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Haberlea
''Haberlea'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae. The only member of this genus, ''Haberlea rhodopensis'', is endemic to parts of Bulgaria and a small part of northern Greece, especially in the Rhodope Mountains. Common names include Orpheus flower and resurrection plant because of the remarkable ability of ''Haberlea'' to survive very long periods of desiccation. The species is a stemless, evergreen perennial found in north-facing rocky habitats. Basal rosettes of dark green leaves bear trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of white, violet or purple in spring and summer. Despite the zygomorphic nectar-producing flowers (which are considered an ancestral character) and the overall trend in Gesneriaceae, resurrection plant is only rarely pollinated by bees and does not have specific pollinators. Rather its evolution has switched in the direction of providing pollen as a reward and generalisation of pollinating insects - a trend that is observed in the o ... [...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] |
Resurrection Plant
A resurrection plant is any poikilohydric plant that can survive extreme dehydration, even over months or years. Examples include: * ''Asteriscus'' (plant); * '' Dorcoceras hygrometrica'', * '' Craterostigma'', members of the Linderniaceae/Scrophulariaceae with snapdragon-like flowers * '' Haberlea rhodopensis'' * '' Mesembryanthemum'', the plant can revive within a short period of time after a drought * '' Myrothamnus flabellifolius'', a plant species native to Southern Africa * '' Pleopeltis polypodioides'', also known as resurrection fern * '' Ramonda serbica'', a species in the family Gesneriaceae * '' Selaginella lepidophylla'', a plant species native to North America, Central and South America, and sold as a novelty * '' Tillandsia'' * '' Xerophyta'', a monocotyledonous genus of 57 species typically occurring on rock outcrops in Southern African grasslands Certain resurrection plants have long been sold in their dry, "lifeless" form as curiosities. This custom was noted by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Award Of Garden Merit
The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated plants, from annuals, biennials and perennials to shrubs and trees. It covers plants grown for specific purposes - such as vegetable crops, fruit, hedging, topiary, groundcover, summer bedding, houseplants, etc. It tests characteristics such as robustness, hardiness, longevity, flowering/fruiting abundance and quality, usefulness, and ease of cultivation. It pays particular attention to a plant's ability to survive and thrive in challenging conditions such as wind and frost. The AGM trophy symbol is widely used in gardening literature as a sign of exceptional quality, and is recognised as such by writers, horticulturalists, nurseries, and everybody in the UK who practises gardening. History The Award of Garden Merit is a mark of quality aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saponin
Saponins (Latin ''sapon'', 'soap' + ''-in'', 'one of') are bitter-tasting, usually toxic plant-derived secondary metabolites. They are organic chemicals that become foamy when agitated in water and have high molecular weight. They are present in a wide range of plant species throughout the bark, leaves, stems, roots and flowers but particularly in soapwort (genus '' Saponaria''), a flowering plant, the soapbark tree ('' Quillaja saponaria''), common corn-cockle ('' Agrostemma githago'' L.), baby's breath ( ''Gypsophila'' spp.) and soybeans ('' Glycine max'' L.). They are used in soaps, medicines (e.g. drug adjuvants), fire extinguishers, dietary supplements, steroid synthesis, and in carbonated beverages (for example, being responsible for maintaining the head on root beer). Saponins are both water and fat soluble, which gives them their useful soap properties. Some examples of these chemicals are glycyrrhizin ( licorice flavoring) and quillaia (alt. quillaja), a bark ext ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glycoside
In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. These can be activated by enzymatic, enzyme hydrolysis, which causes the sugar part to be broken off, making the chemical available for use. Many such plant glycosides are used as medications. Several species of ''Heliconius'' butterfly are capable of incorporating these plant compounds as a form of chemical defense against predators. In animals and humans, poisons are often bound to sugar molecules as part of their elimination from the body. In formal terms, a glycoside is any molecule in which a sugar group is bonded through its anomeric carbon to another group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides can be linked by an O- (an ''O-glycoside''), N- (a ''glycosylamine''), S-(a ''thioglycoside''), or C- (a ''C-glycoside'') glycosidic bond. Accord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' may differ). This formula does not imply direct covalent bonding between hydrogen and oxygen atoms; for example, in , hydrogen is covalently bonded to carbon, not oxygen. While the 2:1 hydrogen-to-oxygen ratio is characteristic of many carbohydrates, exceptions exist. For instance, uronic acids and deoxy-sugars like fucose deviate from this precise stoichiometric definition. Conversely, some compounds conforming to this definition, such as formaldehyde and acetic acid, are not classified as carbohydrates. The term is predominantly used in biochemistry, functioning as a synonym for saccharide (), a group that includes sugars, starch, and cellulose. The saccharides are divided into four chemical groups: monosaccharides, disaccharides, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lipid
Lipids are a broad group of organic compounds which include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes. Lipids have applications in the cosmetic and food industries, and in nanotechnology. Lipids are broadly defined as hydrophobic or amphiphilic small molecules; the amphiphilic nature of some lipids allows them to form structures such as vesicles, multilamellar/ unilamellar liposomes, or membranes in an aqueous environment. Biological lipids originate entirely or in part from two distinct types of biochemical subunits or "building-blocks": ketoacyl and isoprene groups. Using this approach, lipids may be divided into eight categories: fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides (derived from condensatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polysaccharide
Polysaccharides (), or polycarbohydrates, are the most abundant carbohydrates found in food. They are long-chain polymeric carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic linkages. This carbohydrate can react with water (hydrolysis) using amylase enzymes as catalyst, which produces constituent sugars (monosaccharides or oligosaccharides). They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch, glycogen and galactogen and structural polysaccharides such as hemicellulose and chitin. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure, these macromolecules can have distinct properties from their monosaccharide building blocks. They may be amorphous or even insoluble in water. When all the monosaccharides in a polysaccharide are the same type, the polysaccharide is called a homopolysaccharide or homoglycan, but when more t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tannin
Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widely applied to any large polyphenolic compound containing sufficient hydroxyls and other suitable groups (such as carboxyls) to form strong complexes with various macromolecules. The term ''tannin'' (from scientific French ''tannin'', from French ''tan'' "crushed oak bark", ''tanner'' "to tan", cognate with English language, English ''tanning'', Medieval Latin ''tannare'', from Proto-Celtic ''*tannos'' "oak") refers to the abundance of these compounds in oak Bark (botany), bark, which was used in Tanning (leather), tanning animal Hide (skin), hides into leather. The tannin compounds are widely distributed in many species of plants, where they play a role in protection from predation (acting as pesticides) and might help in regulating plant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flavonoid
Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids have the general structure of a 15-carbon skeleton, which consists of two phenyl rings (A and B) and a Heterocyclic compound, heterocyclic ring (C, the ring containing the embedded oxygen). This carbon structure can be abbreviated C6-C3-C6. According to the IUPAC nomenclature, they can be classified into: *flavonoids or bioflavonoids *isoflavonoids, derived from 3-phenylchromone, chromen-4-one (3-phenyl-1,4-benzopyran, benzopyrone) structure *neoflavonoids, derived from 4-phenylcoumarin (4-phenyl-1,2-benzopyran, benzopyrone) structure The three flavonoid classes above are all ketone-containing compounds and as such, anthoxanthins (flavones and flavonols). This class was the first to be termed bioflavonoids. The terms flavonoid and bioflavo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phytochemical
Phytochemicals are naturally-occurring chemicals present in or extracted from plants. Some phytochemicals are nutrients for the plant, while others are metabolites produced to enhance plant survivability and reproduction. The fields of extracting phytochemicals for manufactured products or applying scientific methods to study phytochemical properties are called ''phytochemistry''. An individual who uses phytochemicals in food chemistry manufacturing or research is a ''phytochemist''. Phytochemicals without a nutrient definition have no confirmed biological activities or proven health benefits when consumed in plant foods. Once phytochemicals in a food enter the digestion process, the fate of individual phytochemicals in the body is unknown due to extensive metabolism of the food in the gastrointestinal tract, producing phytochemical metabolites with different biological properties from those of the parent compound that may have been tested in vitro. Further, the bioavaila ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
