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Lithophytic Orchids
Lithophytes are plants that grow in or on Rock (geology), rocks. They can be classified as either epilithic (or epipetric) or endolithic; epilithic lithophytes grow on the surfaces of rocks, while endolithic lithophytes grow in the crevices of rocks (and are also referred to as chasmophytes). Lithophytes can also be classified as being either obligate or facultative. Obligate lithophytes grow solely on rocks, while facultative lithophytes will grow partially on a rock and on another substrate simultaneously. Nutrients Lithophytes that grow on land feed off nutrients from rain water and nearby decaying plants, including their own dead tissue. It is easier for wikt:chasmophyte, chasmophytes to acquire nutrients because they grow in fissures in rocks where soil or organic matter has accumulated. For most lithophytes, nitrogen is only available through interactions with the atmosphere. The most readily available form of nitrogen in the atmosphere is the gaseous state of ammonia (NH3). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orchids
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth except glaciers. The world's richest diversity of orchid genera and species is in the tropics. Orchidaceae is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, the other being the Asteraceae. It contains about 28,000 currently accepted species in 702 genera. The Orchidaceae family encompasses about 6–11% of all species of seed plants. The largest genera are ''Bulbophyllum'' (2,000 species), ''Epidendrum'' (1,500 species), ''Dendrobium'' (1,400 species) and '' Pleurothallis'' (1,000 species). It also includes ''Vanilla'' (the genus of the vanilla plant), the type genus '' Orchis'', and many commonly cultivated plants such as '' Phalaenopsis'' and '' Cattleya''. Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species into cultivation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piperaceae
The Piperaceae (), also known as the pepper family, are a large family (biology), family of flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,600 currently accepted species in five genera. The vast majority of species can be found within the two main genera: ''Piper (plant), Piper'' (2,171 species) and ''Peperomia'' (over 1,000 species). Members of the Piperaceae may be small trees, shrubs, or herbs. The distribution of this group is best described as pantropical. The best-known species, ''Piper nigrum'', yields most peppercorns that are used as spices, including black pepper, although its relatives in the family include many other spices. The family Piperaceae is unrelated to the family Solanaceae, which includes bell peppers and chili peppers, which are so named due to Europeans taking part in the Columbian exchange mistakenly believing the spicy fruits were a variety of the black pepper plant. Etymology The name Piperaceae is derived from the Sanskrit term ''pippali'', . Taxo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crassulaceae
The Crassulaceae (, from Latin ''crassus'', thick), also known as the crassulas, the stonecrops or the orpine family, are a diverse Family (biology), family of dicotyledon angiosperms primarily characterized by succulent leaves and a form of photosynthesis known as crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), in which plants photosynthesize in the daytime and exchange gases during the cooler temperatures of the night. The blossoms of crassulas generally have five floral parts. Crassulaceae are usually herbaceous, though there are some subshrubs, and relatively few trees or aquatic plants. The Crassulaceae is a medium-sized, monophyletic family in the core eudicots clade, along with the order Saxifragales, whose diversity has made infrafamilial classification very difficult. The family includes approximately 1,400 species and 34–35 genera—depending on the circumscription of the genus ''Sedum''—distributed over three subfamilies. Members of the Crassulaceae are found worldwide, though ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caprifoliaceae
The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade of dicotyledonous flowering plants consisting of about 860 species in 33 to 42 genera, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution. Centres of diversity are found in eastern North America and eastern Asia, while they are absent in tropical and southern Africa. Description The flowering plants in this clade are mostly shrubs and vines: rarely herbs. They include some ornamental garden plants grown in temperate regions. The leaf, leaves are mostly opposite with no stipules (appendages at the base of a leafstalk or leaf, petiole), and may be either evergreen or deciduous. The flowers are tubular funnel-shaped or bell-like, usually with five outward spreading lobes or points, and are often fragrant. They usually form a small Sepal, calyx with small bracts. The fruit is in most cases a berry (botany), berry or a drupe. The genera ''Diervilla'' and ''Weigela'' have Capsule (fruit), capsular fruit, while ''Heptacodium'' has an achene. Tax ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Begoniaceae
Begoniaceae is a family of flowering plants with two genera and about 2040 species occurring in the subtropics and tropics of both the New World and Old World. All but one of the species are in the genus ''Begonia''. There have been many recent discoveries of species in the genus ''Begonia'', such as ''Begonia truncatifolia'' which is endemic to San Vincente, Palawan. ''B. truncatifolia'' is smaller than other species of the genus ''Begonia'' and this new species is proposed Critically Endangered by standards set by the IUCN. The only other genus in the family, '' Hillebrandia'', is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands and has a single species. Phylogenetic work supports ''Hillebrandia'' as the sister taxon to the rest of the family. The genus ''Symbegonia'' was reduced to a section of ''Begonia'' in 2003, as molecular phylogenies had shown it to be derived from within that genus. Members of the genus ''Begonia'' are well-known and popular houseplants. Begonia flowers in bloom.jpg, '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amaryllidaceae
The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus '' Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryllis family. The leaves are usually linear, and the flowers are usually bisexual and symmetrical, arranged in umbels on the stem. The petals and sepals are undifferentiated as tepals, which may be fused at the base into a floral tube. Some also display a corona. Allyl sulfide compounds produce the characteristic odour of the onion subfamily (Allioideae). The family, which was originally created in 1805, now contains about 1600 species, divided into 71 genera, 17 tribes and three subfamilies, the Agapanthoideae ('' Agapanthus''), Allioideae ( onions, garlic and chives) and Amaryllidoideae ( amaryllis, daffodils, snowdrops). Over time, it has seen much reorganisation and at various times was combined with the related Liliaceae. Sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liliaceae
The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair amount of morphological diversity despite genetic similarity. Common characteristics include large flowers with parts arranged in threes: with six colored or patterned petaloid tepals (undifferentiated petals and sepals) arranged in two whorls, six stamens and a superior ovary. The leaves are linear in shape, with their veins usually arranged parallel to the edges, single and arranged alternating on the stem, or in a rosette at the base. Most species are grown from bulbs, although some have rhizomes. First described in 1789, the lily family became a paraphyletic "catch-all" ( wastebasket) group of lilioid monocots that did not fit into other families and included a great number of genera now included in other families and in some case ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liverwort
Liverworts are a group of non-vascular land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta (). They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information. The division name was derived from the genus name '' Marchantia'', named after his father by French botanist Jean Marchant. It is estimated that there are about 9000 species of liverworts. Some of the more familiar species grow as a flattened leafless thallus, but most species are leafy with a form very much like a flattened moss. Leafy species can be distinguished from the apparently similar mosses on the basis of a number of features, including their single-celled rhizoids. Leafy liverworts also differ from most (but not all) mosses in that their leaves never have a costa (present in many mosses) and may bear marginal cilia (very rare in mosses). Other differences are not universal for all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as cyanobacteria, ''Chlorella'', and diatoms, to multicellular macroalgae such as kelp or brown algae which may grow up to in length. Most algae are aquatic organisms and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem, and phloem that are found in embryophyte, land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds. In contrast, the most complex freshwater forms are the Charophyta, a Division (taxonomy), division of green algae which includes, for example, ''Spirogyra'' and stoneworts. Algae that are carried passively by water are plankton, specifically phytoplankton. Algae constitute a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group because they do not include a common ancestor, and although Eu ... [...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] |
Tillandsia
''Tillandsia'' is a genus of around 650 species of evergreen, perennial plant, perennial flowering plants in the family (biology), family Bromeliaceae, native to the forests, mountains and deserts of the Neotropical realm, Neotropics, from northern Mexico and the southeastern United States to Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to central Argentina. Their leaves, more or less silvery in color, are covered with specialized cells (trichome, trichomes) capable of rapidly absorbing water that gathers on them. They are also commonly known as air plants because they obtain nutrients and water from the air, not needing soil for nourishment. They have a natural propensity to cling to whatever surfaces are readily available: telephone wires, tree branches, bark, bare rocks, etc. Their light seeds and a silky parachute facilitate their spread. Most ''Tillandsia'' species are epiphytes – which translates to 'upon a plant'. Some are aerophytes, which have a minimal root system and grow on shifti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
