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Pine Barrens
Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pineland areas occur throughout the U.S. from Florida to Maine (see Atlantic coastal pine barrens) as well as the Midwest, West, and Canada and parts of Eurasia. Perhaps the most well known pine-barrens area to North Americans is the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Pine barrens are generally pine forests in otherwise "barren" and agriculturally challenging areas. Such pine forests often occur on dry, acidic, infertile soils, and also include grasses, forbs, and low shrubs. The most extensive pine barrens occur in large areas of sandy glacial deposits (including outwash plains), lakebeds, and outwash terraces along rivers. Description Botany The most common trees are the jack pine, red pine, pitch pine, blackjack oak, and scrub oak; a scattering of larger oaks is not unusual. The understory includes grasses, sedges, and forbs, many of them common in dry prairies, and rare plants such as the sand-plain gerardia ('' Agalinis acuta''). P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Jersey Pine Barrens
The New Jersey Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands or simply the Pines, is the largest remaining example of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecosystem, stretching across more than seven counties of New Jersey. Two other large, contiguous examples of this ecosystem remain in the northeastern United States: the Long Island Central Pine Barrens and the Massachusetts Coastal Pine Barrens. The name pine barrens refers to the area's sandy, acidic, nutrient-poor soil. Although European settlers could not cultivate their familiar crops there, the unique ecology of the Pine Barrens supports a diverse spectrum of plant life, including orchids and carnivorous plants. The area is also notable for its populations of rare pygmy pitch pines and other plant species that depend on the frequent fires of the Pine Barrens to reproduce. The sand that composes much of the area's soil is referred to by the locals as sugar sand. The Pine Barrens remains mostly rural and undisturbed despite i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens
The Atlantic coastal pine barrens is a now rare temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the Northeast United States distinguished by unique species and topographical features ( coastal plain ponds, frost pocket), generally nutrient-poor, often acidic soils and a pine tree distribution once controlled by frequent fires. Setting This ecoregion once stretched from North Carolina to Nova Scotia but now covers a disjunct area with three remaining large, contiguous areas including, the largest, the New Jersey Pine Barrens on the coastal plain of New Jersey, the rapidly diminishing forests of southern Long Island in New York State, and the Massachusetts Coastal Pine Barrens which stretches from Plymouth, Massachusetts in Southeastern Massachusetts to Cape Cod and the Islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The pine barrens are underlain by sandy, nutrient-poor soils, which typically support stunted forests dominated by pines (''Pinus'' spp.). The distinct flora of this ecoregion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. In theory, biodiversity or conservation ecoregions are relatively large areas of land or water where the probability of encountering different species and communities at any given point remains relatively constant, within an acceptable range of variation (largely undefined at this point). Ecoregions are also known as "ecozones" ("ecological zones"), although that term may also refer to biogeographic realms. Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches. Firstly, no single bio-geographic fram ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackjack Oak
''Quercus marilandica'', the blackjack oak, is a small oak, one of the red oak group ''Quercus'' sect. ''Lobatae''. It is native to the eastern and central United States. Description ''Quercus marilandica'' is a small deciduous tree growing to tall, with bark cracked into rectangular black plates with narrow orange fissures. The leaves are long and broad, and typically flare from a tapered base to a broad three-lobed bell shape with only shallow indentations. They are dark green and glossy above, pubescent underneath, and often remain attached to the twigs through the winter after turning colors from red to brown in the fall. The acorn is small, long and broad; like those of other red oaks, it takes 18 months to mature. Blackjack oaks in the Cross Timbers can grow from high but seldom reach more than , with a trunk diameter of . The leaves are from in length and about the same width. Distribution and habitat The blackjack oak can be found from Long Island in New Yor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buck Moth
The buck moth (''Hemileuca maia'') is a common insect found in oak forests, stretching in the United States from peninsular Florida to New England, and as far west as Texas and Kansas. It was first described by Dru Drury in 1773. The larvae typically emerge in a single generation in the spring. The larvae are covered in hollow spines that are attached to a poison sac. The poison can cause symptoms ranging from stinging, itching and burning sensations to nausea. Subspecies ''Hemileuca maia maia'' is listed as endangered in the US state of Connecticut. Subspecies ''Hemileuca maia menyanthevora'', the bog buck moth, is federally endangered, and also protected by Canada and the state of New York. There were five populations known historically but only three still survive, one in the US and two in Canada. The larvae feed on various oaks including scrub oak ('' Quercus ilicifolia''), live oak (''Quercus virginiana''), blackjack oak ('' Quercus marilandica''), white oak (''Quercus alba'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organisms, making it the second largest insect order (behind Coleoptera) with 126 family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic rank, superfamilies, and one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world. Lepidopteran species are characterized by more than three derived features. The most apparent is the presence of scale (anatomy), scales that cover the torso, bodies, large triangular Insect wing, wings, and a proboscis for siphoning nectars. The scales are modified, flattened "hairs", and give butterflies and moths their wide variety of colors and patterns. Almost all species have some form of membranous wings, except for a few that have reduced wings or are wingless. Mating and the laying of eggs is normally performe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hazel
Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins .Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan . though some botanists split the hazels (with the hornbeams and allied genera) into a separate family Corylaceae. The fruit of the hazel is the hazelnut. Hazels have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins. The flowers are produced very early in spring before the leaves, and are monoecious, with single-sex catkins. The male catkins are pale yellow and long, and the female ones are very small and largely concealed in the buds, with only the bright-red, 1-to-3 mm-long styles visible. The fruits are nuts long and 1–2 cm diameter, surrounded by an involucre (husk) which partly to fully encloses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bearberry
Bearberries are three species of dwarf shrubs in the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. Unlike the other species of ''Arctostaphylos'' (see manzanita), they are adapted to Arctic and subarctic climates, and have a circumpolar distribution in northern North America, Asia and Europe. Etymology The genus name, ''Arctostaphylos'', derives from the Greek ''arctos'' ("bear") and ''staphylos'' ("bunch of grapes"). The species name, ''uva-ursi'', is from the Latin ''uva'', ("bunch of grapes") and ''ursus'' ("bear"), leading to the common name, "bearberry". In the culture of First Nations people of Canada, the plant is called '' kinnikinnick'', from an Algonquian (possibly a Blackfoot) word for "smoking mixture". Description Bearberries grow as low-lying shrubs in soils predominantly composed of sand, gravel, or dunes in the boreal forest. It is less common north of the tree line. The plant has flexible branches growing up to long covered with red, shredded bark and dark green, oval le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blueberries
Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) and cultivated (highbush)—are all native to North America. The highbush varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s. Blueberries are usually prostrate shrubs that can vary in size from to in height. In the commercial production of blueberries, the species with small, pea-size berries growing on low-level bushes are known as "lowbush blueberries" (synonymous with "wild"), while the species with larger berries growing on taller, cultivated bushes are known as "highbush blueberries". Canada is the leading producer of lowbush blueberries, while the United States produces some 40% of the world's supply of highbush blueberries. Description Many species of blueberries grow wild in North America, including '' Vaccinium myrtilloi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ericaceae
The Ericaceae () are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with about 4,250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron (including azaleas), and various common heaths and heathers (''Erica (plant), Erica'', ''Cassiope'', ''Daboecia'', and ''Calluna'' for example). Description The Ericaceae contain a morphologically diverse range of taxa, including Herbaceous plant, herbs, chamaephyte, dwarf shrubs, shrubs, and trees. Their leaves are usually evergreen, alternate or whorled, simple and without stipules. Their flowers are Plant sexuality#Individual plant sexuality, hermaphrodite and show considerable variability. The petals are often fused (sympetalous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agalinis Acuta
''Agalinis'' (false foxglove) is a genus of about 70 species in North, Central, and South America that until recently was aligned with members of the family Scrophulariaceae. As a result of numerous molecular phylogenetic studies based on various chloroplast DNA ( cpDNA) loci, it was shown to be more closely related to members of the Orobanchaceae. ''Agalinis'' species are hemiparasitic, which is a character that in part describes the Orobanchaceae Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family (biology), family of mostly parasitic plants of the order (biology), order Lamiales, with about 90 genus, genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera (e.g., ''Pedicularis'', ''Rhinanthus'', .... The first detailed study of this genus began with Francis W. Pennell around 1908, and his earliest major publication of the North American members of this genus appeared in 1913. Dr. Judith Canne-Hilliker began to revise Pennell's treatment in 1977. Her taxonomic, anatomical, and d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
