankton. Algae constitute a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group because they do not include a common ancestor, and although Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raunkiær Plant Life-form
The Raunkiær system is a system for categorizing plants using life-form categories, devised by Danish botanist Christen C. Raunkiær and later extended by various authors. History It was first proposed in a talk to the ''Danish Botanical Society'' in 1904 as can be inferred from the printed discussion of that talk, but not the talk itself, nor its title. The journal, '' Botanisk Tidsskrift'', published brief comments on the talk by M.P. Porsild, with replies by Raunkiær. A fuller account appeared in French the following year. Raunkiær elaborated further on the system and published this in Danish in 1907.Ch. 2 in Raunkiær (1934): The life-forms of plants and their bearings on geography, p. 2-104. The original note and the 1907 paper were much later translated to English and published with Raunkiær's collected works.Ch. 1 in Raunkiær (1934): Biological types with reference to the adaption of plants to survive the unfavourable season, p. 1. Modernization Raunkiær's life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth except glaciers. The world's richest diversity of orchid genera and species is in the tropics. Orchidaceae is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, the other being the Asteraceae. It contains about 28,000 currently accepted species in 702 genera. The Orchidaceae family encompasses about 6–11% of all species of seed plants. The largest genera are '' Bulbophyllum'' (2,000 species), '' Epidendrum'' (1,500 species), '' Dendrobium'' (1,400 species) and '' Pleurothallis'' (1,000 species). It also includes '' Vanilla'' (the genus of the vanilla plant), the type genus '' Orchis'', and many commonly cultivated plants such as '' Phalaenopsis'' and '' Cattleya''. Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species into cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Houseplant
A houseplant, also known as a pot plant, potted plant, or indoor plant, is an ornamental plant cultivated indoors. for aesthetic or practical purposes. These plants are commonly found in House, homes, Office, offices, and various indoor spaces, where they contribute to the ambiance by adding natural beauty and improving air quality. Most houseplants are tropical or semi-tropical species, as they thrive in the warm, humid conditions often found indoors. Many of them are Epiphyte, epiphytes(plants that grow on other plants), Succulent plant, succulents (which store water in their leaves), or Cactus, cacti, which are particularly well-suited to indoor environments due to their low maintenance requirements. Whether used to brighten up a space, improve air circulation, or create a calming atmosphere, houseplants play an important role in enhancing the indoor environment. Care Houseplants have care requirements that differ from plants grown outdoors. Moisture, light, soil mixture, tem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
