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Serotiny
Serotiny in botany simply means 'following' or 'later'. In the case of serotinous flowers, it means flowers which grow following the growth of leaves, or even more simply, flowering later in the season than is customary with allied species. Having serotinous leaves is also possible, these follow the flowering. Serotiny is contrasted with coetany. Coetaneous flowers or leaves appear together with each other. In the case of serotinous fruit, the term is used in the more general sense of plants that release their seed over a long period of time, irrespective of whether release is spontaneous; in this sense the term is synonymous with bradyspory. In the case of certain Australian, South African or Californian plants which grow in areas subjected to regular wildfires, serotinous fruit can also mean an ecological adaptation exhibited by some seed plants, in which seed release occurs in response to an environmental trigger, rather than spontaneously at seed maturation. The most commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as eucalypts. Plants in the genus ''Eucalyptus'' have bark that is either smooth, fibrous, hard or stringy, leaves with oil glands, and sepals and petals that are fused to form a "cap" or operculum over the stamens. The fruit is a woody capsule commonly referred to as a "gumnut". Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are native to Australia, and every state and territory has representative species. About three-quarters of Australian forests are eucalypt forests. Wildfire is a feature of the Australian landscape and many eucalypt species are adapted to fire, and resprout after fire or have seeds which survive fire. A few species are native to islands north of Australia and a smaller number are only found outside the continent. Eucalypts have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banksia Serrata2
''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range in size from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up to 30 metres (100 ft) tall. They are found in a wide variety of landscapes: sclerophyll forest, (occasionally) rainforest, shrubland, and some more arid landscapes, though not in Australia's deserts. Heavy producers of nectar, ''banksias'' are a vital part of the food chain in the Australian bush. They are an important food source for nectarivorous animals, including birds, bats, rats, possums, stingless bees and a host of invertebrates. Further, they are of economic importance to Australia's nursery and cut flower industries. However, these plants are threatened by a number of processes including land clearing, frequent burning and disease, and a number of species are rare and endangered. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conifer
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs. Examples include cedars, Douglas-firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews.Campbell, Reece, "Phylum Coniferophyta". Biology. 7th. 2005. Print. P. 595 As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families, 68 genera, and 629 living species. Although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, but also in similar cool climates in mountains further south. Boreal conifers have many wintertime ada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligotrophic
An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates of metabolism, and generally low population density. Oligotrophic environments are those that offer little to sustain life. These environments include deep oceanic sediments, caves, glacial and polar ice, deep subsurface soil, aquifers, ocean waters, and leached soils. Examples of oligotrophic organisms are the cave-dwelling olm; the bacterium " ''Candidatus'' Pelagibacter communis", which is the most abundant organism in the oceans with an estimated 2 × 1028 individuals in total; and the lichens with their extremely low metabolic rate. Etymologically, the word "oligotroph" is a combination of the Greek adjective ''oligos'' (ὀλίγος) meaning "few" and the adjective ''trophikos'' (τροφικός)) meaning "feeding". Plant adap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Crossbill
The red crossbill or common crossbill (''Loxia curvirostra'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. Crossbills have distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits. Adults are often brightly coloured, with red or orange males and green or yellow females, but there is wide variation in beak size and shape, and call types, leading to different classifications of variants, some of which have been named as subspecies. The species is known as "red crossbill" in North America and "common crossbill" in Europe. Description Crossbills are characterized by the mandibles crossing at their tips, which gives the group its English name. Using their crossed mandibles for leverage, crossbills are able to efficiently separate the scales of conifer cones and extract the seeds on which they feed. Adult males tend to be red or orange in colour, and females green or yellow, but there is much variation. Identi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Squirrel
The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers have decreased drastically in recent years. This decline is associated with the introduction by humans of the eastern grey squirrel (''Sciurus carolinensis'') from North America. However, the population in Scotland is stabilising due to conservation efforts, awareness and the increasing population of the pine marten, a European predator that selectively controls grey squirrels. Description The red squirrel has a typical head-and-body length of , a tail length of , and a mass of . Males and females are the same size. The red squirrel is somewhat smaller than the eastern grey squirrel which has a head-and-body length of and weighs between . The long tail helps the squirrel to balance and steer when jumping from tree to tree and run ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinus Contorta
''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, but is rare in lowland rain forests. Like all pines (member species of the genus ''Pinus''), it is an evergreen conifer. Description Depending on subspecies, ''Pinus contorta'' grows as an evergreen shrub or tree. The shrub form is krummholz and is approximately high. The thin and narrow-crowned tree can grow high and achieve up to in diameter at chest height. The ''murrayana'' subspecies is the tallest. The crown is rounded and the top of the tree is flattened. In dense forests, the tree has a slim, conical crown. The formation of twin trees is common in some populations in British Columbia. The elastic branches stand upright or overhang and are difficult to break. The branches are covered with short shoots that are easy to remov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed Separator
A seed separator is a structure found in the follicles of some Proteaceae. These follicles typically contain two seeds, with a seed separator between them. The seed separator is nothing but a little chip of wood, but in some cases it serves an important function: in serotinous Serotiny in botany simply means 'following' or 'later'. In the case of serotinous flowers, it means flowers which grow following the growth of leaves, or even more simply, flowering later in the season than is customary with allied species. Havi ... species, the follicles open only in response to fire, but the seed separator remains in position, thus preventing the seeds from falling out immediately, onto burnt or burning ground. Some separators loosen and fall out once they have cooled, thus ensuring that the seeds are released only after the fire has passed; others loosen and fall only after they have been moistened, thus ensuring that the seeds are released at the first rain after fire. Still others fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Follicle (fruit)
In botany, a follicle is a dry unilocular fruit formed from one carpel, containing two or more seeds. It is usually defined as dehiscing by a suture in order to release seeds, for example in '' Consolida'' (some of the larkspurs), peony and milkweed (''Asclepias''). Some difficult cases exist however, so that the term indehiscent follicle is sometimes used, for example with the genus '' Filipendula'', which has indehiscent fruits that could be considered intermediate between a (dehiscent) follicle and an (indehiscent) achene. An aggregate fruit that consists of follicles may be called a follicetum. Examples include hellebore, aconite, '' Delphinium'', '' Aquilegia'' or the family Crassulaceae, where several follicles occur in a whorl on a shortened receptacle, or ''Magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resin
In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on naturally occurring resins. Plants secrete resins for their protective benefits in response to injury. The resin protects the plant from insects and pathogens. Resins confound a wide range of herbivores, insects, and pathogens, while the volatile phenolic compounds may attract benefactors such as parasitoids or predators of the herbivores that attack the plant. Composition Most plant resins are composed of terpenes. Specific components are alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, delta-3 carene, and sabinene, the monocyclic terpenes limonene and terpinolene, and smaller amounts of the tricyclic sesquiterpenes, longifolene, caryophyllene, and delta-cadinene. Some resins also contain a high proportion of resin acids. Rosins on the other hand ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fruits
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language usage, "fruit" normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage, the term "fruit" al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conifer Cone
A conifer cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is a seed-bearing organ on gymnosperm plants. It is usually woody, ovoid to globular, including scales and bracts arranged around a central axis, especially in conifers and cycads. The cone of Pinophyta (conifer clade) contains the reproductive structures. The woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cone, which produces pollen, is usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity. The name "cone" derives from Greek ''konos'' (pine cone), which also gave name to the geometric cone. The individual plates of a cone are known as ''scales''. The ''umbo'' of a conifer cone refers to the first year's growth of a seed scale on the cone, showing up as a protuberance at the end of the two-year-old scale. The male cone (microstrobilus or pollen cone) is structurally similar across all conifers, differing only in small ways (mostly in scale arrangement) from species to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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