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Agathis Australis
''Agathis australis'', commonly known as kauri, is a species of coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae, found north of 38°S in the northern regions of New Zealand's North Island. It is the largest (by volume) but not tallest species of tree in New Zealand, standing up to tall in the emergent layer above the forest's main canopy. The tree has smooth bark and small narrow leaves. Other common names to distinguish ''A. australis'' from other members of '' Agathis'' are southern kauri and New Zealand kauri. With its podsolization capability and regeneration pattern it can compete with faster growing angiosperms. Because it is such a conspicuous species, forest containing kauri is generally known as kauri forest, although kauri need not be the most abundant tree. In the warmer northern climate, kauri forests have a higher species richness than those found further south. Kauri even act as a foundation species that modify the soil under their canopy to create unique plan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Araucariaceae
Araucariaceae is a Family (biology), family of conifers with three living Genus, genera, ''Araucaria'', ''Agathis'', and ''Wollemia''. While the family's native distribution is now largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except for a few species of ''Agathis'' in Malesia, it was formerly widespread in the Northern Hemisphere during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Description Members of Araucariaceae are typically extremely tall evergreen trees, reaching heights of or more. They can also grow very large stem diameters; a New Zealand kauri tree (''Agathis australis'') named ''Tāne Mahuta'' ("The Lord of the Forest") has been measured at tall with a diameter at breast height of . Its total wood volume is calculated to be , making it the third-largest conifer after ''Sequoia sempervirens, Sequoia'' and ''Sequoiadendron'' (both from the Cupressaceae subfamily Sequoioideae). The trunks are columnar and have relatively large piths with resinous Cortex (botany), cortices. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Don
David Don (21 December 1799 – 15 December 1841) was a Scottish botanist. Biography David Don was born on 21 December 1799 at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland to Caroline Clementina Stuart, and her husband George Don of Forfar. His older brother was George Don, also a botanist. His father was a curator at the Royal Botanic Garden, Leith Walk, Edinburgh. Don was Professor of Botany at King's College London from 1836 to 1841, and librarian at the Linnean Society of London from 1822 to 1841. He described several of the major conifers discovered in the period, including first descriptions of coast redwood (''Taxodium sempervirens'' D. Don; now ''Sequoia sempervirens'' (D. Don) Endl.), Bristlecone Fir (''Pinus bracteata'' D. Don, now ''Abies bracteata'' (D. Don) A. Poit.), Grand Fir (''Pinus grandis'' Douglas ex D. Don; now ''Abies grandis'' (Douglas ex D. Don) Lindl.) and Coulter Pine (''Pinus coulteri'' D. Don), and was the first to treat Sugi (''Cupressus japonica' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diospyros Samoensis
''Diospyros'' is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. The majority are native to the tropics, with only a few species extending into temperate regions. Individual species valued for their hard, heavy, dark timber, are commonly known as ebony trees, while others are valued for their fruit and known as persimmon trees. Some are useful as ornamentals and many are of local ecological importance. Species of this genus are generally dioecious, with separate male and female plants. Taxonomy and etymology The generic name ''Diospyros'' comes from a Latin name for the Caucasian persimmon ('' D. lotus''), derived from the Greek διόσπυρος : dióspyros, from ''diós'' () and ''pyrós'' (). The Greek name literally means "Zeus's wheat" but more generally intends "divine food" or "divine fruit". The genus is a large one and the number of species has been estimated variously, depending on the date of the source. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, list ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waihou River
The Waihou River is located in the northern North Island of New Zealand. Its former name, Thames River, was bestowed by Captain James Cook in November 1769, when he explored of the river from the mouth. An older Māori name was "Wai Kahou Rounga". A 1947 Geographic Board enquiry ruled that the official name would be Waihou. Geography The river flows north for from the Mamaku Ranges past the towns of Putāruru, Te Aroha, Paeroa and Turua, before reaching the Firth of Thames at the south end of the Hauraki Gulf near the town of Thames. In its lower reaches, the river and the nearby Piako River form the wide alluvial Hauraki Plains. Just before the river reaches the ocean, State Highway 25 crosses the river over the Kopu Bridge, which was the longest single lane bridge in the country at and the only remaining swing bridge on a New Zealand state highway. The bridge was infamous for the queues of vehicles travelling to and from the Coromandel Peninsula until a new two lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2, Zeldisl, J. R. et al. (1995) Salp grazing: effects on phytoplankton abundance, vertical distribution and taxonomic composition in a coastal habitat. Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 126, p 267-283 and lies between, in anticlockwise order, the , the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula, and |
Tararu
Tararu is a former gold-mining village on the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand. State Highway 25 runs through it; Te Puru being about to the north, and Thames about to the south. Tararu has a boat ramp, a 91-dwelling retirement village, a store, 2 motels, a holiday park and is the northern terminus of the Thames Connector bus. The Category 1 former Thames North School opened on 25 January 1878, closed in 1971 and was taken over by Thames Coromandel Council in 1978. It is now Thames Art Gallery. In the 2013 census, Tararu's population was 525, made up of 210 in meshblock 1048800, 138 (1048900), 48 (1048700), 39 (1049000) and 90 (1049100). Tararu is connected to the Thames water supply. Tararu Stream The Tararu Stream drains a steep hilly catchment of in the Coromandel Range with regenerating native vegetation and scrub. Most of the village lies on the stream's alluvial fan on the Firth of Thames coast. Tararu suffered severe flooding during the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sequoiadendron Giganteum
''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the largest trees on Earth. They are native to the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California but have been introduced, planted, and grown around the world. The giant sequoia is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN with fewer than 80,000 remaining in its native California. The tree was introduced to the U.K. in 1853, and by now might have 500,000 trees growing there where it is more commonly known as Wellingtonia after the Duke of Wellington. The giant sequoia grow to an average height of 50–85 m (164–279 ft) with trunk diameters ranging from 6–8 m (20–26 ft). Record trees have been measured at 94.8 m (311&nbs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma (botany), stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example bees, beetles or butterflies; birds, and bats; water; wind; and even plants themselves. Pollinating animals travel from plant to plant carrying pollen on their bodies in a vital interaction that allows the transfer of genetic material critical to the reproductive system of most flowering plants. Self-pollination occurs within a closed flower. Pollination often occurs within a species. When pollination occurs between species, it can produce hybrid (biology), hybrid offspring in nature and in plant breeding work. In angiosperms, after the pollen grain (gametophyte) has landed on the stigma (botany), stigma, it germinates and develops a pollen tube which grows down the style (botany), style until it reaches an ovary (botany), ovary. Its two gametes travel down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fertilisation
Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a zygote and initiate its development into a new individual organism or offspring. While processes such as insemination or pollination, which happen before the fusion of gametes, are also sometimes informally referred to as fertilisation, these are technically separate processes. The cycle of fertilisation and development of new individuals is called sexual reproduction. During double fertilisation in angiosperms, the haploid male gamete combines with two haploid polar nuclei to form a triploid primary endosperm nucleus by the process of vegetative fertilisation. History In antiquity, Aristotle conceived the formation of new individuals through fusion of male and female fluids, with form and function emerging gradually, in a mode called by him as epigenetic. In 1784, Spallanzani established the need of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed
In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after the embryo sac is fertilization, fertilized by Pollen, sperm from pollen, forming a zygote. The embryo within a seed develops from the zygote and grows within the mother plant to a certain size before growth is halted. The formation of the seed is the defining part of the process of reproduction in seed plants (spermatophytes). Other plants such as ferns, mosses and marchantiophyta, liverworts, do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to propagate themselves. Seed plants now dominate biological Ecological niche, niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates. In the flowering plants, the ovary ripens into a fruit which contains the seed and serves to disseminate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conifer Cone
A conifer cone, or in formal botanical usage a strobilus, : strobili, is a seed-bearing organ on gymnosperm plants, especially in conifers and cycads. They are usually woody and variously conic, cylindrical, ovoid, to globular, and have scales and bracts arranged around a central axis, but can be fleshy and berry-like. 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 ephemeral 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''. In conifers where the cone develops over more than one year (such as pines), 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, is called an ''umbo'', while the second year's growth is called th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leaf
A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, flower, and fruit collectively form the Shoot (botany), shoot system. In most leaves, the primary Photosynthesis, photosynthetic Tissue (biology), tissue is the palisade mesophyll and is located on the upper side of the blade or lamina of the leaf, but in some species, including the mature foliage of ''Eucalyptus'', palisade mesophyll is present on both sides and the leaves are said to be isobilateral. The leaf is an integral part of the stem system, and most leaves are flattened and have distinct upper (Glossary of botanical terms#adaxial, adaxial) and lower (Glossary of botanical terms#abaxial, abaxial) surfaces that differ in color, Trichome, hairiness, the number of stomata (pores that intake and output gases), the amount and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
