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Seed (magazine), ''Seed Magazine''
In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after the embryo sac is fertilized by sperm from pollen, forming a zygote. The embryo within a seed develops from the zygote and grows within the mother plant to a certain size before growth is halted. The formation of the seed is the defining part of the process of reproduction in seed plants (spermatophytes). Other plants such as ferns, mosses and liverworts, do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to propagate themselves. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates. In the flowering plants, the ovary ripens into a fruit which contains the seed and serves to disseminate it. Many structures commonly referred to as "seeds" are actually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecological Niche
In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of Resource (biology), resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another [and] the relative importance of particular environmental variables for a species may vary according to the geographic and biotic contexts". See also Chapter 2: Concepts of niches, pp. 7 ''ff'' A Grinnellian niche is determined by the habitat in which a species lives and its accompanying Behavioral ecology, behavioral adaptations. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolutionary History Of Plants
The evolution of plants has resulted in a wide range of complexity, from the earliest algal mats of unicellular archaeplastids evolved through endosymbiosis, through multicellular marine habitat, marine and freshwater green algae, to spore-bearing terrestrial bryophytes, lycopods and ferns, and eventually to the complex seed-bearing gymnosperms and angiosperms (flowering plants) of today. While many of the earliest groups continue to thrive, as exemplified by red algae, red and green algae in marine environments, more recently derived groups have displaced previously ecologically dominant ones; for example, the ascendance of flowering plants over gymnosperms in terrestrial environments. There is evidence that cyanobacteria and multicellular Thallus, thalloid eukaryotes lived in freshwater communities on land as early as 1 billion years ago, and that communities of complex, multicellular photosynthesizing organisms existed on land in the late Precambrian, around . Evidence of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hazelnut
The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus '' Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according to species. Hazelnuts are used as a snack food, in baking and desserts, and in breakfast cereals such as muesli. In confectionery, they are used to make praline, and also used in combination with chocolate for chocolate truffles and products such as chocolate bars and hazelnut cocoa spreads such as Nutella. They are also used in Frangelico liqueur. Hazelnut oil, pressed from hazelnuts, is strongly flavored and high in monounsaturated fat. It is used as a cooking oil and as a salad or vegetable dressing. Turkey is the world's largest producer of hazelnuts, accounting for 58% of total production in 2023. Description A hazelnut cob is roughly spherical to oval, about long and in diameter, with an outer fibrous husk surrounding a sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn
The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), enclosed in a tough Nutshell, shell known as the pericarp, and borne in a cup-shaped Calybium, cupule. Acorns are long and on the fat side. Acorns take between 5 and 24 months (depending on the species) to mature; see the List of Quercus species, list of ''Quercus'' species for details of oak classification, in which acorn morphology (biology), morphology and phenology are important factors. Etymology The word ''acorn'' (earlier ''akerne'', and ''acharn'') is related to the gothic language, Gothic name ''akran'', which had the sense of "fruit of the unenclosed land". The word was applied to the most important forest produce, that of the oak. Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer spoke of "achornes of okes" in the 14th century. By degrees, popular etym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indehiscent
Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that open in this way are said to be dehiscent. Structures that do not open in this way are called indehiscent, and rely on other mechanisms such as decay, digestion by herbivores, or predation to release the contents. A similar process to dehiscence occurs in some flower buds (e.g., '' Platycodon'', '' Fuchsia''), but this is rarely referred to as dehiscence unless circumscissile dehiscence is involved; anthesis is the usual term for the opening of flowers. Dehiscence may or may not involve the loss of a structure through the process of abscission. The lost structures are said to be caducous. Association with crop breeding Manipulation of dehiscence can improve crop yield since a trait that causes seed dispersal is a disadvantage for f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a fruit consisting of a hard or tough nutshell protecting a kernel which is usually edible. In general usage and in a culinary sense, many dry seeds are called nuts, but in a botanical context, "nut" implies that the shell does not open to release the seed (Dehiscence (botany), indehiscent). Most seeds come from fruits that naturally free themselves from the shell, but this is not the case in nuts such as hazelnuts, chestnuts, and acorns, which have hard shell walls and originate from a compound ovary. Definition A seed is the mature fertilised ovule of a plant; it consists of three parts, the embryo which will develop into a new plant, stored food for the embryo, and a protective seed coat. Botany, Botanically, a nut is a fruit with a woody pericarp developing from a syncarpous gynoecium. Nuts may be contained in an Bract#Involucral bracts, involucre, a cup-shaped structure formed from the flower bracts. The involucre may be scaly, spiny, leafy or tubular, depending ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endocarp
Fruits are the mature ovary or ovaries of one or more flowers. They are found in three main anatomical categories: aggregate fruits, multiple fruits, and simple fruits. Fruitlike structures may develop directly from the seed itself rather than the ovary, such as a fleshy aril or sarcotesta. The grains of grasses are single-seed simple fruits wherein the pericarp and seed coat are fused into one layer. This type of fruit is called a caryopsis. Examples include cereal grains, such as wheat, barley, oats and rice. Categories of fruits Fruits are found in three main anatomical categories: aggregate fruits, multiple fruits, and simple fruits. Aggregate fruits are formed from a single compound flower and contain many ovaries or fruitlets. Examples include raspberries and blackberries. Multiple fruits are formed from the fused ovaries of multiple flowers or inflorescence. An example of multiple fruits are the fig, mulberry, and the pineapple. Simple fruits are formed from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peach
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called nectarines. Peaches and #Nectarines, nectarines are the same species, though they are regarded commercially as different fruits. The tree is regarded as handsome and is planted in gardens for its springtime blooms in addition to fruit production. The peach tree is relatively short lived, usually not exceeding twenty years of age. However, the peach fruit is regarded as a symbol of longevity in several East Asian cultures. The specific name ''persica'' refers to its widespread cultivation in Persia (modern-day Iran), from where it was transplanted to Europe and in the 16th century to the Americas. It belongs to the genus ''Prunus'', which also includes the cherry, apricot, almond, and plum, and which is part of the Rosaceae, rose family. The p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stone Fruits
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') inside. Drupes do not split open to release the seed, i.e., they are indehiscent. These fruits usually develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries ( polypyrenous drupes are exceptions). The definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, woody ( lignified) stone is derived from the ovary wall of the flower. In an aggregate fruit, which is composed of small, individual drupes (such as a raspberry), each individual is termed a drupelet, and may together form an aggregate fruit. Such fruits are often termed ''berries'', although botanists use a different definition of ''berry''. Other fleshy fruits may have a stony enclosure that comes from the seed coat surrounding the seed, but such f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and other animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; humans, and many other animals, have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language and culinary usage, ''fruit'' normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet (or sour) and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage, the term ''fruit'' als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flowering Plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. The group was formerly called Magnoliophyta. Angiosperms are by far the most diverse group of Embryophyte, land plants with 64 Order (biology), orders, 416 Family (biology), families, approximately 13,000 known Genus, genera and 300,000 known species. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody Plant stem, stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of broad-leaved trees, shrubs and vines, and most aquatic plants. Angiosperms are distinguished from the other major seed plant clade, the gymnosperms, by having flowers, xylem consisting of vessel elements instead of tracheids, endosperm within their seeds, and fruits that completely envelop the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
