Solanum prinophyllum

Solanum prinophyllum, known as the forest nightshade, is a small plant native to the east coast of Australia. It is a short lived herb, annual or perennial.
Forest nightshade grows up to 50 cm high. Its leaves are 5 to 8 cm long and 3 to 5 cm wide. They are spiky and often tinged with purple. The stems are also spiky. Five petalled flowers occur at any time of the year and are blue or lilac in colour. Petals are fused at the base. The fruit is around 15 to 20 mm in diameter and the stem is 10 to 20 mm long. The fruit is a berry, which stays green or turns purple.
The habitat is moist areas, in sclerophyll forest, or disturbed areas in rainforest.


Wrangeliaceae

Wrangeliaceae is a red alga family in the order Ceramiales.


Aphananthe

Aphananthe is a small genus of evergreen trees in the family Cannabaceae. Around six species are recognised, found in Madagascar, South-east Asia, Mexico and Australia. Leaves are alternate on the stem and toothed. Flowers are unisexual, fruit form as drupes. The generic name of "Aphananthe" refers to "insignificant flower"s. Species include "Aphananthe aspera" and "Aphananthe philippinensis".


Cibotium taiwanense

Cibotium taiwanense is a species of tree fern in the genus "Cibotium", native to Taiwan. Some sources regard it as the same species as "Cibotium cumingii".


Persicaria filiformis

Persicaria filiformis is a species of flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, native to the Kuril Islands, Japan (including the Ryukyu Islands), Korea, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam. It was first described as "Polygonum filiforme" in 1784 by Carl Thunberg and transferred to the genus "Persicaria" in 1819 by Takenoshin Nakai. The species has been treated as the variety "filiformis" of "Persicaria virginiana", a North American species.


Acer wangchii

Acer wangchii is an uncommon Asian species of maple. It has been found only in southwestern China (Guangxi, Guizhou).
"Acer wangchii" is an evergreen tree up to 15 meters tall with rough brown or purple bark. Leaves are non-compound, up to 11 cm wide and cm across, thick and leathery, lance-shaped with no lobes. Fruits are purple, this being unusual in the genus.


Chlorella pulchelloides

Chlorella pulchelloides is a species of euryhaline, unicellular microalga in the Division Chlorophyta. It is spherical to oval-shaped and is solitary


Xanthophyllum penibukanense

Xanthophyllum penibukanense is a plant in the family Polygalaceae. It is named for the village of Penibukan in Malaysia's Sabah state.
Description.
"Xanthophyllum penibukanense" grows as a shrub or tree up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The smooth bark is grey or green. The flowers are creamy white to pale purplish, drying orange. The brownish fruits are round and measure up to in diameter.
Distribution and habitat.
"Xanthophyllum penibukanense" is endemic to Borneo. Its habitat is lowland mixed dipterocarp forests or lower montane forests from sea-level to altitude.


Ximenia roigii

Ximenia roigii is a species of plant in the Olacaceae family. It is endemic to Cuba. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Clarkia affinis

Clarkia affinis is a species of wildflower known as chaparral clarkia. It is endemic to California, where it grows mainly on chaparral slopes and woodlands in the Coast Ranges. This is a spindly plant producing erect stems exceeding half a meter in height and sparse narrow leaves. The flower is a bowl-shaped bloom with four pink or red petals each 5 to 15 millimeters long. The petals may have darker spots near the base and purple or red speckling.


Cycas taitungensis

Cycas taitungensis is a species of genus "Cycas" endemic to Taitung County, south-eastern Taiwan. "C. taitungensis", an evergreen tree, can grow up to about tall. The species was not described until 1994, but its specimen was once applied as the type of species "Cycas taiwaniana", which is not really distributed in Taiwan according to the further research.
"C. taitungensis" is one of the ancient "living fossils" left over after many major changes on the earth. It has been around for more than 140 million years. The precious wild "C. taitungensis" has been decimated rapidly due to frequent deforestation and pirate harvesting. At present, it is very rare in the wild.
"C. taitungensis" was listed by the "IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants" in category "vulnerable" in 1997. However, small range, decline of mature specimens, and attack by invasive "Aulacaspis" scale (Diaspididae) warranted classification as "endangered" in 2010.
Distribution.
"C. taitungensis" is found in:
In Taitung Hungyeh Village Cycas Nature Reserve, it is threatened by "Aulacaspis yasumatsui", the cycad aulacaspis scale.


Cymodocea

Cymodocea is a genus in the family Cymodoceaceae described as a genus in 1805. It includes four species of sea grass distributed in warm oceans.
Habitat.
"Cymodocea" can be found in clear water and in the high intertidal areas. It is a hardy species and it is adaptable to marginal conditions. Just like other intertidal species, it can commonly be confused with other species of its kind. This species can not handle full exposure at low tide and dry conditions.
Population.
"Cymodocea" is not under any threat to become an endangered species, and it is a widespread species in the locations that it is found. The only threats that can be recorded are coastal development and other anthropogenic activity.
Location.
"Cymodocea" is native to the following countries:


Alsophila coactilis

Alsophila coactilis, synonym Cyathea coactilis, is a rare species of tree fern known only from the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea, where it grows in alpine shrubland at an altitude of about 3000 m. The trunk is erect and 2–3 m tall. Fronds are bi- or tripinnate and usually 1–2 m long. Characteristically of this species, they occur in two whorls of about ten fronds each. The underside of the rachis is covered with small, pale scales. The stipe is covered with pale scales that have dark, narrow and fragile edges. Sori are round and are covered by thin indusia that are cup-like in appearance. They occur near the fertile pinnule midvein.


Alsophila everta

Alsophila everta, synonym Cyathea everta, is a species of tree fern native to western New Guinea, where it grows in the edges of forest or in mossy forest at an altitude of 1400–2800 m. The trunk is erect and up to 5 m tall. Fronds are bi- or tripinnate and 1–1.5 m long. Numerous fronds are present at any one time and form a dense crown. The stipe has some spines towards the base and is covered in scales. The scales are pale or dark, glossy and have pale fringed edges. Sori occur near the fertile pinnule midvein. They are round and covered by thin, brown indusia that are cup-like in appearance.
The closest relative of "A. everta" is thought to be "Alsophila rigens". Further study is needed to determine whether these two taxa represent the same species or not. If this is the case, the name "A. rigens" takes priority.


Camelina microcarpa

Camelina microcarpa is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by several common names, including littlepod false flax lesser gold-of-pleasure and small seed false flax. It is native to Europe and Asia, and it is common across the globe as an introduced species and sometimes a noxious weed. It is known as a weed of grain crops such as wheat and rye. This is an erect annual herb producing a branched or unbranched stem 30 centimeters to one meter in height. It is sometimes coated thinly in hairs, particularly on the lower part. The leaves are lance-shaped to oblong. The upper part of the stem is occupied by an inflorescence of many pale yellow flowers. They yield plump oblong to rounded fruits, each under a centimeter long and held at the tip of a short pedicel.


Leptolepia

Leptolepia is a genus of ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae described as a genus in 1892.
"Leptolepia" contains only one accepted species, Leptolepia novae-zelandiae, native to New Zealand.
"Leptolepia maxima" syn of "Oenotrichia maxima"
"Leptolepia novae-zelandiae" is commonly known as lace fern. The fronds of the lace fern are widely spaced, intricate and have a similar texture to lace. Lace fern can grow up to 0.75 metres high and a width of 1.5 metres.


Salix argyrophylla

Salix pantosericea is a species of willow first described by Görz in 1934.


Peyssonnelia

Peyssonnelia is a genus of thalloid red alga comprising approximately 63 species. It includes the algae commonly known as rumoi-iwanokawa, mayoi-iwanokawa and akase-iwanokawa. Specimens can reach around 20 cm in size. "Peyssonnelia" produces tetraspores.
Segregate genera.
The genera "Cruoriella" and "Cruoriopsis" are sometimes considered to be part of "Peyssonnelia", but a 2007 dissertation by Krayesky separates them.
Species.
The species currently recognised are:


Gastroclonium

Gastroclonium is a genus of red algae (Rhodophyta) in the family Champiaceae. , according to AlgaeBase, it comprises the following species:


Aliciella leptomeria

Aliciella leptomeria (formerly "Gilia leptomeria") is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common names sand gilia and Great Basin gilia. It is native to the Western United States, where it grows in many types of habitat, such as the sagebrush of the Great Basin and in the Mojave Desert.
It is a small herb producing a thin, branching stem up to about 23 centimeters tall. It is coated in glandular hairs. Several deeply lobed leaves 1 to 6 centimeters long are located in a basal rosette at ground level around the stem. There are smaller, unlobed leaves along the stem. The inflorescence produces one to three flowers, each about half a centimeter wide with a thread-thin tube. The corolla is purple-stained white, the throat is yellowish, and the tube is purple.


Trichosclereid

Trichosclereids are hard needlelike branched cells found in some species of plants that serve the purpose of protecting the plant from herbivores. They usually are approximately 6 mm long, but in some species they grow to as long as 1 cm.


Recchia simplicifolia

Recchia simplicifolia is a species of plant in the family Surianaceae.
It is a tropical tree endemic to Oaxaca and Veracruz states in Mexico.


Ctenopterella

Ctenopterella is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Grammitidoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). It is known from Africa through southeast Asia and Oceania to Polynesia.
Description.
The rhizomes are dorsiventral (having upper and lower surfaces clearly distinct in appearance), and bear two rows of stipes, which sometimes have distinct joints where they attach. Distinct phyllopodia are present in some below the joint. The rhizome scales are brown, glabrous, and dull to glossy.
Hairs, where present, are unbranched and branched, from whitish to brown in color. The leaf blades range from pinnatifid to pinnate-pinnatifid in cutting, bearing free veins which usually end in hydathodes on the upper surface of the leaf. Sori are borne beneath pinnae or lobes, sometimes slightly sunken into the leaf tissue, usually in two rows but rarely in one. The sori are circular to elliptic in shape; the sporangia lack hairs.
Taxonomy.
The genus was first described by Barbara Parris in 2007 to receive some of the species of the polyphyletic genus "Ctenopteris"; "Ctenopterella" is a diminutive form of that name. She initially placed twelve species in the genus. In 2013, she described a new species, "Ctenopterella gabonensis", from the Monts Doudou in Gabon, and transferred a Vietnamese species, "Ctenopterella nhatrangensis", into the genus. In 2015, she transferred three more species from "Ctenopteris", including one she had formerly placed in synonymy, in preparation for a monograph on the genus.
The only phylogenetic study so far to include any "Ctenopterella" species sampled "Ctenopterella denticulata" only. It found that this species, "Acrosorus friderici-et-pauli" (the type of its genus), and "Grammitis stenophylla" form a clade sister to the combined clade of "Oreogrammitis", "Prosaptia", "Radiogrammitis", and "Themelium". None of the three taxa in the first clade are particularly close morphologically. "Ctenopterella denticulata" has since been transferred to the genus "Chrysogrammitis" as "Chrysogrammitis denticulata".
Species.
, the "Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World" accepted the following species and hybrids:


Wollemia

Wollemia is a genus of coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae. "Wollemia" was known only through fossil records until the Australian species Wollemia nobilis was discovered in 1994 in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges northwest of Sydney. The genus is named after the National Park.
In both botanical and popular literature the tree has been almost universally referred to as the Wollemi pine (), although it is not a true pine (genus "Pinus") nor a member of the pine family (Pinaceae), but, rather, is related to "Agathis" and "Araucaria" in the family Araucariaceae.
The Wollemi pine is classified as critically endangered (CR) on the IUCN's Red List, and is legally protected in Australia. After it was discovered that the trees could be successfully cloned, new trees were potted up in the Botanic Gardens of Sydney and Mount Annan.
A Recovery Plan has been drawn up, outlining strategies for the management of this fragile population; the overall objective is to ensure that this species remains viable in the long term. Wollemi pines have also been presented by Australian prime ministers and foreign affairs ministers to various dignitaries around the world.
Description.
"Wollemia nobilis" is an evergreen tree reaching tall. The bark is very distinctive, dark brown, and knobbly, quoted as resembling a popular breakfast cereal. The tree coppices readily, and most specimens are multiple-trunked or appear as clumps of trunks thought to derive from old coppice growth, with some consisting of up to 100 stems of differing sizes. The branching is unusual in that nearly all the side branches never have further branching. After a few years, each branch either terminates in a cone (either male or female) or ceases growth. After this, or when the cone becomes mature, the branch dies. New branches then arise from dormant buds on the main trunk. Rarely, a side branch will turn erect and develop into a secondary trunk, which then bears a new set of side branches.
The leaves are flat linear, long and broad. They are arranged spirally on the shoot but twisted at the base to appear in two or four flattened ranks. As the leaves mature, they develop from bright lime-green to a more yellowish-green. The seed cones are green, long and in diameter, and mature about 18–20 months after wind pollination. They disintegrate at maturity to release the seeds which are small and brown, thin and papery with a wing around the edge to aid wind-dispersal. The male (pollen) cones are slender conic, long and broad and reddish-brown in colour and are lower on the tree than the seed cones. Seedlings appear to be slow-growing and mature trees are extremely long-lived; some of the older individuals today are estimated to be between 500 and 1,000 years old.
Discovery.
The discovery, on or about 10 September 1994, by David Noble, Michael Casteleyn and Tony Zimmerman, only occurred because the group had been systematically exploring the area looking for new canyons. Noble had good botanical knowledge, and quickly recognised the trees as unusual because of the unique bark and worthy of further investigation. He took specimens to work for identification, expecting someone to be able to identify the plants. His specimens were identified by Wyn Jones, a botanist with National Parks and Jan Allen from the Botanical Gardens. After the identification was made, National Parks then went under a veil of secrecy, with the discoverers not learning the full magnitude of their discovery for about six months. National Parks came close to damaging the stand when a helicopter being used to collect cones inadvertently pruned one of the pines with its rotor. The species was subsequently named after Dave. The other members of the discovery party questioned the naming but were informed that "nobilis" referred to the trees being noble in structure and not to David Noble.
The first illustrations of the Wollemi Pine were done by David Mackay, a botanical artist and scientific illustrator who was working at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney when the species was discovered.
Further study would be needed to establish its relationship to other conifers. The initial suspicion was that it had certain characteristics of the 200-million-year-old family Araucariaceae, but was not similar to any living species in the family. Comparison with living and fossilised Araucariaceae proved that it was a member of that family, and it has been placed into a new genus, beside the genera "Agathis" and "Araucaria".
Fossils closely resembling "Wollemia" that are thought to be related to it are widespread in Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica from Cretaceous era sediments, but "Wollemia nobilis" is the sole living member of its genus. These trees remained common throughout eastern Australia until around 40 million years ago but then gradually declined in range and abundance. Before the relict population was discovered in Wollemi National Park, the most recent known fossils of the genus date from approximately 2 million years ago in Tasmania. It is thus described as a living fossil or, alternatively, a Lazarus taxon.
Fewer than a hundred trees are known to be growing wild, in three localities not far apart. It is very difficult to count individuals, as most trees are multistemmed and may have a connected root system. Genetic testing has revealed that all the specimens are genetically indistinguishable, suggesting that the species has been through a genetic bottleneck in which its population became so low (possibly just one or two individuals) that all genetic variability was lost.
Threats.
In November 2005, wild-growing trees were found to be infected with "Phytophthora cinnamomi". New South Wales park rangers believe the virulent water mould was introduced by unauthorised visitors to the site, the location of which is still undisclosed to the public.
The grove of Wollemia trees was endangered by fire during the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season. They were saved by specialist firefighters from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, supported by the Rural Fire Service who installed an irrigation system as well as dropping retardant.
Cultivation and uses.
A propagation programme made Wollemi pine specimens available to botanical gardens, first in Australia in 2006 and subsequently throughout the world. It may prove to be a valuable tree for ornament, either planted in open ground or for tubs and planters. In Australia, potted native Wollemi pines have been promoted as a Christmas tree. It is also proving to be more adaptable and cold-hardy than its restricted temperate-subtropical, humid distribution would suggest, tolerating temperatures between , with reports, from Japan and the USA, that it can survive down to . A grove of Wollemi pines planted in Inverewe Garden, Scotland, believed to be the most northerly location of any successful planting, have survived temperatures of , recorded in January 2010. It also handles both full sun and full shade. Like many other Australian trees, "Wollemia" is susceptible to the pathogenic water mould "Phytophthora cinnamomi", so this may limit its potential as a timber tree.
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney have published information on how to grow Wollemi Pines from seed which has been harvested from helicopters from the forest trees. The majority of seeds that fall from the cone are not viable so need to be sorted to retain the plump and dark ones. These can then be sown on top of seed raising mix and watered. Once the water has drained through the mix, the pot should be placed in a plastic bag and refrigerated for two weeks. After this, the pot should be removed from the plastic bag and placed somewhere warm but not very sunny until the seed germinates (remembering to keep them moist but not wet). This could take several months.
Examples of the species can be viewed at The Tasmanian Arboretum.
Care.
The Wollemi Pine is extremely hardy and versatile in cultivation. Despite it being an endangered species, it is easy to grow and requires relatively low maintenance. It will adapt to a diverse range of climatic zones, thriving in full sun to semi shaded outdoor positions. They can be maintained in a pot almost indefinitely, and makes a good container plants for patios, verandas, and courtyards. Because it tolerates air conditioning, it can also be used as an indoor decorative plant. These are basic need to knows for care:
Pruning.
When pruning the Wollemi pine, use sterile secateurs at any time of year to retain its compact form. It can be pruned heavily with up to two thirds of the plant size removed. Pruning heavily can be done on the apical growth and the branches. The best time to prune is during the winter months.
Growth Rate.
The Wollemi Pine has very controlled growth, especially if it is kept in a pot. It may take up to 25 years to reach 20 feet in height.
Phylogeny.
The genus "Wollemia" shares morphological characteristics with the genera "Araucaria" and "Agathis". "Wollemia" and "Araucaria" both have closely crowded sessile and amphistomatic (producing stomata on both sides of the leaf) leaves, and aristate bract scales, while "Wollemia" and "Agathis" both have fully fused bracts, ovuliferous scales, and winged seeds. Scrutiny of the fossil record likewise does not clarify "Wollemia"’s relationship to "Araucaria" or "Agathis", since the former has similarly disparate leaf characters in its adult and juvenile forms, and the latter has similar cone characters. Further, the recent description of several extinct genera within the Araucariaceae points to complex relationships within the family and a significant loss of diversity since the Cretaceous. An early study of the rbcL gene sequence places "Wollemia" in the basal position of the Araucariaceae and as the sister group to "Agathis" and "Araucaria". In contrast, another study of the rbcL sequence shows that "Wollemia" is the sister group to "Agathis", and "Araucaria" is basal. The different outgroup selection and genes used in previous studies are the reasons behind the discrepancy over the groupings of the three genera. Later genetic studies corroborate "Wollemia"'s placement in the Araucariaceae as sister to "Agathis" based on data from the 28s rRNA gene, a combination of rbcL and matK genes, and a comprehensive study encompassing nuclear ribosomal 18S and 26S rRNA, chloroplast 16S rRNA, rbcL, matK and rps4, and mitochondrial coxl and atp1 genes.
Fossils indicate that the lineage leading to modern "Agathis" and "Wollemia" evolved from the common ancestor with "Araucaria" in the Early Cretaceous in southern Gondwana within climates experiencing cool moist conditions and a strong photoperiod regime. The most recent common ancestor of "Agathis" and "Wollemia" has been proposed to be at least 110 million years old (Early Cretaceous) deduced from the reported oldest fossils of these genera. However, genetic evidence suggests that the divergence of "Agathis" and "Wollemia" occurred 61±15 Ma around the beginning of the Cenozoic rather than in the Early Cretaceous. In another recent molecular study, an age of only 18 Ma was inferred for the divergence of "Agathis" and "Wollemia". This also accords with recent revisions of the fossil record in New Zealand that reveal no examples of "Agathis" or "Wollemia"-like remains older than the Cenozoic. The relatively minor genetic and morphological diversity in extant species of "Agathis" compared to the variation in "Araucaria" is further evidence of the earlier divergence of "Araucaria".
Below is the phylogeny of the Araucariaceae based on the consensus from the most recent cladistic analysis of molecular data. It shows the relative positions of "Wollemia", "Agathis" and "Araucaria" within the division.


Pseudosasa japonica

Pseudosasa japonica, the arrow bamboo or metake, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to Japan and Korea. This vigorous bamboo forms thickets up to tall with shiny leaves up to long. The culms are typically yellow-brown and it has palm-like leaves.
The common name "arrow bamboo" results from the Japanese Samurai using its hard and stiff canes for their arrows.
It grows up to 4 cm(40mm) a day. It is most common in Slovenia, along rivers and forests. It's mostly by the rivers.
Cultivation.
This cold hardy bamboo species (tolerant to 0 °F/−17.7 °C) grows well both in shade and full sun. "Pseudosasa japonica" does very well in containers and salty air near the ocean. Because it tends to be more shade tolerant than other bamboo species it is often used by gardeners as an understory to a tree-lined living fence. In cultivation in the UK this species has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Senna alexandrina

Senna alexandrina (Alexandrian senna, in Arabic عشرج or عشرق or سنامكي and see below) is an ornamental plant in the genus "Senna". It is used in herbalism. It grows natively in upper Egypt, especially in the Nubian region, and near Khartoum (Sudan), where it is cultivated commercially. It is also grown elsewhere, notably in India and Somalia.
Description.
Alexandrian Senna is a shrubby plant that reaches 0.5–1 metres (20" to 40"), rarely two metres (6') in height with a branched, pale-green erect stem and long spreading branches bearing four or five pairs of leaves. These leaves form complex, feathery, mutual pairs. The leaflets vary from 4 to 6 pairs, fully edged, with a sharp top. The midribs are equally divided at the base of the leaflets.
The flowers are in a raceme interior blossoms, big in size, coloured yellow that tends to brown. Its legume fruit are horned, broadly oblong, compressed and flat and contain about six seeds.
Uses.
When cultivated, the plants are cut down semi-annually, dried in the sun, stripped and packed in palm-leaf bags. They are then sent on camels to Essouan and Darao, then down the Nile to Cairo or else to Red Sea ports. For the nomadic Ababda, for example, trade in senna provides a significant source of income.
Names and taxonomy.
"Senna alexandrina" is also known under the names "Egyptian senna, Tinnevelly senna, East Indian senna" or the French "séné de la palthe."
It received the names "Alexandrian senna" and "Egyptian senna" because Alexandria in Egypt was the main trade port in past times. The fruits and leaves were transported from Nubia and Sudan and other places to Alexandria, then from it and across the Mediterranean sea to Europe and adjacent Asia.
Though it might look like a scientific name, "Cassia Officinalis" is actually the apothecary term for this plant, and hence "Officinalis"—the Latin adjective denoting tools, utensils and medical compounds—is written with an initial upper-case letter, unlike specific epithets, which are always written with an initial lower-case letter today.
Synonyms:
Medicinal use.
Historically, "Senna alexandrina" was used in the form of senna pods, or as herbal tea made from the leaves, as a laxative. It also serves as a fungicide.
Modern medicine has used extracts since at least the 1950s as a laxative. If accidentally ingested by infants, it can cause side effects such as severe diaper rash. The active ingredients are several senna glycosides which interact with immune cells in the colon.


Drosera aberrans

Drosera aberrans is a perennial tuberous species in the genus "Drosera" that is native to New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria. It grows in a rosette 3 to 5 cm in diameter with green, orange-yellow, or red leaves. It is native to southern inland South Australia, southern and central Victoria, and one single collection from New South Wales. It grows in a variety of soils from sand to laterite gravel and limestone clay in mallee woodland, heathland, and open forests. It flowers from July to September.
It was perhaps first illustrated by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1879, which he identified as "Drosera whitackeri" [sic], though Allen Lowrie and John Godfrey Conran note that this could represent artistic license and may not have been drawn from an actual specimen. Lowrie and Sherwin Carlquist first formally described this taxon in 1992 as a subspecies of "Drosera whittakeri". Lowrie and Conran reviewed the specimens of "D. whittakeri" in 2008 and elevated subsp. "aberrans" to species rank based on the colony-forming morphology of this species.


Crossopetalum

Crossopetalum, commonly known as Christmas-berries or maiden berries, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Celastraceae. It comprises about 30-40 species.
Description.
"Crossopetalum" taxa are shrubs or trees, with opposite or whorled persistent leaves with petiole and stipules. Inflorescences are axillary, regrouping white, pale green, reddish, or purplish radially symmetric flowers, with four sepals, four petals, and a four-carpellate pistil. Intrastaminal nectaries are annular and fleshy. Fruits are red drupes, with one-two seeds per fruit.
Etymology.
The etymology of the genus name "Crossopetalum" derives from the two Ancient Greek words (), meaning "fringe", and (), meaning "leaf of a flower". It alludes to the fimbriate petals of the type species ("C. rhacoma").
The synonym name "Myginda" is a taxonomic anagram derived from the name of the confamilial genus "Gyminda". The latter name is a taxonomic patronym honoring Franz von Mygind (1710 - 1789), a Danish-Austrian court official, who traveled to Barbados, collected plants with herbarium specimens hosted in the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, and was a friend of Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin.
Systematics.
According to Plants of the World Online, 36 species are recognized.


Carex limosa

Carex limosa is a species of sedge known as bog-sedge, mud sedge, and shore sedge.
Distribution.
This sedge is an aquatic or shore plant which can most often be found in peat bogs in mountains. It is widely distributed across North America and northern Eurasia.
Description.
"Carex limosa" has a large rhizome and hairy roots. It produces a stem which is generally just under half a meter in height and has a few basal leaves which are long and threadlike. The tip of the stem is often occupied by a staminate spikelet, and below this hang one or more nodding pistillate spikelets. Some spikelets may have both male and female parts, however. Each fruit is a few millimeters long and spade-shaped.


Pterocarya hupehensis

Pterocarya hupehensis is a tree in the Juglandaceae family native to China. It grows on moist streambanks at elevation—mostly in North Guizhou, West Hubei (Changyang Xian), South Shaanxi, West Sichuan.


Globularia meridionalis

Globularia meridionalis is a plant species in the family Plantaginaceae. It is a perennial plant. It has a dark evergreen foliage and bright blue spherical flowerheads.


Diplacus viscidus

Diplacus viscidus is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name sticky monkeyflower.
Distribution.
"Diplacus viscidus" is endemic to the western Sierra Nevada foothills of California, where it grows in bare and disturbed habitat, such as areas recently cleared by wildfire.
Description.
"Diplacus viscidus" is a hairy annual herb growing 2 to 37 centimeters tall. The oval or oblong leaves reach up to 4.5 centimeters long. The tubular base of the flower is encapsulated in a swollen, ribbed calyx of hairy sepals with pointed lobes.
The flower corolla is one to two centimeters long and lavender to magenta in color, with yellow stripes and darker spotting inside the hairy mouth.


Aerangis articulata

Aerangis articulata is a species of epiphytic orchid. It is native to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands.


Nepenthes veitchii

Nepenthes veitchii (; after James Veitch, nurseryman of the Veitch Nurseries), or Veitch's pitcher-plant, is a "Nepenthes" species from the island of Borneo. The plant is widespread in north-western Borneo and can also be found in parts of Kalimantan. "Nepenthes veitchii" usually grows as an epiphyte, though the form from Bario seems to be strictly terrestrial and has not been observed to climb trees.
Frederick William Burbidge described the growth habit of "N. veitchii" in "The Gardeners' Chronicle" as follows:
Now as to N. Veitchii. This is a true epiphyte. I never met with it on the ground anywhere, but in great quantity 20—100 feet high on tree trunks. Its distichous habit is unique, I fancy, and then some of the leaves actually clasp around the tree just as a man would fold his arms around it in similar circumstances. No other species of Nepenthes, so far as I know, has this habit.
Odoardo Beccari found "N. veitchii" on the top of Mount Santubong in 1865. He wrote the following account of his discovery:
This is one of the finest and rarest of all pitcher-plants. ... Some of the specimens I got measured quite ten inches in length. The mouth of the pitcher in this species is certainly its most conspicuous and remarkable part by reason of its rich orange colour and its vertical position. It is also a perfect trap to entice insects into its interior, attracting them from a distance by its bright colours. Sir Joseph Hooker compares the mouth of the pitchers of "N. veitchii" to the gills of a fish, to which, indeed, with their narrow lamellae converging to the centre, they bear considerable resemblance.
"Nepenthes veitchii" is thought to be closely related to "N. robcantleyi" from the Philippines. It has also been compared to "N. truncata".
Infraspecific taxa.
The following infraspecific taxa of "N. veitchii" have been described. Both are "nomina nuda" and are not considered valid today.
Natural hybrids.
The following natural hybrids involving "N. veitchii" have been recorded.


Staphylea trifolia

Staphylea trifolia, the American bladdernut, is native to eastern North America, from southern Ontario and southwestern Quebec west to Nebraska and Arkansas, and south to Florida. It is sometimes used as an ornamental plant.
It is a medium-sized shrub growing to tall. Its growth rate is medium to fast. The leaves are opposite and divided into three leaflets, each leaflet long and broad, with a serrated margin. The leaves are bright green in the spring, turning dark green in the summer. "S. trifolia" produces pendant white flowers in spring, which mature into bladder-like, teardrop-shaped fruits that contain 1-3 brown popcorn-like seeds. Some sources consider these "nuts" to be edible.


Lilium eupetes

Lilium eupetes is a recently discovered and described epiphytic species of lily from the north of Vietnam.
"Lilium eupetes" reproduces by seed and vegetatively via the production of bulbils dispersed by wind. When the leaves die back they wither and curl into a circle. This eventually detaches from the stem, and acts as the functional equivalent of a samara, carrying the attached bulbil to a new site.


Paeonia daurica subsp. wittmanniana

Paeonia daurica" subsp. "wittmanniana, also known as Wittmann's peony, is a perennial peony native to the southern Transcaucasian region. It was formerly regarded as a separate species, Paeonia wittmanniana, but in 2002, the Chinese botanist Hong Deyuan reduced it to a subspecies of "Paeonia daurica". It is closely related to another subspecies of "P. daurica", "P. daurica" subsp. "mlokosewitschii".
"Paeonia daurica" subsp. "wittmanniana" is up to 1.5 m tall. Above the plant is glabrous and dark green; below it is lighter green, glaucescent, with white hairs especially crowded along the veins, and the lower leaves are biternate. Yellow to white flowers, 10–13 cm across, appear from April to June. The filaments are red and up to 1 cm long and the anthers are yellow to orange. The stamens are around 22 mm long. The divided leaf segments are ovate, cuneate, and often are oblique and abruptly cut off at the base.


Datureae

Daturae is a tribe of flowering plants in the subfamily Solanoideae of the family Solanaceae. It comprises three genera: "Datura", the Devil's trumpets, "Brugmansia", the Angel's trumpets, and the monotypic "Trompettia".


Drymoanthus

Drymoanthus, commonly known as midget orchids is a genus of epiphytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. Plants in this genus are relatively small and unbranched with thick roots, narrow crowded leaves and small scented green flowers with a white labellum. There are four species, found in Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia.
Description.
Orchids in the genus "Drymoanthus" are small, unbranched, epiphytic herbs with thick roots, a thin stem, narrow, crowded, thin, leathery leaves and small, short-lived green flowers with a white labellum. The sepals and petals are similar to each other although the petals are slightly shorter. The labellum is white, boat-shaped, unlobed and stiffly attached to the column.
Taxonomy and naming.
The genus "Drymoanthus" was first formally described in 1943 by William Henry Nicholls and the description was published in "The Victorian Naturalist".
Four species are accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families:


Thomas Robert Soderstrom

Thomas Robert Soderstrom (9 January 1936 Chicago – 1 September 1987) was an American agrostologist His special field of study was the grass family Gramineae or Poaceae. He was Curator of Grasses at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC for some twenty years.
In 1957 Soderstrom graduated from the University of Illinois with a BSc in Biology, and enrolled at the graduate school at Yale University, earning a Master of Science in Biology the following year and a PhD in Botany 1961. He joined the National Museum in 1960 as assistant curator. He became an authority on the taxonomy and biology of bamboos, publishing about 40 titles and undertaking lecture tours in numerous countries, most notably at the 1985 International Bamboo Conference held in Puerto Rico. His field work covered parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Not only was he a founder member of the Association of Tropical Biology, but was also a fellow of the Linnean Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an honorary associate of the Botanical Society of Brazil. Despite poor health he undertook the organising of the First International Grass Symposium held at the Smithsonian in July 1986. A collaborator of his was Cleofé E. Calderón (1929–2007), the Argentinian-born agrostologist.
He is commemorated in "Soderstromia", "Ilex soderstromii", "Anthurium soderstromii", "Lessingianthus soderstromii", "Vriesea soderstromii", "Ouratea soderstromii", "Cryptochloa soderstromii", "Ocellochloa soderstromii", "Poa soderstromii", "Raddia soderstromii".


Mitrastemonaceae


Marchantiidae


Euroschinus falcatus

Euroschinus falcatus (sometimes spelled "Euroschinus falcata") is a species of tree in the family Anacardiaceae. Common names include pink poplar, ribbonwood, maiden's blush, and blush cudgerie. It is an endemic Australian species, ranging from Jervis Bay (35° S), NSW to Cooktown (15° S), North Queensland. Its natural habitats are littoral, riverine, and dry subtropical rainforests. Maximum height is 45 metres.


Ptilotus obovatus

Ptilotus obovatus is a shrub in the genus "Ptilotus" R.Br. that occurs in throughout arid Australia. It is commonly known as cotton bush.


Correa glabra var. turnbullii

Correa glabra" var. "turnbullii, the narrow-bell correa, is a variety of "Correa glabra", a shrub native to Australia. It grows to 1 to 2 metre high and wide, with branchlets sparsely covered with rust-brown hairs. Its leaves are up to 4.5 cm long and 1.2 cm wide and are dark green on the upper surface, while the lower surface is covered with hairs and pale grey.
The pendent, tubular flowers are pink or red with green tips, appearing between April and August in their native range.
The subspecies occurs from Mount Lofty to the mallee scrub and the southern Flinders Ranges and the extreme north-west of Victoria.


Picea wilsonii

Picea wilsonii is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae. It is found only in China.


Bonnetia ptariensis

Bonnetia ptariensis is a species of flowering plant in the Bonnetiaceae family. It is found only in Venezuela.


Pathogenesis-related protein

Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are proteins produced in plants in the event of a pathogen attack. They are induced as part of systemic acquired resistance. Infections activate genes that produce PR proteins. Some of these proteins are antimicrobial, attacking molecules in the cell wall of a bacterium or fungus. Others may function as signals that spread “news” of the infection to nearby cells. Infections also stimulate the cross-linking of molecules in the cell wall and the deposition of lignin, responses that set up a local barricade that slows spread of the pathogen to other parts of the plant.
Salicylic acid plays a role in the resistance to pathogens by inducing the production of pathogenesis-related proteins. Many proteins found in wine are grape pathogen-related proteins. Those include thaumatin-like proteins and chitinases.
Many pathogenesis-related protein families also coincide with groups of human allergens, even though the allergy may have nothing to do with the defense function of the proteins. Grouping these proteins by their sequence features allows for finding potential allergenic proteins from sequenced plant genomes, a field of study dubbed "allergenomics".
Classification.
, 17 families of PR proteins have been named:
Identification.
As PR proteins are produced when plant tissue is stressed, various ways of stress signaling is used to "bait" the plant into expressing PR genes for identification. Useful stressors include an actual infection or simply defense signals such as salicylate and methyl jasmonate. The proteins can be identified by isolation, peptide digestion, and matching against the genomic sequences (protein sequencing). The sequences obtained can then be checked against known PR protein families for categorization.


Denmoza rhodacantha

Denmoza rhodacantha is a species of cactus in the genus Denmoza that was described by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose in 1922.
Description.
"Denmoza rhodocantha" starts out as a globular cactus and stays that way for quite some time before growing into a 0.5-1.5 cm column.


Grevillea banyabba

Grevillea banyabba is a shrub of the family Proteaceae native to northern New South Wales.


Draba aureola

Draba aureola is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known as the Mt. Lassen draba or Mt. Lassen whitlow-grass. This plant is native to the Cascade Range of western North America, where it grows at elevations above 2000 meters. This is usually a perennial plant found growing in rocky areas such as volcanic cliffs and scree. It has one or more short, stout stems which are covered in stiff hairs. The leaves grow in a dense basal clump at the ground. They are fat and fleshy and covered in a carpetlike coat of stiff, light colored branching hairs. The stem may be erect above the clump of leaves or its inflorescence may rest directly upon them. The spherical or club-shaped inflorescence may have up to 80 small yellow flowers packed densely in it, each petal about 5 millimeters wide. The fruit is a wavy-edged, hairy silique about a centimeter long and half a centimeter wide.


Cupressus funebris

Cupressus funebris, the Chinese weeping cypress, is a species of cypress native to southwestern and central China. It may also occur naturally in Vietnam.
Description.
"Cupressus funebris" is a medium-sized coniferous tree growing to 20–35 m tall, with a trunk up to 2 m diameter. The foliage grows in dense, usually moderately decumbent and pendulous sprays of bright green, very slender, slightly flattened shoots.
The leaves are scale-like, 1–2 mm long, up to 5 mm long on strong lead shoots; young trees up to about 5–10 years old have juvenile foliage with soft needle-like leaves 3–8 mm long.
The seed cones are globose, 8–15 mm long, with 6–10 scales (usually 8), green, maturing dark brown about 24 months after pollination. The cones open at maturity to shed the seed. The pollen cones are 3–5 mm long, and release pollen in early spring.
Distribution.
The precise natural range of "Cupressus funebris" is uncertain due to a long history of cultivation. Trees are recorded from forest habitats in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, and Chongqing.
More generally, it also occurs in Anhui, Fujian, southern Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang, typically planted around monasteries and temples or in gardens.
Whether "Cupressus funebris" naturally occurs also in northern Vietnam is uncertain; if so, it probably is the most threatened conifer of that country.
Cultivation.
"Cupressus funebris" is cultivated as an ornamental tree, due to its graciously weeping form and texture, and planted in gardens and public parks in other warm temperate regions, such as California. It is used as a houseplant and conservatory tree in colder climates.


Ericameria suffruticosa

Ericameria suffruticosa (common name - singlehead goldenbush) is a subshrub to shrub in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) found in the western United States (California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana). "Suffruticosa" means "shrublike".
Description.
"Ericameria suffruticosa" is a subshrub to shrub tall. It has sticky, small, gray-green leaves that are wavy at the edges and highly aromatic when crushed. One plant can produce several yellow flower heads with irregular structure, having its few disk flowers pointing in all directions, and 1-6 ray flowers haphazardly placed around the disk. The species grows from in elevation on rocky flats, ledges, and exposed ridges in mountain and alpine plant communities.


Indigofera decora

Indigofera decora, commonly known as summer wisteria, is a species of shrub native to China and Japan that has since been introduced to Australia and Sri Lanka. A member of the genus "Indigofera", its family is Fabaceae and is used primarily for decorative purposes, though it has also been used to make indigo-colored dye.
"I. decora" is a deciduous, spreading shrub. It often grows 1-2.5 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide. It features compound, pinnate leaves up to 8 inches long with 7-13 elliptic, dark green leaflets. In the summer, it produces axillary racemes of light pink or purple pea-like flowers. Each raceme may boast twenty to forty flowers, and the calyxes have broadly triangular lobes.
"I. decora" is best suited to well-drained, neutral to slightly alkaline soils. It is somewhat heat and drought tolerant, but benefits from afternoon shade in hot, humid environments. It is cold hardy in the US in zones 7-11.
Varieties.
There are three recognised varieties of "Indigofera decora":


Nelsonioideae

Nelsonioideae is a subfamily of plants in the family Acanthaceae, with a pantropical distribution.


Ostreobium

Ostreobium is a genus of green algae in the family Ostreobiaceae.


Hollandophyton

Hollandophyton is a genus of extinct plants known from fossils found in Shropshire, England, in rocks of upper Silurian age (, around ). The specimens are fragmentary, consisting of leafless stems (axes) which branched dichotomously and bore kidney-shaped spore-forming organs or sporangia, apparently at their tips. The internal structure of the stems is unknown.
Description.
Fossils of "Hollandophyton colliculum" were found near Ludlow, Shropshire, England, in siltstones of upper Silurian age (, around ). They were described as "mesofossils", i.e. relatively small fragments, the longest of which was only 1.25 mm long, making it difficult to obtain a full understanding of the growth habit of the plant. "H. colliculum" consisted of leafless stems (axes) which branched dichotomously; those found were all less than 0.7 mm wide. In the fossils, stems appear to have spiralled in a clockwise direction from the bottom to the top, although this effect may have been increased by drying prior to preservation.
Sporangia were found attached to short lengths of stem. Rogerson et al. consider that these were the tips of stems, but say that they may have been stalks attached to the sides of stems. Hence it is unclear whether sporangia were borne terminally or laterally. The sporangia were kidney-shaped (reniform), 1.0 to 1.6 mm wide and 0.5 to 0.8 mm high. The stem or stalk widened somewhat where it joined the sporangium. The sporangium wall contained swollen cells and had a 'bumpy' appearance. Spores appear to have been released through the appearance of an opening in a depression around the top of the sporangium, not sufficiently wide to result in its disintegration into two valves. Rogerson et al. say that this is the earliest evidence for "predetermined" dehiscence (opening to release spores). Triradiate spores with fine surface markings were found. They were all of one size, up to 30 µm in diameter.
In one specimen, two stomata were found immediately below the attachment of a sporangium to the stem. The best preserved is circular, around 35 µm in diameter, with two guard cells. "Hollandophyton" was (at least in 2002) the oldest fossil on which both stomata and sporangia have been found.
Taxonomy.
The genus "Hollandophyton" was published in 2002 by Rogerson et al., the name being in honour of the contribution to Silurian geology by C.H. Holland. The specific epithet "colliculum", from the Latin "collicula", a little hill, refers to the "hillocky" appearance of the sporangia.
Phylogeny.
The relationships of "Hollandophyton" are uncertain. The internal anatomy of the stem is unknown. The overall organization of the plant – branching stems with terminal sporangia – resembles that of the genus "Cooksonia", including the species now called "Aberlemnia caledonica" (formerly "Cooksonia caledonica"). The twisted stems resemble "Tortilicaulis". Although the general shape of the sporangia resembles that of zosterophylls, "Hollandophyton" sporangia lack the thickened edges of the sporangial 'valves' which are characteristic of species assigned to this group, such as "Zosterophyllum llanoveranum" or "Ventarura lyonii". Rogerson et al. conclude that "Hollandophyton"'s "phylogenetic significance remains obscure."


Echinodorus bracteatus

"Echinodorus bracteatus" is a species of plants in the Alismataceae. It is native to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador.
Description.
Leaves 20 – 80 cm long, long-petioled, blades cordate, at base lobate, at tip obtuse or shortly acuminate, 2/3 as broad as long, mostly about 30 cm, but sometimes more than 50 cm long. Pellucid markings in shape of points or short ovals, or absent.
Stem erect, 70 - 150 – 190 cm long, winged. Inflorescence paniculate, having usually 12 - 17 whorls. Bracts distinctly longer than the flowers, connate, 1.5 – 2 cm, exceptionally 6 cm long x 0.5 - 0.8 cm wide, having 25 - 30 ribs.
Flowers sessile or nearly so, having the pedicels only 1 – 2 mm long. Corolla white, usually 2.5 cm in diameter, stamens 20 - 24, anthers as long or broadly shorter as the filaments. Achenes claviform, short-beaked, with 4 - 5 facial ribs and usually 1 facial gland. Glands rarely 2 or absent.
Cultivation.
One of the larger Amazon swords. Can grow too large for the average aquarium. Needs a large space, deep, rich substrate and plenty of light. According to reports, it flowers in the summer but doesn't set seed.


Davallia divaricata

Davallia divaricata is a fern in the genus "Davallia" of the family Davalliaceae.
It is native to tropical Southeast Asia.


Diospyros korthalsiana

Diospyros korthalsiana is a tree in the family Ebenaceae. It grows up to tall. Twigs dry to whitish. Inflorescences bear up to seven flowers. The fruits are oblong or ovoid, drying black, up to long. The tree is named for the Dutch botanist P. W. Korthals. Habitat is mixed dipterocarp forests from sea-level to altitude. "D. korthalsiana" is found in Borneo, Sulawesi and the Philippines.


Straminergon

Straminergon is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Amblystegiaceae.
The genus has almost cosmopolitan distribution.
Species:


Polygala japonica

Polygala japonica is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It is native to Northeast, East and Southeastern Asia, as well as eastern Australia. It is a wiry and decumbent dwarf shrub with a height between . Its stems have tiny curled hairs. Its leaves are long and wide. Its flowers are purple to mauve and long. It flowers between October and December.


Hoya aldrichii

Hoya aldrichii , commonly known as the Christmas Island Waxvine is a species of flowering plant in the Apocynaceae or dogbane family. It is a vine that is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian Ocean, where it is a common epiphyte in the shrublands of the island's coastal terraces. The specific epithet honours Captain Aldrich, commander of the survey vessel HMS "Egeria", which visited Christmas Island in 1887.
Description.
"Hoya aldrichii" is a tall climber. Its stems are glabrous with pale bark. The leaves are elliptical, rounded at the base, entire, acuminate or acute and glabrous; they are 75–150 mm long, 35–60 mm wide, with a 10–15 mm long petiole. The flowers occur in umbels of 15–30, are white through pink to deep purple-pink in colour, and are fragrant at night. The seeds are oblong and about 5 mm long.
Taxonomy.
The vine has at times been considered close to, or even synonymous with, "H. cinnamomifolia" Hook., "H. pottsii" Traill., and "H. diversifolia" Blume.


Dudleya gnoma

Dudleya gnoma is a rare species of succulent plant in the stonecrop family known by the common names munchkin liveforever and munchkin dudleya. It is endemic to Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, where it is known from one single population containing about 3200 plants. The population was discovered in the 1950s and assumed to be a relative of "Dudleya greenei", a plant also occurring on the island which is similar but larger and contains the same number of chromosomes. The plant was not described to science until 1997. The population is protected from nearby grazing cattle by a fence. It still faces threats from deer, which can get past the fence, a limited gene pool, and the fact that a single severe event such as a drought, could eliminate the single population. Though rare in the wild, this dudleya is kept in cultivation by gardeners and enthusiasts of succulents, and a cultivar called 'White Sprite' is popular.
This is a compact plant growing from a caudex topped with clumps of leaf rosettes each measuring up to 5 centimeters wide and containing up to 20 small leaves. The fleshy triangular leaves are green, red-tinged, or white with waxy, powdery coating of exudate. Each leaf is up to about 2 centimeters long by 1 wide. The plant produces an inflorescence up to about 13 centimeters tall and studded with small triangular leaves. It bears up to 10 flowers, each less than a centimeter long and containing yellow petals.


Antitrichia

Antitrichia is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Leucodontaceae.
The genus was first described by Samuel Elisée Bridel-Brideri.
The genus has cosmopolitan distribution.
Species:


Aspidosperma australe

Aspidosperma australe is a timber tree native to Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay.


Oenothera rosea

Oenothera rosea, also known as rosy evening-primrose, rose evening primrose, pink evening primrose, or Rose of Mexico, is a plant belonging to the genus "Oenothera" and native to northern Mexico and Texas.
"Oenothera rosea" has flowers with less than diameter. The shade varies from pink to red.


Daphnandra tenuipes

Daphnandra tenuipes, commonly known as the socket sassafrass, or red-flowered socketwood is a rainforest tree in eastern Australia. It grows on the more fertile basaltic and alluvial soils. Found from near Boorganna Nature Reserve near Taree, New South Wales to just over the border into Queensland at Springbrook National Park. It is a small to medium-sized tree featuring red new shoots and red flowers. It has dark green leaves which are lanceolate or ovate, and measure in length and wide.
"Daphnandra tenuipes" was first described by J.R. Perkins in 1901, and still bears its original name.


Lagenaria rufa

Lagenaria rufa is a squash plant. It is a climbing vine. Its flowers range from white to yellow. The fruit is a gourd, dark green when developing but becomes cream-orange when ripe. It is native to western Africa.


Plant to plant communication via mycorrhizal networks

Plants communicate via mycorrhizal networks with other plants of the same or different species. Mycorrhizal networks allow for the transfers of signals and cues between plants which influence the behavior of the connected plants by inducing morphological or physiological changes. The chemical substances which act as these signals and cues are referred to as infochemicals. These can be allelochemicals, defensive chemicals or nutrients. Allelochemicals are used by plants to interfere with the growth or development of other plants or organisms, defensive chemicals can help plants in mycorrhizal networks defend themselves against attack by pathogens or herbivores, and transferred nutrients can affect growth and nutrition. Results of studies which demonstrate these modes of communication have led the authors to hypothesize mechanisms by which the transfer of these nutrients can affect the fitness of the connected plants.
Mycorrhizal networks.
Plants and fungi form mutualistic symbiotic relationships called mycorrhizae, which take several forms, such as arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and ectomycorrhizae (ECM), and are widespread in nature. Host plants provide photosynthetically derived carbohydrates to the mycorrhizal fungi, which use them in metabolism, either for energy or to increase the size of their hyphal networks; and the fungal partner provides benefits to the plant in the form of improved uptake of soil derived nutrients, drought resistance, and increased resistance to soil and foliar pathogens and other organisms.
The physical unit created by interconnected networks of mycorrhizal fungal hyphae connecting plants of the same or different species is termed a common mycorrhizal network (CMN), or simply a mycorrhizal network, and it provides benefits to both partners. Mycorrhizal networks are created by the fungal partner and can range in size from square centimeters to tens of square meters and can be initiated by either AM or ECM fungi. AM networks tend to be less expansive than ECM networks, but AM networks can attach many plants, because AM fungi tend to be less specific in which host they choose and, therefore, can create wider networks. In the establishment of AM networks, hyphae can either directly attach to different host plants or they can establish connections between different fungi by way of anastomoses.
Communication.
Reports discuss the ongoing debate within the scientific community regarding what constitutes communication, but the extent of communication influences how a biologist perceives behaviors. Communication is commonly defined as imparting or exchanging information. Biological communication, however, is often defined by how fitness in an organism is affected by the transfer of information in both the sender and the receiver. Signals are the result of evolved behavior in the sender and effect a change in the receiver by imparting information about the sender's environment. Cues are similar in origin but only effect the fitness of the receiver. Both signals and cues are important elements of communication, but workers maintain caution as to when it can be determined that transfer of information benefits both senders and receivers. Thus, the extent of biological communication can be in question without rigorous experimentation. It has, therefore, been suggested that the term infochemical be used for chemical substances which can travel from one organism to another and elicit changes. This is important to understanding biological communication where it is not clearly delineated that communication involves a signal that can be adaptive to both sender and receiver.
Behavior and information transfer.
A morphological or physiological change in a plant due to a signal or cue from its environment constitutes behavior in plants, and plants connected by a mycorrhizal network have the ability to alter their behavior based on the signals or cues they receive from other plants. These signals or cues can be biochemical, electrical, or can involve nutrient transfer. Plants release chemicals both above- and below-ground to communicate with their neighbors to reduce damage from their environment. Changes in plant behavior invoked by the transfer of infochemicals vary depending on environmental factors, the types of plants involved and the type of mycorrhizal network. In a study of orange seedlings, mycorrhizal networks acted to transfer infochemicals, and the presence of a mycorrhizal network affected the growth of plants and enhanced production of signaling molecules. One argument in support of the claim mycorrhizal can transfer various infochemicals is that they have been show to transfer molecules such as lipids, carbohydrates and amino acids. Thus, transfer of infochemicals via mycorrhizal networks can act to influence plant behavior.
There are three main types of infochemicals shown to act as response inducing signals or cues by plants in mycorrhizal networks, as evidenced by increased effects on plant behavior: allelochemicals, defensive chemicals and nutrients.
Allelopathic communication.
Allelopathy.
Allelopathy is the process by which plants produce secondary metabolites known as allelochemicals, which can interfere with the development of other plants or organisms. Allelochemicals can affect nutrient uptake, photosynthesis and growth; furthermore, they can down regulate defense genes, affect mitochondrial function, and disrupt membrane permeability leading to issues with respiration.
Allelochemicals.
Plants produce many types of allelochemicals, such as thiopenes and juglone, which can be volatilized or exuded by the roots into the rhizosphere. Plants release allelochemicals due to biotic and abiotic stresses in their environment and often release them in conjunction with defensive compounds. In order for allelochemicals to have a detrimental effect on a target plant, they must exist in high enough concentrations to be toxic, but, much like animal pheromones, allelochemicals are released in very small amounts and rely on the reaction of the target plant to amplify their effects. Due to their lower concentrations and the ease in which they are degraded in the environment, the toxicity of allelochemicals is limited by soil moisture, soil structure, and organic matter types and microbes present in soils. The effectiveness of allelopathic interactions has been called into question in native habitats due to the effects of them passing through soils, but studies have shown that mycorrhizal networks make their transfer more efficient. These infochemicals are hypothesized be able to travel faster via mycorrhizal networks, because the networks protect them from some hazards of being transmitted through the soil, such as leaching and degradation. This increased transfer speed is hypothesized to occur if the allelochemicals move via water on hyphal surfaces or by cytoplasmic streaming. Studies have reported concentrations of allelochemicals two to four times higher in plants connected by mycorrhizal networks. Thus, mycorrhizal networks can facilitate the transfer of these infochemicals.
Communication.
Studies have demonstrated correlations between increased levels of allelochemicals in target plants and the presence of mycorrhizal networks. These studies strongly suggest that mycorrhizal networks increase the transfer of allelopathic chemicals and expand the range, called the bio-active zone, in which they can disperse and maintain their function. Furthermore, studies indicate increased bio-active zones aid in the effectiveness of the allelochemicals because these infochemicals cannot travel very far without a mycorrhizal network. There was greater accumulation of allelochemicals, such as thiopenes and the herbicide imazamox, in target plants connected to a supplier plant via a mycorrhizal network than without that connection, supporting the conclusion that the mycorrhizal network increased the bio-active zone of the allelochemical. Allelopathic chemicals have also been demonstrated to inhibit target plant growth when target and supplier are connected via AM networks. The black walnut is one of the earliest studied examples of allelopathy and produces juglone, which inhibits growth and water uptake in neighboring plants. In studies of juglone in black walnuts and their target species, the presence of mycorrhizal networks caused target plants to exhibit reduced growth by increasing the transfer of the infochemical. Spotted knapweed, an allelopathic invasive species, provides further evidence of the ability of mycorrhizal networks to contribute to the transfer of allelochemicals. Spotted knapweed can alter which plant species a certain AM fungus prefers to connect to, changing the structure of the network so that the invasive plant shares a network with its target. These and other studies provide evidence that mycorrhizal networks can facilitate the effects on plant behavior caused by allelochemicals.
Defensive communication.
Overview.
Mycorrhizal networks can connect many different plants and provide shared pathways by which plants can transfer infochemicals related to attacks by pathogens or herbivores, allowing receiving plants to react in the same way as the infected or infested plants. A variety of plant derived substances act as these infochemicals.
Defensive reactions.
When plants are attacked they can manifest physical changes, such as strengthening their cell walls, depositing callose, or forming cork. They can also manifest biochemical changes, including the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or the up-regulation of genes producing other defensive enzymes, many of which are toxic to pathogens or herbivores. Salicylic acid (SA) and its derivatives, like methyl salicylate, are VOCs which help plants to recognize infection or attack and to organize other plant defenses, and exposure to them in animals can cause pathological processes. Terpenoids are produced constituently in many plants or are produced as a response to stress and act much like methyl salicylate. Jasmonates are a class of VOCs produced by the jasmonic acid (JA) pathway. Jasmonates are used in plant defense against insects and pathogens and can cause the expression of proteases, which defend against insect attack. Plants have many ways to react to attack, including the production of VOCs, which studies report can coordinate defenses among plants connected by mycorrhizal networks.
Communication.
Many studies report that mycorrhizal networks facilitate the coordination of defenses between connected plants using volatile organic compounds and other plant defensive enzymes acting as infochemicals.
Priming occurs when a plant's defenses are activated before an attack. Studies have shown that priming of plant defenses among plants in mycorrhizal networks may be activated by the networks, as they make it easier for these infochemicals to propagate among the connected plants. The defenses of uninfected plants are primed by their response via the network to the terpenoids produced by the infected plants. AM networks can prime plant defensive reactions by causing them to increase the production of terpinoids.
In a study of tomato plants connected via an AM mycorrhizal network, a plant not infected by a fungal pathogen showed evidence of defensive priming when another plant in the network was infected, causing the uninfected plant to up-regulate genes for the SA and JA pathways. Similarly, aphid-free plants were shown to only be able to express the SA pathways when a mycorrhizal network connected them to infested plants. Furthermore, only then did they display resistance to the herbivore, showing that the plants were able to transfer defensive infochemicals via the mycorrhizal network.
Many insect herbivores are drawn to their food by VOCs. When the plant is consumed, however, the composition of the VOCs change, which can then cause them to repel the herbivores and attract insect predators, such as parasitoid wasps. Methyl salicylate was shown to be the primary VOC produced by beans in a study which demonstrated this effect. It was found to be in high concentrations in infested and uninfested plants, which were only connected via a mycorrhizal network. A plant sharing a mycorrhizal network with another that is attacked will display similar defensive strategies, and its defenses will be primed to increase the production of toxins or chemicals which repel attackers or attract defensive species.
In another study, introduction of budworm to Douglas fir trees led to increased production of defensive enzymes in uninfested ponderosa pines connected to the damaged tree by an ECM network. This effect demonstrates that defensive infochemicals transferred through such a network can cause rapid increases in resistance and defense in uninfested plants of a different species.
The results of these studies support the conclusion that both ECM and AM networks provide pathways for defensive infochemicals from infected or infested hosts to induce defensive changes in uninfected or uninfested conspecific and heterospecific plants, and that some recipient species generally receive less damage from infestation or infection.
Nutrient communication.
Overview.
Numerous studies have reported that carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus are transferred between conspecific and heterospecific plants via AM and ECM networks. Other nutrients may also be transferred, as strontium and rubidium, which are calcium and potassium analogs respectively, have also been reported to move via an AM network between conspecific plants. Workers believe that transfer of nutrients by way of mycorrhizal networks could act to alter the behavior of receiving plants by inducing physiological or biochemical changes, and there is evidence that these changes have improved nutrition, growth and survival of receiving plants.
Mechanisms.
Several mechanisms have been observed and proposed by which nutrients can move between plants connected by a mycorrhizal network, including source-sink relationships, preferential transfer and kin related mechanisms.
Transfer of nutrients can follow a source-sink relationship where nutrients move from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. An experiment with grasses and forbs from a California oak woodland showed that nutrients were transferred between plant species via an AM mycorrhizal network, with different species acting as sources and sinks for different elements. Nitrogen has also been shown to flow from nitrogen-fixing plants to non-nitrogen fixing plants through a mycorrhizal network following a source-sink relationship.
It has been demonstrated that mechanisms exist by which mycorrhizal fungi can preferentially allocate nutrients to certain plants without a source-sink relationship. Studies have also detailed bi-directional transfer of nutrients between plants connected by a network, and evidence indicates that carbon can be shared between plants unequally, sometimes to the benefit of one species over another.
Kinship can act as another transfer mechanism. More carbon has been found to be exchanged between the roots of more closely related Douglas firs sharing a network than more distantly related roots. Evidence is also mounting that micronutrients transferred via mycorrhizal networks can communicate relatedness between plants. Carbon transfer between Douglas fir seedlings led workers to hypothesize that micronutrient transfer via the network may have increased carbon transfer between related plants.
Communication.
These transfer mechanisms can facilitate movement of nutrients via mycorrhizal networks and result in behavioral modifications in connected plants, as indicated by morphological or physiological changes, due to the infochemicals being transmitted. One study reported a three-fold increase in photosynthesis in a paper birch transferring carbon to a Douglas fir, indicating a physiological change in the tree which produced the signal. Photosynthesis was also shown to be increased in Douglas fir seedlings by the transport of carbon, nitrogen and water from an older tree connected by a mycorrhizal network. Furthermore, nutrient transfer from older to younger trees on a network can dramatically increase growth rates of the younger receivers. Physiological changes due to environmental stress have also initiated nutrient transfer by causing the movement of carbon from the roots of the stressed plant to the roots of a conspecific plant over a mycorrhizal network. Thus, nutrients transferred through mychorrhizal networks act as signals and cues to change the behavior of the connected plants.
Evolutionary and adaptational perspectives.
Overview.
It is hypothesized that fitness is improved by the transfer of infochemicals through common mycorrhizal networks, as these signals and cues can induce responses which can help the receiver survive in its environment. Plants and fungus have evolved heritable genetic traits which influence their interactions with each other, and experiments, such as one which revealed the heritability of mycorrhizal colonization in cowpeas, provide evidence. Furthermore, changes in behavior of one partner in a mycorrhizal network can affect others in the network; thus, the mycorrhizal network can provide selective pressure to increase the fitness of its members.
Adaptive mechanisms of mycorrhizal fungi and plants.
Although they remain to be vigorously demonstrated, workers have suggested mechanisms which might explain how transfer of infochemicals via mycorrhizal networks may influence the fitness of the connected plants and fungi.
A fungus may preferentially allocate carbon and defensive infochemicals to plants that supply it more carbon, as this would help to maximize its carbon uptake. This may happen in ecosystems where environmental stresses, such as climate change, cause fluctuations in the types of plants in the mycorrhizal network. A fungus might also benefit its own survival by taking carbon from one host with a surplus and giving it to another in need, thus it would insure the survival of more potential hosts and leave itself with more carbon sources should a particular host species suffer. Thus, preferential transfer could improve fungal fitness.
Plant fitness may also be increased in several ways. Relatedness may be a factor, as plants in a network are more likely to be related; therefore, kin selection might improve inclusive fitness and explain why a plant might support a fungus that helps other plants to acquire nutrients. Receipt of defensive signals or cues from an infested plant would be adaptive, as the receiving plant would be able to prime its own defenses in advance of an attack by herbivores. Allelopathic chemicals transferred via CMNs could also affect which plants are selected for survival by limiting the growth of competitors through a reduction of their access to nutrients and light. Therefore, transfer of the different classes of infochemicals might prove adaptive for plants.


Festuca gautieri

Festuca gautieri, commonly known as spiky fescue or bearskin fescue, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family, Poaceae, native to the Pyrenees. It is a commonly cultivated evergreen or semi-evergreen herbaceous perennial, and, as a native to European alpine areas, it is a small, low-growing "Festuca" suitable for rock gardens.
Description.
The bearskin fescue is a persistent, overwintering green grass with about 20 to 50 centimeters high and bare stalks, which have a diameter of 0.9 to 1.7 millimeters. It has dense horst-like growth with very thin, bristly to rush-shaped, folded leaves that are closed tubularly to one-third to three-quarters of their length. The leaf blades carry five to seven vascular bundles. The ligules are membranous, slightly fringed and about 0.5 to 1 millimeter long.
The yellow-green inflorescence is a panicle that reaches a length of about 4.5 to 7 centimetres. The panicle branches are hairy and each carry an elongated, flattened spikelet that grows to about 9 to 11 millimetres in length. The glumae are unkempt and shorter than the spikelets, the lower one is single-veined, the upper one is three-veined and 4.9 to 5.8 millimetres long. The five-veined lemmas reach a length of 6 to 7.3 millimetres. The flowering season lasts from June to July.
The chromosome count is 2n = 14 or 28.
Distribution and habitat.
The bear-fur-wingel is widespread in the southwest of Europe above all in the Pyrenees. Its range extends from northern Morocco to eastern and north-eastern Spain and south-western France. It needs permeable, but moisture-storing soils in a semi-shade location.
Other.
The bearskin fescue forms a hybrid with "Festuca eskia", called "Festuca ×picoeuropeana" Nava.
Due to its attractive, almost spherical shape, the bearskin fescue is used as an ornamental plant in gardening and landscaping. It is undemanding and particularly suitable for rock gardens and heather gardens as well as for tub planting.


Jean Senebier

 Jean Senebier (6 or 25 May 1742 – 22 July 1809) was a Genevan Calvinist pastor and naturalist. He was born in Geneva, the son of a wealthy merchant. He wrote extensively on plant physiology and was one of the major early pioneers of photosynthesis research. Senebier also published on the experimental method, first in 1775, and then in an expanded work, in 1802. His precise definition of the experimental method anticipated the work of noted French physiologist Claude Bernard fifty years later. Senebier also served as chief librarian of the Republic of Geneva.
Senebier was greatly influenced by Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet. Senebier was also influenced by the Italian animal physiologist and experimental biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani, several of whose works Senebier translated from Italian into French. Spallanzani's chemical research on bodily functions of animals helped lead Senebier towards studying plant chemistry. Although Senebier's first research on plants was a large study on effects of light, he is remembered mainly for the extensive evidence he provided that carbon dioxide ("fixed air" or "carbonic acid," in the terminology of his day) is consumed by plants in the production of oxygen ("dephlogisticated air"), in the physiological process that later became known as photosynthesis. Senebier also found that the amount of oxygen produced is roughly proportional to the amount of carbon dioxide available to the plant. Further, he determined that the green fleshy parts of leaves (the parenchyma) are the sites where carbon dioxide is transformed into oxygen. Senebier also correctly concluded that plants use the carbon in carbon dioxide as a nutriment. Senebier did some of his research jointly with fellow Swiss naturalist François Huber.
Senebier arrived at his best known achievement, his demonstration that plants take up atmospheric carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, based entirely on the phlogiston theory of chemistry, and only in his later works did he reformulate his conclusions in terms of the more modern, oxygen chemistry developed by Antoine Lavoisier and colleagues. This discovery by Senebier regarding gases ranks as one of the last of the important early discoveries in the unraveling of the fundamental chemical processes of photosynthesis. Marcello Malpighi and Nehemiah Grew, working independently in the late seventeenth century, and Stephen Hales in the early eighteenth century, had provided evidence that the atmosphere was important to plants, but further progress in understanding the role of gases in plant physiology awaited discoveries made between 1750 and 1780. In 1754, Charles Bonnet reported that leaves that were plunged in aerated water produced bubbles of gas, but he did not identify the gas. Then, in 1775, English chemist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen (which he named "dephlogisticated air"), and, just a few years later, in 1779, Dutch physician and researcher Jan Ingenhousz demonstrated that the bubbles of gas observed by Bonnet on submerged leaves consisted of this same gas. Ingenhousz also published the first convincing evidence that leaves produce this gas only in sunlight.
Senebier was a close friend of noted Genevan geologist and meteorologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and was instrumental in the education of Horace-Bénédict's son Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure. Senebier trained the young man in Lavoisier's system of chemistry, which Nicolas-Théodore later applied in important plant-nutrition studies of his own. The younger Saussure would eventually discover the role of water in photosynthesis, thus completing the early chemical research on this subject.
In April 1809, Senebier became a Correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
For more detailed information on Senebier, see Kottler and Nash.
The standard botanical author abbreviation Seneb. is applied to species Senebier described.


Denhamia oleaster

Denhamia oleaster is a shrub or small tree within the family Celastraceae, endemic to Queensland. The species inhabits a variety of environments, from monsoon forest to semi-arid savanna and occurs on a broad range of soil types. In more humid locales the species can grow to 6 metres in height, although it may not reach more than 1 metre in less favourable environments.
John Lindley described the plant as "Melicytus oleaster" in 1848, it being discovered on explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell's expeditions into northern Australia.
"Denhamia oleaster" is found in across inland Queensland in open woodland and scrubland in the Brigalow Belt, as well as wetter monsoon forests in the northern reaches of its distribution. it is often associated with brigalow ("Acacia harpophylla").
The timber is valued for wood turning.


Gomphrena agrestis

Gomphrena agrestis is a plant native to Cerrado vegetation in Brazil. This plant is cited in "Flora Brasiliensis" by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius.


Olearia elliptica subsp. praetermissa

Olearia elliptica" subsp. "praetermissa is a flowering plant in the daisy family. The subspecific epithet means "overlooked", referring to the fact that this distinctive endemic subspecies was long overlooked.
Description.
It is a shrub, often stunted, growing to 1 m in height. The alternate leaves are usually 25–35 mm long and 10–15 mm wide. The white, daisy-like flowers are 10 mm across, appearing from mid May to early October. The fruits are 2–3 mm long, with numerous bristles.
Distribution and habitat.
The subspecies is endemic to Australia's subtropical Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea. There it is found growing in pockets of soil on rocky ledges in the mountains at higher elevations.


Begonia oellgaardii

Begonia oellgaardii is a species of plant in the family Begoniaceae. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Canarium caudatum

Canarium caudatum is a tree in the family Burseraceae. The specific epithet "" is from the Latin meaning "tailed", referring to the tapering of the tree's leaflet.
Description.
"Canarium caudatum" grows up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is scaly and grey. The flowers are yellow-brown. The fruits are spindle-shaped and measure up to long.
Distribution and habitat.
"Canarium caudatum" grows naturally in Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. Its habitat is lowland mixed dipterocarp and "kerangas" forests from sea-level to altitude.


Crepidomanes minutum

Crepidomanes minutum is small fern in the filmy fern family which grows throughout the Pacific. It is commonly referred to as tiny bristle fern. The specific epithet 'minutus' means small in latin, referring to the small fronds
Description.
"Crepidomanes minutum" is a small fern which grows epipetricly or epiphytically. It tends to grow in moist, low elevation forests where moisture is abundant and can tolerate deep shade. It has long-creeping rhizomes from which its leaves arise. The rhizome does not have roots but instead has rhizoids. Its leaves range from 1.5cm long to 6cm, and are flabellate to 1-4 times pinnate but may also be palmately lobed in some individuals. Leaves also have buds which allow individual leaves to proliferate and branch. It looks much like a moss and may be confused as one without careful examination.
The sori are located in involvucures at the tips of the lobes of the leaves and are somewhat cup-shaped. It can also reproduce apogamously like many other ferns.
Taxonomy.
The species was first described as "Trichomanes minutum" by Carl Ludwig Blume in 1828 but has since been moved to "Crepidomanes minutum" based on genetic evidence. "C. minutum" has great variation in morphology between different populations, thus has extensive synonymy as many of these populations were described as separate species. Further research, however, has revealed that the variation within the species is continuous and all variation is best regarded as intraspecific rather than interspecific variation.
"Crepidomanes minutum" may be diploid, triploid, or tetraploid. It has a very complex evolutionary history consisting of multiple sub-lineages which have been observed to interbreed. The relationships of individual populations of "C. minutum" are best described by reticulate evolution.
Range.
"Crepidomanes minutum" has a broad distribution throughout the Pacific in areas including but not limited to Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Equatorial Guinea, Hawaii, India, Indonesia, Japan, Java, Korea, Malaysia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Nepal, Philippines, Polynesia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.


Acriopsis emarginata

Acriopsis emarginata, commonly known as the pale chandelier orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to Queensland. It is a clump-forming epiphyte with dark green leaves and curved, branching flower stems with many white and cream-coloured flowers.
Description.
"Acriopsis emarginata" is an epiphyte which forms dense clumps with the pseudobulbs surrounded by thin white roots. The pseudobulbs are pale green and onion-like, long and wide. There are between two and four dark green, leathery, narrow egg-shaped leaves which are long and wide. Wiry, branching flower stems long bear large numbers of cream-coloured to pinkish flowers which are wide and have a white, three-lobed, triangular labellum. Each flower has a thread-like pedicel long. The dorsal sepal is linear to oblong, long, about wide and the lateral sepals are fused to form a boat shape long, about wide below the labellum. The petals are linear to egg-shaped with similar dimensions to the lateral sepals. The labellum is long, about wide and has three lobes. The lateral lobes are broadly triangular and the middle lobe is short with two prominent calli. Flowering mainly occurs from June to November.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Acriopsis emarginata" was first formally described in 2006 by David Jones and Mark Clements from a specimen collected in the Daintree River valley and the description was published in "Australian Orchid Research". The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek words "akris" meaning "grasshopper" and "opsis" meaning "appearance" or "aspect", referring to the grashopper-like appearance of the column.
The specific epithet ("emarginata") is a Latin word meaning "notched at the apex", referring to the notch on the labellum callus.
This species was formerly included with "Acriopsis javanica" but Australian plants are more robust with larger pseudobulbs and leaves and more highly branched flowering stems.
Distribution and habitat.
The pale chandelier orchid is widespread and common in tropical Queensland from Cape York to the Daintree River. It grows near the crown of trees, palms and "Pandanus".
Use in horticulture.
Easy to grow, but needs water all year round, high humidity, and warmth (not below 10 °C). Can be grown on a slab or in a small pot with a coarse mix.


Schizostachyum lima

Schizostachyum lima is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae. It is a bamboo that in Tagalog is commonly called anos / bokawe / bocaue, and in Cebuano: bagakay. It is propagated using seeds or rhizome cuttings. In the Philippines, it is often used for making sawali, fishing rods, and musical instruments. In some rural areas of the country, midwives still use sharp knives made of "Schizostachyum lima" to cut the newborn's umbilical cord.
The name of the Barangay (village) of Anos in Los Baños, Laguna is derived from this species.


Muellerina myrtifolia

Muellerina myrtifolia, common name myrtle-leaved mistletoe, is a hemiparasitic arial shrub in the family Loranthaceae. The species is
endemic to New South Wales and Queensland.
Description.
"M. myrtifolia" is a rainforest mistletoe with small ovate, sessile leaves with a shiny upper surface and a dull lower surface, and measuring 15-20 mm long.
New growth is russet-coloured. The inflorescence is a paired umbel which hangs from the foliage on long stalks, with each flower being a long red and yellow or red and white tube with dark, projecting stamens. The oval shaped fruit are a dull green which ripens to a brownish-red, and have a prominent flower-scars.
Ecology.
The main hosts on which "M. myrtifolia" grows are vines, in particular, Wonga vine ("Pandorea pandorana"), "Jasminum" species, and "Parsonsia" species. An inventory of host plants for "Muellerina myrtifolia" is given by Downey.
"Muellerina myrtifolia" is not known to host any butterflies.
Taxonomy.
The species was first described by George Bentham in 1867 as "Loranthus myrtifolius". It was redescribed by B.A.Barlow in 1962 as "Muellerina myrtifolia", with the current description of the species being that of Barlow in 1984.


Alnus nitida

Alnus nitida, the west Himalayan alder, is a species in the genus "Alnus", native to Pakistan, the western Himalayas, and Nepal. It is a tree reaching 20 to 25m, preferring to live along the banks of rivers. It is used locally for timber and firewood, and as a street tree. The bark is used in some places for tanning and dyeing purposes. It grows well in heavy, clay soils and tolerates infertile soils. The leaves are thin, oval to ovate, 3-6 inches long and 2-3 inches wide. Female flowers appear first, followed by male catkinss in September to October, which may be up to 19 cm long. The fruits are woody cones, typically 2.5-3.5 cm long.
This tree may be attacked by the apple stem borer ("Trirachys holosericeus").
In some places, the bark is used as an anti-inflammatory. One study examined its chemical components and concluded it has antioxidant potential.


Encephalartos equatorialis

Encephalartos equatorialis is a species of cycad that is found on two granite hills on the eastern shore of Thurston Bay, Lake Victoria, Uganda at elevations up to 1000 meters.
Description.
The stem is 3.5–4 m tall for a diameter of 35–45 cm.
The leaves are rigid, 3–4 m long and 30–40 cm broad, dark green, with a petiole up to 13 mm long. The leaflets depart from the rachis at an angle of 30 °, are up to 20-25 cm long and about 20 mm wide.
It is a dioecious species, has conical male cones of 30–40 cm in length and 9–10 cm in diameter with oblong microsporophylls of 20–30 mm in size by 10–15 mm and ovoid female cones 35–40 cm long by a diameter of 18–20 cm with rhomboid macrosporophylls with sides of sides 55 mm for 60 mm and height 30 mm.
The seeds, about 200 per cone, are ellipsoidal in shape, 35–38 mm long by 23–30 mm in diameter, with an orange-red sarcotesta


Strychnos benthami

Strychnos benthami is a species of plant in the Loganiaceae family. It is endemic to Sri Lanka.


Ilex oblonga

Ilex oblonga is a species of plant in the family Aquifoliaceae. It is endemic to China.


Pulvinus

A pulvinus (pl. "pulvini") is a joint-like thickening at the base of a plant leaf or leaflet that facilitates growth-independent (nyctinastic and thigmonastic) movement. Pulvini are common, for example, in members of the bean family Fabaceae (Leguminosae) and the prayer plant family Marantaceae.
Pulvini may be present at the base or apex of the petiole or where the leaflets of a compound leaf are inserted into the rachis. They consist of a core of vascular tissue within a flexible, bulky cylinder of thin-walled parenchyma cells. A pulvinus is also sometimes called a geniculum.
Pulvinar movement is caused by changes in turgor pressure leading to a contraction or expansion of the parenchyma tissue. The response is initiated when sucrose is unloaded from the phloem into the apoplast. The increased sugar concentration in the apoplast decreases the water potential and triggers the efflux of potassium ions from the surrounding cells. This is followed by an efflux of water, resulting in a sudden change of turgor pressure in the cells of the pulvinus. Aquaporins on the vacuole membrane of pulvini allow for the efflux of water that contributes to the change in turgor pressure. The process is similar to the mechanism of stomatal closure.
Common examples for pulvinar movements include the night closure movement of legume leaves and the touch response of the sensitive plant ("Mimosa pudica"). Nyctinastic movements (sleep movements) are controlled by the circadian clock and light signal transduction through phytochrome. Thigmonastic movements (touch response) appear to be regulated through electrical and chemical signal transduction spreading the stimulus throughout the plant.
Pulvinus in "Mimosa pudica".
In "Mimosa pudica", the internal biological clock mediates the closing of leaflets at night and opening during day. Seismonastic or rapid movement of leaves is triggered in response touch and temperature.
The pulvinus is located at the base of each leaflet of the plant. Mechanical stimulation via touch is perceived and is translated to electrical stimulation causing the flow of ions out of the pulvinus cells. An upregulation of aquaporin and H+ - ATPase allows for the rapid flux of water out of these motor cells. Water flux out of the cell's symplast and into its surrounding apoplast results in a decrease in turgor pressure, and the characteristic closing of the leaves of "Mimosa pudica". The drop in turgor pressure is reversible but slow. Leaves slowly open to their initial position after 20 minutes of lack of stimulation. It has been demonstrated that seismonastic movement can be inhibited with the use of anesthetics.
Using nuclear magnetic resonance, upward movement of water within the pulvinus joint in response to electrical stimulation was observed in the pulvinus at the base of the petiole. Movement of water to the upper or lower part of the pulvinus causes asymmetric swelling therefore causing the petiole to either droop or rise and contributing to the characteristic displacement of the petioles. The transmittance of internal electrical and chemical signals cause changes in the pulvinus which allows "M. pudica" to respond accordingly to touch stimuli.


Epithelantha micromeris

Epithelantha micromeris is a button cactus in the genus "Epithelantha", found in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and northeast Mexico. It is characterized by its white-grey spines growing on a globular shaped stem. The density of its white spines give it the illusion of being completely grey, making it very difficult to see the green color beneath. It grows to be 1–5 cm tall, and roughly 2–4 cm in diameter. "E. micromeris" produces small, pink-white flowers, often considered to be some of the smallest of the cacti. These flowers give way to a bright red, cylindrical fruit which contains several black seeds and also is edible.


Cyanea angustifolia

Cyanea angustifolia is a plant in the genus "Cyanea" that is found in Hawaii. Leaves of this species, as well as the endangered ʻakuʻaku ("Cyanea platyphylla"), were wrapped in ti (kī) leaves, cooked in an ʻimu and eaten in times of food scarcity by early Hawaiians.


Haya obovata

Haya is a monotypic genus of plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is endemic to Yemen's Socotra island. "The Plant List" recognises the single species Haya obovata. "Haya obovata" grows in subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and rocky areas.


Digitalis lamarckii

Digitalis lamarckii is a species of flowering plant in family Plantaginaceae that is native to Turkey.
Description.
"Digitalis lamarckii" has basal leaves that are obovate to linear in shape and 5 to 20 cm (sometimes to 25 cm ) long and 3 to 13 mm wide. At the midpoint of the flowering stem, the leaves are 4 to 14 mm wide, linear or lanceolate shaped, and hairless. The flowers are arranged in to a raceme that is usually lax with the top of the inflorescence axis having pubescent hairs but hairless below. The corolla is 15 to 30 mm (sometimes to 35 mm) long. the lower lobe of the corolla is 7 to 14 mm long, linear to oblong-obovate in shape and narrowed below, it is whitish in color with light reddish-brown or yellowish-brown veins. The fruits are a capsule 10 to 20 mm long.


Aristolochia longa

Aristolochia longa, the long aristolochia or sarrasine, is a species of pipevine.