Chaenactis Alpigena
''Chaenactis alpigena'' is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common name southern Sierra pincushion. It is native to the High Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains of California, extending in the latter just into Nevada. The plant is cultivated in rock gardens as well. It grows in sandy and gravelly soil in various alpine and subalpine mountain habitat. This is a petite plant growing no more than a few centimeters tall with numerous stems which may be erect to prostrate, forming mats or clumps. It is generally gray to yellowish and densely woolly. Green, nearly hairless specimens have been noted. The leaves occur in a basal rosette, each thick but not fleshy, and scoop-shaped with a few lobes along the edges. The leaves are variable in morphology, especially in northern individuals versus southern. There is generally one flower head per stem. It is between about 1 and 2 centimeters long, somewhat cylindrical, hairy but not glandular, and lined with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carl Sharsmith
Carl William Sharsmith (March 14, 1903 – October 14, 1994) was an American naturalist and Yosemite park ranger, notable for his knowledge and interpretation of the natural history of the Sierra Nevada. He taught botany at various universities, and was the first botanist to comprehensively document the alpine flora of the high Sierra Nevada. __TOC__ Biography Born Karl Wilhelm Schaarschmidt II in New York City to Swiss and German parents, he grew up the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Sharsmith was inspired by the works of naturalist John Muir and became interested in the outdoors and nature. He dropped out of school at 14, but became inspired enough to finish his high school and college education. Sharsmith enrolled in the Yosemite School of Field Natural History in 1930 then was hired as a seasonal Ranger-Naturalist in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park the following year. He received his BA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1933, and his Ph.D. in botan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture. Typically, they also look different from the parts of the flower, such as the petals or sepals. A plant having bracts is referred to as bracteate or bracteolate, while one that lacks them is referred to as ebracteate and ebracteolate, without bracts. Variants Some bracts are brightly-coloured and serve the function of attracting pollinators, either together with the perianth or instead of it. Examples of this type of bract include those of '' Euphorbia pulcherrima'' (poinsettia) and '' Bougainvillea'': both of these have large colourful bracts surrounding much smaller, less colourful flowers. In grasses, each floret (flower) is enclosed in a pair of papery bracts, called the lemma (lower brac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Flora Of Nevada
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora as in the terms '' gut flora'' or ''skin flora''. Etymology The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work cataloguing such vegetation. Moreover, "Flora" was used to refer to the flowers of an artificial garden in the seventeenth century. The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) was first made by Jules Thur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chaenactis
''Chaenactis'' is a genus of plants in the daisy family which are known generally as pincushions or dustymaidens. These wildflowers are native to western North America, especially the desert southwest of the United States. They are quite variable in appearance. They are generally aster-like in appearance with many disc florets in each head. There may be only disc florets, but sometimes there are also enlarged ray florets along the edges of the corolla. They may be white to yellow or pink. Species Species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ... include:CONABIO. 2009. Catálogo taxonómico de especies de México. 1. In Capital Nat. México. CONABIO, México D.F. References External links Calflora Database: ''Chaenactis'' Taxon Report— ''with species links + images' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pappus (flower Structure)
In Asteraceae, the pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual floret, that surrounds the base of the corolla tube in flower. It functions as a wind-dispersal mechanism for the seeds. The term is sometimes used for similar structures in other plant families e.g. in certain genera of the Apocynaceae, although the pappus in Apocynaceae is not derived from the calyx of the flower. In Asteraceae, the pappus may be composed of bristles (sometimes feathery), awns, scales, or may be absent, and in some species, is too small to see without magnification. In genera such as ''Taraxacum'' or '' Eupatorium'', feathery bristles of the pappus function as a "parachute" which enables the seed to be carried by the wind. The name derives from the Ancient Greek word ''pappos'', Latin ''pappus'', meaning "old man", so used for a plant (assumed to be an '' Erigeron'' species) having bristles and also for the woolly, hairy seed of certain plants. The pappus of the dandelion plays a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Achene
An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not open at maturity). Achenes contain a single seed that nearly fills the pericarp, but does not adhere to it. In many species, what is called the "seed" is an achene, a fruit containing the seed. The seed-like appearance is owed to the hardening of the fruit wall (pericarp), which encloses the solitary seed so closely as to seem like a seed coat. Examples The fruits of buttercup, buckwheat, caraway, quinoa, amaranth, and cannabis are typical achenes. The achenes of the strawberry are sometimes mistaken for seeds. The strawberry is an accessory fruit with an aggregate of achenes on its outer surface, and what is eaten is accessory tissue. A rose produces an aggregate of achene fruits that are encompassed within an expanded hypanthium ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stamen
The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament and an anther which contains '' microsporangia''. Most commonly anthers are two-lobed and are attached to the filament either at the base or in the middle area of the anther. The sterile tissue between the lobes is called the connective, an extension of the filament containing conducting strands. It can be seen as an extension on the dorsal side of the anther. A pollen grain develops from a microspore in the microsporangium and contains the male gametophyte. The stamens in a flower are collectively called the androecium. The androecium can consist of as few as one-half stamen (i.e. a single locule) as in ''Canna'' species or as many as 3,482 stamens which have been counted in the saguaro (''Carnegiea gigantea''). The androecium in va ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Head (botany)
A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, composite flowers, or capitula, which are special types of inflorescences in which anything from a small cluster to hundreds or sometimes thousands of flowers are grouped together to form a single flower-like structure. Pseudanthia take various forms. The real flowers (the florets) are generally small and often greatly reduced, but the pseudanthium itself can sometimes be quite large (as in the heads of some varieties of sunflower). Pseudanthia are characteristic of the daisy and sunflower family (Asteraceae), whose flowers are differentiated into ray flowers and disk flowers, unique to this family. The disk flowers in the center of the pseudanthium are actinomorphic and the corolla is fused into a tube. Flowers on the periphery are zygom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown. Most species of Asteraceae are annual, biennial, or perennial herbaceous plants, but there are also shrubs, vines, and trees. The family has a widespread distribution, from subpolar to tropical regions in a wide variety of habitats. Most occur in hot desert and cold or hot semi-desert climates, and they are found on every continent but Antarctica. The primary common characteristic is the existence of sometimes hundreds of tiny individual florets which are held together by protective involucres in flower heads, or more t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rosette (botany)
In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves or of structures resembling leaves. In flowering plants, rosettes usually sit near the soil. Their structure is an example of a modified stem in which the internode gaps between the leaves do not expand, so that all the leaves remain clustered tightly together and at a similar height. Some insects induce the development of galls that are leafy rosettes. In bryophytes and algae, a rosette results from the repeated branching of the thallus as the plant grows, resulting in a circular outline. Taxonomies Many plant families have varieties with rosette morphology; they are particularly common in Asteraceae (such as dandelions), Brassicaceae (such as cabbage), and Bromeliaceae. The fern '' Blechnum fluviatile'' or New Zealand Water Fern (''kiwikiwi'') is a rosette plant. Function in flowering plants Often, rosettes form in perennial plants whose upper foliage dies back with the remaining vegetation protecting the plant. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |