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Rhodes Grass
''Chloris gayana'' is a species of Poaceae, grass known by the common name Rhodes grass. It is native to Africa but it can be found throughout the tropical and subtropical world as a introduced species, naturalized species. It can grow in many types of habitat. It is also cultivated in some areas as a palatable grazing, graze for animals and a groundcover to reduce erosion and quickly revegetate denuded soil. It is tolerant of moderately soil salinity, saline and alkali soil, alkaline soils and irrigation. Description This is a perennial grass which can reach one half to nearly three meters in height and spreads via stolons. It forms tufts and can spread into wide monotypic stands. The inflorescence is a single or double whorl of fingerlike racemes up to 15 centimeters long. Each spikelet in the raceme is a few millimeters long and contains one or two fertile florets and up to four sterile florets. Growing conditions Its seasonal growth is in the spring and summer and its rainf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Sigismund Kunth
Carl Sigismund Kunth (18 June 1788 – 22 March 1850) was a German botanist. He was also known as Karl Sigismund Kunth or anglicized as Charles Sigismund Kunth. He was one of the early systematic botanists who focused on studying the plants of the Americas. Kunth's notable contributions include the publication of ''Nova genera et species plantarum quas in peregrinatione ad plagam aequinoctialem orbis novi collegerunt Bonpland et Humboldt''. This work spanned seven volumes and was published between 1815 and 1825. Early life Kunth was born in Leipzig, Saxony, in modern-day Germany. His uncle, Gottlob Johann Christian Kunth, was a politician and educator who tutored both the explorer Alexander von Humboldt and his older brother, the diplomat Wilhelm von Humboldt, as children. Growing up, Kunth's father didn't have enough money for him to continue studying at the Leipzig Rathsschule. His uncle paid for him to move to Berlin, then a part of Prussia, and take a position at the Pru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poaceae
Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture. The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass. With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, the Poaceae is the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae. The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, including staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize, wheat, rice, oats, barley, and millet for people and as feed for meat-producing animals. They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half (51%) of all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize (corn) 5.5%, and other grains 6%. Some members of the Poaceae are used as building materials ( bamboo, thatch, and straw); oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Introduced Species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there by human activity, directly or indirectly, and either deliberately or accidentally. Non-native species can have various effects on the local ecosystem. Introduced species that become established and spread beyond the place of introduction are considered naturalized. The process of human-caused introduction is distinguished from biological colonization, in which species spread to new areas through "natural" (non-human) means such as storms and rafting. The Latin expression neobiota captures the characteristic that these species are ''new'' biota to their environment in terms of established biological network (e.g. food web) relationships. Neobiota can further be divided into neozoa (also: neozoons, sing. neozoon, i.e. animals) and ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grazing
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human digestive system, human gut) cellulose within grass and other forages into meat, milk, wool and other animal products, often on land that is unsuitable for arable farming. Farmers may employ many different strategies of grazing for crop yield, optimum production: grazing may be continuous, seasonal, or rotational grazing, rotational within a grazing period. Longer rotations are found in ley farming, alternating arable and fodder crops; in rest rotation, deferred rotation, and mob grazing, giving grasses a longer time to recover or leaving land fallow. Patch-burn sets up a rotation of fresh grass after burning with two years of rest. Conservation grazing proposes to use grazing animals to improve the biodiversity of a site. Grazing has existed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, transports it to another location where it is deposit (geology), deposited. Erosion is distinct from weathering which involves no movement. Removal of rock or soil as clastic sediment is referred to as ''physical'' or ''mechanical'' erosion; this contrasts with ''chemical'' erosion, where soil or rock material is removed from an area by Solvation, dissolution. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, or for thousands of kilometres. Agents of erosion include rainfall; bedrock wear in rivers; coastal erosion by the sea and Wind wave, waves; glacier, glacial Plucking (glaciation), plucking, Abrasion (geology), abrasion, and scour; areal flooding; Aeolian processes, wind abrasion; groundwater processes; and Mass wastin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soil Salinity
Soil salinity is the salt (chemistry), salt content in the soil; the process of increasing the salt content is known as salinization (also called salination in American and British English spelling differences, American English). Salts occur naturally within soils and water. Salinization can be caused by natural processes such as mineral weathering or by the gradual withdrawal of an ocean. It can also come about through artificial processes such as irrigation and Sodium_chloride#Road_salt, road salt. Natural occurrence Salt (chemistry), Salts are a natural component in soils and water. The ions responsible for salinization are: Sodium, Na+, Potassium, K+, Calcium, Ca2+, Magnesium, Mg2+ and Chlorine, Cl−. Over long periods of time, as soil minerals weathering, weather and release salts, these salts are flushed or leached out of the soil by drainage water in areas with sufficient precipitation. In addition to mineral weathering, salts are also deposited via dust and precipitatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alkali Soil
Alkali, or alkaline, soils are clay soils with high pH (greater than 8.5), a poor soil structure and a low infiltration capacity. Often they have a hard calcareous layer at 0.5 to 1 metre depth. Alkali soils owe their unfavorable physico-chemical properties mainly to the dominating presence of sodium carbonate, which causes the soil to swellManaging irrigation water quality, Oregon State University, USA Retrieved on 2012-10-04. and difficult to clarify/settle. They derive their name from the group of elements, to which |
Stolon
In biology, a stolon ( from Latin ''wikt:stolo, stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal stolons are exoskeletons (external skeletons). In botany In botany, stolons are plant stems which grow at the soil surface or just below ground that form adventitious roots at the Node (botany), nodes, and new plants from the buds. Stolons are often called runners. Rhizomes, in contrast, are root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground. Thus, not all horizontal stems are called stolons. Plants with stolons are called stoloniferous. A stolon is a plant propagation strategy and the complex of individuals formed by a mother plant and all its Cloning, clones produced from stolons form a single genetic individual, a genet (biology), genet. Morphology Stolons may have long or shor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inflorescence
In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a main axis (Peduncle (botany), peduncle) and by the timing of its flowering (determinate and indeterminate). Morphology (biology), Morphologically, an inflorescence is the modified part of the Shoot (botany), shoot of spermatophyte, seed plants where flowers are formed on the axis of a plant. The modifications can involve the length and the nature of the internode (botany), internodes and the phyllotaxis, as well as variations in the proportions, compressions, swellings, adnations, connations and reduction of main and secondary axes. One can also define an inflorescence as the reproductive portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern. General characteristics Inflorescences are described by many different charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nutritional Value
Nutritional value or nutritive value as part of food quality is the measure of a well-balanced ratio of the essential nutrients carbohydrates, fat, protein, minerals, and vitamins in items of food or diet concerning the nutrient requirements of their consumer. Several nutritional rating systems and nutrition facts label The nutrition facts label (also known as the nutrition information panel, and other slight variations) is a label required on most convenience food, packaged food in many countries, showing what nutrients and other ingredients (to limit and get e ... have been implemented to rank food in terms of its nutritional value. International and national guidelines exist to inform consumers about optimal nutrient intake from their diets. On a biological scale, nutritive value of food may vary for different health conditions (leading to dietary recommendations and particular diet foods), seasonal differences, age, sexual differences, and interspecies or taxonomic dif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topsoil
Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic matter and usually extends to a depth of 5-10 inches (13–25 cm). Together these make a substrate capable of holding water and air which encourages biological activity. There are generally a high concentration of roots in topsoil since this is where plants obtain most of their vital nutrients. It also plays host to significant bacterial, fungal and entomological activity without which soil quality would degrade and become less suitable for plants. Bacteria and fungi can be essential in facilitating nutrient exchange with plants and in breaking down organic matter into a form that roots can absorb. Insects also play important roles in breaking down material and aerating and rotating the soil. Many species directly contribute to the he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chloris (plant)
''Chloris'' is a widespread genus of monophyletic grasses belonging to the family Poaceae, known generally as windmill grass or finger grass. The genus is found worldwide, but especially in the tropical and subtropical regions, and more often in the Southern Hemisphere. The species are variable in morphology, but in general, the plants are less than 0.5 m in height. They bear inflorescences shaped like umbels, with several plumes lined with rows of spikelets. The genus is characterized by the series of sterile florets above the lowest fertile ones, spikes usually 4–10 in numbers (occasionally 1–2), approximated or in a slightly separated series of 10–20 spikes, rarely an indefinite numbers of terminal spikes (then usually up to 50 or rarely more, as seen in ''Chloris roxburghiana'' Schultes). In India, 11 species are known to occur in which only two are endemic viz. ''Chloris wightiana'' Nees ex Steud. and ''Chloris bournei'' Rangachariar & Tadulingam. The genus was named ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
