Cork cambium

Cork cambium (pl. cambia or cambiums) is a tissue found in many vascular plants as a part of the epidermis. It is one of the many layers of bark, between the cork and primary phloem. The cork cambium is a lateral meristem and is responsible for secondary growth that replaces the epidermis in roots and stems. It is found in woody and many herbaceous dicots, gymnosperms and some monocots (monocots usually lack secondary growth). It is one of the plant's meristems – the series of tissues consisting of embryonic disk (incompletely differentiated) cells from which the plant grows. The function of cork cambium is to produce the cork, a tough protective material.
Synonyms for cork cambium are bark cambium, pericambium and phellogen. Phellogen is defined as the meristematic cell layer responsible for the development of the periderm. Cells that grow inwards from there are termed "phelloderm", and cells that develop outwards are termed "phellem" or cork (note similarity with vascular cambium). The periderm thus consists of three different layers:
Growth and development of cork cambium is very variable between different species, and is also highly dependent on age and growth conditions, as can be observed from the different surfaces of bark, which may be smooth, fissured, tesselated, scaly, or flaking off.
Economic importance.
Commercial cork is derived from the bark of the cork oak "(Quercus suber)." Cork has many uses including wine bottle stoppers, bulletin boards, coasters, hot pads to protect tables from hot pans, insulation, sealing for lids, flooring, gaskets for engines, fishing bobbers, handles for fishing rods and tennis rackets, etc. It is also a high strength-to-weight/cost ablative material for aerodynamic prototypes in wind tunnels, as well as satellite launch vehicle payload fairings, reentry surfaces, and compression joints in thrust-vectored solid rocket motor nozzles.
Many types of bark are used as mulch.


Hofmeisterella eumicroscopica

Hofmeisterella eumicroscopica is an epiphytic orchid native to Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.


Asplenium daucifolium

Asplenium daucifolium (common name Mauritius spleenwort) is a species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae, endemic to the Mascarene Islands.
Taxonomy.
A global phylogeny of "Asplenium" published in 2020 divided the genus into eleven clades, which were given informal names pending further taxonomic study. "A. daucifolium" belongs to the ""Neottopteris" clade", members of which generally have somewhat leathery leaf tissue. It formed a clade with "A. mauritiensis".


Convolvulus althaeoides

Convolvulus althaeoides is a species of morning glory known by the common names mallow bindweed and mallow-leaved bindweed. This flowering plant is native to the Mediterranean Basin, but it is occasionally seen in other areas of similar climate, such as California in the United States, where it has been introduced. This is a climbing perennial plant with solitary flowers on long peduncles. The flower is a funnel-shaped pink bloom 3 or 4 centimeters wide. The leaves are deeply divided into narrow, fingerlike lobes.


Minium

Minium is a genus of thalloid alga. The thalli take a crustose form.
Species.
The only species currently recognised is "M. parvum".


Picocystis

Picocystis is a monotypic genus of green algae, the sole species is Picocystis salinarum. It is placed within its own class, Picocystophyceae in the division Chlorophyta.
Structure.
Picocystis salinarum cells under normal conditions have a spherical or oval shape. Their size ranges from 2 to 3μm (micrometer, 10^-6) in diameter. Under conditions of nutrient depletion they appear to form a trillobe shape. The general appearance resembles to that of a standard green algae.
The pigments are composed mainly from chlorophyll a and b and the carotenoids violaxanthin, alloxanthin, monadoxanthin, neoxanthin, lutein, diatoxanthin and zeaxanthin.
The cell wall is mainly composed of polymers of the monosaccharide arabinose, polyarabinose.
Habitat.
The species have been found in saline or hypersaline alkaline environments.


Combretocarpus

Combretocarpus is a monotypic genus of tree in the Anisophylleaceae family. The generic name "" is from the Greek, referring to the resemblance of its fruit to that of the genus "Combretum". "The Plant List" recognises the single species Combretocarpus rotundatus.
Description.
"Combretocarpus rotundatus" grows as a tree up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The fissured bark is grey-brown to brown. The bisexual flowers are yellow. The fruits have three or four wings and measure up to long. The hard heavy wood is used in heavy construction and for indoor floors and panels.
Distribution and habitat.
"Combretocarpus rotundatus" grows naturally in Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. Its habitat is swamp and kerangas forests.


Crassula alstonii

Crassula alstonii is a species of succulent in the genus "Crassula" found in Cape Provinces, South Africa.The species is in USDA hardiness zone 10a-11.
Growing.
Like some other plants of the genus, "Crassula alstonii" is easy to grow and needs below average to average water. They need light shade and need 6.1-7.8pH soil. They can be easily propagated from a single leaf, along with offsets.


Martensia australis

Martensia australis is a species of red algae.


Acrothamnus

Acrothamnus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The species, which were formerly included in the genus "Leucopogon", occur in eastern Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the Pacific. They include:


Cryptochilus acuminatus

Cryptochilus acuminatus, synonym "Eria carinata", is a species of orchid. It is native to Nepal, Bhutan, Assam, Thailand, Vietnam and peninsular Malaysia.
Nudol is a phenanthrene of "C. carinatus".


Nuphar carlquistii

Nuphar carlquistii is an extinct species of flowering plant in the family Nymphaeaceae related to the modern spatterdock, "Nuphar advena". The species is known from fossil seeds and fruits found in the early Eocene deposits of northern Washington state, United States, and a similar aged formation in British Columbia, Canada.
History and classification.
"Nuphar carlquistii" fossils have been identified from two locations in Western North America, the 49 million year old Klondike Mountain Formation near Republic, Washington and at the Thomas Ranch locality near Princeton, British Columbia. Permineralized seeds identified as the extinct Nymphaeaceae genus "Allenbya" has been identified from the related Okanagan Highlands Princeton chert site in south central British Columbia.
Ages for the Okanagan Highland locations are, in general, Early Eocene, with the sites that have current uranium-lead or argon–argon radiometric dates being of Ypresian age, while the undated sites or those given older dates being possibly slightly younger and Lutetian in age.
The specimens were studied by paleobotanists Melanie DeVore, Witt Taylor, and Kathleen Pigg with the type description for "N. carlquistii" being published in a 2015 "International Journal of Plant Sciences" article. They chose the specific epithet "carlquistii", in honor of Sherwin Carlquist in recognition of the work he had done with Nymphaeaceae anatomy and with plant biology. In the type description, the species name was applied to fruits and seeds specifically, while fossils of associated but not attached tepals, stigmatic disks and rhizome sections were discussed as "Nuphar" cf "carlquistii". One of the rhizome segments, UWBM 57225A showing root attachment points, had previously been published with an informal identification as banana fruit of the genus "Ensete". The specimen was figured in a 1996 article with a caption of ""Ensete" sp. fruits with seeds, UWBM 57225A, loc. A0307" though no discussion of the fossil was made in the article text. The fossils display a combination of features, such as a barrel shaped fruit that has vertical furrows, with the stigmatic disk being occasionally to fully crenulated, that are seen in "Nuphar" Section "Astylus", and are noted to be quite similar to the living "Nuphar advena".
Description.
The fruits are between and across, expanding up from a base. The fruits have a grouping of five persistent tepals that surround the fruit and which have groupings of sclereids that vary in size. One specimen has at least sixteen stamens that were preserved compressed against the tepals, while another shows approximately ten seeds in growth position in the fruit.
Seeds are also found preserved individually and as groupings or masses of seeds ranging between and . One of the specimens has several hundred seeds grouped closely together and enclosed in a thick matrix, thought to be the preserved jelly like matrix that the seeds first dispersed from the fruit in. Other masses show lesser amounts of matrix, and the ones showing little to no matrix are less grouped together. The individual seeds range between long with an oval to barrel shape and an operculum at one end. Each seed has a distinct raphe ridge running vertically down it from the base to the slightly asymmetrical operculum. While most of the seed coat structure is not preserved enough to identify, the outer cell layer is distinct, showing small pentagon shaped cells with straight walls, a feature seen in fossil and living "Nuphar".


Lophopetalum wightianum

Lophopetalum wightianum is a species of plant in the family Celastraceae. It is found in Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.


Big Fig, Miriam Vale

Big Fig is a heritage-listed tree at Station Street, Miriam Vale, Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 January 2004.
History.
The Big Fig at Miriam Vale is thought to have been planted around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, local residents recalling the Fig Tree as being well established by the 1920s. Or it may have been the fig tree planted "about a chain from the main entrance of the railway station" in 1916 by the Miriam Vale Progress Association. Whatever its origins, it became a focus for community activity, both social and economic, through much of the 20th century. The tree is a well-known landmark and meeting place in the town, and until 1977 served as the site for the collection of local cream and milk for rail or road transportation to Gladstone, dairying being an important economic activity in the Miriam Vale district.
Miriam Vale pastoral run was one of the earliest established in the Port Curtis district, reputedly taken up in January 1854 by Arthur PJ Chauvel and Joseph Sharp, along with the runs of Urquhart, Polmaily and Walton, soon after the proclamation of the Port Curtis Pastoral District on 10 January 1854. Acceptance of their tender for these runs did not appear in the New South Wales Government Gazette until 9 June 1857. Walter Blomfield, reminiscing in 1949, states that cousins Edwin Cordeaux Blomfield (Walter's father) and EK Cox purchased the lease, along with 8,000 sheep, in 1856, although the lease was not recorded in Queensland as being transferred to Cox and Bloomfield until 1869. Early squatters in the area concentrated on wool production, exporting their produce via Gladstone, which was established in 1853-54.
In 1868 Cox and Bloomfield applied under the conditions of the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1868 for their runs Woodlands, Miriam Vale and Polmaily to be consolidated as the Miriam Vale run and Silex, Ilex and Gochen to be consolidated as Bulburan. Miriam Vale was divided into resumed and leasehold sections in 1869/70, but there was little demand to open this land for selection. Some Miriam Vale land had been taken up as freehold by 1884. In January 1875 a telegraph office was opened at Miriam Vale, and a post office was established there in April 1877, reflecting a population increase in the district.
The first Miriam Vale selections were made available in 1889, encouraging new settlers into the area. Saw milling was an important adjunct industry, as the land was cleared for grazing or agriculture. Miriam Vale was first listed as a separate district in the Queensland Post Office Directory of 1892. It had a population of about 60, but no real township. The post office was located at Miriam Vale, but closest settlement appears to have been in the Mount Jacob area at that time. In 1893 the Miriam Vale Hotel was established and the Miriam Vale Post and Telegraph Office was made official.
The township of Miriam Vale was surveyed in 1895 in anticipation of completion in 1896-97 of the final segment of the Gladstone-Bundaberg section of the North Coast Railway. The route passed close to the Miriam Vale Post and Telegraph Office on House Creek, and the Miriam Vale railway station and township were established in the vicinity. The opening of the railway to Gladstone on 1 October 1897 had an immediate impact on the development of the Miriam Vale district. With ready access to markets now available via the railway, 90 Miriam Vale blocks were thrown open for selection between 1897 and 1902, and district residents listed in the Post Office Directories jumped from 26 in 1896-97 to 83 in 1900. The Miriam Vale State School was opened on 14 July 1897.
Dairying emerged as an important economic activity on these selections, boosted by the establishment of a butter factory at Gladstone in the early 1900s. In September 1904 the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd was formed at Gladstone, with the express purpose of establishing a regional butter factory, which opened at Gladstone about March 1906. Located adjacent to the main railway line, it provided an accessible market for cream produced by regional dairy farmers, including those at Miriam Vale.
The Big Fig at Miriam Vale is located close to the Miriam Vale railway station. It is a Ficus benjamina, which is an introduced species to the area, and may have been planted as a Queensland Railways initiative following construction of the North Coast Line through the Miriam Vale district in 1896-1897. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Queensland Railways Department promoted ground and garden improvements at its stations, and encouraged the planting of quickly growing, large-canopied trees which would help to keep down dust and provide travellers with shade. Near several of the railway stations along the Bundaberg-Gladstone section of the North Coast Line a single large Ficus benjamina has been planted, suggesting that the tree at Miriam Vale was part of an early Railways Department tree-planting scheme. However, this has not been confirmed, and there are several local stories suggesting that the tree was planted in the early 1900s by differing early residents.
Older Miriam Vale residents can recall the tree as having reached a substantial size by the 1920s and 1930s, such that horses could be tethered underneath it while their owners attended to business at the nearby general store, and children played in its branches. The Big Fig has provided a shady meeting spot for generations of Miriam Vale residents, and since construction of the nearby war memorial in 1921 has provided welcome shade for many Anzac Day commemorations. Farmers and their drays (later trucks) congregated under the tree while waiting for their cream cans to be loaded onto the train to Gladstone. In the 1950s/1960s a Gladstone veterinarian regularly visited Miriam Vale, where he conducted consultations beneath the Big Fig.
The tree maintained its connection with the dairy industry through the mid-20th century, serving as a collection point for dairy farmers bringing cans of cream to be loaded and transported by road to Gladstone when the first motorised truck began carting cream from Miriam Vale to the Port Curtis Dairy Factory in 1952. By this year a ramp, facing Blomfield Street, had been built alongside the trunk of the Big Fig for the loading of cream and later milk cans onto the back of delivery vehicles. The place served as an easily accessible and shady location for farmers to assemble and wait for their produce to be loaded. During the 1960s, the original loading ramp was replaced with a new ramp, and an early fence and gates, reputedly constructed around the tree and cream/milk collection area by Queensland Railways, was demolished. The new ramp was built facing Station Street, and remained until at least 1977 when the last contract for the milk run to Gladstone was cancelled. Several small earth mounds to the north of the trunk of the Fig Tree are all that remain of the second ramp.
The Big Fig is an instantly recognisable landmark in Miriam Vale and its expansive canopy has provided a shady resting place for generations of travellers passing through the town to Agnes Water and the Town of Seventeen Seventy. It has recently been adopted by Miriam Vale Community Development Inc. as its official logo. Plans have already been made by this group for the future conservation of the tree, with a board walk, rest area and interpretive information planned to be constructed beneath the Big Fig.
In January 2015, the Gladstone Regional Council needed to prevent the fig tree's roots from interfering with the road and neighbouring properties as figs have very invasive roots. Having sought the advice of an arborist, the roots will be trimmed back and a barrier inserted to prevent them regrowing in that direction.
Description.
The Big Fig (Ficus benjamina) is situated in an unused corner of the Station Street road reserve bounded by a railway fence to the north, a private fence to the east, Blomfield Street to the south and Station Street to the west. Both streets are sealed and a drain has been constructed opposite the trunk of the tree on Station Street.
The site is located in the commercial centre of Miriam Vale, close to the railway station, and adjacent to the War Memorial Park to the west, which lies between the Fig Tree and the Miriam Vale Hotel on the other side of Blomfield Street, opposite the railway station. The Big Fig is easily identified when entering the eastern end of the main street, which tourists travelling through to Agnes Water and the Town of Seventeen Seventy must do. The Big Fig is associated visually with Miriam Vale Shire Council's town beautification scheme along Blomfield Street, in which the reserve on the railway side of the street has been converted into a long, tree-lined park fitted with amenities for local residents and tourists.
The trunk of the Fig Tree is approximately in circumference, and the canopy has a span of approximately east to west, by north to south. The lower branches of the tree near the trunk are very high and thick. The outer limits of the canopy droop down to near ground level on the western, northern and eastern sides. The crown of the canopy is between high.
There is no grass cover under the canopy to the west and south of the tree, and sparse ground cover near the fence lines of both the railway yard and private property. Leaf litter covers most of the ground surface beneath the canopy. The tree root system protrudes from the trunk and surface roots are evident to the west and south of the trunk.
Heritage listing.
Big Fig was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 January 2004 having satisfied the following criteria.
The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.
The Big Fig at Miriam Vale, adjacent to the Miriam Vale Railway Station, is thought to have been planted around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. During much of the 20th century it had an important association with the development of dairying in the Miriam Vale district, being associated with the collection of Miriam Vale cream and milk for transport by rail, and later road, to Gladstone for processing.
The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.
The Big Fig has aesthetic qualities which have contributed significantly to the Miriam Vale townscape since at least the 1920s, and which are valued by the Miriam Vale community and visitors alike. The tree is a well-known landmark in the town, and is recognised by, and is familiar to, visitors who pass through Miriam Vale to the coastal holiday towns of Agnes Water and the Town of Seventeen Seventy.
The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.
The Big Fig is significant as a popular meeting place for generations of Miriam Vale residents, and the current Miriam Vale community holds the historical, social and tourism values of the tree in high esteem.


Frithia

Frithia is a genus of succulent plants in the family Aizoaceae, indigenous to several small rocky areas in the vicinity of Gauteng Province, South Africa.
Description.
Like several of its close relatives (e.g. "Fenestraria") and other plants in its ecotype (e.g. some species of "Haworthia" and "Bulbine") it has epidermal windows (translucent areas in its leaves) as an adaptation to the difficulties of photosynthesis in its arid environment.
Cultivation.
"Frithia" are summer-growing species, as their natural habitat lies in a summer-rainfall region. They grow in very well-drained, sandy soil, with repetitive light watering in summer and a dry environment in winter.
Species.
The genus contains the following species:


Sagole Baobab

The Sagole Baobab (also Sagole Big Tree, Muri kunguluwa (i.e. tree that roars), or Muvhuyu wa Makhadzi) is the largest baobab tree ("Adansonia digitata") in South Africa. It is located east from Tshipise, in Vendaland, Limpopo Province and has a trunk diameter 10.47 metres, circumference 32.89 metres. That means, there is a need of approx. 18–20 people to complete embracing the tree with open hands. There is an entrance fee payable of ZAR 30 per person to see the tree.
This is also the stoutest tree in South Africa, after two other large baobabs, the Glencoe and Sunland Baobabs, collapsed in 2009 and 2016 respectively. The Sagole Baobab has the largest size nevertheless and retains the appearance of a single tree. It is 22 metres high with a crown diameter of 38.2 metres.
A breeding colony of mottled spinetails ("Telacanthura ussheri") are resident in the tree.


Hooker Oak

Hooker Oak was an extremely large valley oak tree ("Quercus lobata") in Chico, California. Amateur botanist and local socialite Annie Bidwell, whose husband had founded Chico, named the tree in 1887 after English botanist and Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. It was featured in the 1938 film "The Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Errol Flynn. The tree fell in 1977 and portions of the wood was later milled for use by local artisans.
Discovery.
Upon first seeing the tree in 1872, Hooker declared the tree to be the largest of its species in the known world. Since then other valley oaks have been found of similar size. On January 7, 1958, the "Sacramento Bee" reported that in 1921 the Hooker Oak was over tall and estimated that 7,885 people could stand under its canopy assuming per person.
Death.
When it fell on May 1, 1977, it was nearly a hundred feet tall (30 m) and at from the ground, in circumference. The largest branch measured from trunk to tip and the circumference of outside branches was nearly . Its age had been estimated at a thousand years, but on its demise it was found to be two trees, of 325 years each which had long ago grown into one.
Disposition.
For three years after falling, the tree lay on the ground while city leaders struggled to finally determine its fate. In the spring of 1980, the City of Chico commissioned Cal Oak Lumber Company to remove and reclaim sound portions of the tree at Cal Oak's Oroville hardwood plant. They were allowed to retain some of the wood as compensation. After milling the oak, Cal Oak arranged for the lumber to be dried at the University of California's Forest Products Laboratory.
Cal Oak set up a program using local artisans as well as the work training centers for the handicapped to produce a limited number of artistically designed items from its share of the tree. Many of these were given to various institutions, which included the Royal Botanical Gardens in London, the Butte County Historical Society, Bidwell Mansion, Sacramento Valley Museum, Butte College, California State University, Chico, and the University of California at Berkeley. The Royal Botanical Gardens also received acorns from the original tree in 1981 and planted them in their gardens. Chico Fire Chief, Elmer Brouillard made gavels and plaques from the wood for the Chico City Council.
Characteristics.
Personnel at both Cal Oak and University of California Berkeley Forestry Lab became intrigued with the lumber. The wood turned out to be as remarkable as was the tree. In order to support its immense crown, the tree grew an abnormal portion of support wood on the upper side of its limbs and stems. This type wood is known as "tension wood" and helped provide the tree with an unbelievable high density: .88 specific gravity, roughly 50% heavier than surrounding oaks. This together with other special characteristics, provided the wood with its unique grain and character, and the tree, apparently with its longevity.
In popular culture.
The gavel used at City Council meetings by the mayor of Chico was made from the Hooker Oak by Chico Fire Chief Elmer Brouillard. The public benches in the lobby of the Chico City Council Chambers were made out of Hooker Oak wood by local artist Paul Atkins.
The Ceremonial Mace, which is held by the head of the platform party procession during the formal Commencement Ceremonies at Chico State, contains Hooker Oak wood. The mace made its debut on May 3rd, 2017 during the inauguration of Chico State's first female president, Gayle E. Hutchinson.
The Hooker Oak was featured Warner Brothers Studio's film "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938). Errol Flynn as Robin Hood forms his outlaw band beside the tree (called the "Gallows Oak" in the film).
The location of the tree is registered as a California Historical Landmark and can be found in Bidwell Park. The playground erected on the site of the great tree was named in honor of Chico Fire Chief, Elmer Brouillard. A booklet, "The History of the Hooker Oak" was written by Debra Moon for the City Of Chico Bidwell Park Centennial Hooker Oak Bench Project and printed in July 2005.


Eucalyptus eremophila

Eucalyptus eremophila, commonly known as the sand mallet or tall sand mallee, is a species of mallet that is endemic to semi-arid regions of Western Australia. It has smooth pale brown and greyish bark, narrow lance-shaped to elliptical adult leaves, flower buds arranged in groups of between seven and eleven with an elongated operculum, and cup-shaped to barrel-shaped fruit.
Description.
"Eucalyptus eremophila" is a mallet, sometimes a shrub or a tree, that typically grows to a height of and a width of but does not form a lignotuber. It has smooth, polished pale brown to greyish bark that is shed in late summer. Young plants and coppice regrowth have glossy green, lance-shaped to oblong leaves long, wide and arranged alternately. Adult leaves are narrow lance-shaped to elliptical, long, long on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven, nine or eleven on a flattened, unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on a pedicel long. Mature buds are long, wide, curved spindle-shaped with an elongated, horn-shaped operculum. Flowering occurs from August to December and the flowers are lemon yellow, sometimes pale pink. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped to barrel-shaped capsule, long, wide on a downturned pedicel, with the valve tips at rim level.
Taxonomy and naming.
The sand mallet was first formally described in 1904 by Ludwig Diels from material collected near Boorabbin in the Coolgardie district by Ernst Georg Pritzel. Diels gave it the name "Eucalyptus occidentalis" var. "eremophila" and published the description in the journal "Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie". In the same journal, Adolf Engler published the first formal description of "E. occidentalis". In 1920, Joseph Maiden raised the variety to species status as "E. eremophila".
Two subspecies of "E. eremophila" are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
The specific epithet ("eremophila") is derived from the Greek "eremi-" meaning "desert" and "philos" 'lover'.
The eucalypt is associated with the western mallee subgroup which is characterised by several eucalypts, including "E. oleosa", "E. moderata", "E. incrassata", "E. foecunda", "E. redunca" and "E. uncinata". The understorey is predominantly shrubby with species of "Melaleuca" and "Acacia" along with the occasional "Triodia".
Distribution and habitat.
"Eucalyptus eremophila" is found on undulating plains, hills and sand dunes in the Wheatbelt and Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia where it grows in skeletal sandy soils over granite. It is found as far north west as Quairading in the central Wheatbelt to the western edge of the Nullarbor Plain in the south east.
Conservation status.
Sand mallet is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Use in horticulture.
This plant is sold commercially in the form of seed or tube stock as an ornamental plant but is also used as an erosion control, windbreak or shade plant for wide verges, nature strips or parks and reserves. It prefers a full sun position and is regarded as quite hardy being drought tolerant and able to withstand a moderate frost. It grows in neutral to acid soils and can be grown in coastal areas. It is also a good habitat for birds and attracts them with its nectar. The seeds germinate readily.


Heuchera abramsii

Heuchera abramsii is a rare species of flowering plant in the saxifrage family known by the common names San Gabriel alumroot and Abrams' alumroot.
It is endemic to the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, where it grows on rocky slopes.
"Heuchera abramsii" is a rhizomatous perennial herb with small five-lobed leaves. It produces an inflorescence up to 15 centimeters tall which bears bright pink or magenta rounded, bell-like flowers.
The epithet "abramsii" commemorates LeRoy Abrams.


Carya cordiformis

Carya cordiformis, the bitternut hickory, also called bitternut or swamp hickory, is a large pecan hickory with commercial stands located mostly north of the other pecan hickories. Bitternut hickory is cut and sold in mixture with the true hickories. It is the shortest-lived of the hickories, living to about 200 years.
Description.
It is a large deciduous tree, growing up to tall (exceptionally to ), with a trunk up to diameter. The leaves are long, pinnate, with 7–11 leaflets, each leaflet lanceolate, long, with the apical leaflets the largest but only slightly so. The flowers are small wind-pollinated catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a very bitter nut, long with a green four-valved cover which splits off at maturity in the fall, and a hard, bony shell. Another identifying characteristic is its bright sulfur-yellow winter bud.
It is closely related to the pecan, sharing similar leaf shape and being classified in the same section of the genus "Carya" sect. "Apocarya", but unlike the pecan, it does not have edible nuts. It is most readily distinguished from the pecan by the smaller number of leaflets, with many leaves having only 7 leaflets (rarely fewer than 9, and often 11–13, in the pecan). Hybrids with the pecan are known, and named "Carya" × "brownii". A hybrid between the shagbark hickory ("C. ovata") is also recognized, and is known as Laney's hickory ("Carya" ×"laneyi").
Habitat.
Bitternut hickory grows in moist mountain valleys along streambanks and in swamps. Although it is usually found on wet bottom lands, it grows on dry sites and also grows well on poor soils low in nutrients. The species is not included as a titled species in the Society of American Foresters forest cover types because it does not grow in sufficient numbers.
Range.
Bitternut hickory grows throughout the eastern United States from southwestern New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and southern Quebec; west to southern Ontario, central Michigan, and northern Minnesota; south to eastern Texas; and east to northwestern Florida and Georgia. It is most common, however, from southern New England west to Iowa and from southern Michigan south to Kentucky. It is probably the most abundant and most uniformly distributed of all the hickories.
Uses.
Bitternut is used for lumber and pulpwood. Because bitternut hickory wood is hard and durable, it is used for furniture, paneling, dowels, tool handles and ladders. Like other hickories, the wood is used for smoking meat, and by Native Americans for making bows. Bitternut hickory seeds are eaten by rabbits, and both its seeds and bark are eaten by other wildlife.
Genetics.
Bitternut hickory is a diploid species with two sets of sixteen chromosomes that readily hybridizes with other diploid hickory species with a few named hican varieties available. The pecan variety 'Major' has bitternut alleles at two simple sequence repeat loci indicating a cryptic cross that may also have involved "C. ovata".


Dendrobium tozerense

Dendrobium tozerense, commonly known as the white gemini orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has thin, wiry stems, stiff leaves and pairs of star-shaped, white flowers. It grows in rainforest in tropical North Queensland, Australia.
Description.
"Dendrobium tozerense" is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb that has crowded wiry stems long and about wide. The leaves are scattered along the stems and are light green, linear to lance-shaped, long and wide. The flowers are white, arranged in pairs in leaf axils and are resupinate, star-shaped and long and wide. The dorsal sepal is long, about wide and the lateral sepals are long, about wide. The sepals and petals are long, about wide, thin and pointed. The labellum is long, about wide, has a few scattered hairs and three lobes. The side lobes are erect, rounded triangular and the middle lobe has a blunt tip and crinkled edges. Flowering occurs sporadically throughout the year.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Dendrobium tozerense" was first formally described in 1977 by Bill Lavarack from a specimen collected from Tozer's Gap on Cape York Peninsula and the description was published in the journal "Austrobaileya".
Distribution and habitat.
The white gemini orchid grows on trees and rocks in rainforest and on cliffs near waterfalls on some Torres Strait Islands and south on the Cape York Peninsula to the Iron Range and Tully.


Atriplex prostrata

Atriplex prostrata, called the spear-leaved orache, hastate orache, thin-leaf orache, triangle orache, and fat hen, is a widespread species of flowering plant in the saltbush genus "Atriplex", native to Europe, Macaronesia, northern Africa, Ethiopia, the Middle East, western Siberia, and Central Asia, and introduced to temperate North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, and Primorsky Krai in far eastern Russia. It is a facultative halophyte.
Subspecies.
The following subspecies are currently accepted:


Maytenus harrisii

Maytenus harrisii is a species of plant in the family Celastraceae. It is endemic to Jamaica.


Coccothrinax readii

Coccothrinax readii, the Mexican silver palm, is a palm which is native to southeastern Mexico and northeastern Belize.
Henderson and colleagues (1995) considered "C. readii" to be a synonym of "Coccothrinax argentata".


Chandonanthus

Chandonanthus is a genus of liverworts belonging to the family Anastrophyllaceae.
The genus has almost cosmopolitan distribution.
Species:


Ficus triradiata

Ficus triradiata, commonly known as the red stipule fig is a hemiepiphytic fig that is endemic to the wet tropical rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia.
Description.
"Ficus triradiata" is a monoecious tree which grows up to tall. Its leaves are long and wide. Its syconia are cream, yellow, orange or pink in colour, long and in diameter. It begins life as a hemiepiphyte.


Conifer

Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs. Examples include cedars, Douglas-firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families, 68 genera, and 629 living species.
Although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, but also in similar cool climates in mountains further south. Boreal conifers have many wintertime adaptations. The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, help them shed snow. Many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing. While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity and turnover, the immense conifer forests of the world represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink. Conifers are of great economic value for softwood lumber and paper production.
Evolution.
The earliest conifers appear in the fossil record during the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian), over 300 million years ago. Conifers have been suggested to be most closely related to "Cordaites," a group of Carboniferous-Permian trees and clambering plants whose reproductive structures have some similarities to those of conifers. The most primitive conifers belong to the paraphyletic assemblage of "walchian conifers", which were small trees, and probably originated in dry upland habitats. The range of conifers expanded during the Early Permian (Cisuralian) to lowlands due to increasing aridity. Walchian conifers were gradually replaced by more advanced voltzialean or "transition" conifers. Conifers were largely unaffected Permian–Triassic extinction event, and were dominant land plants of the Mesozoic era. Modern groups of conifers emerged from the Voltziales during the Triassic and Jurassic. Conifers underwent a major decline in the Late Cretaceous corresponding to the explosive adaptive radiation of flowering plants.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Conifer" is a Latin word, a compound of "conus" (cone) and "ferre" (to bear), meaning "the one that bears (a) cone(s)".
The division name Pinophyta conforms to the rules of the "International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN)", which state (Article 16.1) that the names of higher taxa in plants (above the rank of family) are either formed from the name of an included family (usually the most common and/or representative), in this case Pinaceae (the pine family), or are descriptive. A descriptive name in widespread use for the conifers (at whatever rank is chosen) is Coniferae (Art 16 Ex 2).
According to the "ICN", it is possible to use a name formed by replacing the termination "-aceae" in the name of an included family, in this case preferably Pinaceae, by the appropriate termination, in the case of this division "-ophyta". Alternatively, "descriptive botanical names" may also be used at any rank above family. Both are allowed.
This means that if conifers are considered a division, they may be called Pinophyta or Coniferae. As a class, they may be called Pinopsida or Coniferae. As an order they may be called Pinales or Coniferae or Coniferales.
Conifers are the largest and economically most important component group of the gymnosperms, but nevertheless they comprise only one of the four groups. The division Pinophyta consists of just one class, Pinopsida, which includes both living and fossil taxa. Subdivision of the living conifers into two or more orders has been proposed from time to time. The most commonly seen in the past was a split into two orders, Taxales (Taxaceae only) and Pinales (the rest), but recent research into DNA sequences suggests that this interpretation leaves the Pinales without Taxales as paraphyletic, and the latter order is no longer considered distinct. A more accurate subdivision would be to split the class into three orders, Pinales containing only Pinaceae, Araucariales containing Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae, and Cupressales containing the remaining families (including Taxaceae), but there has not been any significant support for such a split, with the majority of opinion preferring retention of all the families within a single order Pinales, despite their antiquity and diverse morphology.
, the conifers were accepted as composed of seven families, with a total of 65–70 genera and 600–630 species (696 accepted names). The seven most distinct families are linked in the box above right and phylogenetic diagram left. In other interpretations, the Cephalotaxaceae may be better included within the Taxaceae, and some authors additionally recognize Phyllocladaceae as distinct from Podocarpaceae (in which it is included here). The family Taxodiaceae is here included in family Cupressaceae, but was widely recognized in the past and can still be found in many field guides. A new classification and linear sequence based on molecular data can be found in an article by Christenhusz et al.
The conifers are an ancient group, with a fossil record extending back about 300 million years to the Paleozoic in the late Carboniferous period; even many of the modern genera are recognizable from fossils 60–120 million years old. Other classes and orders, now long extinct, also occur as fossils, particularly from the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. Fossil conifers included many diverse forms, the most dramatically distinct from modern conifers being some herbaceous conifers with no woody stems. Major fossil orders of conifers or conifer-like plants include the Cordaitales, Vojnovskyales, Voltziales and perhaps also the Czekanowskiales (possibly more closely related to the Ginkgophyta).
Morphology.
All living conifers are woody plants, and most are trees, the majority having monopodial growth form (a single, straight trunk with side branches) with strong apical dominance. Many conifers have distinctly scented resin, secreted to protect the tree against insect infestation and fungal infection of wounds. Fossilized resin hardens into amber. The size of mature conifers varies from less than one metre, to over 100 metres. The world's tallest, thickest, largest, and oldest living trees are all conifers. The tallest is a Coast Redwood ("Sequoia sempervirens"), with a height of 115.55 metres (although one Victorian mountain ash, "Eucalyptus regnans", allegedly grew to a height of 140 metres, although the exact dimensions were not confirmed). The thickest, meaning the tree with the greatest trunk diameter, is a Montezuma Cypress ("Taxodium mucronatum"), 11.42 metres in diameter. The largest tree by three-dimensional volume is a Giant Sequoia ("Sequoiadendron giganteum"), with a volume 1486.9 cubic metres. The smallest is the pygmy pine ("Lepidothamnus laxifolius") of New Zealand, which is seldom taller than 30 cm when mature. The oldest is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine ("Pinus longaeva"), 4,700 years old.
Foliage.
Since most conifers are evergreens, the leaves of many conifers are long, thin and have a needle-like appearance, but others, including most of the Cupressaceae and some of the Podocarpaceae, have flat, triangular scale-like leaves. Some, notably "Agathis" in Araucariaceae and "Nageia" in Podocarpaceae, have broad, flat strap-shaped leaves. Others such as "Araucaria columnaris" have leaves that are awl-shaped. In the majority of conifers, the leaves are arranged spirally, exceptions being most of Cupressaceae and one genus in Podocarpaceae, where they are arranged in decussate opposite pairs or whorls of 3 (−4).
In many species with spirally arranged leaves, such as "Abies grandis" (pictured), the leaf bases are twisted to present the leaves in a very flat plane for maximum light capture. Leaf size varies from 2 mm in many scale-leaved species, up to 400 mm long in the needles of some pines (e.g. Apache Pine, "Pinus engelmannii"). The stomata are in lines or patches on the leaves and can be closed when it is very dry or cold. The leaves are often dark green in colour, which may help absorb a maximum of energy from weak sunshine at high latitudes or under forest canopy shade.
Conifers from hotter areas with high sunlight levels (e.g. Turkish Pine "Pinus brutia") often have yellower-green leaves, while others (e.g. blue spruce, "Picea pungens") may develop blue or silvery leaves to reflect ultraviolet light. In the great majority of genera the leaves are evergreen, usually remaining on the plant for several (2–40) years before falling, but five genera ("Larix", "Pseudolarix", "Glyptostrobus", "Metasequoia" and "Taxodium") are deciduous, shedding their leaves in autumn. The seedlings of many conifers, including most of the Cupressaceae, and "Pinus" in Pinaceae, have a distinct juvenile foliage period where the leaves are different, often markedly so, from the typical adult leaves.
Tree ring structure.
Tree rings are records of the influence of environmental conditions, their anatomical characteristics record growth rate changes produced by these changing conditions. The microscopic structure of conifer wood consists of two types of cells: parenchyma, which have an oval or polyhedral shape with approximately identical dimensions in three directions, and strongly elongated tracheids. Tracheids make up more than 90% of timber volume. The tracheids of earlywood formed at the beginning of a growing season have large radial sizes and smaller, thinner cell walls. Then, the first tracheids of the transition zone are formed, where the radial size of cells and thickness of their cell walls changes considerably. Finally, the latewood tracheids are formed, with small radial sizes and greater cell wall thickness. This is the basic pattern of the internal cel structure of conifer tree rings.
Reproduction.
Most conifers are monoecious, but some are subdioecious or dioecious; all are wind-pollinated. Conifer seeds develop inside a protective cone called a strobilus. The cones take from four months to three years to reach maturity, and vary in size from 2 mm to 600 mm long.
In Pinaceae, Araucariaceae, Sciadopityaceae and most Cupressaceae, the cones are woody, and when mature the scales usually spread open allowing the seeds to fall out and be dispersed by the wind. In some (e.g. firs and cedars), the cones disintegrate to release the seeds, and in others (e.g. the pines that produce pine nuts) the nut-like seeds are dispersed by birds (mainly nutcrackers, and jays), which break up the specially adapted softer cones. Ripe cones may remain on the plant for a varied amount of time before falling to the ground; in some fire-adapted pines, the seeds may be stored in closed cones for up to 60–80 years, being released only when a fire kills the parent tree.
In the families Podocarpaceae, Cephalotaxaceae, Taxaceae, and one Cupressaceae genus ("Juniperus"), the scales are soft, fleshy, sweet, and brightly colored, and are eaten by fruit-eating birds, which then pass the seeds in their droppings. These fleshy scales are (except in "Juniperus") known as arils. In some of these conifers (e.g. most Podocarpaceae), the cone consists of several fused scales, while in others (e.g. Taxaceae), the cone is reduced to just one seed scale or (e.g. Cephalotaxaceae) the several scales of a cone develop into individual arils, giving the appearance of a cluster of berries.
The male cones have structures called microsporangia that produce yellowish pollen through meiosis. Pollen is released and carried by the wind to female cones. Pollen grains from living pinophyte species produce pollen tubes, much like those of angiosperms. The gymnosperm male gametophytes (pollen grains) are carried by wind to a female cone and are drawn into a tiny opening on the ovule called the micropyle. It is within the ovule that pollen-germination occurs. From here, a pollen tube seeks out the female gametophyte, which contains archegonia each with an egg, and if successful, fertilization occurs. The resulting zygote develops into an embryo, which along with the female gametophyte (nutritional material for the growing embryo) and its surrounding integument, becomes a seed. Eventually, the seed may fall to the ground and, if conditions permit, grow into a new plant.
In forestry, the terminology of flowering plants has commonly though inaccurately been applied to cone-bearing trees as well. The male cone and unfertilized female cone are called "male flower" and "female flower", respectively. After fertilization, the female cone is termed "fruit", which undergoes "ripening" (maturation).
It was found recently that the pollen of conifers transfers the mitochondrial organelles to the embryo, a sort of meiotic drive that perhaps explains why Pinus and other conifers are so productive, and perhaps also has bearing on (observed?) sex-ratio bias.
Life cycle.
Conifers are heterosporous, generating two different types of spores: male microspores and female megaspores. These spores develop on separate male and female sporophylls on separate male and female cones. In the male cones, microspores are produced from microsporocytes by meiosis. The microspores develop into pollen grains, which are male gametophytes. Large amounts of pollen are released and carried by the wind. Some pollen grains will land on a female cone for pollination. The generative cell in the pollen grain divides into two haploid sperm cells by mitosis leading to the development of the pollen tube. At fertilization, one of the sperm cells unites its haploid nucleus with the haploid nucleus of an egg cell. The female cone develops two ovules, each of which contains haploid megaspores. A megasporocyte is divided by meiosis in each ovule. Each winged pollen grain is a four celled male gametophyte. Three of the four cells break down leaving only a single surviving cell which will develop into a female multicellular gametophyte. The female gametophytes grow to produce two or more archegonia, each of which contains an egg. Upon fertilization, the diploid egg will give rise to the embryo, and a seed is produced. The female cone then opens, releasing the seeds which grow to a young seedling.
Female reproductive cycles.
Conifer reproduction is synchronous with seasonal changes in temperate zones. Reproductive development slows to a halt during each winter season and then resumes each spring. The male strobilus development is completed in a single year. Conifers are classified by three reproductive cycles, namely; 1-, 2-, or 3- . The cycles refer to the completion of female strobilus development from initiation to seed maturation. All three types or reproductive cycles have a long gap in between pollination and fertilization.
One year reproductive cycle:The genera includes "Abies", "Picea", "Cedrus", "Pseudotsuga," "Tsuga", "Keteleeria" "(Pinaceae)" and "Cupressus, Thuja, Cryptomeria, Cunninghamia" and "Sequoia (Cupressaceae)". Female strobili are initiated in late summer or fall in a year, then they overwinter. Female strobili emerge followed by pollination in the following spring . Fertilization takes place in summer of the following year, only 3–4 months after pollination. Cones mature and seeds are then shed by the end of that same year. Pollination and fertilization occurs in a single growing season.
Two-year reproductive cycle:The genera includes "Widdringtonia", "Sequoiadendron" ("Cupressaceae") and most species of "Pinus". Female strobilus initials are formed in late summer or fall then overwinter. It emerges and receives pollen in the first year spring and become conelets. The conelet goes through another winter rest and in the spring of the 2nd year. The Archegonia form in the conelet and fertilization of the archegonia occurs by early summer of the 2nd year, so the pollination-fertilization interval exceeds a year. After fertilization, the conelet is considered an immature cone. Maturation occurs by autumn of the 2nd year, at which time seeds are shed. In summary, the 1-year and the 2-year cycles differ mainly in the duration of the pollination- fertilization interval.
Three-year reproductive cycle: Three of the conifer species are pine species ("Pinus pinea", "Pinus leiophylla", "Pinus torreyana") which have pollination and fertilization events separated by a 2-year interval. Female strobili initiated during late summer or autumn in a year, then overwinter until the following spring. Female strobili emerge then pollination occurs in spring of the 2nd year then the pollinated strobili become conelets in the same year (i.e. the second year). The female gametophytes in the conelet develop so slowly that the megaspore does not go through free-nuclear divisions until autumn of the 3rd year. The conelet then overwinters again in the free-nuclear female gametophyte stage. Fertilization takes place by early summer of the 4th year and seeds mature in the cones by autumn of the 4th year.
Tree development.
The growth and form of a forest tree are the result of activity in the primary and secondary meristems, influenced by the distribution of photosynthate from its needles and the hormonal gradients controlled by the apical meristems (Fraser et al. 1964). External factors also influence growth and form.
Fraser recorded the development of a single white spruce tree from 1926 to 1961. Apical growth of the stem was slow from 1926 through 1936 when the tree was competing with herbs and shrubs and probably shaded by larger trees. Lateral branches began to show reduced growth and some were no longer in evidence on the 36-year-old tree. Apical growth totaling about 340 m, 370 m, 420 m, 450 m, 500 m, 600 m, and 600 m was made by the tree in the years 1955 through 1961, respectively. The total number of needles of all ages present on the 36-year-old tree in 1961 was 5.25 million weighing 14.25 kg. In 1961, needles as old as 13 years remained on the tree. The ash weight of needles increased progressively with age from about 4% in first-year needles in 1961 to about 8% in needles 10 years old. In discussing the data obtained from the one 11 m tall white spruce, Fraser et al. (1964) speculated that if the photosynthate used in making apical growth in 1961 was manufactured the previous year, then the 4 million needles that were produced up to 1960 manufactured food for about 600,000 mm of apical growth or 730 g dry weight, over 12 million mm3 of wood for the 1961 annual ring, plus 1 million new needles, in addition to new tissue in branches, bark, and roots in 1960. Added to this would be the photosynthate to produce energy to sustain respiration over this period, an amount estimated to be about 10% of the total annual photosynthate production of a young healthy tree. On this basis, one needle produced food for about 0.19 mg dry weight of apical growth, 3 mm3 wood, one-quarter of a new needle, plus an unknown amount of branch wood, bark and roots.
The order of priority of photosynthate distribution is probably: first to apical growth and new needle formation, then to buds for the next year's growth, with the cambium in the older parts of the branches receiving sustenance last. In the white spruce studied by Fraser et al. (1964), the needles constituted 17.5% of the over-day weight. Undoubtedly, the proportions change with time.
Seed-dispersal mechanism.
Wind and animal dispersals are two major mechanisms involved in the dispersal of conifer seeds. Wind born seed dispersal involves two processes, namely; local neighborhood dispersal (LND) and long-distance dispersal (LDD). Long-distance dispersal distances ranges from from the source.
Birds of the crow family, Corvidae, are the primary distributor of the conifer seeds. These birds are known to cache 32,000 pine seeds and transport the seeds as far as from the source. The birds store the seeds in the soil at depths of under conditions which favor germination.
Invasive species.
A number of conifers originally introduced for forestry have become invasive species in parts of New Zealand, including radiata pine ("Pinus radiata"), lodgepole pine ("P. contorta"), Douglas fir ("Pseudotsuga mensiezii") and European larch ("Larix decidua").
In parts of South Africa, maritime pine ("Pinus pinaster"), patula pine ("P. patula") and radiata pine have been declared invasive species. These wilding conifers are a serious environmental issue causing problems for pastoral farming and for conservation.
Radiata pine was introduced to Australia in the 1870s. It is "the dominant tree species in the Australian plantation estate" – so much so that many Australians are concerned by the resulting loss of native wildlife habitat. The species is widely regarded as an environmental weed across southeastern and southwestern Australia and the removal of individual plants beyond plantations is encouraged.
Predators.
At least 20 species of roundheaded borers of the family Cerambycidae feed on the wood of spruce, fir, and hemlock (Rose and Lindquist 1985). Borers rarely bore tunnels in living trees, although when populations are high, adult beetles feed on tender twig bark, and may damage young living trees. One of the most common and widely distributed borer species in North America is the whitespotted sawyer ("Monochamus scutellatus"). Adults are found in summer on newly fallen or recently felled trees chewing tiny slits in the bark in which they lay eggs. The eggs hatch in about 2 weeks and the tiny larvae tunnel to the wood and score its surface with their feeding channels. With the onset of cooler weather, they bore into the wood making oval entrance holes and tunnel deeply. Feeding continues the following summer when larvae occasionally return to the surface of the wood and extend the feeding channels generally in a U-shaped configuration. During this time, small piles of frass extruded by the larvae accumulate under logs. Early in the spring of the second year following egg-laying, the larvae, about 30 mm long, pupate in the tunnel enlargement just below the wood surface. The resulting adults chew their way out in early summer, leaving round exit holes, so completing the usual 2-year life cycle.
Cultivation.
Conifers – notably "Abies" (fir), "Cedrus", "Chamaecyparis lawsoniana" (Lawson's cypress), "Cupressus" (cypress), juniper, "Picea" (spruce), "Pinus" (pine), "Taxus" (yew), "Thuja" (cedar) – have been the subject of selection for ornamental purposes (for more information see the silviculture page). Plants with unusual growth habits, sizes, and colours are propagated and planted in parks and gardens throughout the world.
Conditions for growth.
Conifers can absorb nitrogen in either the ammonium (NH4+) or nitrate (NO3−) form, but the forms are not physiologically equivalent. Form of nitrogen affected both the total amount and relative composition of the soluble nitrogen in white spruce tissues (Durzan and Steward 1967). Ammonium nitrogen was shown to foster arginine and amides and lead to a large increase of free guanidine compounds, whereas in leaves nourished by nitrate as the sole source of nitrogen guanidine compounds were less prominent. Durzan and Steward noted that their results, drawn from determinations made in late summer, did not rule out the occurrence of different interim responses at other times of the year. Ammonium nitrogen produced significantly heavier (dry weight) seedlings with higher nitrogen content after 5 weeks (McFee and Stone 1968) than did the same amount of nitrate nitrogen. Swan (1960) found the same effect in 105-day-old white spruce.
The general short-term effect of nitrogen fertilization on coniferous seedlings is to stimulate shoot growth more so than root growth (Armson and Carman 1961). Over a longer period, root growth is also stimulated. Many nursery managers were long reluctant to apply nitrogenous fertilizers late in the growing season, for fear of increased danger of frost damage to succulent tissues. A presentation at the North American Forest Tree Nursery Soils Workshop at Syracuse in 1980 provided strong contrary evidence: Bob Eastman, President of the Western Maine Forest Nursery Co. stated that for 15 years he has been successful in avoiding winter “burn” to Norway spruce and white spruce in his nursery operation by fertilizing with 50–80 lb/ac (56–90 kg/ha) nitrogen in September, whereas previously winter burn had been experienced annually, often severely. Eastman also stated that the overwintering storage capacity of stock thus treated was much improved (Eastman 1980).
The concentrations of nutrients in plant tissues depend on many factors, including growing conditions. Interpretation of concentrations determined by analysis is easy only when a nutrient occurs in excessively low or occasionally excessively high concentration. Values are influenced by environmental factors and interactions among the 16 nutrient elements known to be essential to plants, 13 of which are obtained from the soil, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, all used in relatively large amounts (Buckman and Brady 1969). Nutrient concentrations in conifers also vary with season, age, and kind of tissue sampled, and analytical technique. The ranges of concentrations occurring in well-grown plants provide a useful guide by which to assess the adequacy of particular nutrients, and the ratios among the major nutrients are helpful guides to nutritional imbalances.
Economic importance.
The softwood derived from conifers is of great economic value, providing about 45% of the world's annual lumber production. Other uses of the timber include the production of paper and plastic from chemically treated wood pulp. Some conifers also provide foods such as pine nuts and Juniper berries, the latter used to flavor gin.


Cyathea delgadii

Cyathea delgadii is a widespread species of tree fern native to Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, Trinidad, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.
The specific epithet "delgadii" refers to Gancho do Generale Delgado, along the road to Caldas Novas, Brazil, where the type material was collected.
Distribution.
"Cyathea delgadii" grows in tropical and submontane rain forest, forest understory, in open locations, and along paths, at an elevation of and above (up to in Peru). It forms part of a large complex centered on "Cyathea fulva".
In Costa Rica, "C. delgadii" is present in the Cordillera de Guanacaste, Cordillera de Tilarán, north slope of the Cordillera Central, the Norte region, Caribbean side of the Cordillera de Talamanca, Fila Costeña, and the Osa Peninsula, where it has an altitudinal distribution of 500–1500 m (Alexander Rojas A., 1999).
Since it is abundant where it does grow and has such a large natural range, the conservation status of "C. delgadii" can be equated with the IUCN category "Lower risk" (Alexander Rojas A., 1999).
Description.
The trunk of "Cyathea delgadii" is erect, tall and 5–15 cm in diameter. Fronds are bipinnate and in length. The crown is large and slightly arching.
Petioles are yellow-brown to dark brown in colouration and bear spines. Small brown scales cover the rachis, which is also brown. Sori are borne on each side of the pinnule midvein and are protected by globose indusia.
Cultivation.
"Cyathea delgadii" is cultivated as an ornamental tree for gardens. To do well in cultivation, plants should be provided with consistent moisture and well-drained humus as a substrate. This species does best when sheltered from the wind and grown in a warm area.
The roots of this species are used for the culture of orchids and the manufacture of crafts. "C. delgadii" may grow on disturbed land and, since it is often harvested from these areas, its use does not have as great an impact on the forest as it would otherwise.


Balthasaria mannii

Balthasaria mannii is a species of plant in the Pentaphylacaceae family. It is endemic to São Tomé Island.


Xanthophyllum longum

Xanthophyllum longum is a tree in the family Polygalaceae. The specific epithet "" is from the Latin meaning "long", referring to the petioles.
Description.
"Xanthophyllum longum" grows up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is pale greenish or blackish. The brownish fruits are round and measure up to in diameter.
Distribution and habitat.
"Xanthophyllum longum" is endemic to Borneo and known only from Sabah. Its habitat is lowland forests.


Pterocladiophila

Pterocladiophila is a genus of red algae, parasite of other red algae.


Geniostoma macrophyllum

Geniostoma macrophyllum is a species of plant in the Loganiaceae family. It is endemic to Fiji.


Dendrolirium ornatum

Dendrolirium ornatum is a species of orchid. It is native to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.


Sarcobatus

Sarcobatus is a North American genus of two species of flowering plants, formerly considered to be a single species. Common names for "S. vermiculatus" include greasewood, seepwood, and saltbush. Traditionally, "Sarcobatus" has been treated in the family Chenopodiaceae, but the APG III system of 2009 recognizes it as the sole genus in the family Sarcobataceae.
Description.
The "Sarcobatus" plants are deciduous shrubs growing to 0.5–3 m tall with spiny branches and succulent leaves, 10–40 mm long and 1–2 mm broad. The leaves are green, in contrast to the grey-green color of most of the other shrubs within its range. The flowers are unisexual, with the male and female flowers on the same plant and appear from June to August. The species reproduces from seeds and sprouts. "S. vermiculatus" was discovered in 1806 by the Lewis and Clark expedition's westward exploration of North America.
Habitat.
The "Sarcobatus" area of distribution is western North America, from southeastern British Columbia and southwest Alberta, Canada south through the drier regions of the United States (east to North Dakota and west Texas, west to central Washington and eastern California) to northern Mexico (Coahuila).
Both "Sarcobatus" species are halophytes, usually found in sunny, flat areas around the margins of playas and in dry stream beds and arroyos. It is replaced by iodine bush in extremely saline environments, such as hummocks within the playa itself. Greasewood often grows in extensive, nearly pure stands in pluvial desert locations and is most common on fine-grained soils in areas with a relatively high water table.
Uses.
Although it can be grazed by animals that are adapted, grazing of greasewood by sheep and cattle can result in oxalate poisoning resulting in kidney failure. The active agent can be either sodium oxalate or potassium oxalate. Sheep are the most vulnerable.
The wood is yellow, very hard and tough. Because it is so hard, it was used as a shaft for arrows. It was also used as firewood by Native Americans and early settlers. They are used traditionally by Navajo as stirring sticks, Ádístsíín.
Taxonomy.
These plants were formerly treated in the family Chenopodiaceae. The family name Sarcobataceae was published in 1997, and is not recognized by the Flora of North America, which however lists it as a "discordant lineage" within the larger group of Chenopodiaceae and Amaranthaceae. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (including the APG III system of 2009), does recognize this family. The family comprises the single genus, "Sarcobatus", and is placed in the order Caryophyllales in the clade core eudicots. It was suggested that the plastids and the wood anatomy may show an affinity to Phytolaccaceae and Nyctaginaceae rather than to Chenopodiaceae/Amaranthaceae. The sister taxon of "Sarcobatus" might be "Agdestis".
Species.
The two species are:


Pythium ultimum

Pythium ultimum is a plant pathogen. It causes the damping off and root rot diseases of hundreds of diverse plant hosts including corn, soybean, potato, wheat, fir, and many ornamental species. "P. ultimum" belongs to the peronosporalean lineage of oomycetes, along with other important plant pathogens such as "Phytophthora" spp. and many genera of downy mildews. "P. ultimum" is a frequent inhabitant of fields, freshwater ponds, and decomposing vegetation in most areas of the world. Contributing to the widespread distribution and persistence of "P. ultimum" is its ability to grow saprotrophically in soil and plant residue. This trait is also exhibited by most "Pythium" spp. but not by the related "Phytophthora" spp., which can only colonize living plant hosts.
Pathology and disease management.
Infections of seeds and roots are initiated by both the mycelia and spores of "P. ultimum". Two spore types are made, depending on the strain. "P. ultimum" is a species complex that includes "P. u." var. "ultimum" and "P. u." var. "sporangiiferum". The major distinguishing feature is that sporangia and zoospores (swimming spores) are produced only rarely by "P. u." var. "ultimum". Both species make oospores, which are thick-walled structures produced by sexual recombination. Both varieties are self-fertile (homothallic), which means that a single strain can mate with itself. In addition to oospores, "P. u." var. "ultimum" also makes hyphal swellings which germinate in a manner resembling sporangia to form plant-infecting hyphae. One important ecological difference between the different types of spores is that sporangia and zoospores are short-lived, while the thick-walled oospores can persist for years within soil, surviving even winter freezes. Mycelia and oospores in soil can infect seeds or roots. This leads to wilting, reduced yield, and ultimately plant death. Common signs of a "Pythium" infection include stunting of the plants, brown coloration of root-tips, and wilting of the plant during the warm part of the day. Management of disease is challenging but focuses on sanitation, fungicides, and biological control. Fungicides include mefenoxam, thiadiazole, etridiazole, propamocarb, dimethomorph, and phosphonates. Biological control agents include the bacteria "Bacillus subtilis", "Streptomyces griseoviridis", and the fungi "Candida oleophila", "Gliocladium catenulatum", "Trichoderma harzianum", and "Trichoderma virens".
Effective resistance in the plant host is generally not available. Sanitation is very important since the pathogen can be easily introduced into pasteurized soil or even soil-free potting mixes on dirty tools or pots. Especially in greenhouses, fungus gnats may also help move the pathogen from place to place. A recent study of greenhouses in Michigan revealed that the same pathogen populations were responsible for the root rot of all greenhouse ornamental plants over a two-year period. These results stress the importance of sanitation and encourage greenhouse growers to improve their scouting of all incoming plant material to prevent additional root rot.
Genetics.
The genomes of both "P. u." var. "ultimum" and "P. u." var. "sporangiiferum" have been sequenced. Analysis of the genomes suggest that the two species encode 15,290 and 14,086 proteins, respectively.


Dendrobangia

Dendrobangia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Metteniusaceae. It was formerly placed in the family Cardiopteridaceae. It was described as a genus in 1896.
"Dendrobangia" is native to South America and Costa Rica.


Bauhinia lunarioides

Bauhinia lunarioides is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to Southwestern Texas in the United States and Northern Mexico. Common names include Texasplume, Anacacho orchid tree, and pata de vaca.
It is a small deciduous tree growing to 4 m tall. The leaves are 2–5 cm long and broad, rounded, and bilobed at the base and apex. The flowers are small, white or (rarely) pink, with five petals. The fruit is a pod.
Though limited in range in the wild, it has become increasingly available in nurseries.


Sempervivum altum

Sempervivum altum is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae, native to the Caucasus Mountains. Like other members of the houseleek genus, it grows succulent leaves in rosettes. The rosettes of "S. altum" are 1–5 cm across, and the leaves are pubescent or pilose. The flowers are pink edged with white, with yellow anthers, growing on a stem 30–40 cm tall. The species was described in 1936 by William Bertram Turrill based on specimens collected by P.L. Giuseppi in a 1935 expedition to the Caucasus Mountains. It is closely related to "S. ingwersenii" and "S. ossetiense" from the same region. , the name is not accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.


Heisteria asplundii

Heisteria asplundii is a species of plant in the Olacaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador.


Aureolaria pectinata

Aureolaria pectinata, commonly called combleaf yellow false foxglove, is a species of plant in the broomrape family that is native to the southeastern United States.
It is a perennial that produces yellow flowers in the late summer on herbaceous stems.


Cephalophyllum

Cephalophyllum is a genus of plants in the family Aizoaceae.
Species.


Chamaecyparis

Chamaecyparis, common names cypress or false cypress (to distinguish it from related cypresses), is a genus of conifers in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to eastern Asia (Japan and Taiwan) and to the western and eastern margins of the United States. The name is derived from the Greek "khamai" (χαμαί), meaning "on the earth", and "kuparissos" (κυπάρισσος) for "cypress".
They are medium-sized to large evergreen trees growing from tall, with foliage in flat sprays. The leaves are of two types, needle-like juvenile leaves on young seedlings up to a year old, and scale-like adult leaves. The cones are globose to oval, with 8-14 scales arranged in opposite decussate pairs; each scale bears 2-4 small seeds.
"Chamaecyparis taiwanensis" is treated by many authors as a variety of "C. obtusa" (as "C. obtusa" var. "formosana").
Genus "Fokienia" is not always recognized as a separate genus from "Chamaecyparis", in which case "Chamaecyparis hodginsii" (="Fokienia hodginsii") should be added to the above list. On the other hand, a species which used to be included in this genus, as "Chamaecyparis nootkatensis", has now been transferred on the basis of strong genetic and morphological evidence to the separate genus "Xanthocyparis" as "Xanthocyparis nootkatensis", or back to "Cupressus nootkatensis" (the name it was originally described under in 1824).
There are also several species described from the fossil record including:
"Chamaecyparis" species are used as food plants by the larva of some Lepidoptera species, including juniper pug and pine beauty.
Cultivation and uses.
Four species ("C. lawsoniana, C. obtusa, C. pisifera", and "C. thyoides") are of considerable importance as ornamental trees in horticulture; several hundred cultivars have been selected for various traits, including dwarf size, yellow, blue, silvery or variegated foliage, permanent retention of juvenile leaves, and thread-like shoots with reduced branching. In some areas, cultivation is limited by "Phytophthora" root rot diseases, with "C. lawsoniana" being particularly susceptible to "P. lateralis".
The wood is scented, and is highly valued, particularly in Japan, where it is used for temple construction.


Ilex amygdalina

Ilex amygdalina is a tree in the family Aquifoliaceae that is native to South America.


Dichaetaria

Dichaetaria is a genus of South Asian plants in the grass family.
Slender perennial herbs, the leaves are narrow and flat.
The only known species is Dichaetaria wightii, native to Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.


Aristolochia pistolochia

Aristolochia pistolochia is a herbaceous plant in the family Aristolochiaceae endemic to Mediterranean areas across southwest Europe.
Description.
"Aristolochia paucinervis" is a perennial geophyte carnivorous plant. Its rhizome is formed by numerous cylindrical tubers. Leaves are ovate-triangular, sharp to marginalized with cartilaginous margins, with a glaucous underside and very marked nerves. Flowers are yellow on the outside and dark reddish or green on the inside. It is similar to "Aristolochia paucinervis", but can be easily distinguished by its thick, jagged leaf border.
Distribution and habitat.
"Aristolochia pistolochia" is distributed throughout southwestern Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula (in Portugal and Spain), southern France, Corsica and Sardinia. It inhabits clearings of bushes, heaths or holm oaks groves, fallows and rocky areas in basal and montane floors.


Mamillariella

Mamillariella is a genus of moss in family Leskeaceae. It contains the following species (but this list may be incomplete):


Viscum capense

Viscum capense (common name, Cape mistletoe) is a species of Mistletoe that is indigenous to South Africa, especially the area from Cape Town, northwards along the coast up to Namibia, and eastwards as far as the Eastern Cape province.
This parasitic plant has jointed stems, vestigial leaves in the form of small scales around the stem nodes, and tiny yellowish-green flowers that produce translucent pale berries. The fruit is dispersed by birds. The plant is poisonous but is nonetheless used in traditional African medicine, the plant being boiled to make a tea that is used to soothe asthma.


Grammitidoideae

Grammitidoideae is a subfamily of the fern family Polypodiaceae, whose members are informally known as grammitids. It comprises a clade of about 750 species. They are distributed over higher elevations in both the Old and New World. This group was previously treated as a separate family, Grammitidaceae until molecular phylogenies showed it to be nested within the Polypodiaceae. It has since been treated as an unranked clade within subfamily Polypodioideae (renamed tribe Polypodieae in one classification), and, most recently, as a separate subfamily (reducing Polypodioideae to an evolutionary grade).
Circumscription.
In 2011, Christenhusz "et al." placed the grammitid ferns in the subfamily Polypodioideae, within the Polypodiaceae, as an informal group without rank. In 2014, Christenhusz and Chase expanded the circumscription of both family and subfamily, placing the Polypodioideae as previously delimited, including grammitids, in tribe Polypodieae. The PPG I classification of 2016 largely reverted to the 2011 circumscriptions of these groups, but placed the grammitids in a new subfamily.
The following phylogram shows a likely relationship between grammitid ferns and the Polypodiaceae subfamilies, based on Schuettpelz & Pryer, 2008, with PPG I subfamilies shown.
Genera.
The Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I) recognizes the following genera:


Bletilla

Bletilla, common name urn orchid, is a temperate, terrestrial genus of orchids containing five currently recognized species distributed through China, Japan, Taiwan, south to Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar. The name is actually a diminutive of "Bletia" because of the resemblance between the two genera even though Bletia is a New World genus. The genera Jimensia and Polytoma are generally included into "Bletilla". This genus is abbreviated Ble in trade journals.
The pseudobulbs resemble spreading corms which usually sit at ground level. Each pseudobulb generally bears several pleated leaves around 40 cm long. The racemes of flowers emerge from the center of the years new growth before it is mature, during spring and early summer. The flowers vary in color from white to purple, and all species have four pollinia.
The tubers resemble a horn or claw. They are grayish-white or yellowish-white in appearance, with concentric rings and brown rootlets. They have a hard texture and do not break easily.
Cultivation.
"Bletilla" species are generally hardy, though some need protection from severely cold frost. It is better to keep them in pots of well-drained media so that water does not sit around the roots during winter when the plants are not actively growing. They should also be watered sparingly at the start of the growing season as the new shoots emerge, as new roots often do not follow for around four weeks afterwards.
"Bletilla striata" is the most common form found in the nursery trade and is often labeled simply as 'Hardy Orchid' or 'Chinese Ground Orchid' and is quite inexpensive. This beautiful and hardy deciduous orchid has the distinction of being one of the first orchids in cultivation in England dating from around 1794. The very flat knob-like tuberous root system is typically sympodial, expansive and each shoot is of annual duration only. On established plants, almost every new growth shoot has a flower spike before leaves fully develop. Each shoot can have up to fourteen beautiful rose-mauve flowers with a ruffled lip about 30mm diameter, scentless and looking something like a miniature Cattleya orchid flower. An established clump can have literally dozens of flower spikes flowering in the late Spring and the clumps only increase in beauty with time. They rarely exceed two feet in height.
The flowers and leaves are at the mercy of late frosts, which are to be avoided if at all possible with coverings of a sheet or newspapers. Resist the temptation to remove the mulch layer even if the new growths are raising up the mulch due to an early Spring, unless no more frosts are likely. Unlike most tropical orchids, B. striata has attractive foliage even when not flowering. The pleated, tapered foliage looks very similar to the juvenile leaves of many palm species. A well established clump of these in flower is quite beautiful and they are surprisingly hardy even into USDA Zone 5 with a heavy mulch. They easily succeed in USDA Zone 6 with only a moderate mulch of straw or leaves. These hardiness ratings only apply to plants in the ground with the idea of preventing the actual root system from being frozen. If potted, they should be placed in a frost-free location if winter temperatures go below freezing. The plant is generally considered hardy without a mulch if minimum winter temperatures do not go below 25 °F.
They have a great reputation of being the absolute easiest orchid for a beginner to grow. Unlike most tropical epiphytic orchids, this plant comes from somewhat temperate zones and grows in soil rather than on trees and require no extraordinary care to grow successfully. They prefer well drained evenly moist soils that are high in organic material and that never dry out nor remain sodden. They are sympodial growers and will form handsome clumps in only a few years. Other species and hybrids are occasionally available, the most common being "B. striata" var. "alba", a white variation of the rose-mauve "B. striata". "Bletilla ochracea", a somewhat rare species from China has unusual flowers with yellow sepals and petals with a red-marked white lip and is becoming more available to collectors. "Bletilla" Penway Dragon ("formosana" × "szetschuaunica") appears to be one of the exciting new hybrid grex if it becomes more available.
Species.
Currently recognized species as of May 2014:


Begonia acerifolia

Begonia acerifolia is a species of plant in the family Begoniaceae. It is native to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Echeveria cante

Echeveria cante, the white cloud plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae, native to northwestern Zacatecas state in Mexico. A succulent, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Donatia

Donatia is a genus of two cushion plant species in the family Stylidiaceae. The name commemorates Vitaliano Donati, an Italian botanist.
"Donatia" has been placed in the subfamily Donatioideae, described by Johannes Mildbraed in his 1908 taxonomic monograph of the family Stylidiaceae. The subfamily was created to distinguish the difference between the single genus "Donatia" from the five typical genera of the Stylidiaceae that Mildbraed placed in the Stylidioideae subfamily. The subfamily taxonomy represented the taxonomic uncertainty of "Donatia", which had at one point also been placed in the Saxifragaceae. "Donatia" differs sufficiently from the genera in the Stylidiaceae in that it has free stamens and petals, paracytic stomata, and a pollen morphology distinct from the other genera. Because of this and the recent phylogenetic analysis based on "rbcL" genes, more recent treatments have segregated "Donatia" into its own family, the Donatiaceae. The molecular phylogenetic analysis has placed "Donatia" as a sister-group to Stylidiaceae, thus leaving the Stylidiaceae as a monophyletic family.
As early as three years after Mildbraed's publication of the subfamily Donatioideae, other authors began to question the placement and argued for recognition of Donatiaceae. In 1915, Carl Skottsberg formally published the Donatiaceae. The APG II system recommended the inclusion of "Donatia" in Stylidiaceae but allowed for the optional recognition of the family Donatiaceae. The APG III system merges Donatiaceae into Stylidiaceae. The two species in the genus represent a wide geographic range. "D. novae-zelandiae" is found in the alpine and subalpine regions of New Zealand and Tasmania while "D. fascicularis" is native to similar habitats in southern South America to latitude 40°S.
In Chile "Donatia fascicularis" is, together with "Astelia pumila", dominant in the cushion bogs that exists in areas exposed to the Pacific coast. As such it is not usually found together with "Sphagnum" which tend to grow slightly more inland.


Lasioideae

Lasioideae is a subfamily of flowering plants in the family Araceae. It contains 10 genera: "Anaphyllopsis", "Anaphyllum", "Cyrtosperma", "Dracontioides", "Dracontium", "Lasia", "Lasimorpha", "Podolasia", "Pycnospatha", and "Urospatha".


Epilobium oreganum

Epilobium oreganum is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family known by the common names Grants Pass willowherb and Oregon fireweed (though it is not a true fireweed). It is native to southern Oregon and northern California, where it is historically known mostly from the Klamath Mountains. It is currently confirmed to exist only in Josephine County, Oregon, and Trinity County, California, where it grows in boggy areas on serpentine soils. It is a perennial herb growing up to a meter in height with thin, hairless stems. The red-veined leaves are oval to lance-shaped and up to 9 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears flowers with pink petals just over a centimeter long and a protruding pistil. The fruit is a hairy, glandular capsule up to 4.5 centimeters long.


Lockhartia imbricata

Lockhartia imbricata is a species of orchid found from Trinidad to tropical South America It is an epiphytic species growing in humid forests.


Potamogetonaceae

The Potamogetonaceae, commonly referred to as the pondweed family, is an aquatic family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. The roughly 110 known species are divided over six genera. The largest genus in the family by far is "Potamogeton", which contains about 100 species.
The family has a subcosmopolitan distribution, and is considered to be one of the most important angiosperm groups in the aquatic environment because of its use as food and habitat for aquatic animals.
Taxonomy.
The Potamogetonaceae are currently placed in the early diverging monocot order Alismatales by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. Their concept of the family includes the plants sometimes treated in the separate family Zannichelliaceae, but excludes the genus "Ruppia". So circumscribed, the family currently consists of six genera: "Althenia", "Groenlandia", "Lepilaena", "Potamogeton", "Stuckenia", and "Zannichellia", totalling about 120 species of perennial aquatic plants.
Marine grasses families: Zosteraceae, Cymodoceaceae, Ruppiaceae and Posidoniaceae. Related families: Potamogetonaceae, Zannichelliaceae (not consistently).
Characteristics.
The plants are all aquatic perennial herbs, often with creeping rhizomes and leafy branches. Their leaf blades can be either floating or submerged, and their stems are often joined. No stomata are present on the leaves. The flowers are tetramerous: the floral formula (sepals; petals; stamens; carpels) is [4;0;4;4]. The flowers have no petals. The fruit consists of one to four drupelets or achenes.


Solanum dulcamara

Solanum dulcamara is a species of vine in the potato genus "Solanum", family Solanaceae. Common names include bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, Amara Dulcis, climbing nightshade, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, and woody nightshade.
It is native to Europe and Asia, and widely naturalised elsewhere, including North America, where it is an invasive problem weed.
Overview.
It occurs in a very wide range of habitats, from woodlands to scrubland, hedges and marshes.
Bittersweet is a very woody herbaceous perennial vine, which scrambles over other plants, capable of reaching a height of 4 m where suitable support is available, but more often 1–2 m high. The leaves are 4–12 cm long, roughly arrowhead-shaped, and often lobed at the base. The flowers are in loose clusters of 3–20, 1–1.5 cm across, star-shaped, with five purple petals and yellow stamens and style pointing forward. The fruit is an ovoid red berry about 1 cm long, soft and juicy, with the aspect and odour of a tiny tomato, and edible for some birds, which disperse the seeds widely. However, the berry is poisonous to humans and livestock, and the berry's attractive and familiar look make it dangerous for children.
It is native to northern Africa, Europe, and Asia, but has spread throughout the world. The plant is relatively important in the diet of some species of birds such as European thrushes, which feed on its fruits, being immune to its poisons, and scatter the seeds abroad. It grows in all types of terrain with a preference for wetlands and the understory of riparian forests. Along with other climbers, it creates a dark and impenetrable shelter for varied animals. The plant grows well in dark areas in places where it can receive the light of morning or afternoon. An area receiving bright light for many hours reduces their development. It grows more easily in rich wet soils with plenty of nitrogen.
It is an nonnative species in the United States.
History.
"Solanum dulcamara" has been valued by herbalists since ancient Greek times. In the Middle Ages the plant was thought to be effective against witchcraft, and was sometimes hung around the neck of cattle to protect them from the "evil eye".
John Gerard's "Herball" (1597) states that "the juice is good for those that have fallen from high places, and have been thereby bruised or beaten, for it is thought to dissolve blood congealed or cluttered anywhere in the intrals and to heale the hurt places."
Biological activity.
The stems are approved by the German Commission E for external use as supportive therapy in chronic eczema.
The alkaloids, solanine (from unripe fruits), solasodine (from flowers) and beta-solamarine (from roots) inhibited the growth of "E. coli" and "S. aureus".
Solanine and solasodine extracted from "Solanum dulcamara" showed antidermatophytic activity against "Chrysosporium indicum", "Trichophyton mentagrophytes" and "T. simil", thus it may cure ringworm.
Although fatal human poisonings are rare, several cases have been documented. The poison is believed to be solanine.


Achariaceae

Achariaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of 32-33 genera with about 155 species of tropical herbs, shrubs, and trees. The APG IV system has greatly expanded the scope of the family by including many genera previously classified in Flacourtiaceae. Molecular data strongly support the inclusion of this family in the order Malpighiales.
The family is almost exclusively tropical and is best known as the source of chaulmoogra oil, formerly used to treat leprosy. Unlike other members of the former Flacourtiaceae now placed in the family Salicaceae, the genera of Achariaceae typically have cyanogenic glycosides.


Clarkia lingulata

Clarkia lingulata is a rare species of wildflower known by the common name Merced clarkia. This plant is endemic to Mariposa County, California, where it is known from only two sites near the Merced River.
It is thought to have evolved very rapidly, outside the usual model of allopatric speciation, from its parental species "Clarkia biloba".
It is a state-listed endangered species in California.
Description.
"Clarkia lingulata" erects a spindly stem rarely exceeding in height and bearing sparse narrow leaves.
The saucer-shaped flowers have four bright pink spoon-shaped petals 1 to 2 centimeters long and sometimes flecked with red. There are eight stamens with lavender anthers.


Psittacanthus barlowii

Psittacanthus barlowii is a species of plant of the genus, "Psittacanthus", in the family Loranthaceae. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.


Cypress knee

A cypress knee is a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree of any of various species of the subfamily Taxodioideae. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in swamps. Some current hypotheses state that they might help to aerate the tree's roots, create a barrier to catch sediment and reduce erosion, assist in anchoring the tree in the soft and muddy soil, or any combination thereof.
Knees are woody projections sent above the normal water level, roughly vertically from the roots, with a near-right-angle bend taking them vertically upward through water. One early assumption of their function was that they provided oxygen to the roots that grow in the low dissolved oxygen (DO) waters typical of a swamp, acting as pneumatophores: mangroves have similar adaptations. There is little actual evidence for this assertion; in fact, swamp-dwelling specimens whose knees are removed continue to thrive, and laboratory tests demonstrate that the knees are not effective at depleting oxygen in a sealed chamber. Even though there is no expert consensus on their role, the supposition that they are pneumatophores is repeated without comment in several introductory botany textbooks.
Another more likely function is that of structural buttressed support and stabilization. Lowland or swamp-grown cypresses found in flooded or flood-prone areas tend to be buttressed and "kneed," as opposed to cypresses grown on higher ground, which may grow with very little taper.
Trees that develop these "knees" include:


Najas flexilis

Najas flexilis is an aquatic annual plant native to parts of North America and Europe. It is native to northern and Central Europe from Norway to Ireland to Switzerland, and from there across Russia and Siberia. It is also considered native throughout most of Canada, and the northern United States in disjunct populations in southern California, Arizona, Missouri, South Carolina and Utah. Its common names include slender naiad and nodding waternymph.
"Najas flexilis" inhabits shallow bodies of brackish and fresh water such as lakes and bays. It is also native to northern Europe, where its range includes Scotland, Poland and Sweden. It is rare in the European portion of its range and is strictly protected by Appendix I of the Berne Convention. The largest population is in Lake Sīveri in Latvia.


Aponogeton rigidifolius

Aponogeton rigidifolius is a species of freshwater plant native to Sri Lanka. In the wild it grows in deep water at temperatures of in sandy soil with the water pH at 7.2.
Description.
The creeping rhizome is cylindrical and about thick. The leaves stay submerse, are firm (almost leather-like and seem immune to most fish and snails) about long and wide. The margins of the leaves are flat to slightly undulate with a distinct midrib. In colour they are a dark green to reddish colour. The inflorescence has a single spike with white flowers and small fruits.
Cultivation and uses.
This species is unique amongst the Aponogetons in having an elongated rhizome rather than a tuber; the rhizome creeps along the surface, and from it new leaves sprout. This rhizome can be divided. It needs no rest period but is slow growing, though tough once established. It needs only a moderate light, tropical temperatures, and will tolerate harder water than most other Aponogetons. It is not commonly available but a good plant for the middle to background of an aquarium. It flowers rarely in aquariums.


Cerastium tomentosum

Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-Summer) is an herbaceous flowering plant and a member of the family Caryophyllaceae. It is generally distinguished from other species of its genus by "tomentose" or felty foliage. It is a low, spreading perennial native to alpine regions of Europe. The stems & leaves are silvery-grey, whilst the flowers are star-like, white & about 15mm across.
Description.
It is an evergreen, creeping off-shoot, perennial, herbaceous plant that reaches heights of growth of 15 to 30 (rarely to 45) centimeters. It is overall densely hairy. The leaves are up to 30 millimetres long and linear to lanceolate, which are covered with silky, silvery, frizzy and entangled hairs, forming like whitish felting. The inflorescences consist of up to 15 flowers. The calyx is 5 to 7 millimetres long. The petals are white and twice as long as the calyx. The teeth of the capsule are slightly bent outwards. The flowering period is from May to July in the northern hemisphere, but may also bloom at other times of the year.
Cultivation.
It has proven popular as a cultivated ornamental and can be found in gardens the world over. It is a horticultural plant, perennial, rocky, forming dense silver carpets. This plant is not very demanding: it likes a poor soil, rich in gravel, well drained, in a sunny place. It spreads easily by its rhizomes.
Range.
It is native to southern Italy. It is believed to originate from the Caucasus and southeastern Europe. It has naturalised in Canada, the United States and France, where it is often subspontaneous.