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Guthriea
''Guthriea capensis'' is an acaulescent perennial herb endemic to South Africa and occurring in cool and damp sites facing south or east in the mountains of the Cape Province, Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal. ''Guthriea'' is monotypic and was named after the botanist and mathematician Francis Guthrie by his friend the botanist Harry Bolus. This ground-hugging species with a rhizome and fleshy roots forms a compact rosette of some 20-30 broadly elliptic or cordate discolorous leaves with crenate margins, measuring about 50 x 75 mm, glossy above with deeply indented venation hiding creamy-green flowers which are close to the ground, solitary and stalked. Its primary pollinator is a reptile, the Drakensberg crag lizard (''Pseudocordylus subviridis''), a rare association, the only other plant whose primary pollinator is also reptilian (''Phelsuma'' geckos) is ''Trochetia blackburniana'' from Mauritius. The lizards are attracted by the scent of a nectar component safranal, a cyclic ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Guthrie
Francis Guthrie (born 22 January 1831 in London; d. 19 October 1899 in Claremont, Cape Town) was a South African mathematician and botanist who first posed the Four Colour Problem in 1852. He studied mathematics under Augustus De Morgan, and botany under John Lindley at University College London. Guthrie obtained his B.A. in 1850, and LL.B. in 1852 with first class honours. While colouring a map of the counties of England, he noticed that at least four colours were required so that no two regions sharing a common border were the same colour. He postulated that four colours would be sufficient to colour any map. This became known as the Four Color Problem, and remained one of the most famous unsolved problems in topology for more than a century until it was eventually proven in 1976 using a lengthy computer-aided proof. Guthrie arrived in South Africa on 10 April 1861 and was met and entertained by Dr Dale (later Sir Langham Dale), who was instrumental in the establishing of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achariaceae
Achariaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of 32-33 genera with about 155 species of tropical herbs, shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from tre ...s, and trees. The APG IV system has greatly expanded the scope of the family by including many genera previously classified in Flacourtiaceae. Molecular data strongly support the inclusion of this family in the order Malpighiales. The family is almost exclusively tropical and is best known as the source of chaulmoogra oil, formerly used to treat leprosy. Unlike other members of the former Flacourtiaceae now placed in the family Salicaceae, the genera of Achariaceae typically have cyanogenic glycosides. Genera References Malpighiales families {{Malpighiales-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Bolus
Harry Bolus (28 April 1834 – 25 May 1911) was a South African botanist, botanical artist, businessman and philanthropist. He advanced botany in South Africa by establishing bursaries, founding the Bolus Herbarium and bequeathing his library and a large part of his fortune to the South African College (now the University of Cape Town). Active in scientific circles, he was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, member and president of the South African Philosophical Society (later the Royal Society of South Africa), the SA Medal and Grant by the SA Association for the Advancement of Science and an honorary D.Sc. from the University of the Cape of Good Hope. Biography Bolus was born in Nottingham, England. He was educated at Castle Gate School, Nottingham. The headmaster George Herbert regularly corresponded with and received plant specimens from William Kensit of Grahamstown, South Africa. Kensit requested that the headmaster send him one of his pupils as an assistant; Harry Bolus d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flacourtiaceae
The Flacourtiaceae is a defunct family of flowering plants whose former members have been scattered to various families, mostly to the Achariaceae and Salicaceae. It was so vaguely defined that hardly anything seemed out of place there and it became a dumping ground for odd and anomalous genera, gradually making the family even more heterogeneous. In 1975, Hermann Sleumer noted that "Flacourtiaceae as a family is a fiction; only the tribes are homogeneous." In Cronquist's classification, the Flacourtiaceae included 79–89 genera and 800–1000 species. Of these, many, including the type genus ''Flacourtia'', have now been transferred to the Salicaceae in the molecular phylogeny-based classification, known as the APG IV system, established by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. In the list below, the Salicaceae are circumscribed broadly. Some taxonomists further divide the Salicaceae '' sensu lato'' into three families: Salicaceae ''sensu stricto'', Scyphostegiaceae, and Samyd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceratiosicyos
''Ceratiosicyos'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Achariaceae Achariaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of 32-33 genera with about 155 species of tropical herbs, shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs .... Its native range is Southern Africa. Species: * ''Ceratiosicyos laevis'' (Thunb.) A.Meeuse References {{Taxonbar, from=Q8344033 Achariaceae Malpighiales genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acharia (plant)
''Acharia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Achariaceae. The sole species is ''Acharia tragodes'', which is endemic to the Cape Provinces in South Africa. The genus is named for Swedish botanist Erik Acharius (1757–1819).LE REGNE VEGETAL by O. Reveil, Fr. Gerard, A. Dupuis, and F. Herincq; published 1871 by L. Guérin & Compagnie (via Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a s ...
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Xylotheca Kraussiana
''Xylotheca kraussiana'' is an African shrub or small multi-stemmed tree growing in the sandveld and widely distributed throughout the eastern parts of Southern Africa, in particular the eastern Transvaal, coastal Natal and Mozambique, preferring the sandy soils of coastal bush and forest. 'Xylotheca' meaning 'woody case' and the species name honouring Dr C.F.F. Krauss (1812-1890), a German naturalist, who later became director of Stuttgart's Natural History Museum. Krauss came to the Cape in 1838, collected in Natal from 1839 to 1840. About 8 other species of ''Xylotheca'' are to be found in central Africa and Madagascar. Leaves are dull grey-green, alternate and covered in soft grey hairs. Flowers are white with a dense central cluster of yellow anthers and resembling a small white rose. The fruit is an ovoid woody capsule about long and distinctly ridged. Yellow when ripe, it partly splits into 5 sections revealing black seeds with a bright red aril. The pulp around the seed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rawsonia Lucida
''Rawsonia lucida'' (synonym ''R. reticulata'') is a species of plant in the Achariaceae family. It is found in eastern, central and southern Africa. References External links * {{Taxonbar, from=Q17565381, from2=Q7297072 lucida Lucida (pronunciation: ) is an extended family of related typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes and released from 1984 onwards. The family is intended to be extremely legible when printed at small size or displayed on a low-reso ... Least concern plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiggelaria Africana
''Kiggelaria africana'' (also known as the wild peach or umKokoko) is a large, robust, low-branching African tree, and is currently the only accepted species in the genus ''Kiggelaria''. Despite its common name, ''Kiggelaria africana'' is not related to the more familiar fruit-producing peach tree (''Prunus persica'') although the leaves do look similar, if only very superficially. Unlike peach leaves, they are fairly thick and stiff, with a thin coating of fur on the undersides. Appearance A well-shaped, robust, evergreen tree with grey-green leaves. The smooth bark is pale grey in colour and the tree tends to be low-branching. The wild peach is dioecious (having separate male and female trees) and its tiny flowers are bell-shaped and a yellowish colour. The flowers are followed later in the summer by round, green capsules. These split open once ripe and the seeds, which are each covered in a layer of bright orange-red flesh, are eaten and spread by birds. Distribution This tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safranal
Safranal is an organic compound isolated from saffron, the spice consisting of the stigmas of crocus flowers (''Crocus sativus''). It is the constituent primarily responsible for the aroma of saffron. It is believed that safranal is a degradation product of the carotenoid zeaxanthin via the intermediate picrocrocin. Pharmacology Safranal is an effective anticonvulsant in animal models, shown to act as an agonist at GABAA receptors. Safranal also exhibits high antioxidant and free radical scavenging activity, along with cytotoxicity towards cancer cells in vitro. One of its anticancer mechanisms of action involves disruption of the normal assembly dynamics of cellular microtubules. It has also been shown to have antidepressant properties in animals and pilot studies in humans. Natural sources Natural sources of safranal include: *''Microcystis'' (cyanobacterium) *'' Aspalathus linearis'' (Rooibos) *''Camellia sinensis'' (Tea leaf) *'' Crocus sativus'' (Saffron) *''Ficus cari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Colony, as well as Walvis Bay, and had Cape Town as its capital. In 1994, the Cape Province was divided into the new Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces, along with part of the North West. History When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, the original Cape Colony was renamed the Cape Province. It was by far the largest of South Africa's four provinces, as it contained regions it had previously annexed, such as British Bechuanaland (not to be confused with the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana), Griqualand East (the area around Kokstad) and Griqualand West (area around Kimberley). As a result, it encompassed two-thirds of South Africa's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trochetia
''Trochetia'' is a genus of flowering plants from the family Malvaceae (formerly in the Sterculiaceae, but this family is now usually subsumed in the Malvaceae). They are endemic to the Mascarene Islands. The genus was first described by A.P. de Candolle in 1823, who named it in honour of French botanist Henri Dutrochet. Description and ecology The genus ''Trochetia'' consists of scrubs or small trees, which can reach a height from two to eight metres. The hermaphroditic flowers are either white (''T. triflora''), pink (''T. parviflora''), or reddish orange (''T. boutoniana''). They are either single-standing, or grow in a cluster of three flowers. Some species have bell-shaped petals. All plants of this genus are imperiled due to the competition of invasive species, like the guavas from China but also by destruction caused by introduced monkeys and rats. Five species occur on Mauritius and one on La Reunion. The habitat consists of humid forests with a high annual rainfall or m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
