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Lindernia Intrepida
''Lindernia intrepida'' is a species of aquatic plant that is native to central-west Namibia, growing in semi-arid and savanna regions. It grows in shallow temporary pools on granite inselbergs, surviving regular environmental extremes that include drastic daily changes in temperature and pH, along with extreme fluctuations in wetting and drying. It was previously known as ''Chamaegigas intrepidus'', meaning "intrepid dwarf giant", referring to the tiny plant's ability to thrive even in the desert. Description ''Lindernia intrepida'' grows in intertwined mats, with two different leaves. One is an underwater awl-shaped leaf that is long. Two pairs of unequal length leaves float on the water, and oval-shaped. The plant grows from a small rhizome growing in a combination of sand, organic debris, leaf remains, and animal dung that is deep. The flowers have two lips, and are white or pale pink with purple speckles. ''Lindernia intrepida'' is one of approximately 330 desiccant-tole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Dinter
Moritz Kurt Dinter (10 June 1868 – 16 December 1945) was a German botanist and explorer in South West Africa. Education and career Dinter was born in Bautzen, where he attended the Realschule. After completing his military service he joined the Botanic Gardens at Dresden and Strasbourg to further his botanical and horticultural interests. He was appointed assistant to Prof. Carl Georg Oscar Drude, the plant geographer, in Dresden. As a result of his keen interest in exotic succulents, he was selected by Sir Thomas Hanbury to manage his acclimatisation garden, the Giardini Botanici Hanbury at La Mortola, near Ventimiglia, Italy, Ventimiglia on the Italian Riviera. This garden had a large collection of South African bulbs and succulents. After six months at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Kew, he traveled to Swakopmund, southwest Africa, in June 1897, having sailed on the "Melitta Bohlem". Dinter started his collection in the countryside around Swakopmund, moved on to Walvis Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the northeast, approximating a quadripoint, Zimbabwe lies less than 200 metres (660 feet) away along the Zambezi, Zambezi River near Kazungula, Zambia. Namibia's capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, and has been inhabited since prehistoric times by the Khoekhoe, Khoi, San people, San, Damara people, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigration, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. From 1600 the Ovambo people#History, Ovambo formed kingdoms, such as Ondonga and Oukwanyama. In 1884, the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. Between 1904 and 1908, German troops waged a punitive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a aridity, dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below Evapotranspiration#Potential evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-arid climates, depending on variables such as temperature, and they give rise to different biomes. Defining attributes of semi-arid climates A more precise definition is given by the Köppen climate classification, which treats steppe climates (''BSh'' and ''BSk'') as intermediates between desert climates (BW) and humid climates (A, C, D) in ecological characteristics and agricultural potential. Semi-arid climates tend to support short, thorny or scrubby vegetation and are usually dominated by either grasses or shrubs as they usually cannot support forests. To determine if a location has a semi-arid climate, the precipitation threshold must first be determined. The method used to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. Four savanna forms exist; ''savanna woodland'' where trees and shrubs form a light canopy, ''tree savanna'' with scattered trees and shrubs, ''shrub savanna'' with distributed shrubs, and ''grass savanna'' where trees and shrubs are mostly nonexistent.Smith, Jeremy M.B.. "savanna". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Sep. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/science/savanna/Environment. Accessed 17 September 2022. Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density. It is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in many savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in forests.Manoel Cláudio da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inselberg
An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an Afrikaans word ("little head") from the Dutch diminutive word ''kopje''. If the inselberg is dome-shaped and formed from granite or gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt, though not all bornhardts are inselbergs. An inselberg results when a body of rock resistant to erosion, such as granite, occurring within a body of softer rocks, is exposed by differential erosion and lowering of the surrounding landscape. Etymology Inselberg The word ''inselberg'' is a loan word from German, and means "island mountain". The term was coined in 1900 by geologist Wilhelm Bornhardt (1864–1946) to describe the abundance of such features found in eastern Africa. At that time, the term applied only to arid landscape features. However, it has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow horizontally. The rhizome also retains the ability to allow new shoots to grow upwards. A rhizome is the main stem of the plant that runs typically underground and horizontally to the soil surface. Rhizomes have nodes and internodes and auxiliary buds. Roots do not have nodes and internodes and have a root cap terminating their ends. In general, rhizomes have short internodes, send out roots from the bottom of the nodes, and generate new upward-growing shoots from the top of the nodes. A stolon is similar to a rhizome, but stolon sprouts from an existing stem having long internodes and generating new shoots at the ends, they are often also called runners such as in the strawberry plant. A stem tuber is a thickene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vascular Plant
Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Tissue (biology), tissue (the phloem) to conduct products of photosynthesis. The group includes most embryophyte, land plants ( accepted known species) excluding mosses. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, Equisetum, horsetails, ferns, gymnosperms (including conifers), and angiosperms (flowering plants). They are contrasted with nonvascular plants such as mosses and green algae. Scientific names for the vascular plants group include Tracheophyta, Tracheobionta and Equisetopsida sensu lato, Equisetopsida ''sensu lato''. Some early land plants (the rhyniophytes) had less developed vascular tissue; the term eutracheophyte has been used for all other vascular plants, including all living ones. Historically, vascular plants were known as "hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fern
The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients, and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase. Ferns have complex leaf, leaves called megaphylls that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns. They produce coiled Fiddlehead fern, fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate (Polypodiidae (plant), Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, Psilotaceae, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns. The fern crown group, consisting of the leptosporangiates and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monocotyledon
Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks and under several different names. The APG IV system recognises its monophyly but does not assign it to a taxonomic rank, and instead uses the term "monocots" to refer to the group. Monocotyledons are contrasted with the dicotyledons, which have two cotyledons. Unlike the monocots however, the dicots are not monophyletic and the two cotyledons are instead the ancestral characteristic of all flowering plants. Botanists now classify dicots into the eudicots ("true dicots") and several basal lineages from which the monocots emerged. The monocots are extremely important economically, culturally, and ecologically, and make up a majority of plant biomass used in agriculture. Common crops such as dates, onions, garlic, rice, wheat, maize, ... [...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] |
Flora Of Namibia
The wildlife of Namibia is composed of its flora and fauna. Namibia's endangered species include the wild dog, black rhino, oribi and puku. Endangered species Namibia has many endangered species within its national parks and wildlife resorts. The puku antelope is limited to about 100 individuals along the Chobe River in Botswana and the Linyati marshes in Namibia. The black rhino and white rhino have suffered the most from poaching and are on the verge of extinction. If there had been no effort to save them in the last 20 years they most likely would have disappeared. While both species occur naturally in Namibia, in many of the reserves they have been reintroduced. The country also has the largest population in southern Africa of cheetahs not contained within national parks. There are over twenty species of antelope ranging from the largest, the eland, to the smallest, the Damara dik-dik. The gemsbok, a striking antelope with long symmetrical horns and distinctiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aquatic Plants
Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). In lakes, rivers and wetlands, aquatic vegetations provide cover for aquatic animals such as fish, amphibians and aquatic insects, create substrate for benthic invertebrates, produce oxygen via photosynthesis, and serve as food for some herbivorous wildlife. Familiar examples of aquatic plants include waterlily, lotus, duckweeds, mosquito fern, floating heart, water milfoils, mare's tail, water lettuce, water hyacinth, and algae. Aquatic plants require special adaptations for prolonged inundation in water, and for floating at the water surface. The most common adaptation is the presence of lightweight internal packing cells, aerenchyma, but floating leaves and finely dissected leaves are also common.Sculthorpe, C. D. 1967. The Biology of Aquatic Vascular Plants. Reprinted 1985 Edward Arnold, by London.Hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
