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Calcifuges
A calcifuge is a plant that does not tolerate alkaline (basic) soil. The word is derived from the Latin 'to flee from chalk'. These plants are also described as ericaceous, as the prototypical calcifuge is the genus ''Erica'' (heaths). It is not the presence of carbonate or hydroxide ions ''per se'' that these plants cannot tolerate, but the fact that under alkaline conditions, iron becomes less soluble. Consequently, calcifuges grown on alkaline soils often develop the symptoms of iron deficiency, ''i.e.'' interveinal chlorosis of new growth. There are many horticultural plants which are calcifuges, most of which require an 'ericaceous' compost with a low pH, composed principally of ''Sphagnum'' moss peat. A plant that thrives in lime-rich soils is known as a calcicole. Examples Order Ericales Ericaceae *''Andromeda polifolia'' *''Calluna'' (common heather) *'' Cassiope lycopodioides'' *'' Daboecia'' *''Enkianthus campanulatus'' *''Erica'' (but not '' E. carnea'' or '' ...
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Erica (plant)
''Erica'' is a genus of roughly 857 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The English common names heath and heather are shared by some closely related genera of similar appearance. The genus ''Calluna'' was formerly included in ''Erica'' – it differs in having even smaller scale-leaves (less than 2–3 mm long), and the flower corolla consisting of separate petals. ''Erica'' is sometimes referred to as "winter (or spring) heather" to distinguish it from ''Calluna'' "summer (or autumn) heather". Etymology The Latin word ''erica'' means "heath" or "broom". It is believed that Pliny adapted ''erica'' from Ancient Greek ἐρείκη. The expected Anglo-Latin pronunciation, , may be given in dictionaries ('' OED'': "Erica"), but is more commonly heard. Description Most of the species of ''Erica'' are small shrubs from high, though some are taller; the tallest are '' E. arborea'' (tree heath) and '' E. scoparia'' (besom heath), both of which can reach ...
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Erica Carnea
''Erica carnea'', the winter heath, winter-flowering heather, spring heath or alpine heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to mountainous areas of central, eastern and southern Europe, where it grows in coniferous woodlands or stony slopes. Description It is a low-growing, spreading subshrub reaching tall, with evergreen needle-like leaves long, borne in whorls of four. The flowers are produced in racemes in late winter to early spring, often starting to flower while the plant is still covered in snow; the individual flower is a slender bell-shape, long, dark reddish-pink, rarely white. Names The first published name for the species is ''Erica herbacea''; however, the name ''E. carnea'' (published three pages later in the same book) is so widely used, and the earlier name so little used, that a formal proposal to conserve the name ''E. carnea'' over ''E. herbacea'' was accepted by the International Botanical Congress in 1999. The Latin spec ...
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Plant
Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes (the archaea and bacteria). By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for "green plants") which is sister of the Glaucophyte, Glaucophyta, and consists of the green algae and Embryophyte, Embryophyta (land plants). The latter includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns and Fern ally, their allies, hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. Most plants are multicellular organisms. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green colo ...
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Daboecia
''Daboecia'' , or St. Dabeoc's heath, is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, containing two evergreen shrubs, closely related to the genus ''Erica''. They are native to cliffs and heathland in southern Atlantic Europe and the Azores. Description They produce urn-shaped flowers in shades of white, pink and red. ''Daboecia'' differ from European ''Erica'' species in having a substantially larger corolla. The leaves are always alternate in ''Daboecia'', never whorled. The generic name comes from the Irish Saint Dabheog. Distribution ''Daboecia'' has an oceanic distribution in western Europe, including western Ireland, western France, northwestern Spain, northwestern mainland Portugal and the Central Group of the Azores. Like ''Erica'' and ''Calluna'' species, ''Daboecia'' are calcifuges, but will tolerate neutral soils and avoid peat. Species * '' Daboecia azorica'' Tutin & E. F. Warb. * ''Daboecia cantabrica'' (Huds.) K. Koch (Irish heath) Some botanist ...
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Sarracenia
''Sarracenia'' ( or ) is a genus comprising 8 to 11 species of North American pitcher plants, commonly called trumpet pitchers. The genus belongs to the family Sarraceniaceae, which also contain the closely allied genera '' Darlingtonia'' and ''Heliamphora''. ''Sarracenia'' is a genus of carnivorous plants indigenous to the eastern seaboard of the United States, Texas, the Great Lakes area and southeastern Canada, with most species occurring only in the south-east United States (only '' S. purpurea'' occurs in cold-temperate regions). The plant's leaves have evolved into a funnel or pitcher shape in order to trap insects. The plant attracts its insect prey with secretions from extrafloral nectaries on the lip of the pitcher leaves, as well as a combination of the leaves' color and scent. Slippery footing at the pitcher's rim, causes insects to fall inside, where they die and are digested by the plant with proteases and other enzymes. Description ''Sarracenia'' are herb ...
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Pitcher Plants
Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher plants are formed by specialized leaves. The plants attract and drown their prey with nectar. Types The term "pitcher plant" generally refers to members of the Nepenthaceae and Sarraceniaceae families, but similar pitfall traps are employed by the monotypic Cephalotaceae and some members of the Bromeliaceae. The families Nepenthaceae and Sarraceniaceae are the most species-rich families of pitcher plants. The Nepenthaceae contains a single genus, ''Nepenthes'', containing over 100 species and numerous hybrids and cultivars. In this genus of Old World pitcher plants, the pitchers are borne at the end of tendrils that extend from the midrib of an otherwise unexceptional leaf. Old World pitcher plants are typically characterized as having r ...
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Carnivorous Plant
Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants still generate some of their energy from photosynthesis. Carnivorous plants have adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs. They can be found on all continents except Antarctica, as well as many Pacific islands. In 1875 Charles Darwin published ''Insectivorous Plants'', the first treatise to recognize the significance of carnivory in plants, describing years of painstaking research. True carnivory is believed to have evolved independently at least 12 times in five different orders of flowering plants, and is represented by more than a dozen genera. This classification includes at least 583 species that attract, trap, and kill prey, absorbing the resulting available nutrients. Venus flytrap (''Dionaea muscipula''), pitcher p ...
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Sarraceniaceae
Sarraceniaceae are a family of pitcher plants, belonging to order Ericales (previously Nepenthales). The family comprises three extant genera: '' Sarracenia'' (North American pitcher plants), '' Darlingtonia'' (the cobra lily or California pitcher plant), and ''Heliamphora'' (sun pitchers). The extinct '' Archaeamphora longicervia'' may also belong to this family, although later studies question that interpretation. All three are carnivorous plants that lure insects with nectar and use their elongated, tube-shaped leaves filled with water and digestive enzymes to catch and consume them. Digestive enzymes are not always produced by the plants themselves. Digestive mutualisms are common in Sarraceniaceae: both ''Sarracenia'' and ''Darlingtonia'' rely on commensal bacteria to supplement or produce all of their enzymes. Many species also use downward-pointing hairs and waxy secretions to make it difficult for insects to escape. ''Sarracenia'' and ''Darlingtonia'' are native to No ...
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Vaccinium Myrtillus
''Vaccinium myrtillus'' or European blueberry is a holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortleberry to distinguish it from other '' Vaccinium'' relatives. Description ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' is a small deciduous shrub that grows tall. It has light green leaves that turn red in autumn and are simple and alternate in arrangement. Leaves are long and ovate to lanceolate or broadly elliptic in shape. Common names Regional names include blaeberry (Scotland), urts or hurts (Cornwall and Devon), hurtleberry, citing Wiersema, J. H. & B. León (1999), ''World economic plants: a standard reference'', and Huxley, A., ed. (1992), ''The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening'' myrtleberry, wimberry, whinberry, winberry,Henley, JonBilberries: the true taste of northern England The Guardian, Monday 9 June 2008 and fraug ...
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Vaccinium Corymbosum
''Vaccinium corymbosum'', the northern highbush blueberry, is a North American species of blueberry which has become a food crop of significant economic importance. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern and southern United States, from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south as far as Florida and eastern Texas. It is also naturalized in other places: Europe, Japan, New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest of North America, etc.''Vaccinium corymbosum''. accessed 3.23.2013 Other common names include blue huckleberry, tall huckleberry, swamp huckleberry, high blueberry, and swamp blueberry. Description ''Vaccinium corymbosum'' is a deciduous shrub growing to tall and wide. It is often found in dense thickets. The dark glossy green leaves are elliptical and up to long. In autumn, the leaves turn to a brilliant red, orange, yellow, and/or purple. The flowers are long bell- or urn-shaped white to very light pink, long. The fruit is a diameter blue-black berry. This plant is fo ...
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Rhododendron
''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan region, but smaller numbers occur elsewhere in Asia, and in North America, Europe and Australia. It is the national flower of Nepal, the state flower of Washington and West Virginia in the United States, the state flower of Nagaland in India, the provincial flower of Jiangxi in China and the state tree of Sikkim and Uttarakhand in India. Most species have brightly colored flowers which bloom from late winter through to early summer. Azaleas make up two subgenera of ''Rhododendron''. They are distinguished from "true" rhododendrons by having only five anthers per flower. Species Description ''Rhododendron'' is a genus of shrubs and small to (rarely) large trees, the smallest species growing to ...
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Pieris (plant)
Pieris ( or ) is a genus of seven species of shrubs in the flowering plant family Ericaceae, native to mountain regions of eastern and southern Asia, eastern North America and Cuba. Known commonly in North America as andromedas or fetterbushes, they are broad-leaved evergreen shrubs growing to tall and wide. The leaves are spirally arranged, often appearing to be in whorls at the end of each shoot with bare stretches of shoot below; they are lanceolate-ovate, long and broad, leathery textured, and with an entire or serrated margin. The young leaves in spring are typically brightly coloured. The flowers are bell-shaped, long, white or pink, and arranged in racemes long. The fruit is a woody capsule which splits into five sections to release the numerous small seeds. ''Pieris'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the engrailed. The genus name derives from '' Pieria'', a place in Greece, according to Greek mythology the ...
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