Haworthia magnifica

Haworthia magnifica is a species of the genus "Haworthia" belonging to the family Asphodelaceae.
It is popular as an ornamental in cultivation, especially in the form of its unique and colourful variety, "splendens".
Etymology.
The genus name "Haworthia" honors the British botanist Adrian Hardy Haworth (1767–1833), while the species name "magnifica" derives from the Latin word “Magnificus” meaning "magnificent”.
Description.
"Haworthia magnifica" is a succulent evergreen slow-growing species reaching a size of 40 cm in height. Its shape and brownish-greenish color serve to camouflage this plant on the ground. It is usually a solitary stemless plant. The leaves are approximately triangular, about 3,5 cm long, with longitudinal pale brown or greyish veines along the upper surfaces and small teeth along the edges. The leaves form a rosette of about 8 cm in diameter. Flowers are white and small, forming an inflorescence of about 40 cm.
This highly variable species is one of the "retuse" species of "Haworthia", meaning that it usually grows sunken beneath the ground with its flattened leaves only showing on the surface. Its rosette of succulent leaves are turned back ("retuse") so as to provide a flat and level face, on the surface of the ground. In this form, it is similar to other retuse haworthias (e.g. "Haworthia pygmaea", "Haworthia bayeri", "Haworthia springbokvlakensis", "Haworthia mirabilis", "Haworthia emelyae" and "Haworthia retusa").
It can usually be distinguished from its relatives however, by its dark green leaves which become purple in full sun exposure. (This species is almost as dark as its relative "Haworthia maraisii".)
The leaves have a scabrous (rough) sub-tuberculate, slightly translucent surface, covered in faint, parallel lines and sometimes light flecked markings. The leaves have rough margins, often with tiny spines, and have sharp tapering tips.
Distribution.
This species is native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa.
Habitat.
It grows on bushes and rocks at an altitude of about 220 meters.
Varieties.
Near the Gouritz river, the slender-leaved forms - which were previously classed as a variety of "Haworthia retusa" - are now labelled as the variety "acuminata".
The extremely dark (almost black) plants, with rounded leaf tips and extremely rough leaf surface, are known as variety "atrofusca".
In the north-east of this species range, the variety "dekenahii" is distinguished by its blunt-tipped leaves which have prominent silver flecks and tubercles. In the far east of its range, the plants have copious light-coloured fleck-markings, and the variety "splendens" is named from these plants.


Dictyosphaeria

Dictyosphaeria is a genus of green algae in the family Siphonocladaceae.


Sedum takesimense

Sedum takesimense, commonly called Ulleungdo stonecrop or Seomgirincho (), is a native Korean wild flower that grows on the island of Ulleungdo and the Liancourt Rocks.
"Sedum takesimense" belongs to the stonecrop family and is most commonly found in Ulleungdo. It was given this name because it resembles an imaginary animal with horns, called Girin. It grows in sunny spots between rocks by the sea and blooms with yellow flowers in July. Ulleungdo has unique natural conditions and ecology and is home to many native plants. Due to its geographical proximity, the Liancourt Rocks have many of the same plants.


Limnodea

Limnodea, with the common name Ozark grass, is a genus of North American plants in the grass family. The type species is "Greenia arkansana" .
The only known species of the annual bunchgrass is Limnodea arkansana.
Distribution.
"Limnodea arkansana" is native: to northeastern Mexico in Coahuila and Tamaulipas states; and to the South-Central/Midwestern and Southeastern United States, in Arkansas (including the Ozarks), Oklahoma, East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and the Florida Panhandle.
It grows in dry and usually sandy soils, in prairie, open woodland, and river bank habitats; and in disturbed areas. Along the Gulf Coast it is found on upper beaches where shells accumulate, and on maritime shell mounds and middens.


Nepenthes singalana

Nepenthes singalana (; after Mount Singgalang, West Sumatra) is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the island of Sumatra, where it grows at 2000–2900 m above sea level. It is most closely allied to "N. diatas" and "N. spathulata".
Taxonomy.
In 2001, Charles Clarke performed a cladistic analysis of the "Nepenthes" species of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia using 70 morphological characteristics of each taxon. The following is part of the resultant cladogram, showing "Clade 3", which comprises "N. singalana" and three other related species.
Natural hybrids.
The following natural hybrids involving "N. singalana" have been recorded.


Isopterygiopsis

Isopterygiopsis is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Plagiotheciaceae.
The genus has cosmopolitan distribution.
Species:


Brunfelsia densifolia

Brunfelsia densifolia is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by the common name Serpentine Hill raintree. It is native to Puerto Rico.
This plant is a shrub that grows on serpentine soils containing high amounts of magnesium, nickel, iron, and chromium, and some calcium and nitrogen. It produces long, tubular yellow flowers. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant, but in the wild it is endangered due to habitat loss as land is consumed for agriculture in Puerto Rico.


Najas ancistrocarpa

Najas ancistrocarpa is a species of aquatic plant in the Hydrocharitaceae family. It grows in fresh water ponds and is a native to Japan (Honshu) and to parts of China (Fujian, Hubei, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang).


Phoradendron bolleanum

Phoradendron bolleanum, commonly called Bollean mistletoe, is a species of plant in the sandalwood family that is native to the desert southwest, California and southern Oregon in the United States.
It is a hemiparasite found on trees in the genera "Juniperus" and "Arbutus".


Lewisia disepala

Lewisia disepala is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common name Yosemite lewisia.
Description.
"Lewisia disepala" is a petite perennial herb growing from a thick branching taproot and short caudex unit. It produces a basal rosette of many small leaves no more than 1.5 centimeters long. The leaves are thick, fleshy, hairless, deep shiny green, and club-shaped, knobby, or finger-like, clumped tightly together. The inflorescence has a stem so short that the flowers sit directly on the basal rosette of leaves, or among them. Each flower has 5 to 8 pale to bright pink oval petals and 15 protruding stamens.
Distribution.
"Lewisia disepala" is endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California, where it is known from several sites high in the mountains. It grows in rocky mountain habitat such as talus and open beds of bare gravel.


Hippocastanoideae

Hippocastanoideae is a subfamily of flowering plants in the soapberry family Sapindaceae. The group was formerly treated as the separate families Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae. Molecular phylogenetic research by Harrington et al. (2005) has shown that while both the Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae are monophyletic in themselves, their removal from the Sapindaceae "sensu lato" would leave Sapindaceae "sensu stricto" as a paraphyletic group, particularly with reference to the genus "Xanthoceras".
The most widespread genera are "Acer" and "Aesculus" (the horse chestnuts and buckeyes). A feature of the subfamily is the palmate compound leaves.


List of Platanus diseases

This article is a list of diseases of trees in the genus Platanus (plane trees, also known in North America as sycamores).


Sphenophyllum

Sphenophyllum is a genus in the order Sphenophyllales.


Hydrodictyaceae

Hydrodictyaceae is a family of green algae in the order Sphaeropleales.


Anisophyllea griffithii

Anisophyllea griffithii is a species of plant in the Anisophylleaceae family. It is found in Malaysia and Singapore.


Lepismium warmingianum

Lepismium warmingianum is a species of plant in the family Cactaceae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Palmellopsidaceae

Palmellopsidaceae is a green algae family in the order Tetrasporales.


Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Parthenocissus quinquefolia, known as Virginia creeper, Victoria creeper, five-leaved ivy, or five-finger, is a species of flowering plant in the grape family, Vitaceae. It is native to eastern and central North America, from southeastern Canada and the eastern United States west to Manitoba and Utah, and south to eastern Mexico and Guatemala.
Etymology.
"Parthenocissus" is derived from Greek and means "virgin ivy". "Quinquefolia" means "five-leaved". "Quinque" – "five" and "folia" – "foliage", "leaves".
Names.
The name "Virginia creeper", referring to one of its native locations, is also used for the whole genus "Parthenocissus", and for other species within the genus. The name "Parthenocissus" is from the Greek literally meaning "virgin ivy", and may derive from the common English name of this species. It is not closely related to the true ivy, "Hedera". The specific epithet "quinquefolia" means "five-leaved", referring to the leaflets on each compound (palmate) leaf.
This plant is also known in North America as woodbine, although woodbine can refer to other plant species.
Description.
"Parthenocissus quinquefolia" is a prolific deciduous climber, reaching heights of in the wild. It climbs smooth surfaces using small forked tendrils tipped with small strongly adhesive pads in size.
Leaves.
The leaves are palmately compound, composed of five leaflets (rarely three leaflets, particularly on younger vines, and sometimes seven) joined from a central point on the leafstalk, and range from (rarely to ) across. The leaflets have a toothed margin. The species is often confused with "P. vitacea" or "False Virginia creeper", which has the same leaves, but does not have the adhesive pads at the end of its tendrils.
It is sometimes mistaken for "Toxicodendron radicans" (poison ivy), despite having five leaflets (poison ivy has three). While the leaves of "P. quinquefolia" do not produce urushiol, the sap within the leaves and stem contains raphides (needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate) which can puncture the skin causing irritation and blisters in sensitive people.
The leaves sometimes turn a decorative bright red in the fall.
Flowers and berries.
The flowers are small and greenish, produced in inconspicuous clusters in late spring, and mature in late summer or early fall into small hard purplish-black berries diameter. These berries contain toxic amounts of oxalic acid and have been known to cause kidney damage and death to humans. The berries are not toxic to birds and provide an important winter food source for many bird species.
Cultivation and uses.
"Parthenocissus quinquefolia" is grown as an ornamental plant, because of its ability to rapidly cover walls and buildings, and its deep red to burgundy fall (autumn) foliage.
It is frequently seen covering telephone poles or trees. It may kill other plants it covers by shading its support and thus limiting the supporting plants' ability to photosynthesize. With its aggressive growth, it can overburden slower-growing understory trees with its weight, damaging them. Its ability to propagate via its extensive root system makes it difficult to eradicate. This plant is listed on Schedule 9 of the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as an invasive non-native species. While this does not prevent it from being sold in the UK, or from being grown in gardens, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) encourages those that do grow it to take great care with managing it and with disposing of unwanted material. The RHS also encourages gardeners to find alternative plants to grow to those listed on Schedule 9. For suggested alternative plants see the Plantlife/RHS guide: Gardening without harmful invasive plants
"Parthenocissus quinquefolia" can be used as a shading vine for buildings on masonry walls. Because the vine, like its relative "P. tricuspidata" (Boston ivy), adheres to the surface by disks rather than penetrating roots, it does not harm the masonry but will keep a building cooler by shading the wall surface during the summer. As with ivy, ripping the plant from the wall will leave the adhesive disks behind. If the plant clings to fragile surfaces it can first be killed by severing the vine from the root. The adhesive pads will then eventually deteriorate and release their grip. This plant should be trimmed regularly to keep it from growing into areas where it is not wanted. If allowed to penetrate into the wall of a frame house, it will grow upward within the wall until it finds a place to emerge.
The roots can penetrate a rock foundation and grow into the basement of an old house, extending long distances in search of moisture, and growing into floor cracks or drains.


Mniochloa

Mniochloa is a genus of Cuban plants in the grass family. The only known species is Mniochloa pulchella, native to eastern Cuba near Guantánamo.
see "Piresiella"


Lincoln green

Lincoln green is the colour of dyed woollen cloth formerly originating in Lincoln, England, a major cloth town during the high Middle Ages. The dyers of Lincoln, known for colouring wool with woad ("Isatis tinctoria") to give it a strong blue shade, created the eponymous "Lincoln green" by overdyeing this blue wool with yellow weld ("Reseda luteola") or dyers' broom, "Genista tinctoria". Other colours like "Coventry blue" and "Kendal green" were linked to the dyers of different English towns.
"Lincoln green" is often associated with Robin Hood and his Merry Men in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.
History.
The first recorded use of "Lincoln green" as a colour name in English was in 1510. By the late sixteenth century, Lincoln green was a thing of the past. Michael Drayton provided a sidenote in his "Poly-Olbion" (published 1612): "Lincoln anciently dyed the best "green" in England." Cloth of Lincoln green was more pleasing than undyed shepherd's gray cloth: "When they were clothed in Lyncolne grene they kest away their gray", according to "A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode", ca. 1510, and Lincoln green betokened an old-fashioned forester even in the fancy dress of Edmund Spenser's "The Faery Queene":
"All in a woodman's jacket he was clad
of Lincolne Greene, belay'd with silver lace."
"Robin Hood's Garland", the popular ballad printed in eighteenth-century compilations, offers an unexpected picture of Robin as he presented himself at court:
He cloathed his men in "Lincoln green"
And himself in scarlet red"
The distinction was in the cost of scarlet, which was dyed with kermes, derived from the Kermes vermilio insect native to the Mediterranean. Lincoln scarlet, from its imported dyestuff, was more expensive than Lincoln green.
In 1198 the Sheriff of Lincoln bought ninety ells (about 112 yards) of scarlet cloth for £30 (6s 8d per ell); although the cloth was a finely finished fabric, its high price was almost certainly due mainly to the extremely costly dye-stuff, "greyne" (graine) from Kermes or scarlet grain. In 1182 the Sheriff of Lincoln bought Scarlet at 6s 8d/ell, Green and Blanchet both at 3s/ell and Gray at approximately 1s 8d/ell. By 1216 three guilds controlling the cloth trade were established in Lincoln, the Weavers', Dyers', and Fullers' guilds.
Modern survivals.
"Lincoln-green" was revived in the years prior to the Great War (World War I), when it was adopted as the colour of the full-dress uniform of the Lincolnshire Yeomanry. This military version took the form of a distinctively light shade, which contrasted sharply with the sombre rifle green widely worn by other regiments of the British Army. Lincoln-green was also worn as the facing colour on the scarlet tunics of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment from 1913.
The world renowned ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who both originate from Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands, wore "Lincoln-green" during their free dance at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
In popular culture.
Geoffrey Chaucer 1387–1400 The Canterbury Tales The Friar's Tale has the Corrupt Summoner meeting a devil disguised as a Yeoman dressed in Lincoln Green
Sir Walter Scott in his 1820 novel "Ivanhoe" mentioned "Lincoln green" three times: in Chapter 7 ("One of these, a stout well-set yeoman, arrayed in Lincoln green, having twelve arrows stuck in his belt..."), Chapter 15 ("...[I]f thou losest [the prize] thou shalt be stript of thy Lincoln green..."), and Chapter 23 (...[O]ne hundred yards of Lincoln green to make doublets to thy men...").
William Makepeace Thackeray in his 1848 novel "Vanity Fair" mentioned "Lincoln green" in Chapter III: "What causes them to labour at piano-forte sonatas, and to learn four songs from a fashionable master at a guinea a lesson, and to play the harp if they have handsome arms and neat elbows, and to wear Lincoln Green toxopholite hats and feathers, but that they may bring down some "desirable" young man with those killing bows and arrows of theirs?"
The colour appears used in the dystopian novel "" by Jasper Fforde, in which shades of green—and Lincoln green in particular—have narcotic effects.


Alsophila gregaria

Alsophila gregaria, synonym Cyathea gregaria, is a species of tree fern endemic to eastern New Guinea, where it grows in lowland forest and coastal rain forest, often forming clumps, at an elevation of up to 100 m. The trunk of this plant is erect and usually 4–5 m tall and about 10 cm in diameter. Fronds may be bi- or tripinnate and 2–3 m in length. The stipe bears spines, but has few scales. These scales are medium brown in colouration and have a paler margin. Sori occur near the fertile pinnule midvein and lack indusia.


Jodina rhombifolia

Jodina rhombifolia (the "quebracho flojo" (the loose quebracho), "quebracho flajo", "sombra de toro" or "quebrachillo") is a tree species in the family Santalaceae.


Eufriesea flaviventris

Eufriesea flaviventris is a species of bee in the family Apidae, tribe Euglossini (orchid bees).


Hypanthium

In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It often contains the nectaries of the plant. It is present in most flowering species, although varies in structural dimensions and appearance. This differentiation between the hypanthium in particular species is useful for identification. Some geometric forms are obconic shapes as in toyon, whereas some are saucer-shaped as in "Mitella caulescens".
Its presence is diagnostic of many families, including the Rosaceae, Grossulariaceae, and Fabaceae. In some cases, it can be so deep, with such a narrow top, that the flower can appear to have an inferior ovary - the ovary is below the other attached floral parts. The hypanthium is known by different common names in differing species. In the eucalypts, it is referred to as the "gum nut"; in roses it is called the hip.
Variations in plant species.
In myrtles the hypanthium can either surround the ovary loosely or tightly; in some cases it can be fused to the walls of the ovary. It can vary in length. The rims around the outside of the hypanthium contain the calyx lobes or free sepals, petals and either the stamen or multiple stamen that are attached at one or two points.
The flowers of the family Rosaceae, or the rose family, always have some type of hypanthium or at least a floral cup from which the sepals, petals and stamens all arise, and which is lined with nectar-producing tissue known as nectaries. The nectar is a sugary substance that attracts birds and bees to the flower, who then take the pollen from the lining of the hypanthium and transfer it to the next flower they visit, usually a neighbouring plant.
The stamens borne on the hypanthium are the pollen-producing reproductive organs of the flower. The hypanthium helps in many ways with the reproduction and cross pollination pathways of most plants. It provides weather protection and a medium to sustain the lost pollen, increasing the probability of fertility and cross-pollination. The retained pollen can then attach to pollinators such as birds, bees, moths, beetles, bats, butterflies and other animals. Wind can act as an instigator for fertilisation. The hypanthium is also an adaptive feature for structural support. It helps the stem fuse together with the flower, in turn strengthening the bond and overall stability and integrity.


Anthocerotopsida


Columniferae

Columniferae is a descriptive botanical name. The Wettstein system used this name for an order of flowering plants, with the following circumscription:
That is, its circumscription is identical to the order "Malvales" as used in the 1981 version of the Cronquist system. The APG II system, used here, includes all the plants in the first four families in the expanded family "Malvaceae sensu lato".


Eucalyptus ewartiana

Eucalyptus ewartiana, commonly known as Ewart's mallee, is a species of mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. It has reddish brown, minni ritchi bark, narrow lance-shaped to egg-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and conical to hemispherical fruit.
Description.
"Eucalyptus ewartiana" is a mallee that typically grows to a height of and has reddish brown minni-ritchi type bark and forms a lignotuber. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped, petiolate leaves long and wide. Adult leaves are narrow lance-shaped to egg-shaped, the same shade of dull green to greyish on both sides, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on a pedicel long. Mature buds are spherical to oval, long and wide with a rounded operculum. Flowering occurs between August and February and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody conical to hemispherical capsule long and wide with the valves protruding above the rim.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Eucalyptus ewartiana" was first formally described in 1919 by Joseph Maiden from a specimen he collected near Pindar in 1909. The description was published in "Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales". The specific epithet ("ewartiana") honours Alfred James Ewart.
Distribution and habitat.
Ewart's mallee is found on sandplains and among granite outcrops and is spread throughout the Mid West, Wheatbelt, Pilbara and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia where it grows in loamy-sandy soils.
Conservation status.
This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.


Boab Prison Tree, Derby

The Boab Prison Tree, Derby is a 1,500-year-old, large hollow "Adansonia gregorii" (Boab) tree 6 kilometres south of Derby, Western Australia with a girth of 14.7 metres. It had been reputed to have been used in the 1890s as a lockup for indigenous Australian prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing, but there is no evidence that it was ever used to house prisoners.
Early use.
In the Nyulnyulan languages of the Western Kimberley, boab trees are called 'larrgadiy' ("alt. spelling" larrgadi) and have considerable mythological significance. The ancient trees are often regarded as cherished individuals with unique personalities.
Anthropologist Herbert Basedow was one of the first Europeans to document the Derby Boab Tree. In his 1916 expedition to the Kimberley region, Basedow photographed it and captioned the image as "the hollow trunk of a live baobab used by the aborigines as hut and burial place, Mayhall's well, King Sound". Basedow (1918) also wrote that: "[t]he natives have long been in the habit of making use of this lusus naturae [freak of nature] as a habitation; it is indeed a dry and comfortable hut". He found bleached human bones lying on the floor, which suggests that Aboriginal people had also used the tree as an ossuary for the dead. The human remains seen at the tree by Basedow and other early non-Indigenous visitors have disappeared, and may have been stolen.
The 'prison tree'.
Kristyn Harman and Elizabeth Grant traced the prison tree myth back to 1948. Around that time, an Australian artist called Vlase Zanalis spent eight months camping in and around Derby. Zanalis became intrigued by the region's extraordinary boab trees. When one of his resulting art works titled 'The Boab Tree' was later exhibited at Sydney, the "Albany Advertiser" described the tree as having in its 'earlier days' had its trunk 'used as a prison of a temporary nature until it was possible to transfer the prisoners to a more permanent abode'.
Harman and Grant concluded that the 'history' of another boab tree (located at Wyndham) was transposed to the Derby tree. Over time, this myth was repeated and became accepted as a 'fact', despite not being supported by the available historical evidence. Kim Akerman also refuted the notion, on the grounds that Aboriginal histories do not support the story that this tree was used to imprison Aboriginal people (either by the Derby police force, or by blackbirders taking enslaved Aboriginal people to the coast).
The tree today.
The tree is now a tourist attraction. It is protected under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972.
In recent years a fence was erected around the tree to protect it from too much human traffic, carving of initials etc., and compacting of surrounding soil by vehicles.


Engelhardia hainanensis

Engelhardia hainanensis is a tree native to Hainan Province, China.


Stipa pennata

Stipa pennata, common name European feather grass, or Orphan maidenhair (Hungarian: "pusztai árvalányhaj") is a flowering plant and arid zone sand grass in the grass family Poaceae, which is grown as an ornamental plant for its feathery flowering spikes, common to the Puszta in Hungary and the Devínska Kobyla forest-steppe in Slovakia. Its foliage is green in summer while the flowers are silvery-grey during the same season. It is high.


Trillium grandiflorum

Trillium grandiflorum, the white trillium, large-flowered trillium, great white trillium, white wake-robin or , is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. A monocotyledonous, herbaceous perennial, the plant is native to eastern North America, from northern Quebec to the southern parts of the United States through the Appalachian Mountains into northernmost Georgia and west to Minnesota. There are also several isolated populations in Nova Scotia, Maine, southern Illinois, and Iowa.
"Trillium grandiflorum" is most common in rich, mixed upland forests. It is easily recognised by its attractive three-petaled white flowers, opening from late spring to early summer, that rise above a whorl of three leaf-like bracts. It is an example of a spring ephemeral, a plant whose life-cycle is synchronised with that of the deciduous woodland which it favours.
White trillium often occurs in dense drifts of many individuals. The G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area in the Blue Ridge Mountains is renowned for an extensive stand of white trillium that blooms each spring. Over a two square mile area along the Appalachian Trail near Linden, Virginia there is a spectacular annual display of white trilliums estimated at near ten million individuals.
Description.
"Trillium grandiflorum" is a perennial that grows from a short rhizome and produces a single, showy white flower atop a whorl of three leaves. Flowering stems are 2-4 dm tall. The leaves are often called bracts as the "stem" is then considered a peduncle (the rhizome is the stem proper, aboveground shoots of a rhizome are branches or peduncles); the distinction between bracts (found on pedicels or peduncles) and leaves (borne on stems). A single rootstock will often form clonal colonies, which can become very large and dense.
The erect, odorless flowers are large, especially compared to other species of "Trillium", with long petals, depending on age and vigor. The petals are shaped much like the leaves and curve outward. They have a visible venation, though this is not as heavily marked as on the leaves. Their overlapping bases and curve give the flowers a distinctive funnel shape. Between the veined petals, three acuminate (ending with a long point) sepals are visible; they are usually a paler shade of green than the leaves, and are sometimes streaked with maroon. The flowers are perched on a pedicel (i.e., flower stalk) raising them above the leaf whorl, and grow pinker as they age. The flowers' stigmas are slender, straight or mostly so, narrowing at the end. The white petals are much longer than the green sepals. The flowers have six stamens in two whorls of three, which persist after fruiting. The styles are white and very short compared to the anthers, which are pale yellow, but become a brighter shade when liberating pollen due to the latter's color. The ovaries are six-sided with three greenish-white stigmas that are at first weakly attached, but fuse higher up. The fruit is a green, mealy and moist orb, and is vaguely six-sided like the ovary.
Taxonomy.
"Trillium grandiflorum" was originally described as "T. rhomboideum" var. "grandiflorum" by André Michaux in his 1803 work "Flora Boreali-Americana". "T. grandiflorum" was first treated as a species by Richard Anthony Salisbury only two years later. The species was traditionally placed in the subgenus "Trillium", but recent work has shown the phylogeny of this grouping to be paraphyletic. Since then no phylogeny of the genus has garnered much agreement. (The other subgenus, "Phyllantherum", includes sessile-flowered species). "T. grandiflorum" is, alongside the western "T. ovatum", one of the closer relatives to the subg. "Phyllantherum" members.
One form of the plant, "T. grandiflorum" f. "roseum", opens with light pink petals instead of the common white. It is generally found very rarely throughout its range but in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia it can be found somewhat frequently in mixed or sometimes pure colonies. The white flowers of the common pure white variety of "T. grandiflorum" turn a very distinctive pink and remain so for several days just prior to the wilting of the flowers. Plants bearing these pink flowers are often mistaken for a pink variety of trillium.
Many variants of "Trillium grandiflorum" have green markings on the petals, as well as 4 to 30 extra petals or bracts, along with other highly deformed characteristics. Although many of these forms have been given taxonomic names, it has been shown that mycoplasma-like organisms called phytoplasma are responsible for the altered morphology in these individuals, and not genetic variation. "Trillium grandiflorum" does, however, occasionally produce double-flowered forms such as "T. grandiflorum" f. "polymerum", but these are almost invariably sterile. This is the species of trillium that produces double flowers most frequently. On the other hand, and unlike other species such as "Trillium erectum", which hybridize fairly easily, "Trillium grandiflorum" is not known to form hybrids.
Ecology.
"Trillium grandiflorum" favors well-drained, neutral to slightly acid soils, usually in second- or young-growth forests. In the Northern parts of its range it shows an affinity for maple or beech forests, but has also been known to spread into nearby open areas. Depending on geographical factors, it flowers from late April to early June, just after "Trillium erectum". Like many forest perennials, "Trillium grandiflorum" is a slow growing plant. Its seeds have double dormancy, meaning they normally take at least two years to fully germinate. The seeds are dispersed in late summer, germinating after a cold and then a warm period, producing a root and after another winter the seedling's cotyledon emerges from the soil. Like most species of "Trillium", flowering age is determined largely by the surface of the leaf and size of the rhizome instead of age alone. Because growth is very slow in nature, "T. grandiflorum" typically requires seven to ten years in optimal conditions to reach flowering size, which corresponds to a minimum of of leaf surface area and of rhizome volume. In cultivation, however, wide disparity of flowering ages are observed.
Conservation concerns.
Some forms of the species have pink instead of white petals, while others with extra petals, also called "double" forms, are naturally quite common in the species, and these are especially popular with trillium gardeners. In fact, the species is the most popular of its genus in cultivation, which has led to conservation concerns due to the majority of commercially available plants being collected from the wild. A few regional governments in Canada and the United States have declared the plant vulnerable as a result.
Due to the popularity of "Trillium grandiflorum" as a garden specimen, conservation concerns have been raised as the vast majority of plants sold in commercial nurseries are believed to be collected from the wild. Indeed, there is little indication of any commercial nursery growth. Frederick and Roberta Case, botanists who specialize in trilliums, wrote in 1997, "to our knowledge, no true commercial quantity 'propagation' takes place at the present time." Such heavy collecting, combined with other pressures such as habitat destruction and grazing, may effectively endanger the plants in some areas. "Trillium grandiflorum" is legally listed as vulnerable in Quebec, primarily due to habitat destruction as the plant is found in forests neighboring the province's most populous regions. In Maine, where its presence has not been verified in the past 20 years, "Trillium grandiflorum" is listed as potentially extirpated.
Pollination and seed dispersal.
"Trillium grandiflorum" has long been thought to self-pollinate based on the fact that pollinators had rarely been observed visiting the plants and because there is low variation in chromosomal banding patterns. This has been strongly challenged, as other studies have shown high pollination rates by bumblebees and very low success of self-pollination in controlled experiments, implying that they are in fact self-incompatible. Several ovules of a given individual often fail to produce seeds. One contributing factor is pollen limitation, and one study showed that open pollinated plants had 56% of their ovules produce seeds, while in hand pollinated individuals the figure was 66%. Plants with reduced exposure to pollinators were 33% to 50% less likely to produce fruits than those that were, while hand pollinated individuals showed a 100% fruit set (though these fruits did not contain a 100% seed set). Plant resources were shown to be a limiting factor in seed production: when pollen was in abundance, larger plants had a significantly greater seed to ovule ratio than smaller ones. The overall suboptimal seed to ovule ratios suggest that "Trillium grandiflorum" has evolved to maximize reproductive success in the face of highly stochastic pollination, where some plants may only be visited by a single pollinator in a season.
"Trillium grandiflorum" has been studied extensively by ecologists due to a number of unique features it possesses. It is a representative example of a plant whose seeds are spread through myrmecochory, or ant-mediated dispersal, which is effective in increasing the plant's ability to outcross, but ineffective in bringing the plant very far. This has led ecologists to question how it and similar plants were able to survive glaciation events during the ice ages. The height of the species has also been shown to be an effective index of how intense foraging by deer is in a particular area.
Fruits are released in the summer, containing about 16 seeds on average. These seeds are most typically dispersed by ants, which is called myrmecochory, but yellow jackets ("Vespula vulgaris") and harvestmen (order Opiliones) have both been observed dispersing the seeds at lower frequencies. Insect dispersal is aided by the presence of a conspicuous elaiosome, an oil-rich body attached to the seed, which is high in both lipids and oleic acid. The oleic acid induces corpse-carrying behavior in ants, causing them to bring the seeds to their nesting sites as if they were food. As ants visit several colonies of the plant, they bring genetically variable seeds back to a single location, which after germination results in a new population with relatively high genetic diversity. This has the ultimate effect of increasing biological fitness.
Although myrmecochory is by far the most common dispersal method, white-tailed deer have also been shown to disperse the seeds on rare occasions by ingestion and defecation. While ants only move seeds up to about 10 meters, deer have been observed to transport the seeds over 1 kilometer. This helps to explain post-agricultural colonization of forest sites by "Trillium grandiflorum", as well as long distance gene flow which has been detected in other studies. Furthermore, it helps resolve what has been called "Reid's paradox", which states that migration during glaciation events must have been impossible for plants with dispersal rates under several hundred meters per year, such as "Trillium grandiflorum". Thus occasional long distance dispersal events, such as by deer, probably helped save this and other species with otherwise short distance dispersal ability from extinction during the glaciations of the ice ages. Furthermore, nested clade analysis of cpDNA haplotypes has shown that "Trillium grandiflorum" is likely to have persisted through the last glacial period in two sites of refuge in the southeastern United States and that long distance dispersal was responsible for the post-glacial recolonization of northern areas.
In addition to the lateral dispersion (by invertebrates and deer) there is also importance in the fact that burial (vertical dispersion) by ants (or other vectors) increases the survival of new plants by two mechanisms. First, vertical dispersion ensures sufficient depth to preserve the seeds through their dormancy (trillium seeds are normally dormant for their first year). Second, vertical dispersion ensures adequate anchorage of the rhizomes. This is particularly important for young plants because their small rhizomes, with few & short roots, are easily dislodged (e.g. frost heaveal and other erosion factors) and desiccated.
Interaction with deer.
"Trillium grandiflorum" as well as other trilliums are a favored food of white-tailed deer. Indeed, if trilliums are available deer will seek these plants, with a preference for "T. grandiflorum", to the exclusion of others. In the course of normal browsing, deer consume larger individuals, leaving shorter ones behind. This information can be used to assess deer density and its effect on understory growth in general.
When foraging intensity increases, individuals become shorter each growing season due to the reduction in energy reserves from less photosynthetic production. One study determined that the ideal deer density in northeastern Illinois, based on "T. grandiflorum" as an indicator of overall understory health, is 4 to 6 animals per square kilometer. This is based on a 12 to 14 cm stem height as an acceptable healthy height. In practice, deer densities as high as 30 deer per square kilometers are known to occur in restricted or fractured habitat where natural control mechanisms (that is, predators like wolves) are lacking. Such densities, if maintained over more than a few years, can be very damaging to the understory and lead to extinction of some local understory plant populations.
Cultivation.
"Trillium grandiflorum" is one of the most popular trilliums in cultivation, primarily because of the size of its flowers and its relative ease of cultivation. Although not particularly demanding, its cultivation is a slow and rather uncertain process, due to usually slow growth, wide variations in growth speed and sometimes capricious germination rates. As a result, the vast majority of plants and rhizomes in commerce are collected in the wild, and such heavy collecting, combined with other pressures such as habitat destruction and grazing, may effectively endanger the plants in some areas. This also creates tensions between Trillium enthusiasts and conservation proponents. Transplantation (as with almost all non-weedy wild plants) is a delicate process, and in many cases results in the death of the plant. In cultivation, "T. grandiflorum" may flower in as little as 4 to 5 years after germination (compared to the usual 7 to 10 in the wild), but these cases appear to be exceptions rather than the rule. One study revealed 20 or so individuals performing so well out of about 10,000 seeds planted, only 20% of which germinated after a year. However, barring plant destruction, "T. grandiflorum" can continue flowering every year after it has begun. It is winter hardy in USDA zones 4-8.
A double-flowered cultivar, "T. grandiflorum" 'Pamela Copeland', was introduced to cultivation at the Mount Cuba Center and named for Mrs. Pamela du Pont Copeland, the center's founder.
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Traditional uses.
The leaves were cooked and eaten by some Native Americans. The subterranean rootstalks were also chewed for various medical purposes.
Cultural usage.
The large white trillium is a well-known and popular American flower. The "Trillium" species most often observed by citizen scientists is "T. grandiflorum".
As a particularly conspicuous forest flower, "T. grandiflorum" was designated the provincial floral emblem of Ontario in 1937 (Floral Emblem Act), and as the state wild flower of Ohio in 1987. Professional soccer teams from Toronto and Columbus compete for the Trillium Cup every year.
As an official symbol of Ontario, a stylized trillium flower features prominently in the wordmark of the Government of Ontario and on the official flag of the province's French-speaking minority. Government agencies and programs also frequently incorporate the word "trillium" in their names, such as the Trillium Gift of Life Network (organ donation management agency) and the Trillium Book Award (an annual literary award sponsored by the provincial government). It is also frequently used by the Canadian Heraldic Authority to represent Ontario in grants of arms. Although a network of laws make picking wildflowers illegal in the province on any Crown or provincially owned land, it is not, unlike widely believed, specifically illegal (or necessarily harmful) to pick the species in Ontario.


Achnatherum diegoense

Achnatherum diegoense is a species of grass known by the common name San Diego needlegrass. It is native to southern California, where it is known from San Diego and Ventura Counties and the Channel Islands, and Baja California.
Description.
It is a resident of chaparral and coastal sage scrub ecosystems below 350 feet in elevation, especially near streams. This is a bunching perennial grass reaching heights between 110 and 140 centimeters. The inflorescence is up to about 25 centimeters long. The hairy spikelet is about a centimeter long not counting the long awn, which can be up to 5 centimeters long and has two distinct kinks.


Blastophysa

Blastophysa is a genus of green algae in the class Ulvophyceae.


Orcuttia tenuis

Orcuttia tenuis, the slender Orcutt grass, is a species of grass which is endemic to northern California.
Description.
It grows in vernal pool habitat in the western and northern foothills surrounding the Sacramento Valley.
"Orcuttia tenuis" is a federally listed threatened species.


Symphoricarpos palmeri

Symphoricarpos palmeri, common name Palmer's snowberry, is a North American species of plants in the Honeysuckle Family. It has been found in the southwestern United States (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and western Texas), as well as in the Mexican State of Chihuahua inside Basaseachic Falls National Park.
"Symphoricarpos palmeri" is a trailing shrub up to 3 meters (10 feet) long, with erect or ascending branches. Flowers are pink, funnel-shaped or tubular. Fruit is white.


Ehretia laevis

Ehretia laevis is a small tree belonging to the Boraginaceae or borage family.
It is native tree of Asia, and found in China, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Laos, Burma, and Vietnam.


Exocarpos gaudichaudii

Exocarpos gaudichaudii (also called Gaudichaud's exocarpus or hulumoa) is a species of plant in the Santalaceae family. It is endemic to Hawaii. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, the opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage, is a species of flowering plant in the family Saxifragaceae, native to Europe (Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and former Yugoslavia). It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.


Osteomeles anthyllidifolia

Osteomeles anthyllidifolia, commonly called Ūlei, eluehe, uulei, Hawaiian rose, or Hawaiian hawthorn, is a species of flowering shrub in the rose family, Rosaceae, that is indigenous to Hawaii (all islands but "Kahoolawe" and "Niihau"), the Cook Islands, Tonga, Pitcairn Island, and Rapa Iti, Taiwan and the Ryukyu islands of Japan.
Description.
"Osteomeles anthyllidifolia" grows as either an erect shrub that reaches or a spreading shrub. The compound leaves are alternately arranged on branches and divided into 15–25 leaflets. The small, oblong leaflets are long and wide. White flowers with five petals form clusters of three to six on the ends of branches. The fruit is white when ripe, in diameter, and contains yellow seeds that are in diameter.
Habitat.
"Osteomeles anthyllidifolia" can be found in dry to mesic forests, shrublands, coastal areas, and lava plains at elevations of . It is a ruderal species, able to effectively compete with other plants on disturbed sites.
Uses.
Medicinal.
The leaves and root bark are used on deep cuts; the seeds and buds are used as a laxative for children.
Non-medicinal.
The wood of a mature "Osteomeles anthyllidifolia" is very strong, and Native Hawaiians used it to make "ke ō" (harpoons) with which they caught "hee" (octopuses). "Ihe pahee" (javelins), "ihe" (spears), "ōō" (digging sticks), "hohoa" (round "kapa" beaters) "ie kūkū" (square "kapa" beaters), "ūkēkē" (musical bows), and "auamo" (carrying sticks) were also made from the wood. Young, flexible "O. anthyllidifolia" branches were fashioned into the hoops of "aei". These were bag nets that were used in conjunction with "kalo" (taro) as bait to catch schools of "ōpelu" ("Decapterus macarellus"). The fruit is edible and was used to make a lavender dye.


Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus is a species of plant in the family Cactaceae.
It is endemic to Coahuila and Nuevo León states, and southwards into Querétaro state, in northeastern Mexico.
Its natural habitat is hot deserts.
It was named after the noble Kochubey family. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Solanum dimidiatum

Solanum dimidiatum is a species of plant in the family Solanaceae known by the common names western horsenettle, Torrey's nightshade, and robust horsenettle. It is native to the central United States, where it grows in many types of habitat, including disturbed areas. In California it is known as an introduced species and a noxious weed. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing an erect stem up to 80 centimeters tall. It is covered in yellow prickles and branched hairs. The leaves may be up to 15 centimeters long, their edges wavy to lobed and sometimes toothed. The inflorescence is a branching array of several flowers. Each flower has a bell-shaped corolla measuring 3 to 5 centimeters wide. It is lavender to purple, or white. The five large, yellow anthers are about a centimeter long. The fruit is a spherical yellow berry up to 3 centimeters wide.
Etymology.
The specific epithet "dimidiatum" comes from Latin, meaning "halved".


Nymphaea odorata

Nymphaea odorata, also known as the American white waterlily, fragrant water-lily, beaver root, fragrant white water lily, white water lily, sweet-scented white water lily, and sweet-scented water lily, is an aquatic plant belonging to the genus "Nymphaea". It can commonly be found in shallow lakes, ponds, and permanent slow moving waters throughout North America where it ranges from Central America to northern Canada. It is also reported from Brazil and Guyana.
Description.
This plant is rooted from a branched rhizomes which gives rise to long petioles which terminate in smooth floating leaves. Since the leaves are subject to tearing by water and waves, they are round with a waxy upper coating that is water-repellent. The flowers also float. They are radially symmetric with prominent yellow stamens and many white petals. The flowers open each day and close again each night and are very fragrant. Once the flowers are pollinated, the developing fruit is pulled back under water for maturation.
Plant systematists often use it as a typical member of Nymphaeaceae, which (other than Amborella) is the most basal of the flowering plants.
It is cultivated in aquatic gardens as an ornamental plant.
Edible and medicinal parts.
The fragrant water-lily has both medicinal and edible parts. The seeds, leaves, flowers and rhizomes can all be eaten. The rhizomes were also used by Native Americans to treat coughs and colds. The stem could be used to treat tooth aches if placed directly on the tooth.
The muck-submerged stems are eaten by muskrats.
Chemistry.
The lignans nymphaeoside A and icariside E, and the flavonols kaempferol 3-O-alpha-l-rhamnopyranoside (afzelin), quercetin 3-O-alpha-l-rhamnopyranoside (quercitrin), myricetin 3-O-alpha-l-rhamnopyranoside (myricitrin), quercetin 3-O-(6'-O-acetyl)-beta-d-galactopyranoside, myricetin 3-O-beta-d-galactopyranoside and myricetin 3-O-(6'-O-acetyl)-beta-d-galactopyranoside can be found in "N. odorata".


Dioscorea wallichii

Dioscorea wallichii is a type of climbing tuberous geophyte of the family family Dioscoreaceae. It is native to Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. It has one edible cylindrical tuber that is about 1 meter long and 3-6 centimeters wide. The tuber is white when young, becoming yellow and stringy once aged.
Uses.
The tubers can be eaten after boiling and washing.


Acacia obtusifolia

Acacia obtusifolia, commonly known as stiff-leaf wattle or blunt-leaf wattle, is a perennial tree in subfamily Mimosoideae of family Fabaceae.
Description.
"Acacia obtusifolia" is an upright or spreading perennial tree which grows from 1.5m to 8m in height and it is native to Australia. It is closely related to "Acacia longifolia". "Acacia obtusifolia" can be distinguished by it having phyllode margins which are resinous, it usually blooms later in the year and it has paler flowers than "Acacia longifolia." It flowers usually from December through February. Some populations of "Acacia obtusifolia" can survive winters to −6 °C and possibly a light snow, however plants from populations in areas that are frost free such as the coastal ranges of Northern NSW are susceptible to cold and will be killed by frosts lower than −3 °C. These populations avoid the valley floors and occur mainly on sandstone ridges well above the frost line.
Phytochemicals.
Teracacidin, a flavan-3,4-diol, can be isolated from "A. obtusifolia" heartwood.
Net lore indicates a 0.45% average dimethyltryptamine in the bark and 0.3% in the dried young leaves. Similarly, Mulga states figures ranging from 0.4% to 0.5% in the dried bark, noting there to be some variability.
No formal scientific publishing of phytochemistry, several chromatographs show 0.3% alkaloid consisting 2:1 monomethyltryptamine, dimethyltryptamine, plus trace betacarbolines; another found additional 5 methoxydimethyltryptamine and gramine. Is highly variable in composition, sometimes devoid of tryptamines (Ref: Nen in EntheogenReview (journal) 1996); privately commissioned test at Southern Cross University, NSW, Australia, 2000. Also findings of 5-MeO-DMT, DMT and bufotenine.


Kallstroemia

Kallstroemia is a genus of flowering plants in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae. The approximately 17 species it contains are native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the Americas. The flower and fruit morphology is similar to "Tribulus". The convex fruits separate into about 10 nutlets each with one seed. The genus is named after A. Kallstroem who lived in the 18th century.


Aliciella subacaulis

Aliciella subacaulis (formerly "Gilia subacaulis") is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name pinyon gilia. It is native to the western United States from California to Wyoming, where it grows in several types of habitat, such as sagebrush and desert woodlands. This herb produces a glandular stem up to about 30 centimeters tall, surrounded at the base by an erect cluster of lobed leaves each up to 7 centimeters long. There are also smaller, unlobed leaves along the stem. The inflorescence is a loose cluster of purple-washed white flowers with yellow-spotted throats.


Horneophyton

Horneophyton is an extinct early plant which may form a "missing link" between the hornworts and the Rhyniopsida. It is a member of the class Horneophytopsida. "Horneophyton" is among the most abundant fossil organisms found in the Rhynie chert, a Devonian Lagerstätte in Scotland. A single species, Horneophyton lignieri, is known. Its probable female gametophyte is the form taxon Langiophyton mackiei.
Description.
The sporophyte had bare stems (axes) up to 20 cm high and about 2 mm in diameter with an undivided cortex. Stomata were present but rare. There was a thin central strand of conducting tissue, but this was not reinforced with spiral and reticulate thickenings and thus does not constitute true vascular tissue. Early stages of development of the sporophytes of "Horneophyton" (as of hornworts) may have been dependent on their parent gametophytes for nutrition, but mature specimens have expanded, corm-like bases to their stems, up to 6 mm in diameter, that bore rhizoids and appear to be anchored in soil, suggesting a capacity for independent existence after the gametophyte had degenerated.
The sporangium (spore-forming organ) is unique among both living and fossil plants, consisting as it does of branched lobes at the apex of some of the branches of the stem. Each lobe contains a central collumella, analogous to the sporangia of hornworts; however, the sporangia of hornworts are not branched. The number of lobes possessed by a sporangium varied; at least three orders of dichotomous branching have been found, resulting in more than four lobes. The sporangia were much less regular than shown in most reconstructions (including that opposite), and they had 'bumps' or emergences on them. Spores were released through a slit at the top of each lobe. The sporangia of "Horneophyton" contained trilete meiospores, the surfaces of which were decorated with short conical protuberances.
The female gametophyte of the plant has been recognised and described as the form taxon "Langiophyton mackiei". It grew to a height of around 6 cm, and was free living. The species was dioicous (unisexual), since it produced male and female gametes on separate gametophytes.
"Horneophyton" grew on sandy, organic-rich soil in damp to wet locations. They usually grew as isolated individuals.
Taxonomy.
First named by Kidston & Lang in 1920 from Early Devonian fossils in the Rhynie chert, the original generic name "Hornea" was later found to occupied by a flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, "Hornea mauritiana", leading Barghoorn and Darrah to propose renaming the genus to "Horneophyton" in 1938. It was classified as a rhyniophyte (subdivision Rhyniophytina) by Banks, but the absence of true vascular tissue led Kenrick and Crane in 1997 to create a new class, Horneophytopsida, for this and similar genera. A single species, "Horneophyton lignieri", has been described.
Phylogeny.
A possible phylogeny for "Horneophyton" is shown below (based on Crane et al. for the polysporangiophytes and Qiu et al. for the bryophytes.
With vascular tissue but bryophyte-like vascular tissue and sporangia, the organism has been considered a missing link between the hornworts and the vascular plants or tracheophytes (which molecular data suggest are sister groups). Features suggesting a relationship with the hornworts include the general form of its sporangia; its corm also resembles the foot of some hornworts. The free living nature of its sporophytes, and the fact that they branching repeatedly, are marked differences which force it into the stem group of tracheophytes (along with "Aglaophyton").


Nepenthes petiolata

Nepenthes petiolata (; from Latin: "petiolatus" "petiolate", referring to leaf attachment) is a highland "Nepenthes" pitcher plant species endemic to Mindanao island in the Philippines, where it grows at an elevation of above sea level.
Natural hybrids.
"Nepenthes petiolata" may itself have evolved from a cross between "N. alata" and "N. truncata". Examples of other "Nepenthes" species with a putative hybrid origin include "N. hamiguitanensis", "N. hurrelliana", and "N. murudensis".


Oxalis luederitzii

Oxalis luederitzii is a species of plant in the family Oxalidaceae. It is endemic to Namibia. Its natural habitat is cold desert.


Bollywood (tree)

Bollywood may refer to a number of tree species:


Hildebrandtia (plant)

Hildebrandtia is a genus of plants in the bindweed family Convolvulaceae.
Species.
The following species are recognised in the genus"Hildebrandtia":


Symphyotrichum frondosum

Symphyotrichum frondosum (formerly "Aster frondosus") is a species of aster known by the common name short-rayed alkali aster.
Distribution.
It is native to much of western North America from British Columbia and the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada, Transverse, and Peninsular Ranges in California, the Rocky Mountains, to Arizona and New Mexico, where it grows in wet habitat such as marshes and meadows, especially in alkaline or saline conditions.
Description.
"Symphyotrichum frondosum" is an annual or occasionally perennial herb growing a leaning or erect stem to a maximum height between 20 and 60 centimeters. The leaves are a few centimeters long and oval in shape with rounded tips. The stem and leaves are mostly hairless.
The inflorescence is a small array of flower heads containing many short pale pink or lavender ray florets and yellow disc florets. The fruit is a hairy achene with a bushy tawny pappus.


Cryptocoryne auriculata

Cryptocoryne auriculata is a plant species belonging to the Araceae genus "Cryptocoryne".
Distribution.
Borneo (Sarawak) and Philippines ?
In nature, C. auriculata grows between stones, which indicates that the water is running fast in the rainy season.
Description.
Small ovate leaves up to 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) and 1.5 inches broad (4 cm) with a sharp tip and cordate base, on stems of equal length to the leaves. Rather thick and stiff in texture. In colour the leaves are a dark olive-green.
Cultivation.
Considered difficult in cultivation. Only occasionally imported and often seems to just fade away. Will grow emerse and submerse and is reputed to withstand hard water. Needs an aquarium with clean water and a good substrate.
Propagates well by runners.


Alsophila aneitensis

Alsophila aneitensis, synonym Cyathea aneitensis, is a species of tree fern native to Vanuatu and possibly New Caledonia. This species has an erect trunk up to 3 m tall. Fronds are bipinnate and may reach 2 m in length. The rachis and stipe are either very dark and smooth or have a few scales towards the base of the stipe. The scales are dark and narrow. Sori occur near the pinnule midvein and are covered by large, thin, fragile indusia. The closest relative of "A. aneitensis" appears to be "Alsophila vieillardii". It can be distinguished from that species by its very dark stipes and frond bases.
The specific epithet "aneitensis" refers to Aneityum (also called Anatom), the southernmost main island of Vanuatu.


Cheilanthes acrostica

Cheilanthes acrostica is a species of lip fern
Description.
The fronds are arranged in groups.
Habitat.
"Cheilanthes acrostica" is found in Mediterranean areas including Iberia. The season is from February to June. Its conservation status is of concern. It grows in limestone fissures, but it is also found in quartzites and sandstones and among other loose rocks. It is found at a height of 300 to 900 m.
Basis.
This plant was first described in 1866.


Encephalartos schmitzii

Encephalartos schmitzii (Schmitz's cycad) is a species of cycad in Africa.
Description.
It is a cycad with a largely underground stem, no more than 30 cm high and with a diameter of about 20 cm. [2]
The leaves, pinnate, 40–60 cm long, are arranged in a crown at the apex of the stem and are supported by a short spiny petiole; each leaf is composed of numerous pairs of lanceolate leaflets, with whole or slightly toothed margins, on average 10-14 cm long, of glaucous green color, inserted on the rachis with an angle of 45-80 °
It is a dioecious species with male specimens showing 1-3 cones, cylinder-ovoid, 8–10 cm long and 3–4 cm broad, of bluish-green color and female specimens with solitary ovoid cones, 20–25 cm long and with diameter of 10–12 cm.
The seeds are coarsely ovoid, 20–25 mm long, covered with an orange-red sarcotesta.
Range.
"Encephalartos schmitzii" occurs in the Luapula River watershed, in Democratic Republic of the Congo (on the extreme south of the Kundelungu plateau, Shaba Province) and in Zambia (along the Muchinga escarpment in Luapula and Northern provinces). A subpopulation is also found in North-Western Province, Zambia, to the east of Solwezi.


Pentaptilon

Pentaptilon is a genus consisting of a single species—Pentaptilon careyi—in the family Goodeniaceae native to southwestern Australia.


Selaginella uncinata

Selaginella uncinata, the blue spikemoss, peacock moss, peacock spikemoss, or spring blue spikemoss, is a species of plant in the Selaginellaceae family.
It is widely cultivated outdoors along the Gulf Coast of the United States and in greenhouses and nurseries. It is a native of southern China and is closely allied to "Selaginella delicatula" (Desvaux ex Poiret) Alston, also in part from China.
Description.
Plants terrestrial, forming diffuse mats. Stems long-creeping, branched, branches 3-forked, flat, not articulate, glabrous. Rhizophores axillary, mostly at stem base or apex, 0.3--0.4 mm diam. Leaves delicate, papery. Lateral leaves distant, iridescent, green to blue-green, ovate-oblong, 3--4.2 X 1.5--2.5 mm; basiscopic base with small auricle, acroscopic base overlapping stem; margins conspicuously transparent, entire; apex acute to obtuse. Median leaves ovate-lanceolate, 2.2--3.5 X 1.2--1.8 mm; base with outer auricle; margins transparent, entire; apex acuminate. Strobili solitary, 0.5--1.5 cm; sporophylls monomorphic, lanceolate to narrowly ovate-lanceolate, strongly tapering toward apex, keeled, keel not dentate, base glabrous, margins transparent, entire, apex long-acuminate. 2 n = 18.


Gentianella hypericoides

Gentianella hypericoides is a species of plant in the Gentianaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland.


Persoonia terminalis

Persoonia terminalis, also known as the Torrington geebung, is a shrub belonging to the family Proteaceae, and native to northern New South Wales and southern Queensland in eastern Australia. Reported as a subspecies of "Persoonia nutans" in 1981, it was described as a species by Lawrie Johnson and his colleague Peter Weston in 1991.
Two subspecies"P.t.terminalis" and "P.t.recurva"are recognised; both are found on well-drained acidic soils in sclerophyll forests, and "P.t.terminalis" is also found on granite outcrops. Although similar in appearance, they differ in leaf length and curvature. Both have a restricted range, with "P.t.terminalis" found in an area of under .
"P.terminalis" grows to , with an upright or spreading habit, and narrow short leaves up to in length. The yellow flowers mainly appear in December and January (Australia's temperate zone summer), and are followed by purple-striped green drupes (stone fruit). The fruit of persoonias are edible, and dispersed by wild vertebrates.
Taxonomy.
"Persoonia terminalis" was first reported by Lawrie Johnson of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, in the 1981 edition of "Flora of New South Wales". He viewed it as a distinctive subspecies of "Persoonia nutans", a broadly defined species that included many forms since classified as distinct. Queensland botanists Trevor Donald Stanley and Estelle M. Ross classed "P.terminalis" as part of "Persoonia oxycoccoides" in their 1983 work "Flora of South-eastern Queensland". They considered it more likely a species in its own right, as they believed the description of the Queensland populations did not match the "P. oxycoccoides" from central New South Wales. Upon re-examining "Persoonia nutans" and "Persoonia oxycoccoides", Johnson and Peter Weston concluded that there were in fact several distinct species, and that "Persoonia terminalis" was described as such in 1991. The type specimen was collected south of the Torrington pub on the Emmaville–Torrington road by Weston and ecologist Peter Richards, and is now housed in the National Herbarium of New South Wales, which is part of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Sydney and Office of Environment and Heritage. The Herbarium houses over 1.2million other specimens. The generic name "Persoonia" is derived from the name of South African botanist Christiaan Hendrik Persoon. The specific name "terminalis" refers to the inflorescences (clusters of flowers) that are in this species at the ends of the branchlets. Its common name is the Torrington geebung.
It is classified within the genus as within the "Lanceolata" group, which consists of 58 closely related species with similar flowers but very different foliage. These species will often interbreed with each other in areas where two members of the group occur. "P.terminalis" has been reported to interbreed with "Persoonia cornifolia" and "Persoonia sericea", two other members of the group.
Two subspecies are recognised: "P.t."subsp."recurva" has shorter leaves, with margins more curved downwards, that reach a maximum of in length, while "P.t."subsp."terminalis" has longer, straighter leaves measuring a maximum of long.
Description.
"Persoonia terminalis" grows as a shrub reaching a height of , with an upright or spreading habit. It has smooth bark, although new growth is covered in fine hair. The small, narrow leaves are wide and long, with a convex upper surface and margins curved downwards. New leaves can be hairless or slightly hairy; if the latter, they lose the hair with age. They are concolorousthat is, both leaf surfaces are the same colour, or slightly discolorous (surfaces slightly different). The leaves are rougher than those of other persoonias.
The yellow flowers mainly appear in December and January (summer in the temperate zone of Australia), although occasional flowers have been seen as late as July. They are terminal, that is, arising at the ends of branchlets, where they appear in groups of one to five. "P.terminalis" is described as mostly anauxotelic, which means each stalk bears an individual flower that is subtended by a scale leaf at its junction with the stem. A proportion of flowers have a true leaf at this junction instead, and are described as auxotelic. Each individual flower consists of a cylindrical perianth that splits into four segments or tepals, and contains both male and female parts. Within this, the central style is surrounded by the anther, which splits into four segments; these curl back and resemble a cross when viewed from above. They provide a landing area for insects attending to the stigma, which is located at the tip of the style. Flowers are followed by the development of the fleshy purple-striped green drupes. These are long by wide, with the remnant style at the end.
Distribution and habitat.
"Persooniat."subsp."terminalis" is found in the Torrington-Binghi area on the western parts of the far Northern Tablelands in New South Wales, roughly halfway between Glen Innes and the Queensland border, at an altitude of between above sea level. It grows on acidic, sandy or stony granite soils in dry sclerophyll forest. The region is dotted with granite outcrops, where the subspecies is a component of "Babingtonia odontocalyx'Brachyloma saxicola" shrubland and "Prostanthera staurophylla'Kunzea bracteolata" low shrubland in the Torrington area, and "Allocasuarina brachystachya" shrubland in the Severn River Reserve. It is rated 2R on the ROTAP list.
"Persooniat."subsp."recurva" has two disjunct populations. One is found on the North Western Slopes in New South Wales, near Warialda north west of Inverell, and the other is southwest of Inglewood in southeastern Queensland, between above sea level. It grows on acidic sandstone-based sandy soils in dry sclerophyll forest. Within the Warialda State Conservation Area, it is found in black cypress pine ("Callitris endlicheri")dirty gum ("Eucalyptus chloroclada") woodland and smooth-barked apple ("Angophora leiocarpa")black cypress pine woodland. Although "P.t.recurva" has not been recorded from Kings Plains National Park, it could be expected to be found there due to the availability of suitable habitat. It is rated as 3R on the ROTAP list.
Both subspecies are commonly found near the Severn River Nature Preserve, as well as in the Arakoola Nature Reserve, where they are components of a woodland ecological community dominated by smooth-barked apple and long-fruited bloodwood ("Corymbia dolichocarpa"), which grows on sandstone soils.
Ecology.
"Persoonia terminalis" grows in a bushfire-prone habitat, where fire is essential for many species to regenerate. "P.t.terminalis" is killed by bushfire and regenerates from seed, which lies dormant in the soil. Large numbers of "Persoonia" seedlings appear after fire. However, rocky outcrop habitat is vulnerable to fires occurring at too-frequent intervals of less than five years, which puts many species that regenerate by seed at risk of local extinction as plants are unable to mature to set seed before the next fire.
Colletid bees of subgenus "Cladocerapis" within the genus "Leioproctus" exclusively forage on and pollinate flowers of many species of "Persoonia". Bees of subgenus "Filiglossa" in the same genus also specialise in feeding on "Persoonia" flowers, but do not appear to be effective pollinators. The fruit are adapted to be eaten by vertebrates, such as kangaroos and possums, as well as currawongs and other large birds.
Cultivation potential.
Horticulturists and scientists Rodger Elliot and David L. Jones have proposed that cultivating the plant would aid in its conservation. Cultivating the plant would most likely require good water drainage, a sunny or part-shaded position and acidic soil. "P.terminalis" is hardy to heavy frosts, and is expected to fare better in a temperate rather than subtropical garden climate. Propagation would theoretically be by seed or by taking cuttings of new growth, though plants of the genus "Persoonia" are generally difficult to propagate by any means in cultivation.


Pinus pseudostrobus

Pinus pseudostrobus, known in English as the smooth-bark Mexican pine and in Spanish as "chamite" or "pacingo", is a tree found in forests of Mexico and Central America.
It is 8 to 25 m tall with a dense and round top.It is threatened by logging and wood harvesting. The bark is brown and fissured and smooth when young. It is subject to ex-situ conservation. It grows at altitudes between 850 and 3250 m. from 26° to 15° north latitude, from Sinaloa, Mexico to Nicaragua and Honduras. It occurs within a rainfall regime that rains mostly in summer.
A stand of about 15 fully mature smooth-bark Mexican pines is in Imperial County, California, at the Palo Verde County Park, in a narrow strip of land between Hwy 78 and the Colorado River.
English botanist John Lindley described the species in 1839. It is divided into "Pinus pseudostrobus" var."apulcensis" (Lindl.)Shaw (Alpuco pine), "Pinus pseudostrobus" f."protuberans" Martìnez and "Pinus pseudostrobus" var."pseudostrobus".
It has been introduced in New Zealand near sea level and has done well.


Bearded lupine

Bearded lupine is a common name for several flowering plants and may refer to:


Epilobium obcordatum

Epilobium obcordatum is a species of perennial plant in the evening-primrose family (Onagraceae), known by the common name rockfringe willowherb and rock fringe. It is native to the western United States from California to Idaho, where it is found in rocky mountainous areas, at altitudes of to . This small perennial is clumpy to mat-forming and spreads from a woody caudex, especially in nooks between rocks. It has stems lined with oval or rounded leaves which spread parallel to the ground or ascend somewhat. At the tips of the thin stems are flowers each with four petals. The petals are magenta to purple, rounded and notched, often in a perfect heart shape, and are one or two centimeters long. The glandular, club-like, ridged fruit is a capsule two to four centimeters long growing on a short stalk.


Margaret Hannah Fulford

Margaret Hannah Fulford (June 14, 1904 – November 28, 1999) was an American bryologist who was active in identifying the flora of North and South America.
Biography.
Fulford was born on June 14, 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She subsequently attended the University of Cincinnati. She earned her BA in botany in 1926, BE in education in 1927, and returned for her MA in botany working under Emma Lucy Braun in 1928. She then attended Yale University to obtain her doctorate under Alexander William Evans, which she accomplished in 1935. Meanwhile, she worked at the University of Cincinnati as a botany instructor from 1927 to 1940. She became assistant professor in 1940, associate professor in 1946, professor in 1954, and professor emerita in 1974. She remained with the university until her death.
Fulford's focus was on morphology, ecology, and systematics of leafy hepatics. She intensely studied the reproduction and life cycle of the Hepaticae. She was a leading member of the Sullivant Moss Society, and was curator of the group's hepatics herbarium. Fulford was also a prominent bryology instructor at the University of Michigan Biological Station.
Fulford's work was published in journals such as "The Bryologist", "American Midland Naturalist", "Ohio Journal of Science", "Annales Bryologici", "Lloydia", "Torreya", "Revue Bryologie et Lichenologique", and the "Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club". Throughout her career, she published over 70 scholarly articles.
Legacy.
The Margaret H. Fulford Herbarium at the University of Cincinnati was founded by her in the early 1920s, for which she remained as curator for most of her career. Her personal collection of liverworts is housed within the herbarium.


Coccothrinax rigida

Coccothrinax rigida is a palm which is endemic to eastern Cuba.
Henderson and colleagues (1995) considered "C. rigida" to be a synonym of "Coccothrinax miraguama".


Lagerstroemia minuticarpa

Lagerstroemia minuticarpa is a species of plant in the family Lythraceae. It is endemic to India.


Restrepia

Restrepia, abbreviated Rstp in horticultural trade, is a small genus of 49 orchids in the orchid family (Orchidaceae), closely related to "Pleurothallis". Named in honor of Don Jose Restrepo, it tends to be more showy than most other Pleurothallids. They are found primarily at higher altitudes in the cool, damp montane forests of the Andes and Venezuela, with some into Central America up to southern Mexico.
Description.
These tiny epiphytic and rarely lithophytic orchids lack pseudobulbs. The erect, thick, leathery leaf is elliptic-ovate in shape. The aerial roots seem like fine hairs.
The flowers develop one at a time at the base of the leaf. They are borne on a slender peduncle, originating from the base of the back of the leaf. The long dorsal sepal is erect and ends in a somewhat thicker club-shaped tip. They have fused lateral sepals (synsepals) which may be quite colorful : white, yellow, rose, purple, orange or tan with red, brown or purple overlaid frequently with contrasting reddish-purple spots or stripes. The long, lateral petals equally end in a thickened club-shaped tip. The long lip is ovoid and widest its apex. It shows the same variations in color and markings.
They are generally of tufted habit and white sheathed stems with fine papery bracts. Under the right conditions, they can be in flower all year long. They propagate by spreading and forming new plantlets, called keikis, from the base of mature leaves.
Several species, such as "Restrepia muscifera", are very variable in size, shape and color. No two populations are the same.
Species.
Three subgenera are recognized.


Connarus monocarpus

Connarus monocarpus (Indian zebrawood) is a species of plant in the family Connaraceae. It is native to peninsular Peninsular India and Sri Lanka. It is used in Ayurveda.


Calocedrus huashanensis

Calocedrus huashanensis is an extinct incense-cedar species in the family Cupressaceae described from a group of isolated foliage fossils including stems and leaves. The species is known from Oligocene sediments exposed in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. It is one of a number of extinct species placed in the living genus "Calocedrus".
History and classification.
"Calocedrus huashanensis" is represented by a series of compression fossil specimens in lacustrine deposits belonging to the Oligocene aged Ningming Formation of western Ningming County. As of 2011 the formation had not been dated by radiometric methods, making a precise date difficult to obtain. The Ningming Formation overlies the Dazha Formation, which has been dated to the Eocene and palynological studies of the pollens preserved in the Ningming Formation have given a general age of Oligocene. The pollen studies are supported by both the fish and plant megafossils that are found in the formation, both of which support an Oligocene age. The flora preserved in the formation appears to have been a subtropical evergreen forest almost exclusively dominated by flowering plants. "C. huashanensis" is one of only three species of conifers found in the formation. The species is one of two members of the family Cupressaceae while the third conifer species, the plum-yew "Cephalotaxus ningmingensis" was described in 2010.
The type specimens for "C. huashanensis" are located in two different repositories. The holotype specimen, number "NHMG-010420", is currently preserved in paleobotanical collections housed at the Natural History Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The two paratype specimens, "PB21097" and "PB21098", are housed at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, a branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing. The specimens were studied by a group of three Chinese paleobotanists, led by Gongle Shi, all from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology. Gongle Shi and team published their 2012 type description for "C. huashanensis" in the "American Journal of Botany". The etymology of the chosen specific name "huashanensis" is in recognition of the Huashan Hills, near the type locality, which are noted for an ancient fresco on a cliff.
Description.
While the foliage of "C. huashanensis" is similar in overall appearance to several Cupressaceae genera, the details of the cuticle structure and overall morphology indicate the species is part of the genus "Calocedrus". "C. huashanensis" differs from the living "C. formosana" by having less obtuse-shaped facial leaves and side leaves that do not incurve. The living North American species "C. decurrens" differs from "C. huashanensis" in the slightly flattened morphology of the leafy shoots and the weakly dimorphic leaves. "C. huashanensis" and the modern "C. macrolepis" can be separated by the distribution of the stomal zones of the leaves on the undersides of shoots.


Trichodiadema attonsum

Trichodiadema attonsum is succulent plant of the genus "Trichodiadema", native to the Western Cape Province, South Africa, where it is common among pale quartzite rocks, and in the Riversdale region. Unlike most other species in its genus, it does not have a typical diadem on its leaf-tips.
Description.
A small, erect shrub, up to 15 cm tall. The leaves are papillate, and are not tipped with clear diadems, unlike most of the other species of its genus. Instead, the concolorous papillae near the tip are just slightly elongated.
The flowers are white, with petals in three series, and with filamentous staminodes at the centre. The flower stalks have especially long papillae.
The fruit capsule has five locules (sometimes four), each with well-developed covering membranes and thinning expanded keels.


Juglans boliviana

Juglans boliviana (), also known as Bolivian walnut is a tree in the family Juglandaceae and the walnut genus ("Juglans"). According to a paper in 1960 entitled "The Genus Juglans in South America and the West Indies" by American horticulturist and botanist Wayne Eyer Manning, it occurs in the Andes of northern Bolivia and central and southern Peru.
Wayne Manning included the species "Juglans peruviana", described by French botanist Louis-Albert Dode in 1909 from nuts collected at an unknown locality in Peru, because the nuts closely match those of "J. boliviana" and apparently came from Metraro, where only "J. boliviana" is known.


Lemna turionifera

Lemna turionifera is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family Araceae.
The species is a floating freshwater aquatic plant, with one, two, three or four leaves each having a single root hanging in the water. Like its close relative "Lemna minor", it reproduces primarily vegetatively. Unlike "L. minor", however, the species is also capable of producing turions, which are starch-filled fronds that sink to the substrate and remain dormant until germinating when conditions are favorable.
Its native range is Northern Europe to Japan, Northern America.


Gentianella bellidifolia

Gentianella bellidifolia is a species of the genus "Gentianella" that is native to New Zealand.
"G. bellidifolia" is found in alpine areas of both the North and South Island.


Sedum debile

Sedum debile, commonly called orpine stonecrop or weakstem stonecrop, is a low growing carpet forming flowering plant species of the genus "Sedum" in the family Crassulaceae.
Description and distribution.
The species' pedicels are long while the stems are slender and weak with round and flat leaves and yellow colored flowers.
The flowers of "Sedum debile" have sepals which are pale green and glaucous in color. The lanceolate and equal leaves are . Pedicels are long while the leaves on them are . The apex, while obtuse is also emarginated.
The species flowers during summer months and can be found on elevation of in states such as Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.


Downingia ornatissima

Downingia ornatissima is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family known by the common name folded calicoflower. This showy wildflower is endemic to California, where it is a resident of vernal pools and other wet places in the Central Valley. This annual grows an erect, branching stem with usually one tubular flower at the top of each branch. The flower has an upper lip made up of two narrow, pointed lobes in shades of light purple, and a lower lip made up of three lobes fused into one surface, which is the same color as the upper lip and has a central field of white with two prominent yellow projections. The flower is similar to those of other downingias, except it is lightly crinkled, with the upper lobes often curled back and the edges of the lower lobes uneven. The dark blue anther just emerges from where it is tucked between the upper lobes.


Stele (biology)

In a vascular plant, the stele is the central part of the root or stem containing the tissues derived from the procambium. These include vascular tissue, in some cases ground tissue (pith) and a pericycle, which, if present, defines the outermost boundary of the stele. Outside the stele lies the endodermis, which is the innermost cell layer of the cortex.
The concept of the stele was developed in the late 19th century by French botanists P. E. L. van Tieghem and H. Doultion as a model for understanding the relationship between the shoot and root, and for discussing the evolution of vascular plant morphology. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, plant molecular biologists are coming to understand the genetics and developmental pathways that govern tissue patterns in the stele. Moreover, physiologists are examining how the anatomy (sizes and shapes) of different steles affect the function of organs.
Protostele.
The earliest vascular plants had stems with a central core of vascular tissue. This consisted of a cylindrical strand of xylem, surrounded by a region of phloem. Around the vascular tissue there might have been an endodermis that regulated the flow of water into and out of the vascular system. Such an arrangement is termed a protostele.
There are usually three basic types of protostele:
Siphonostele.
Siphonosteles have a region of ground tissue called the pith internal to xylem. The vascular strand comprises a cylinder surrounding the pith. Siphonosteles often have interruptions in the vascular strand where leaves (typically megaphylls) originate (called leaf gaps).
Siphonosteles can be ectophloic (phloem present only external to the xylem) or they can be amphiphloic (with phloem both external and internal to the xylem). Among living plants, many ferns and some Asterid flowering plants have an amphiphloic stele.
An amphiphloic siphonostele can be called a:
Most seed plant stems possess a vascular arrangement which has been interpreted as a derived siphonostele, and is called a
There is also a variant of the eustele found in monocots like maize and rye. The variation has numerous scattered bundles in the stem and is called an atactostele (characterestic of monocot stem). However, it is really just a variant of the eustele.


Ehretia

Ehretia is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It contains about 50 species. The generic name honors German botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770).
Species.
Accepted species and other notable taxa
Fossil record.
†Ehretia europaea fossil seeds of the Chattian stage, Oligocene, are known from the Oberleichtersbach Formation in the Rhön Mountains, cental Germany. Endocarp fossils have been described from the Late Miocene locality of Pont-de-Gail in France and from the southern border of the Po Plain in northern Italy in two sites dated to the Zanclean and in three sites of supposed Zanclean age


Phyllanthus distichus (disambiguation)

The botanical name Phyllanthus distichus may refer to:


Liriodendrites

Liriodenrites is an extinct genus of plant from the family Magnoliaceae. Four species are known: "L. bradacii", "L. laramiense"., "L. occidentalis" and "L. sachalinensis". It has been discovered in the United States (Hell Creek Formation), Egypt (Bahariya Formation) and Russia (Sakhalin and Siberia).


Maxillaria

Maxillaria, abbreviated as Max in the horticultural trade, is a large genus of orchids (family Orchidaceae). This is a diverse genus, with very different morphological forms. Their characteristics can vary widely.
They are commonly called spider orchids, flame orchids or tiger orchids. Their scientific name is derived from the Latin word "maxilla", meaning jawbone, reflecting on the column and the base of the lip of some species, that may evoke a protruding jaw.
Recent molecular studies have found "Maxillaria" as it has long been viewed to be an unnatural hodgepodge composed of groups not closely related to each other. Hence it has been proposed that the genus should be split into several genera, proposals that have been gaining acceptance. Some of the species long considered members of "Maxillaria" have been moved to other genera: "Camaridium, Heterotaxis, Ornithidium, Brasiliorchis, Christensonella, Nitidibulbon, Sauvetrea, Inti, Mapinguari, Maxillariella, Rhetinantha, Mormolyca".
Distribution and ecology.
"Maxillaria" species still included in the smaller version of the genus are distributed in the rainforest at sea level to elevations of 3,500 m, in Latin America from central Mexico to Bolivia, as well as in the West Indies. This is an indication for the different temperature requirements, from warm growing to cold growing, within the genus.
They are mostly epiphytes, rather large in size, but some are terrestrials or even lithophytes (such as "M. rupestris").
Many species are rather large with rampant growth.
Characteristics.
Their pseudobulbs are round or oblong and each carry one or two lanceolate leaves. Some grow close together in a clustered manner on a short rhizome, while in other species the pseudobulbs keep some distance on an elongate rhizome. This rhizome is clothed in a somewhat transparent, silvery-gray velamen.
The flowers grow solitary on short stalks, called scapes, from the base of the pseudobulb. Most are small to very small, but some species carry large, showy flowers. The flowers are never longer than the leaves. Their free petals and sepals have a typically curved and adnate labellum with three inconspicuous lobes. Or the lip may have a distinct callus on the disc ( = central part of the lip from which the lobes radiate). The papillae (= small warts like glands) and the trichomes of the lip show great diversity. The most common form for the papillae is the conical form with rounded or pointed tips.
Cultivation.
"Maxillaria" is not one of the popular genera among growers. Only a few species grow big, showy flowers. But some species are nevertheless sought by collectors, mostly for the fragrance of their blossoms, such as "Maxillaria tenuifolia".


Centaurea behen

Centaurea behen is a species of "Centaurea" that grows in the wild under full sun in northern Iraq and Armenia and in many other areas of Western and Central Asia with a roughly similar environment, stretching from Lebanon to Kazakhstan.
The plant's leaves near ground-level are relatively large, comparable to broad dock or spinach leaves. Rising above those leaves are branching stalks that carry much smaller lightweight leaves and, when in flower, small yellow flowers. Including the upper stalks, the plant is typically a little less than a meter high off the ground. The plant has multiple thick roots. The roots have a brown skin on the outside and a white color internally. The roots come to commerce in a dried form, looking shrivelled, and then are ground to a powder, and used for several traditional herbal medicine purposes. The roots are called "Behman Safed", also known as White "Behmen", "Safaid Behmen", in Ayurvedic Indian medicine.
The plant is grown under cultivation in northern India for the medicinal use of its roots.


Clement Oak

The Clement Oak is a large old white oak tree in Deptford, New Jersey. It is believed to have sprouted between 1555 and 1615.
The Clement Oak is located behind the Deptford Wal-Mart, near Big Timber Creek, on land that once belonged to the Clement family. The original plans for construction of the Wal-Mart called for the tree to be felled, but Wal-Mart was persuaded to alter their plan so the tree could be spared.
The girth of the tree (2011) at is . The estimated height is with an overall spread of over .
The Clement Oak is said to have been known to the aboriginal Lenape, and to have been noticed by the first European settlers, as it served as a reference point in early land surveys. According to unsubstantiated local lore, native pow wows were held there, and a treaty between settlers and the Lenape was signed beneath its branches. The Gloucester County Historical Society honored the Clement Oak during New Jersey's 300 year anniversary celebration in 1964.
The Clement Oak was the site of the landing of the first aerial flight in the New World, a 1793 balloon flight. On January 9, 1793, Jean-Pierre Blanchard took off from Philadelphia and landed in Deptford at the Clement Oak. During his flight, Blanchard may have carried a personal letter from George Washington to be delivered to the owner of whatever property Blanchard happened to land on, which if true would have made the flight the first delivery of air mail in the United States as well; the letter is also said to have included a directive that all U.S. citizens were requested to assist him to return to Philadelphia (Blanchard did not speak English), which if true would make it the first known use of a blood chit for an airman.
A plaque at the tree commemorates the balloon flight. A second plaque commemorates the tree itself, which reads "The Clement Oak, which sheltered Lenape hunters 4 centuries ago and children at play in later years, is dedicated during the tercentenary of New Jersey as symbolic of the state's continuing growth – Gloucester County Historical Society July 1964".
As of June 4, 2020 the entire top half of the Clement Oak has been torn away, leaving only a few green limbs.


Synsepal

A synsepal is a floral structure formed by the partial or complete fusion of two or more sepals. Such sepals are said to be gamosepalous.
It is common among Lady's Slipper orchids (Cypripedioideae) that the two lateral sepals are connate to form a synsepal in the outer whorl. This is located directly behind the pouch, opposite the upward-pointing dorsal sepal.
Synsepals may be bifid, i.e. divided into two equal lobes, or forked and divided in two by a deep cleft.


Onychonema

In taxonomy, Onychonema is a genus of green algae, specifically of the Desmidiaceae.


Ryegrass bunt

Tilletia walkeri is a species of fungus in the Tilletiaceae family. It causes the disease Ryegrass bunt, which affects ryegrass. The fungus is related to those causing Karnal bunt in wheat. The species was described in 1999.


Scutellarioideae

Scutellarioideae is a subfamily of plants in the family Lamiaceae.
Genera include:


Osmundea

Osmundea is a genus of red algae in the family Rhodomelaceae.


Urospora

Urospora is a genus of green algae in the family Ulotrichaceae.


Acer sycopseoides

Acer sycopseoides is an Asian species of maple. It is native to China (Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan).
"Acer sycopseoides" is a small tree up to 6 meters tall with gray bark. Leaves are non-compound, up to 8 cm wide and 4 cm across, thick and leathery, with a 1-2 short, shallow lobes along the edges.


Lastreopsis

Lastreopsis, known as shieldfern, is a genus of ferns in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Elaphoglossoideae, in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I).
Species.
, the "Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World" accepted the following species: