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Gasteranthus
''Gasteranthus'' is a genus of 35 species of herbs and soft-stemmed subshrubs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. The species occur in Central America and South America, from southernmost Mexico to Bolivia.Weber & Skog (2007) Numerous species are threatened with extinction, mainly due to deforestation. This is due to two reasons: For one thing, ''Gasteranthus'' species are native to countries in which destruction of primary forest runs rampant; also, these plants do not distribute well and therefore endemism is very frequent, for example on isolated mountain ranges. These plants inhabit tropical forest and cloud forest. They grow in humid, shaded locations at altitudes of up to 1,800 m above mean sea level, ASL. The flowers are usually colored in orange hues and often spotted, but background colors also include shades white, yellow and red. They are born in Axillary bud, axillary Cyme (botany), cymes without bracteoles. ''Gasteranthus'' was previously included in the clos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Besleria
''Besleria'' is a genus of large herbs and soft-stemmed subshrubs or shrubs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. It includes 176 species native to tropical southern Mexico, Central America, South America, and the West Indies. The closely related genus ''Gasteranthus'' was previously included in ''Besleria''. The two genera have been separated on the basis of stomatal (aggregated in ''Gasteranthus'', scattered in ''Besleria'') and fruit (fleshy capsule in ''Gasteranthus'', berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the cul ... in ''Besleria'') characters.Wiehler (1975) Species 176 species are accepted. * '' Besleria affinis'' * '' Besleria aggregata'' * '' Besleria amabilis'' * '' Besleria angusta'' * '' Besleria angustiflora'' * '' Besleria arborescens'' * '' Besl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gesneriaceae
Gesneriaceae, the gesneriad family, is a family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of about 152 genera and ca. 3,540 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World (almost all Didymocarpoideae) and the New World (most Gesnerioideae), with a very small number extending to temperate areas. Many species have colorful and showy flowers and are cultivated as ornamental plants. Etymology The family name is based on the genus ''Gesneria'', which honours Switzerland, Swiss naturalist and humanism, humanist Conrad Gessner. Description Most species are herbaceous plant, herbaceous perennial plant, perennials or subshrubs but a few are woody shrubs or small trees. The phyllotaxy is usually opposite and decussate, but leaves have a spiral or alternate arrangement in some groups. As with other members of the Lamiales the flowers have a (usually) zygomorphic corolla whose petals are fused into a tube and there is no one character that separates a gesneriad from any o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forest
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a Canopy (biology), canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds ''in situ''. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, ''Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020'' found that forests covered , or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020. Forests are the largest Terrestrial ecosystem, terrestrial ecosystems of Earth by area, and are found around the globe. 45 percent of forest land is in the Tropical forest, trop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euglossine Bee
The tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or euglossine bees, are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior. Description, distribution, and behavior Most of the tribe's species are solitary, though a few are communal, or exhibit simple forms of eusociality. There are about 200 described species, distributed in five genera: ''Euglossa'', ''Eulaema'', '' Eufriesea'', '' Exaerete'' and the monotypic ''Aglae''. All species occur in South or Central America, though one species, ''Euglossa dilemma'', has become established in Florida in the United States, and species of ''Eulaema'' and '' Eufriesea'' have been reported from Arizona and Texas, respectively. The genera ''Exaerete'' and ''Aglae'' are kleptoparasites in the nests of other orchid bees. All except ''Eulaema'' are characterized by brilliant metallic coloration, primarily green, gold, and blue. Females gather pollen and nectar as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollinate
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the 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 offspring in nature and in plant breeding work. In angiosperms, after the pollen grain (gametophyte) has landed on the stigma, it germinates and develops a pollen tube which grows down the style until it reaches an ovary. Its two gametes travel down the tube to where the gametophyte(s) containing the female gametes are held with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berry (botany)
In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a drupe, drupe (pit) produced from a single flower containing one Ovary (botany), ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, Ribes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines), persimmons and bananas, but exclude certain fruits that meet the berry, culinary definition of berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more gynoecium, carpels from the same flower (i.e. from a simple or a compound ovary). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as ''Capsicum'' species, with air rather than pulp around their seeds. Many berries are edible, but others, such as the Potato fruit, fruits of the potato and the deadly nightshade, are poisonous to humans. A plant that be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capsule (fruit)
In botany, a capsule is a type of simple, dry, though rarely fleshy dehiscent fruit produced by many species of angiosperms ( flowering plants). Origins and structure The capsule (Latin: ''capsula'', small box) is derived from a compound (multicarpellary) ovary. A capsule is a structure composed of two or more carpels. In (flowering plants), the term locule (or cell) is used to refer to a chamber within the fruit. Depending on the number of locules in the ovary, fruit can be classified as uni-locular (unilocular), bi-locular, tri-locular or multi-locular. The number of locules present in a gynoecium may be equal to or less than the number of carpels. The locules contain the ovules or seeds and are separated by septa. Dehiscence In most cases the capsule is dehiscent, i.e. at maturity, it splits apart (dehisces) to release the seeds within. A few capsules are indehiscent, for example those of '' Adansonia digitata'', '' Alphitonia'', and '' Merciera''. Capsules are often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stomata
In botany, a stoma (: stomata, from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth"), also called a stomate (: stomates), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange between the internal air spaces of the leaf and the atmosphere. The pore is bordered by a pair of specialized parenchyma cells known as guard cells that regulate the size of the stomatal opening. The term is usually used collectively to refer to the entire stomatal complex, consisting of the paired guard cells and the pore itself, which is referred to as the stomatal aperture. Air, containing oxygen, which is used in respiration, and carbon dioxide, which is used in photosynthesis, passes through stomata by gaseous diffusion. Water vapour diffuses through the stomata into the atmosphere as part of a process called transpiration. Stomata are present in the sporophyte generation of the vast majority of land plants, with the exception of liverworts, as well as so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bracteole
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. 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 or ebracteolate. Variants Some bracts are brightly coloured which aid in the attraction of 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 bract) and palea (upper bract), while each spikelet (group of florets) has a further pair of bract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyme (botany)
In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a main axis ( peduncle) and by the timing of its flowering (determinate and indeterminate). Morphologically, an inflorescence is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed on the axis of a plant. The modifications can involve the length and the nature of the internodes and the phyllotaxis, as well as variations in the proportions, compressions, swellings, adnations, connations and reduction of main and secondary axes. One can also define an inflorescence as the reproductive portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern. General characteristics Inflorescences are described by many different characteristics including how the flowers are arranged on the peduncle, the blooming order of the flowe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
