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Pseudoprospero
''Pseudoprospero'' is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae (also treated as the family Hyacinthaceae).Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards),Asparagales: Scilloideae, ''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website'', retrieved 2013-04-12 The genus has a single species ''Pseudoprospero firmifolium'', which is endemic to South Africa (the Cape Province, KwaZulu-Natal). Description ''Pseudoprospero firmifolium'' grows from an underground bulb whose tunic has dry, paper-like outer layers. The channelled linear leaves are evergreen. The flowers are borne in a loose many-flowered raceme, which usually has a side branch. Individual flowers have white to lilac tepals which are joined at the base and persist into the fruiting stage. The stamens are more-or-less erect, with filaments joined at the base to the tepals and to each other. The seeds are black. Systematics From the 1970s onwards, Franz Speta and co-workers split up the broadly defined genus ''Scilla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scilloideae
Scilloideae (named after the genus ''Scilla'', "squill") is a subfamily of bulbous plants within the family ''Asparagaceae''. Scilloideae is sometimes treated as a separate family Hyacinthaceae, named after the genus ''Hyacinth (plant), Hyacinthus''. Scilloideae or Hyacinthaceae include many familiar garden plants such as ''Hyacinth (plant), Hyacinthus'' (hyacinths), ''Hyacinthoides'' (bluebells), ''Muscari'' (grape hyacinths) and ''Scilla'' and ''Puschkinia'' (squills or scillas). Some are important as cut flowers. Scilloideae are distributed mostly in Mediterranean climates, including South Africa, Central Asia and South America. Their flowers have six tepals and six stamens with a Ovary (botany)#Superior ovary, superior ovary, which previously placed them within the Liliaceae, lily family (Liliaceae), and their leaves are fleshy, mucilage, mucilaginous, and arranged in a rosette (botany), basal rosette. The Scilloideae, like most lilioid monocot, lily-like monocots, were at one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homoisoflavanone
Homoisoflavonoids (3-benzylidenechroman-4-ones) are a type of phenolic compounds occurring naturally in plants. Chemically, they have the general structure of a 16-carbon skeleton, which consists of two phenyl rings (A and B) and heterocyclic ring (C). Synthesis Homoisoflavones can be synthesized from 2'-hydroxy dihydrochalcones. Homoisoflavanones can be synthesized from 3,5-methoxy phenols via chroman-4-one in three steps or from phloroglucinol. ;Conversion Homoisoflavanes can be obtained from the conversion of homoisoflavonoids. Natural occurrences The homoisoflavonoids portulacanones A, B, C and D can be found in '' Portulaca oleracea'' (common purslane, Caryophyllales, Portulacaceae). The 3,4-dihydroxyhomoisoflavans sappanol, episappanol, 3'-deoxysappanol, 3'-O-methylsappanol and 3'-O-methylepisappanol can be found in ''Caesalpinia sappan''. The homoisoflavones scillavones A and B can be isolated from the bulbs of ''Scilla scilloides'' ('' Barnardia japonica'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asparagaceae
Asparagaceae (), known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, '' Asparagus officinalis''. This family includes both common garden plants as well as common houseplants. The garden plants include asparagus, yucca, bluebell, lily of the valley, and hosta, and the houseplants include snake plant, corn cane, spider plant, and plumosus fern. The Asparagaceae is a morphologically heterogenous family with the included species varying widely in their appearance and growth form. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, with genera and species contained in the family native to all continents except Antarctica. Taxonomy Early taxonomy The plant family Asparagaceae was first named, described, and published in Genera Plantarum in 1789 by the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, who is particularly noted for his work in developing the concept of pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Speta
Franz Speta (22 December 1941 – 5 December 2015) was an Austrian botanist. He specialized in bulbous plants, especially the Hyacinthaceae. Career Speta worked as an apprentice for a clerk. He then studied at the University of Vienna in the Department of Botany and Zoology. He wrote among professors such as Lothar Geitler and Tschermak Woess about the "evolution and karyology of elaiosomes to fruit and seeds." In 1972, he received a Ph.D. From 1970, he was a research associate at the Upper Austrian Provincial Museum Linz, initially as Head of botany and invertebrates, from 1985 as director deputy of the National Museum and 1990 to 1991 as interim director. From 1993 to 2003 he was head of the newly founded Biology Centre of the National Museum. In 1982, he received the venia legendi of Systematic Botany at the University of Salzburg. In 1994, he became the Councilor appointed. Research The research focus of Speta was the bulbous plants, especially the Hyacinthaceae focusing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxa Named By John Gilbert Baker
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and given a particular ranking, especially if and when it is accepted or becomes established. It is very common, however, for taxonomists to remain at odds over what belongs to a taxon and the criteria used for inclusion, especially in the context of rank-based (" Linnaean") nomenclature (much less so under phylogenetic nomenclature). If a taxon is given a formal scientific name, its use is then governed by one of the nomenclature codes specifying which scientific name is correct for a particular grouping. Initial attempts at classifying and ordering organisms (plants and animals) were presumably set forth in prehistoric times by hunter-gatherers, as suggested by the fairly sophisticated folk taxonomies. Much later, Aristotle, and later still ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Flora Of South Africa
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or, in scientific literature, as an ''endemite''. Similarly, many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or becomin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of KwaZulu-Natal
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora as in the terms ''gut flora'' or ''skin flora'' for purposes of specificity. Etymology The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...s, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work catalogui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotypic Asparagaceae Genera
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispecific" or "monospecific" is sometimes preferred. In botanical nomenclature, a monotypic genus is a genus in the special case where a genus and a single species are simultaneously described. Theoretical implications Monotypic taxa present several important theoretical challenges in biological classification. One key issue is known as "Gregg's Paradox": if a single species is the only member of multiple hierarchical levels (for example, being the only species in its genus, which is the only genus in its family), then each level needs a distinct definition to maintain logical structure. Otherwise, the different taxonomic ranks become effectively identical, which creates problems for organizing biological diversity in a hierarchical system. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
