Ficus Salicifolia
__NOTOC__ The Wonderboom (''Ficus salicifolia'') is an evergreen fig species that ranges from the KwaZulu-Natal midlands northwards to tropical East Africa. It grows especially on outcrops, rocky hillsides and along cliffs fringing water courses and may rarely grow up to tall, and acquire a leafy spreading crown. __TOC__ Description The elliptic-oblong, leathery leaves of about long, are carried on long petioles, and are often noticeably folded along the midrib. The leaf sides are almost parallel and clear net-veining is visible on the lamina. Leaves are brittle and have a characteristic smell when broken or bruised. The leaves are toxic and cause nervous disorders or even deaths in cattle. The small, smooth figs are carried on short stalks and measure about in diameter. They are massed along the branchlets in the leaf axils, and change from white to yellowish-red and spotted as they ripen. The figs are eaten by birds and mammals. Similar species It may be confused with the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Martin Vahl
Martin Henrichsen Vahl (10 October 1749 – 24 December 1804) was a Denmark-Norway, Danish-Norwegian botanist, herbalist and zoologist. Biography Martin Vahl was born in Bergen, Norway and attended Bergen Cathedral School. He studied botany at the University of Copenhagen and at Uppsala University under Carl Linnaeus. He edited ''Flora Danica'' fasc. XVI-XXI (1787–1799), ''Symbolæ Botanicæ'' I-III (1790–1794), ''Eclogæ Americanæ'' I-IV (1796–1807) and ''Enumeratio Plantarum'' I-II (1804–1805). He lectured at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1779 to 1782. Vahl made several research trips in Europe and North Africa between 1783 and 1788. He became professor at Naturhistorieselskabet, the Society for Natural History at the University of Copenhagen in 1786 and was a full professor of botany from 1801 to his death. In 1792, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He died in Copenhagen, Denmark at age 55. His son Jens Va ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Afrotropical Realm
The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopian Zone or Ethiopian Region. Major ecological regions Most of the Afrotropical realm, except for Africa's southern tip, has a tropics, tropical climate. A broad belt of deserts, including the Atlantic coastal desert, Atlantic and Sahara deserts of northern Africa and the Arabian Desert of the Arabian Peninsula, separates the Afrotropic from the Palearctic realm, which includes northern Africa and temperate Eurasia. Sahel and Sudan South of the Sahara, two belts of tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, tropical grassland and savanna run east and west across the continent, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ethiopian Highlands. Immediately south of the Sahara lies the Sahel belt, a transitional zone of semi-arid sho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Taxa Named By Martin Vahl
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and given a particular ranking, especially if and when it is accepted or becomes established. It is very common, however, for taxonomists to remain at odds over what belongs to a taxon and the criteria used for inclusion, especially in the context of rank-based (" Linnaean") nomenclature (much less so under phylogenetic nomenclature). If a taxon is given a formal scientific name, its use is then governed by one of the nomenclature codes specifying which scientific name is correct for a particular grouping. Initial attempts at classifying and ordering organisms (plants and animals) were presumably set forth in prehistoric times by hunter-gatherers, as suggested by the fairly sophisticated folk taxonomies. Much later, Aristotle, and later still ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Flora Of Southern Africa
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'' for purposes of specificity. 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) wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trees Of Africa
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only plants that are usable as lumber, or only plants above a specified height. But wider definitions include taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos. Trees are not a monophyletic taxonomic group but consist of a wide variety of plant species that have independently evolved a trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight. The majority of tree species are angiosperms or hardwoods; of the rest, many are gymnosperms or softwoods. Trees tend to be long-lived, some trees reaching several thousand years old. Trees evolved around 400 million years ago, and it is estimated that there are around three trillion mature trees in the world currently. A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Platyscapa
''Platyscapa'' is a genus of 19 species of pollinating fig wasps found in Africa and Madagascar, Middle East, southern Asia and the Indo-Pacific islands. They are pollinators of ''Ficus'' species belonging to subsections '' Conosycea'' and '' Urostigma''. Species *'' Platyscapa awekei'' Wiebes, 1977 *'' Platyscapa arnottiana'' Abdurahiman, 1980 *''Platyscapa bergi ''Platyscapa'' is a genus of 19 species of pollinating fig wasps found in Africa and Madagascar, Middle East, southern Asia and the Indo-Pacific islands. They are pollinators of ''Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of wo ...'' Wiebes, 1986 *'' Platyscapa corneri'' Wiebes, 1980 *'' Platyscapa coronata'' (Grandi, 1928) *'' Platyscapa binghami'' Wiebes, 1980 *'' Platyscapa desertorum'' Compton, 1990 *'' Platyscapa etiennei'' Wiebes, 1977 *'' Platyscapa fischeri'' Wiebes, 1977 *'' Platyscapa frontalis'' Motschulsky, 1863 *'' Platyscapa hsui'' Chen & Chou, 1997 *'' Platyscapa indica'' Priyadar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotopes of carbon, isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby. It is based on the fact that radiocarbon () is constantly being created in the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then acquire by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and thereafter the amount of it contains begins to decrease as the undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of in a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pretoria
Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountains. It has a reputation as an academic city and centre of research, being home to the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), the University of Pretoria (UP), the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Human Sciences Research Council. It also hosts the National Research Foundation (South Africa), National Research Foundation and the South African Bureau of Standards. Pretoria was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Pretoria is the central part of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality which was formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities, including B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wonderboom Nature Reserve
The Wonderboom Nature Reserve () is a 1 km², 200-hectare reserve that incorporates a section of the Magaliesberg range in the northern portion of the Pretoria metropole, South Africa. Its main attractions are the ''Wonderboom'' (Afrikaans for "Marvel tree") near the reserve entrance in Lavender street and the derelict Fort Wonderboompoort on the crest of the Magaliesberg, that was constructed towards the end of the nineteenth century, during the Second Boer War. The latter is reached by following the steep, paved walkway that leads from the picnic area to the summit. The vicinity of the fort ruins also afford sweeping views of the city, whose council declared the area around the ''Wonderboom'' and both banks of the Apies River a reserve on 28 December 1949. Wonderboom The well-known ' Wonderboom' (Afrikaans: 'Wonder tree') is a dense grove of parent and daughter trees of the species ''Ficus salicifolia'', that descended from a central bole of about a thousand years old. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Socotra
Socotra, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, it lies near major shipping routes. Socotra is the largest of the six islands in the Socotra archipelago as it comprises around 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies south of the Arabian Peninsula and east of the Horn of Africa. The inhabitants of the island are called Soqotri people, Socotrans, and they speak Arabic and Soqotri language, Soqotri. Socotra is home to a high number of unique species that are endemism, endemic to it. Up to a third of its plant life is unique. Due to the island's unusual geography, it has been described as "the most alien-looking place on Earth". The island measures in length and across at its widest. In 2008, Socotra was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The island is under the control of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a United Arab Emirates-backed, pro-Presidential Leadership Co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen, as well as southern Iraq and Jordan. The largest of these is Saudi Arabia. In the Roman era, the Sinai Peninsula was also considered a part of Arabia. The Arabian Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and south-west, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the north-east, the Levant and Mesopotamia to the north and the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the south-east. The peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Arab world and globally due to its vast reserves of petroleum, oil and natural gas. Before the mod ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Red Sea Hills
Itbāy () or ʿAtbāy is a region of southeastern Egypt and northeastern Sudan. It is characterized by a chain of mountains, the Red Sea Hills, running north–south and parallel with the Red Sea. The hills separate the narrow coastal plain from the Eastern Desert. Geology The Red Sea Hills are composed of the exposed Neoproterozoic Volcano-sedimentary sequence, volcano-sedimentary Clastic rock, rock of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Although the rock itself is 550–900 million years old, the mountains were created by Orogeny, uplift when the Red Sea itself was formed in the Oligocene, only some 23–34 million years ago. The Red Sea Hills are thus part of the same formation as the Sarawat Mountains of Saudi Arabia and the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula. The Red Sea Hills rise almost to today, but in the past were much higher. The Oligocene uplift caused the River rejuvenation, rejuvenation of their streams and the increased erosion removed most of the limestone and sandstone to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |