Geraniales

Geraniales are a small order of flowering plants, included within the rosid subclade of eudicots. The largest family in the order is Geraniaceae with over 800 species. In addition, the order includes the smaller Francoaceae with about 40 species. Most Geraniales are herbaceous, but there are also shrubs and small trees.
Flower morphology of the Geraniales is rather conserved. They are usually perfectly pentamerous and pentacyclic without fused organs besides the carpels of the superior gynoecium. The androecium is obdiplostemonous. Only a few genera are tetramerous ("Francoa, Tetilla, Melianthus"). In some genera some stamens ("Pelargonium") or a complete whorl of stamens are reduced ("Erodium, Melianthus"). In the genera "Hypseocharis" and "Monsonia" there are 15 instead of the usual ten stamens. Most genera bear nectariferous flowers. The nectary glands are formed by the receptacle and are localised at the bases of the antesepalous stamens.
The economic importance of Geraniales is low. Some species of the genus "Pelargonium" (Geraniaceae) are cultivated for their aromatic oil used in the perfume industry. Some other species, also mostly within Geraniaceae, have horticultural or medicinal uses. A Paleobotanic record is missing.
Taxonomy.
Origins.
The botanical authority for Geraniales is given to Jussieu, but since the original description did not fulfill all the rules for a valid publication and was subsequently validly published, attribution is given to both Jussieu and the subsequent publication, hence the designation Geraniales Juss. "ex" Bercht. & J.Presl Jussieu, who developed the concept of botanical families, described the Gerania, as a grouping of five genera, including "Geranium". Although Jussieu used the term "Ordo" this did not correspond to current understandings of the term Order. The subsequent attribution occurred in 1820, in the Czech text "O Prirozenosti Rostlin", by Friedrich von Berchtold and Jan Svatopluk Presl, hence "ex Bercht. & J.Presl". However, Berchtold and Presl also only described a "rad" (ordo) of five genera, which they called Geraniae. Other authorities have given the authority to Dumortier who described the family Geraniaceae, consisting of two tribes, Pelargonieae and Geranieae, each with three genera.
Circumscription.
Geraniales contain two families, 11 genera and about 830 species. For a historical account of the circumscription of the order, see Price and Palmer (1993) Table 1.
Under the Cronquist system (1988), the Geraniales comprised the following five families:
While the Dahlgren system (1980) was much larger in circumscription with 16 families, only two of which were in Cronquist's construction, and placed the order in the superorder Rutiflorae:
Other modern systems include those of Takhtajan (1987) with nine families, and Thorne (1992). Thorne's system was the same as Cronquist's except that Biebersteiniaceae, Dirachmaceae, Ledocarpaceae, and Vivianiaceae were reduced to subfamilies of Geraniaceae.
Molecular phylogenetics: Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.
The elucidation of the relationships within the order by morphological or cytological methods alone had proven difficult as demonstrated by the widely different treatment by various authorities. For instance Cronquist and Thorne immersed the families Biebersteiniaceae, Dirachmaceae, Ledocarpaceae, Rhynchothecaceae and Vivianiaceae within Geraniaceae (Geraniaceae "sensu lato"), whereas Dahlgren and others maintained them as separate taxa, maintaining a "core" Geraniaceae (Geraniaceae "sensu stricto"). Price and Palmer (1993) were among the first investigators to apply molecular phylogenetics to this order, using the chloroplast gene "rbc"L. This disassembled the traditional morphologically defined grouping of dicotyledons, replacing it with a series of nested clades. The Geraniales segregated in the eudicot clade, specifically in the rosid subclade.
The family circumscription of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) of 1998 placed Geraniales Dumort. amongst the rosids with the following six families:
Geraniales 1829
Hypseocharitaceae were a small family of eight species of the genus Hypseocharis found in the tropical mountainous regions of the Andes. The APG provided the option of considering them as a separate family or subsumed into Geraniaceae. By 2003, when the APG was published, it was apparent that the small families Francoaceae, Greyiaceae and Melianthaceae were closely related and were collapsed into one family as Melanthiaceae with Francoaceae as an optional synonym. Thus the number of families was reduced to four.
The APG III classification (2009) was typical of newer arrangements. In this definition, Hypseocharitaceae was included within Geraniaceae, Francoaceae and Greyiaceae were included within Melianthaceae, and Ledocarpaceae was included within the Vivianiaceae.
However, Considerable rearrangements took place in the 2016 APG IV system. Francoaceae was substituted for Melianthaceae,
due to nomenclatural priority. The latter subsumed Vivianiaceae based on the work of Sytsma, Spalink & Berger (2014). However, there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the relationships within Francoaceae "sensu stricto" ("s.s."), Melianthaceae (Bersama
Fresen. and Melianthus L.) and Ledocarpaceae. Here, Vivianiaceae is used as a later synonym for Ledocarpaceae. This due to conflicting evidence (see Palazzesi "et al.", 2012). The APG chose to follow the broader circumscription for the time being till these differences are resolved.
This leaves the order Geraniales with only two families: Geraniaceae and Francoaceae (including Bersamaceae, Greyiaceae, Ledocarpaceae, Melianthaceae, Rhynchothecaceae and Vivianiaceae).
The Vivianiaceae and Ledocarpaceae were included within the Geraniaceae, and the Hypseocharitaceae within the Oxalidaceae, which are now treated in the order Oxalidales. The Melianthaceae were placed within the Sapindales, the Greyiaceae and Francoaceae within the Rosales, the latter subsumed within the Saxifragaceae.
Recent comparison of DNA-fragments from species within the order resulted in the following phylogenetic tree.


Oxalis valdiviensis

Oxalis valdiviensis, the Chilean yellow-sorrel, is an "Oxalis" species found in Chile and Argentina.


Najas marina

Najas marina is a species of aquatic plant known by the common names spiny water nymph, spiny naiad and holly-leaved naiad. It is an extremely widespread species, reported across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas and many oceanic islands. It can be found in many types of freshwater and brackish aquatic habitat, including bodies of alkaline water.
Description.
"Najas marina" is an annual producing a slender, branching stem up to 40 or 45 centimeters in maximum length. The evenly spaced leaves are up to 4 centimeters long, 1 to 3 millimeters wide, and edged in tiny sawlike teeth. The leaf has prickles along its midvein. Minute stalkless, green flowers occur in the leaf axils. The plant is dioecious, with male and female flower types occurring on separate individuals. In the British Isles it is possible that only female plants occur. It flowers in mid-summer.
Varieties and subspecies.
A long list of varietal and subspecific names have been proposed over the years. At present, only nine are widely accepted:
Distribution and habitat.
"Najas marina" has a wide, almost circumglobal distribution in temperate and tropical regions. It occurs in mesoeutrophic water over deep peat or mud. It was first recorded in the British Isles in 1883 at Hickling Broad in Norfolk where it had become established. Populations declined in the 1960s because of pollution, but action has been taken to reduce the level of nutrients in the Norfolk Broads and the water quality has improved.
Fossil record.
One fossil seed of "Najas marina" has been extracted from borehole samples of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.


Valeriana secunda

Valeriana secunda is a species of plant in the family Caprifoliaceae. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland.


Diospyros pilosanthera

Diospyros pilosanthera is a tree in the family Ebenaceae. It grows up to tall. The twigs are slender to stout. Inflorescences bear up to 12 flowers. The fruits are round to ovoid, up to in diameter. The specific epithet "" is from the Latin meaning "with pilose or hairy anthers". Habitat is forests from sea level to altitude. "D. pilosanthera" is found from Indochina to Malesia.


Diplacus clevelandii

Diplacus clevelandii is an uncommon species of monkeyflower known by the common name Cleveland's bush monkeyflower. It was formerly known as "Mimulus clevelandii".
Its specific epithet "clevelandii" honors 19th-century San Diego-based plant collector and lawyer Daniel Cleveland.
Distribution.
It is endemic to the Peninsular Ranges of southern California and northern Baja California, where it grows in chaparral and oak woodland habitats, including in disturbed areas.
It is a Vulnerable species on the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants.
Description.
"Diplacus clevelandii" is a sturdy perennial herb producing a hairy erect stem up to 90 centimeters tall from a woody caudex. The hairy lance-shaped or oblong leaves are up to 10 centimeters long and oppositely arranged, often with smaller leaves growing in their axils.
The tubular base of each flower is encapsulated in a hairy calyx of sepals over 2 centimeters long with long, pointed lobes. The flower corolla is bright yellow and up to 4 centimeters in length with a wide, five-lobed mouth. Its bloom period is April to June.


Lithocarpus ferrugineus

Lithocarpus ferrugineus is a tree in the beech family Fagaceae. The specific epithet "" is from the Latin meaning "red-brown", referring to the acorn's indumentum.
Description.
"Lithocarpus ferrugineus" grows as a tree up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The greyish brown bark is smooth or scaly or lenticellate. Its coriaceous leaves measure up to long. The reddish brown acorns are ovoid and measure up to across.
Distribution and habitat.
"Lithocarpus ferrugineus" grows naturally in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. Its habitat is mixed dipterocarp to lower montane forests to altitude.


Ceramium strictum

Ceramium strictum is a small marine red alga.
Description.
This alga grows in tufts to a length of no more than 12 cm long. It is densely branched but not completely corticate appearing to have a banded or collar-like appearance. The apices of the axes are strongly inrolled. The branches do not have spines. Rhizoids are numerous.
Reproduction.
Cystocarps containing carposporangia and tetrasporangia are borne on the erect thalli.
Habitat.
Epiphytic on other algae and mussels in the littoral.
Distribution.
Southern and western coasts of England and Ireland.In Europe from Norway to France and the Azores.
Nomenclature.
The validity of the name "Ceramium strictum" is as yet unsure.


Schombocattleya

Schombocattleya (from "Cattleya" and "Schomburgkia", its parent genera) is an intergeneric hybrid of orchids. The genus is abbreviated Smbc. in the horticultural trade.


Meliosma linearifolia

Meliosma linearifolia is a species of plant in the Sabiaceae family. It is endemic to Panama. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Calystegia longipes

Calystegia longipes is a species of morning glory known by the common name Paiute false bindweed.
It is native to the southwestern United States from California to Utah, where it grows in many types of habitat.
Description.
It is a woody perennial herb growing into a bushy form up to a meter tall, with many spreading and erect, twining branches. The small leaves are linear to narrowly lance-shaped and sometimes have small lobes divided from the sides. The inflorescence is a solitary flower on a long peduncle up to 20 centimeters in length. The morning glory flower at the end is a white to pale lavender or pinkish bloom 2 or 3 centimeters wide.


Boerhavia coulteri

Boerhavia coulteri is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by the common name Coulter's spiderling. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, particularly the desert areas. This is an annual herb producing an erect or creeping stem up to about 70 or 80 centimeters in maximum length. They are slightly hairy and have sticky resin glands toward the bases. The leaves are lance-shaped to somewhat triangular, pointed, sometimes wavy or rippled along the edges, and 5 centimeters in maximum length. Most of the leaves grow from the lower half of the plant. The sticky inflorescence is a small cluster of tiny white to pale pink flowers, each under two millimeters long. The fruit is an elliptical body a few millimeters in length with longitudinal ribs. The fruits are borne in small clusters.


Oxalis rufescens

Oxalis rufescens is a species of plant in the family Oxalidaceae. It is endemic to Ecuador.


Canarium schweinfurthii

Canarium schweinfurthii (commonly known as the bush candle, African olive, African elemi, or canarium), is a species of large tree native to tropical Africa. Names in many African languages are variations of "mupafu".
Description.
Because of similarities in their fruit and leaves, African elemi may be confused with "Dacryodes edulis".
Distribution and habitat.
African elemi is found from the coast of Nigeria, Angola to Uganda.
Uses.
The African elemi tree is one of several sources of the economically useful oleoresin known elemi. In West Africa this resin is traditionally burned for fumigating dwellings and mixed with oil for body paint.
African elemi bears edible fruit with a thick, dense, hard shell.
The hard stones of its fruit are used for traditional divination among Plateau speakers in the Middle Belt of central Nigeria.


Embothrium coccineum

Embothrium coccineum, commonly known as the Chilean firetree, Chilean firebush, notro, or ciruelillo in Spanish, is a small evergreen tree in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. It grows in the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina.
Description.
The Chilean firetree grows 4–15 m (13–50 ft) tall and can reach 50 cm (20 in) in diameter. The bark is dark grey with light spots and the wood is light pink in color. It produces clusters of deep red flowers (occasionally pale yellow) and flowering occurs in spring. The fruit is a dry follicle, with about 10 seeds inside.
Uses.
It is grown as an ornamental in Great Britain and the United States, and as far north as the Faroe Islands at 62° North latitude.
The plant was introduced to Europe by William Lobb during his plant collecting expedition to the Valdivian temperate rain forests in 1845–1848. It was described by Kew Gardens as:"Perhaps no tree cultivated in the open air in the British Isles gives so striking and brilliant a display as this does."
The wood being very soft but durable, is used for making spoons, kitchen vessels and other craft articles.
Ecology.
It is pollinated by both hummingbirds and insects in its natural range.
Cluster roots.
Like other members of the family Proteaceae, "E. coccineum" seedlings produce dense root masses called cluster roots or proteoid roots that provide access to normally inaccessible forms of various nutrients, especially phosphorus. Cluster roots exude acidic substances which are able to convert the otherwise inaccessible forms of nutrients into forms that are biologically useful. These nutrients are then made available to other plants from the leaf litter of "E. coccineum", making it a valuable keystone plant in certain terrains.


Lactoris fernandeziana


Asplenium complanatum

Asplenium complanatum is a species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae. It is native to Seychelles. It is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.


Chenopodium hians

Chenopodium hians is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common names hians goosefoot and gaping goosefoot. The Latin species name "hians" means "gaping".
Distribution.
It is native to much of the western half of North America from British Columbia to California to Texas, where it grows in many types of open habitat, moist and dry, including disturbed areas such as roadsides.
Description.
This is an annual herb growing an erect, branching stem up 80 centimeters in maximum height. It is powdery in texture, especially on the leaves and flowers. The leaves are up to 3 centimeters long, oval to lance-shaped with smooth edges. The inflorescence is a spike or panicle a few centimeters long made up of several clusters of tightly-packed tiny flowers. Each flower has five lobes and coats the developing fruit.


Nephroselmidales


Chlorella singularis

Chlorella singularis is a species of euryhaline, unicellular microalgae. It is spherical to oval-shaped and is solitary.


Gymnocalycium taningaense

Gymnocalycium taningaense is a species of "Gymnocalycium" from Argentina.


The Oak at Flagey

The Oak at Flagey (French - "Le Chêne de Flagey") or The Vercingetorix Oak ("Le Chêne de Vercingétorix") is an 1864 landscape painting by Gustave Courbet, measuring 89 by 110 cm. It shows an oak near the Courbet family farm in the village of Flagey, Doubs, a few kilometres from Ornans in Franche-Comté, named in relation to Vercingetorix. The oak was later struck by lightning and no longer survives.
In 1880 the artist's sister Juliette Courbet sold it to the banker Henry C. Gibson and on the latter's death it was offered to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1896. It was sold at Sotheby's New York in 1987 to a Japanese collector, Michimasa Murauchi, for $450 000. It was then bought for 4.5 million Euros in 2012 by the musée Courbet, including 2.7 million Euros from private donations and 1.3 million Euros from public funds. It was lent to the "Volez, Voguez, Voyagez" exhibition on Louis Vuitton at the Grand Palais.


Coccothrinax pumila

Coccothrinax pumila is a palm which is endemic to Cuba.


Passiflora picturata

Passiflora picturata is a species of passion flower in the family Passifloraceae.


Chlorodendrales

Chlorodendrales are an order of green, flagellated, thecate, unicellular eukaryotes, within the green algae class Chlorodendrophyceae. Prasinophyceae are defined by their cellular scales which are composed of carbohydrates, and Chlorodendrales are unique within this group due to these scales forming a fused thecal wall. Cells of Chlorodendrales are completely covered in scales, which fuse around the cell body producing the theca, but remain individually separated on the flagella, of which there are typically four per cell. Species within Chlorodendrales live in both marine and fresh water habitats, occupying both benthic and planktonic food webs. Additionally, they are photoautotrophs, meaning they produce their own food through the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy.
Habitat and ecology.
Species within Chlorodendrales are found in marine and freshwater ecosystems around the world, including locations such as the salt plains of Goa, India. Species occupy niches within planktonic and benthic food webs, in which all species are photoautotrophic and have an ecosystem and trophic role similar to land plants in terrestrial environments. Primary producers are consumed by primary consumers such as zooplankton, invertebrate larvae, and heterotrophic protists species. Most species within this group are free-living, however some species have become photosynthetic symbionts in animals; the animal species that can be in symbiosis with Chlorodendrales is limited, due to their need for sunlight for photosynthetic processes.
Chlorodendrales populations in natural settings tend to experience extreme fluctuations in population numbers due to seasonal changes in abiotic conditions, such as ambient temperature, the amount of sunlight, and nutrient concentrations. This leads to what has been classified as “blooms,” which is the rapid increase in algae numbers during the spring and autumn months because of high light activity and the turnover of nutrients within the water column. It results from the high amount of sunlight, and the mixing of the water layers which resupplies the upper photosynthetic layer with nutrients, allowing for primary productivity to flourish.
Cell morphology.
Cell shape and size of Chlorodendrales cells varies depending on the species. The cells range greatly in size from species to species, with an upper limit of ~25 µm in length. Cells can be round, ovoid, elliptical, flattened, or compressed; there is great diversity in Chlorodendrales cells.
Flagellar and cell-body scales.
Chlorodendrales scales are unique from other Prasinophyceae lineages because the scales fuse to form a theca, which acts as an exterior protective casing for the cell. All Prasinophyceae lineages produce these external scales within the Golgi apparatus, and secrete the scales via the endomembrane system. Vesicles budding from the trans-Golgi face carry the scales to the cell surface, and upon fusion release the scales to the external cell face. In Chlorodendrales lineages, these scales fuse after secretion to produce the thecal wall, in which individual scales bind by cross-linking to one another.
The flagellar scales and the cell body scales are structurally and functionally different, the main difference being the fusion of cell-body scales. The scales also differ in size, shape, and macromolecular composition. The Golgi apparatus is only capable of producing one scale-type at a time, thus, species with multiple scale-types must have different phases of thecal development separated by time and space. This also means that cell body and flagellar scale production occurs separately.
Scales used for taxonomic purposes and species identification.
The thecae of Chlorodendrales species are often unique, and it is an important character for species identification and classification. Thecate features vary greatly from species to species, in which thecae can vary between 1-5 scale layers, in scale shape, in scale size, and in molecular composition/ultrastructure. These thecate features are genetically determined, and thus, they are a consistent and reliable characteristic that will not be influenced by environmental factors.
Genera within Chlorodendrales.
There are two genera within the order Chlorodendrales, "Tetraselmis" and "Scherffelia". Both species are green, photoautotrophs, flagellated, and thecate. The difference between the two genera is the presence or absence of pyrenoids; "Tetraselmis" contains pyrenoids and "Scherffelia" does not. Flagella within the two genera are distinct in composition and morphology from species to species, which can be used to infer taxonomy and identification. Both genera produce three types of flagellar scales, in scale combination, and scale patterning, is unique between species. Scales differ mainly in composition and ultrastructure, and these are the main features examined from flagellar scales when identifying species. The increase in knowledge about the morphological and ultrastructural features of flagellar scales, and the ability to identify species as a result, has been due to the development of advanced microscopy and staining techniques.
Phylogenetic studies.
Researchers have collected and analyzed molecular data from 13 prasinophyte taxa to better construct the phylogenetic relationship of early branching green alga. Phylogenetic analysis of the small subunit ribosomal-RNA sequence was performed using distance, parsimony, and likelihood statistical tests. The analyses showed four independent prasinophyte groups, in which these lineages represented the earliest divergences among the Chlorophyta. The most parsimonious tree created suggests that the Chlorodendrales lineage is a very early diverging group of “core Chlorophytes,” of which there are four clades. However, the diverging order of this group remains unclear.


Sphagnaceae

The Sphagnaceae is a family of moss with only one living genus "Sphagnum".


British NVC community H7

NVC community H7 ("Calluna vulgaris - Scilla verna" heath) is one of the heath communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of two communities categorised as maritime heaths.
It is a fairly widespread coastal community. There are five subcommunities.
Community composition.
The following eleven constant species are found in this community:
The following rare species are associated with the community:
Distribution.
This community is found all around the coasts of Scotland, western Wales, Devon and Cornwall.
Subcommunities.
There are five subcommunities:


Earina

Earina is a genus of orchids (family Orchidaceae). AT the present time (June 2014), 7 species are recognized, native to various islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The New Zealand species are all epiphytic, or sometimes lithophytic, found growing on mossy trunks in the rain forests of both the North and South Islands. The strap-shaped leaves grow from pendulous wire-thin pseudobulbs that arise from creeping rhizomes. "E. mucronata" flowers mainly in the spring, whereas "E. autumnalis", as its name suggests, flowers in the autumn—its flowers are fragrant. The flowers are tiny, typically less than 1 cm across, but are produced in abundance. A large flowering specimen in the bush looks spectacular.


Facheiroa squamosa

Facheiroa squamosa is a species of "Facheiroa" from Brazil.


Clarkia exilis

Clarkia exilis is a small herbaceous annual plant of western North America. It is an uncommon species in the evening primrose family known by the common names Kern River clarkia and slender clarkia.
Description.
"Clarkia exilis" is an annual herb producing a slender, erect stem often exceeding half a meter in height. The bright green leaves are lance-shaped to narrowly oval, hairless, up to 6 centimeters long, and sometimes lacking petioles. The top of the stem is occupied by the inflorescence, with open flowers and deflexed buds towards the tip of the stem. The sepals and ovary may be lightly hairy (but typically distinctly less so than its sister-species "Clarkia unguiculata"). The sepals will remain fused together along one side as the petals bloom. Each of the four petals has a narrow claw and diamond-shaped limb. The entire petal is up to 1.5 centimeters long and white or soft purple or pink, sometimes with a purple spot. There are eight stamens, four of which have large reddish anthers and four with smaller, paler anthers. At maturity the style is equal to the stamens. The fruit is a capsule up to 3 centimeters long and about 2 millimeters wide that may contain from a few to 80 seeds.
Distribution.
"Clarkia exilis" is endemic to California, where it is known only from the woodlands of the southernmost Sierra Nevada foothills immediately northeast of Bakersfield and the adjacent Tehachapi Mountains. Populations are largely proximal to the Kern River and its nearby drainages, with some few populations found to the immediate west in the foothills of the Sierra as they descend to the Great Central Valley.


Eucalyptus denticulata

Eucalyptus denticulata, commonly known as the Errinundra shining gum or shining gum, is a species of tree endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has mostly smooth, white bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves with toothed edges, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped, barrel-shaped or cylindrical fruits. It is similar to "E. nitens" and was previously included in that species.
Description.
"Eucalyptus denticulata" is a tree that typically grows to a height of but does not form a lignotuber. It has smooth, white, cream-coloured, green or brownish bark with rough, fibrous-flaky bark near the base. Ribbons of shed bark often hang in the upper branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have stems that are square in cross-section with wings on the corners. The leaves of young plants are arranged in opposite pairs, sessile, egg-shaped or heart-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved, long and wide on a petiole long. The edges of the leaves are irregularly toothed and are glandular.
The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven in leaf axils on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds sessile or on a pedicel up to long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped, about long and wide with a conical to rounded operculum that differs in the way it is shed from that of "E. nitens". The fruit is a woody conical, cup-shaped, barrel-shaped or cylindrical capsule long and wide with the valves at rim level or slightly exposed above the rim of the fruit.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Eucalyptus denticulata" was first formally described in 1991 by Ian Cook and Pauline Ladiges from a specimen collected in the Errinundra National Park by Kevin Thiele and Suzanne Prober. The description was published in "Australian Systematic Botany". The specific epithet ("denticulata") is a Latin word meaning "with small teeth" referring to the edges of the leaves. The uneven leaf margins may be a defence against herbivores.
Previously this species was considered an informal variant of "E. nitens".
Distribution and habitat.
Errinundra shing gum grows in wet forests and the margins of rainforest in Victoria and New South Wales. In Victoria it occurs on the ranges of East Gippsland including the Errinundra Plateau and Mount Kaye and in New South Wales, south from Bombala.


Calceolaria adenanthera

Calceolaria adenanthera is a species of plant in the Calceolariaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador.


Thomandersiaceae


Lycieae

Lycieae is a tribe of flowering plants in the subfamily Solanoideae of the family Solanaceae. It comprises two genera: "Lycium" and "Grabowskia".


Cinnamodendron angustifolium

Cinnamodendron angustifolium is a species of flowering plant in the family Canellaceae. It is found growing on the Massif de la Hotte mountain range in southwestern Haiti.


Brunellia morii

Brunellia morii is a species of plant in the Brunelliaceae family. Endemic to Panama, it is threatened by habitat loss.


Aerangis biloba

Aerangis biloba is a species of epiphytic orchid. It is native to tropical West Africa (Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon).


Gymnocalycium paraguayense

Gymnocalycium paraguayense is a species of "Gymnocalycium" from Paraguay.


Grusonia

Grusonia is a genus of opuntioid cacti (family Cactaceae), originating from the North American Deserts in Southwest United States and northern Mexico, including Baja California. Authors differ on precise boundaries of the genus, which has been included in "Cylindropuntia".
Species include:


Cyrtopodium

Cyrtopodium, often abbreviated Cyrt in horticulture, is a genus of more than 40 species of epiphytic and terrestrial orchids found from Florida and Mexico through Argentina. "Cyrtopodium" is the only genus in the monotypic subtribe Cyrtopodiinae.
The type species is "C. andersonii", originally described in 1812 by A.B. Lambert as "Cymbidium andersonii", and in 1813 used by Robert Brown to erect his new genus "Cyrtopodium".


Hedwigiales

Hedwigiales is an order of mosses. It is named after Johannes Hedwig (1730-1799), the founder of modern bryology.
Description.
They are a medium to large size acrocarpous moss with irregular branching. A midrib is not normally present in the leaves.
Classification.
There are three families placed in the Hedwigiales.


Bossiella

Bossiella is a genus of coralline algae with 5 recognised species. It reproduces via conceptacles; individual thalli only produce conceptacles of a single sex.
Species.
The valid species currently considered to belong to this genus are:


Nepenthes pulchra

Nepenthes pulchra is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippine island of Mindanao, where it grows at 1300–1800 m above sea level. Its discovery was announced online in August 2011.


Lagerstroemia floribunda

Lagerstroemia floribunda, also known as Thai crape myrtle and kedah bungor, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lythraceae. It is native of the tropical region of Southeast Asia.
In Thailand, it is the provincial tree of Saraburi Province.


Cochlearia anglica

Cochlearia anglica is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common names English scurvygrass and long-leaved scurvy grass. It is a plant of the coastlines of Europe, especially the British Isles. It is edible, and as its name suggests, it is rich in vitamin C. It has spade-shaped leaves and white flowers.


Convolvulus tricolor

Convolvulus tricolor (syn. "C. minor") is a species of flowering plant in the family Convolvulaceae, native to Mediterranean Europe. Common names include dwarf morning-glory and tricolour convolvulus.
Description.
It is a short to medium annual plant with solitary long-stalked flowers. The flower is a tri-coloured funnel-shaped bloom about three centimeters wide, blue with white and a yellow centre.
Taxonomy.
Subspecies.
O. Bolòs et J. Vigoe distinguish "Convolvulus tricolor" ssp. "pentapetaloides" (L.) O.Bolòs & Vigo, found in the Balearic isles, from the type subspecies ("Convolvulus tricolor ssp tricolor") by flowers that are smaller (7–10 mm), and both the calyx and the capsule having few or no hairs.
Habitat.
Common on cultivated land, dry open habitats, sandy places and roadsides. Soil must be warmed to at least 64 °F to grow without any issues.
Distribution.
This flowering plant is native to the Mediterranean Basin, particularly the south, but it is occasionally seen in other areas of similar climate. In Spain it can be found in the Balearic Islands,
and Andalusia, especially in the Costa del Sol.
Cultivation.
"Convolvulus tricolor" is usually cultivated for ornamental purposes. The species and the cultivar 'Blue Ensign' have both received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Pseudopanax ferox

Pseudopanax ferox, the toothed lancewood or horoeka, is a small tree endemic to New Zealand. It is similar to the more common lancewood, "Pseudopanax crassifolius", but with more prominently tooth-shaped leaves. The juvenile leaves are a very dark grey-brown to grey-green colour, narrow, stiff and up to 40 cm long. Once the slow growing tree reaches maturity at 10 to 15 years, the leaf form becomes shorter, wider and dark green in colour. It is only in adulthood that the tree's shape changes from one central stem and downward growing leaves to a more typical tree shape with branches spreading to build a round head. A mature toothed lancewood can reach 6 metres height with a trunk of up to 25 cm in diameter. The mature trunk has distinctive longitudinal grooves which sometimes twist slightly.
The tree is sometimes also called fierce lancewood in reference to its fierce looking saw tooth shaped juvenile leaves.
Use.
Toothed lancewood used to be rare in cultivation, but is now a favoured gardening plant in New Zealand. It gained wide popularity following its use in the gold-medal winning New Zealand exhibit at the 2004 Chelsea Flower Show in the UK. The distinctive leaves and juvenile shape lend themselves to use in narrow spaces and are often used to complement modern building architecture. Due to its slow growth and relatively small size for a tree – even once mature – it is one of few trees innately suitable for small gardens.
Literary References.
"Lancewood", a 1999 war novel by New Zealand author Alan Marshall references this plant as a metaphor for the taking up of arms to protect New Zealand during World War II. There are many long passages reflecting upon the form of the Lancewood, for example:
"A bizzarre jagged gem of the forest with leaves lancing out at all angles; each blade a blade -- deeply serrated to create a satanic botanic sword".
Planting.
Planting is best done in free draining soil in any semi-shaded to sunny position. Leaves are more numerous in sunny situations, which is noticeable on young specimens. Toothed lancewood is generally hardy and can withstand some minor frost damage to the tip (which may cause it to branch). It is also tolerant of dry locations and high winds.


Pittosporum rapense

Pittosporum rapense is a species of plant in the Pittosporaceae family. It is endemic to French Polynesia.


Alpine pennycress

Alpine pennycress is a common name for several plants and may refer to:


Boechera sparsiflora

Boechera sparsiflora (formerly "Arabis sparsiflora") is a species of rockcress known by the common names sicklepod rockcress and elegant rockcress. It is native to western North America from California to Utah to Yukon, where it can be found in a number of habitats. This is a coarsely hairy perennial herb growing one or more thick stems from a caudex. The stem may branch or not and it reaches up to 90 centimeters in maximum height. The leaves vary in shape from linear to arrowhead-like and may or may not have toothed edges. They are usually hairy and up to 8 or 10 centimeters long. The raceme inflorescence bears a number of flowers with spoon-shaped petals about a centimeter long in shades of purple or pink. The fruit is a large, curved silique 6 to 12 centimeters long


Alsodeiopsis

Alsodeiopsis Oliver is a genus in the flowering plant family Icacinaceae. They are native to tropical Africa. There are about 11 species. Seventeen species names have been published in "Alsodeiopsis", but many of these are synonyms. The type species, "Alsodeiopsis mannii" was named by Daniel Oliver in 1869.
"Alsodeiopsis zenkeri" is a rheophyte.


Daniel H. Norris

Daniel Howard Norris (1933 – September 30, 2017) was an American botanist dedicated to the study of mosses, and was a renowned expert on the California bryoflora.
Career.
Norris received his B.S. in botany from Michigan State University in 1954. In 1964, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in botany, advised by Jack Sharp. While there, he was a member of Sigma Xi. Norris became a professor of botany at Humboldt State University in 1967. Between 1984 and 1985, Norris was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Helsinki. In 1990, Norris was awarded with an honorary Ph.D. by the University of Helsinki. After his retirement in 1991, he transferred his extensive brylogical collection to the University of California, Berkeley to continue his research.
Throughout his lifetime, Norris collected about 116,000 bryophyte specimens. His main areas of focus were in California and Papua New Guinea, however, he made major collections on every continent other than Antarctica.
Norris described four moss genera as new to science; "Bryolawtonia", "Orthothuidium", "Stoneobryum", and "Unclejackia". He has also authored or co-authored the following new species: "Anomobryum hyalinum", "Amomobryum ochii", "Brachymenium wabagense", "Brachymenium huonii", "Bryum pseudoblandum", "Dicranella papua-palustris", "Dicranum cutlackii", "Didymodon coffeatus", "Didymodon wisselii", "Diphyscium chiapense", "Hampeella concavifolia", "Hyophila streimannii", "Leptocladiella flagellaris", "Macrocoma gastonyi", "Merrilliobryum tanianum", "Microdus friedensis", "Orthotrichum kellmanii", "Orthotrichum shevockii", "Orthotrichum spjutii", "Oxystegus crassicostatus", "Plagiomnium cordatum", "Powellia parvula", "Rhamphidium novoguineensis", "Splachnobryum limbatum", "Stereophyllum dicksonii", "Syrrhopodon curticancellinatus", and "Trematodon papuensis".
Legacy.
Norris is the namesake of two genera: "Bryonorrisia" and "Timodania"; 1 flowering plant species: "Brongniartia norrisii"; and 12 bryophyte species: "Aphanolejeunea norrisii", "Codriophorus norrisii", "Didymodon norrisii", "Lepicolea norrisii", "Macromitrium norrisianum", "Orthotrichum norrisii", "Pogonatum norrisii", "Radula norrisii", "Scopelophila norrisii", "Trematodon norrisii", "Orthotrichum norrisii", and "Trematodon norrisii".
The daylily cultivar "Hemerocallis" 'Daniel Howard Norris' also bears his name.


Centropogon parviflorus

Centropogon parviflorus is a species of plant in the family Campanulaceae. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.


Pustula tragopogonis

Pustula tragopogonis, the goatsbeard white rust, is an oomycete plant pathogen unrelated to fungal organisms.
"Albugo tragopogonis" is the old name for "Pustula tragopogonis", the causal agent of white blister disease on goatsbeard ("Tragopogon" spp.).


Leucopogon gibbosus

Leucopogon gibbosus is a small plant in the family Ericaceae, endemic to Western Australia. It is an erect shrub, growing from 0.2 m to 1 m high, on sandy soils often over granite or on lateric gravel. Its white flowers may be seen from February to October.
It was first described in 1859 by Stschegleew, from a specimen in the Drummond collection


Ilex cookii

Ilex cookii (Cook's holly or te) is a species of plant in the family Aquifoliaceae. It is endemic to Puerto Rico. It is threatened by habitat loss. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.
This tree is only known from a single specimen and a few seedlings in the cloud forests on Cerro de Punta and Monte Jayuya, both at Toro Negro State Forest in Puerto Rico. Other specimens were probably destroyed when a communications tower was installed on Cerro de Punta.


Pholidostachys

Pholidostachys is a genus of palms found in Central America and northwestern South America (northwestern Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru).


Pyramimonas

Pyramimonas is a genus of green algae in the order Pyramimonadales.


Diplacus pygmaeus

Diplacus pygmaeus is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name Egg Lake monkeyflower.
Distribution.
It is native to northeastern California and adjacent sections of Oregon, where it grows in sagebrush and wet, open habitat in scrub, forest, and woodland. Once thought to be extremely rare and vulnerable, the plant is actually locally common in areas where the soil has been recently disturbed, allowing a probably large seed bank to germinate.
Despite its annual population sometimes running into the millions, the plant is threatened when large-scale disturbances occur.
Description.
This is a petite annual herb forming dense tufts often just a few millimeters high. The lightly hairy oval or widely lance-shaped leaves are up to 1.5 centimeters long. The yellow flower is no more than a centimeter long, its tubular base encapsulated in a hairy calyx of sepals.


Ilex ternatiflora

Ilex ternatiflora is a possibly extinct plant in the family Aquifoliaceae. It was endemic to Cuba.


Helianthemum marifolium

Helianthemum marifolium (syn. "Helianthemum alpinum" Delarbre) is an endangered ornamental plant in the family Cistaceae.


Sticherus

Sticherus is a genus of about 80–90 species of fern.
In Australia they are commonly referred to as shield ferns. In the United States they are commonly referred to as umbrella ferns.
The fronds are branched at least once with each pair of branches spreading out, forming an umbrella like layer of foliage. Fronds are mostly hairless and often glaucous beneath the frond.
Species include:


Astelia pumila

Astelia pumila is a species of flowering plant in the recently named family Asteliaceae. It is an evergreen silver-green perennial from western Patagonia in southern Chile and nearby areas of Argentina. It grows in forests as well as wetlands. The plant is, together with "Donatia fascicularis", dominant in the cushion bogs that exists in areas exposed to the Pacific coast. As such it does not usually found together with "Sphagnum" which tend to grow slightly more inland. Localities where the plant is found include, from north to south; Queulat National Park, Chonos Archipelago, Taitao Peninsula, San Rafael Lake, the vicinities of Caleta Tortel and Tierra del Fuego National Park.


Lemna gibba

Lemna gibba, the gibbous duckweed, swollen duckweed, or fat duckweed, is a species of "Lemna" (duckweed). It has a simple plant body, known as a thallus, which floats on the surface of the water and measures 3 – 5 mm in diameter. A single root hangs down into the water. Found in a wide range of still or slow-flowing water bodies, this common duckweed can also grow on mud or damp rocks.
Distribution.
Distribution is in temperate areas in Europe, including Britain, to the Himalayas, Africa, South America, and North America. This duckweed is one of Britain's most common small water plants, which forms familiar green mats covering stagnant water bodies. Widespread throughout Great Britain, but is absent from much of Scotland and Shetland. In Ireland, it is found mainly in the north and east. Elsewhere, the species has a very wide global distribution, absent only from polar areas and the tropics.
Distribution information for this species can be accessed via the Charms of Duckweed (worldwide) and National Biodiversity Network Gateway (Britain only).
This species spreads mainly through vegetative reproduction, but flowers are occasionally produced in shallow water exposed to full sun. When covering the entire surface of a pond, it can make the water appear solid, and in parts of the north-west of England, children were scared away from such ponds by the myth of Jenny Green-teeth, a pond elf or monster whose presence was indicated by duckweed; she was said to lure children into ponds and drown them.


Eduard Friedrich Poeppig

Eduard Friedrich Poeppig (16 July 1798 – 4 September 1868) was a German botanist, zoologist and explorer.
Biography.
Poeppig was born in Plauen, Saxony. He studied medicine and natural history at the University of Leipzig, graduating with a medical degree. On graduation, the rector of the university gave him a botanical mission to North and South America. He was helped out financially by a small group of friends and scientists in Leipzig, that included botanist Christian Friedrich Schwägrichen, who in exchange, received sets of specimens. He subsequently worked as a naturalist in Cuba (1823–24) and Pennsylvania (1824–26). In 1826 he departed for Valparaiso, Chile, and spent several years performing scientific exploration throughout Chile, Peru and Brazil. As a result of his journey in South America, he published ""Reise in Chile, Peru und auf dem Amazonenstrome, während der Jahre 1827-1832" " (2 volumes).
In the autumn of 1832, he returned to Germany with significant zoological and botanical collections — several hundred stuffed animals, a collection of ethnographic objects, and more than 17,000 dried plants. During the following year, he became an associate professor at the University of Leipzig, where in 1834 he was named director of its zoological museum. In 1846 he attained a full professorship at Leipzig, a position he maintained until his death in 1868. He contributed to the establishment of a scientific museum in Leipzig, and bequeathed to it some of his collections, with the remainder being sent to museums in Berlin and Vienna.
In South America he described numerous new species of plants. His botanical magnum opus, "Nova genera ac Species Plantarum quas in regno, Chiliensi, Peruviano, ac Terra Amazonica, anni 1827-1832 lectarum", was published in three volumes. In it he described 31 new genera and 477 new species. For the first two volumes he collaborated with Stephan Endlicher.
Eponymy.
The plant genus "Poeppigia" is named after him, as are taxa with the specific epithets of "poeppigi", "poeppigii", and "poeppigiana", a few examples being: the silvery woolly monkey ("Lagothrix poeppigii" ), the snake "Atractus poeppigi", the toad "Rhinella poeppigii", the orchid "Campylocentrum poeppigii" , and the angiosperm species "Guatteria poeppigiana" .


Bergerocactus

Bergerocactus emoryi (golden cereus, golden-spined cereus, golden snakecactus) is a species of cactus. It is the sole member of the genus Bergerocactus, named after Alwin Berger. The plant is also known as snake cactus, though this latter name also applies to "Echinocereus pensilis".
This cactus is frail, appears in clusters, and has up to 20 ribs and ramifications. It is rarely taller than 1 m, and its diameter is usually less than 5 cm. Flowers are yellow and appear near the plant's apex, reaching 2 cm in length and diameter. They are tunnel-shaped.
This plant is native to coastal southern California and Baja California.


Eriogonum pusillum

Eriogonum pusillum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name yellowturbans. It is native to the western United States where it grows in sandy soils in a number of habitats, especially in the Mojave Desert and Great Basin.
Description.
This is a small annual herb reaching heights of anywhere from 5 to 30 centimeters. The woolly leaves are located at the base of the plant and are about a centimeter long and rounded.
The spindly naked branches of the inflorescence rise and branch, producing cup-shaped flower clusters at each node along the branches. Each tiny, glandular flower is about three millimeters wide at its maximum and turns from bright yellow to orange-red to red.
Desert tortoise.
This is a food plant for the desert tortoise ("Gopherus agassizii").


Dactyladenia laevis

Dactyladenia laevis is a species of plant in the family Chrysobalanaceae. It is endemic to Gabon, where it is found only in the vicinity of Libreville. It is threatened by habitat loss due to extensive logging.


Pedersenia

Pedersenia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Amaranthaceae.
Its native range is mainland tropical America, from Honduras to Paraguay, and Puerto Rico and the Windward Islands.
Species:


Sphagnum capillifolium

Sphagnum capillifolium, the red bogmoss or small red peat moss, is a species of peat moss native to Canada, the northern United States, Greenland and Europe. Small red peat can be distinguished by its sweeping, outward-curving branches that resemble tresses.
Description.
Small red peat is a brownish-green to pinkish-red moss forming tight, carpet-like mounds. The leaves have no midrib and are tongue-shaped with a bluntly-pointed tip.


Ipomoea alba

Ipomoea alba, sometimes called the tropical white morning-glory or moonflower or moon vine, is a species of night-blooming morning glory, native to tropical and subtropical regions of North and South America, from Argentina to northern Mexico, Florida and the West Indies. Though formerly classified as genus "Calonyction", species "aculeatum", it is now properly assigned to genus "Ipomoea", subgenus "Quamoclit", section "Calonyction".
Description.
It is a perennial, herbaceous liana growing to a height of 5–30 m tall with twining stems. The leaves are entire or three-lobed, 5–15 cm long, with a 5–20 cm long stem. The flowers are fragrant, white or pink, and large, 8–14 cm diameter. The flowers open quickly in the evening and last through the night, remaining open until touched by the morning dew. On overcast days, the blossoms may remain open for longer. The flowers also tend to remain open longer during cool temperatures - which may also cause the segments to snag or tear as they open.
The name moonflower derives from their blooming in the evening and their being round in shape like a full moon.
Historical use.
The Mesoamerican civilizations used the "Ipomoea alba" morning glory to convert the latex from the "Castilla elastica" tree to produce bouncing rubber balls. The sulfur in this morning glory served to cross-link the rubber, a process predating Charles Goodyear's discovery of vulcanization by at least 3,000 years.
Cultivation.
The species is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant for its flowers. In areas too cold for winter survival, it can be grown as an annual plant. Since it is of tropical origin, it flowers best under a summer short day photoperiod. Though it can be successfully flowered in the north, its flowering is impaired by excessively long summer days. Thus, it often does not set buds and bloom until early autumn when daylight length is once again near 12 hours. Propagation is usually by seed. The seed resembles a small, brownish nut, and should be nicked with a file and then soaked overnight before planting. In some areas, it is an invasive species which can cause problems in agricultural settings.


List of sections in subgenus Rhododendron

Traditional to botanical taxonomy, subdivisions of taxonomic ranks further divide subgenera, sections, and subsections into species and subspecies/varieties. Genus "Rhododendron" consists of eight subgenera based on morphology; this page refers to only those lower divisions in subgenus "Rhododendron", commonly known as the scaly or lepidote rhododendrons. Molecular evidence suggests that the subgenus "Rhododendron" is monophyletic, and the section "Vireya" is monophyletic as well with section "Pogonanthum" being nested within section "Rhododendron". As evidenced by the following list, many subsections contain only one species, and many contain only one species that is followed by subspecies or varieties. Criteria for division into subsections may be subjective based on morphology. Recent studies have suggested a revision to the name of section "Vireya"; the section "Vireya" is referred to as "Schistanthe", but contains all the subsections associated with the previous name. In this article, the two can be used interchangeably.
This list does not include known hybrids; because rhododendrons are known to hybridize readily, hybrid species are numerous and are not referenced in this list.


Nigella damascena

Nigella damascena, love-in-a-mist, ragged lady or devil in the bush, is an annual garden flowering plant, belonging to the buttercup family Ranunculaceae.
It is native to southern Europe (but adventive in more northern countries of Europe), north Africa and southwest Asia, where it is found on neglected, damp patches of land.
The specific epithet "damascena" relates to Damascus in Syria. The plant's common name "love-in-a-mist" comes from the flower being nestled in a ring of multifid, lacy bracts.
Description.
It grows to tall, with pinnately divided, thread-like, alternate leaves. The flowers, blooming in early summer, are most commonly different shades of blue, but can be white, pink, or pale purple, with 5 to 25 sepals. The actual petals are located at the base of the stamens and are minute and clawed. The sepals are the only colored part of the perianth. The four to five carpels of the compound pistil have each an erect style.
The fruit is a large and inflated capsule, growing from a compound ovary, and is composed of several united follicles, each containing numerous seeds. This is rather exceptional for a member of the buttercup family. The capsule becomes brown in late summer. The plant self-seeds, growing on the same spot year after year.
Cultivation.
This easily grown plant has been a familiar subject in English cottage gardens since Elizabethan times, admired for its ferny foliage, spiky flowers and bulbous seed-heads. It is now widely cultivated throughout the temperate world, and numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use. 'Persian Jewels' is a mixture of white, pink, lavender and blue flowers. 'Persian Rose' is pale pink. Other cultivars are 'Albion', 'Blue Midget', 'Cambridge Blue', 'Mulberry Rose', and 'Oxford Blue'. 'Dwarf Moody Blue' is around high. The pale blue ‘Miss Jekyll’ and the double white-flowered 'Miss Jekyll Alba' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Related species.
The related "Nigella sativa" (and not "N. damascena") is the source of the spice variously known as nigella, "kalonji" or black cumin.
Alkaloids.
Damascenine is a toxic alkaloid found in "Nigella damascena" seed.
However, an in vivo study in mice and in vitro assessment on human cell lines has not shown any toxicity


Orobanche cooperi

Orobanche cooperi is a species of broomrape known by the common name Cooper's broomrape desert broomrape, spike broomrape, and burroweed strangler. It is native to the desert regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it is a parasite growing attached to the roots of other plants, usually members of the Asteraceae, such as "Artemisia", "Hymenoclea", "Ambrosia" and "Encelia". Although not usually weedy, it has been found infesting agricultural cropland, including tomato fields in inland California. This plant arises from a thick root and a scaly, twisted stem base, and produces a thick, clumpy stem up to 40 centimeters tall. As a parasite taking its nutrients from a host plant, it lacks leaves and chlorophyll. It is dark purple in color and coated with glandular hairs. The inflorescence is an elongated array of several flowers. Each flower is tubular, purple and hairy, and up to about 3 centimeters long.


Frullania dilatata

Frullania dilatata, the dilated scalewort, is a species of liverwort in the Jubulaceae family.
It is found in Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom ...


Androcalva tatei

Androcalva tatei, commonly known as trailing commersonia, is a small shrub that is endemic to Australia. The species occurs in the states of South Australia and Victoria, where it is endangered.


Garcinia morella

Garcinia morella is a species of tree in the family Clusiaceae found in India, and Sri Lanka.
Description.
Trees are up to 12 m tall. Bark is smooth, and dark brown in color; blaze white.
Leaves simple, opposite, decussate; petiole 0.6-1.5 cm long, canaliculate, sheathing at base, glabrous; lamina 6.5-15 x 3.5-8 cm, usually elliptic, sometimes narrow obovate, apex acute to acuminate, base attenuate; coriaceous or subcoriaceous, glabrous; secondary_nerves 6-8 pairs; tertiary_nerves obscure.
Flowers show inflorescence and are dioecious; male flowers in fascicles, axillary; female flowers larger than male, solitary, axillary.
Uses.
Ripe fruits can be eaten but they are very acidic. Just like other garcinia varieties such as kokum (which is prevalent in the Indian west coast) or garcinia pedunculata, the fruit can be preserved by slicing into thin pieces and then drying under sun. It can be made into pickles. Bodos cook the unripe fruit as vegetable with fish. A chutney can be made by boiling the fruit. In Assam, dried and preserved slices are added to black green pulses to make a popular slightly acidic curry. Dried up fruit slices are valued as a traditional remedy for dysentery. In Ayurveda the fruits are used in the treatment of dysentery, gastritis, etc. and is said to have anti inflammatory properties. When the bark is cut it exudes a yellow resin called gamboge that is used in food, paints and medicines. It can be used as a rootstock for the mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana).
In Malnad region of Karnataka, Tirtahalli and Chikkamagalore this is widely used in name of 'odduli', especially in fish recipes. Odduli is prepared by boiling the fruit to get a thick black liquid which can be stored for years without adding preservatives.
Chemistry.
The xanthonoids gaudichaudione A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, gaudichaudiic acid A, B, C, D, E, morellic acid and forbesione from "G. gaudichaudii".


Wallace Oak (Elderslie)

The Wallace Oak was an oak tree that stood in Elderslie, Renfrewshire. It is reputed to have seeded around 1100 and by the late 13th-century grew on the estate of Scottish independence leader William Wallace's father. Wallace is reputed to have hidden himself within the tree to escape from English soldiers. The tree was damaged by the removal of wood to make souvenirs in the 19th-century and it fell during a storm in 1856.
Association with Wallace.
The oak is described as being at least 700 years old in a book of 1838, giving an approximate seeding date of 1100 AD. The tree stood at the west end of the village of Elderslie in Renfrewshire, to the north of the turnpike road. By the late 13th-century the tree came into the ownership of the father of Scottish independence leader William Wallace. William Wallace himself is said to have been born on the estate associated with the oak.
In legend, Wallace is said to have used the branches of the tree to hide from an English patrol. This legend later became more outlandish, with it being stated that the tree hid 300 of Wallace's men. Its canopy has been variously described as covering and a Scottish acre ().
The tree was well known by the 14th century and the Wallace Yew later grew next to it.
19th century.
In 1825 the trunk was measured at in circumference at ground level, reducing to at a height of from the ground. It measured in height with branches extending up to to give a canopy covering 19 English square poles of land ().
After this time the tree declined, partly due to age and partly due to parts of it being removed as souvenirs. By the mid 19th-century it had become common for Scottish men to own a snuff box that incorporated a fragment of the Wallace Oak together with part of a tree said to have been planted by Mary, Queen of Scots at Holyrood Palace, part of another tree under which she is said to have watched the Battle of Langside and a portion of the rafters of Alloway Auld Kirk (made famous by Robert Burns).
By 1851, when it was drawn by Jacob George Strutt for his "Sylva Britannica", many of its branches had been removed and it was described as "a melancholy torso, bald and frail, with its limbs hacked off by relic hunters, like Wallace's by the hangman". The tree fell during a storm in 1856. Its timber was reputedly used to make two regency-style tables. John McAdam commissioned an elaborate frame made from the oak in 1867 which he intended to be used to contain letters about Wallace at the National Wallace Monument.


Quebracho tree

Quebracho is a common name in Spanish to describe very hard (density 0.9–1.3) wood tree species. The etymology of the name derived from "quiebrahacha", or "quebrar hacha", meaning "axe-breaker".
Species.
There are at least three similar commercially important tree species that grow in the Gran Chaco region of South America.
These species provide tannin and a very hard, durable timber. "Quebracho" is sometimes used as a commercial name for the tannin derived from the trees or their timber.
A further species, "Jodina rhombifolia" (Syn. "Iodinia rhombifolia", the "quebracho flojo" (the loose, soft quebracho) or "quebrachillo", "quebrachillo flojo" and "sombra de toro", "sombra de toro macho", "quinchilin", "quinchirin", of the family "Santalaceae", is also sometimes mentioned.
Other species with less economical significance are also locally known as "quebracho" or as "quebrachillo" or "quebrachilla" and could be found in other areas of Latin America :
as false quebracho or "quebracho falso"
Wood.
Quebracho wood from "Schinopsis spp" is red-colored and very hard. Other names for the wood are:
Tannins.
Quebracho produces tannins that can be extracted in "quebracho sawmills" from the heartwood of both red ("Schinopsis lorentzii") and white quebracho ("Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco"). Logs are inserted into planers to produce chips that are used to produce the quebracho extract by boiling them in vats. It is used for fine leather tanning and imparts a red-brown color. Ordinary or warm soluble quebracho (also known as insoluble Quebracho) is the natural extract obtained directly from the quebracho wood. This type of extract is rich in condensed tannins of natural high molecular weight (phlobaphenes), which are not easily soluble. Its use is therefore limited to addition of small amounts during the process of tanning leather intended for shoe soles in hot liquids (temperature above 35 °C) to improve the yield and the water-proofness of the leather. The cold soluble extracts are obtained by subjecting the ordinary extract to a sulphiting process which transforms the phlobaphenes into completely soluble tannins. The cold soluble quebracho extracts are the most universally known and used types. The chemical structure of these extracts can be described as polymers of epicatechin. The main properties of these extracts are: a very rapid penetration, a high tannin content and a relatively low percentage of non-tannins. The rather low acid and medium salt content characterise them as mild tanning extracts (low astringency). Quebracho tannins give an important added value to the quality of leathers, such as vacchetta, belts and garments, making them more compact and tear resistant with a pleasant touch. The sulphited quebracho extract may be carcinogenous in mice. Other recent studies show that quebracho tannins present a strong anti-mutagenic activity. The heartwood contains from 20 to 30 percent tannin and 3 or 4 percent water-soluble nontannin. It is said to not ferment.
According to King and White (1957), the hydrolysable tannins and gallic acid found in the sapwood constitute the raw material for the biosynthesis of the condensed tannins found in the heartwood. Fustin (predominantly (-)-Fustin 66%), (-)-7:3':4'-trihydroxyflavan-3:4-diol ((-)-leuco-fisetinidin), (+)-catechin, gallic acid, fisetin and 2-benzyl-2-hydroxycoumaran-3-ones have been isolated from the heartwoods of "Schinopsis balansae", "Schinopsis quebrachocolorado" and from commercial quebracho extract. Quebracho tannin is rich in profisetinidins and prorobinetidins. The expected masses found in mass spectrometry in negative mode in quebracho tannin are 289, 561, 833, 951, 1105, 1377, 1393, 1651 and 1667. In Quebracho , the sugars and the lignins are thought to be covalently linked to the condensed tannins.
Quebracho tannin is also sold as an enological tannin. The quabracho tannins structure is very similar to that of grape tannins, making them a desirable alternative to consider comparatively because they are much less expensive to produce than grape tannins. Myo-inositol and arabitol are detected in tannins from quebracho.
Researches are being made to develop an eco-friendly anti-biofouling paint from quebracho tannin.
The tannic acid, in the form of alkalized salts, was extensively used as a deflocculant in drilling muds in 1940s-1950s, until it was replaced with lignosulfonates. Its red color gave the mixture the name "red mud".
Quebracho tannin acts as flocculant agent to remove surfactant as sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate in water treatment.
For its polyphenolic structure, quebracho tannin is widely studied for particle boards, plywood and fiber board gluing.
The Argentine companies Unitán and Silvateam are the main leaders in quebracho tannins production.
Quebracho exploitation.
The tanning properties of quebracho extracts were discovered in 1867 by a French tanner, Emilio Poisier, who lived in Argentina. By 1895, the quebracho extracts were exported to Europe and became the principal vegetal tannin source in the world. Amongst other activities Ernesto Tornquist (1842–1908) organised the exploitation of quebracho in Santiago del Estero, in the Chaco region. Originally a dry forest area, the abundance of quebracho attracted timber industries of British capital during the 19th century, leading to extensive deforestation. This devastated the ecosystem in a relatively short time. The private owners of the Chaco then turned to cotton production, employing the local Toba people as a cheap seasonal workforce; the conditions did not change substantially for decades.
The British-owned Central Argentine Railway reached the city of Santiago del Estero in 1884 and the trees were exported via San Lorenzo port.
Barbeque.
The quebracho tree is also used to produce hard wood barbecue charcoal.
External links.
Pictures on flickr


Chaetomitrium elegans

Chaetomitrium elegans is a species of mosses in the genus "Chaetomitrium" and family Symphyodontaceae.


Major Oak

The Major Oak is a large English oak ("Quercus robur") near the village of Edwinstowe in the midst of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, England. According to local folklore, it was Robin Hood's shelter where he and his merry men slept. It weighs an estimated 23 tons, has a girth of 33 feet (10 metres), a canopy of 92 feet (28 metres), and is about 800–1000 years old. In 2014, it was voted 'England's Tree of the Year' by a public poll by the Woodland Trust, receiving 18% of the votes. Its name originates from Major Hayman Rooke's description of it in 1790.
Shape.
There are several theories as to how it became so huge and oddly shaped. The Major Oak may be several trees that fused together as saplings, or the tree could have been pollarded. (Pollarding is a system of tree management that enabled foresters to grow more than one crop of timber from a single tree, causing the trunk to grow large and thick.) However, there is only limited evidence for this theory as none of the other trees in the surrounding area were pollarded.
History.
Support chains were first fitted to the tree in 1908, and its massive limbs have been partially supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding since the 1970s. In 1974, fences were installed around the tree to protect it from root damage, since the number of visitors to the tree was compacting the soil around it.
The formation sign of the 46th Infantry Division of the British Army in the Second World War was the Major Oak. Among the units of the division were battalions of the Sherwood Foresters regiment.
In a 2002 survey, it was voted "Britain's favourite tree".
Also in 2002, someone illegally attempted to sell acorns claimed to be from the Major Oak on an internet-based auction website.
In 2003, in Dorset a plantation was started of 260 saplings grown from acorns of the Major Oak. The purpose was to provide publicity for an internet-based study of the Major Oak, its history, photographic record, variation in size and leafing of the saplings, comparison of their DNA, and an eventual public amenity.
The Major Oak was featured on the 2005 television programme "Seven Natural Wonders" as one of the wonders of the Midlands.
It was voted 'England's Tree of the Year' in 2014, and came sixth in the European Tree of the Year finals in 2015.
The threat to the Major Oak from fracking is the subject of a song by English musician Beans on Toast on his 2017 album "Cushty".
In July 2020 the tree was reported as vandalised, with a three-foot section of bark fallen off.


Polygala poaya

Polygala poaya is a herbaceous plant native to South America.


Encephalartos marunguensis

Encephalartos marunguensis, the Marungu cycad, is a species of cycad in Africa.
It is found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (in the Marungu Mountains and on Muhila plateau) and Tanzania (about 100 km west of Marungu) in the southeast of the country.
Description.
It is an acaule plant, with a partially underground stem up to 40 cm high and with a diameter of 15 cm.
The leaves are 50–80 cm long, bluish green in color, strongly keeled. The rachis is green, with the upper part clearly curved. The linear leaflets, 10–12 cm long, are arranged on the rachis in the opposite way, with an obtuse angle of insertion, which varies from 45 to 80º; the margins are integer and smooth. The leaves of the basal part are often reduced to spines.
It is a dioecious species, with ovoid-shaped male cones, bluish green in color, 18–25 cm long and 5–7.5 cm wide. The female cones, about the same shape, are 20-30 cm long and have a diameter of 10-15 cm. Both are produced in numbers ranging from one to three.
The seeds, 20–30 mm long, have an oblong shape and are covered by a red or yellow sarcotesta.


List of invasive plant species in Hawaii

Numerous plants have been introduced to Hawaii, and many of them have become invasive species.
Invasive plants.
The following are some of invasive plant species established in Hawaii:
Naturalized trees.
The following are some of the naturalized trees and shrubs of Hawaii:


Paxia

Paxia is a genus of plants in the family Connaraceae, first described in 1891. It is native to west-central Africa (Gabon and Nigeria).
Two illegitimate homonyms have been published using the same name, i.e.
1. Paxia 1931, synonym of "Ditaxis" in Euphorbiaceae - endemic to South America
2. Paxia 1966, synonym of either "Neopaxia" or "Claytonia" (depending on source) in Montiaceae - endemic to Australia


Dianella admixta

Dianella admixta, also known as the Black-anther lily or Spreading flax-lily or Black-anther flax lily, is a species of "Dianella" native to South-eastern Australia. It was once considered to be a subspecies or variety of "Dianella revoluta".
"D. admixta" is a dense tufted perennial that typically grows to a height of and a width of and spreads by underground stems. It produces small blue flowers that bloom from August to May. It's berries and seeds are considered edible.


Ozothamnus cupressoides

Ozothamnus cupressoides is an aromatic shrub species, endemic to Australia. Common names include scaly everlasting, lattice everlasting or kerosene bush. It grows to between 0.5 and 1 metre in height and has white-tomentose branchlets. The scale-like leaves are 1 to 3 mm long and 0.5 to 1 mm wide. These are green on the upper surface, and white tomentose below. The flower heads appear in dense clusters in summer and autumn The species occurs in boggy sites and subalpine heathland in New South Wales and Victoria. It was first formally described in 2010 in the journal "Muelleria".


Potamogeton hillii

Potamogeton hillii, common name Hill's pondweed, is a species of plant found in North America. It is listed as endangered in Connecticut, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. It is listed as a special concern in Massachusetts and as threatened in Michigan and New York (state).


Conospermum paniculatum

Conospermum paniculatum is a shrub endemic to Western Australia.
The spreading and open shrub typically grows to a height of . It blooms between July and November producing blue-white flowers.
It is found on gentle slopes, plains and swampy areas in the South West region of Western Australia where it grows in sandy or clay soils.


Hydrocotyle verticillata

Hydrocotyle verticillata, also known as whorled pennywort, whorled marshpennywort or shield pennywort, is a flowering plant found in South and North America and the West Indies. The creeping plants with unusual leaves give it its common names. It grows in places that are marshy, boggy, and wet.<br> "Hydrocotyle verticillata" is used in aquaria, where it is undemanding but prefers a good substrate, and at least moderate light. It benefits from additional carbon dioxide. It is widely used as a foreground plant.


Haworthia emelyae

Haworthia emelyae (synonym with Haworthia picta) is a species of the genus "Haworthia" in the family Asphodelaceae, endemic to the Western Cape Province in South Africa.
Description.
This 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 retusa", "Haworthia bayeri", "Haworthia springbokvlakensis", "Haworthia pygmaea", "Haworthia mirabilis" and "Haworthia magnifica").
A distinctive feature is the convex shape of the leaf faces. The faces appear to bulge upwards, with the leaf tips bent back downwards. Another distinctive feature is the flecked, speckled (often pink) vein markings on the leaf faces. These markings have made this species a very popular ornamental plant for cultivation.
Distribution.
The natural range of this species is in the south-eastern part of the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Here it occurs roughly between Oudtshoorn and Vanwykskraal.


Bromus vulgaris

Bromus vulgaris is a species of brome grass known by the common name Columbia brome.
Distribution.
It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to Wyoming, where it grows in many types of habitat, including temperate coniferous forest.
Description.
It is a perennial grass which may reach 1.1 meters in height. The inflorescence is an open array of spikelets, the lower ones drooping or nodding. The spikelets are flattened and have awns each up to a centimeter long at the tips of the fruits. This grass is considered a good forage for livestock and wild grazing animals.


Larix olgensis

Olga Bay larch or Olgan larch ("Larix olgensis"), a species of larch, is named after Olga Bay in the Sea of Japan. The common name in Japanese language is 満洲唐松 (Manshu'u Kara-matsu). The common name in Chinese is 黄花落叶松 (pinyin: huang hua luo ye song). This species occurs in Central Sikhote-Alin, and rarely occurs in North Korea, and Jilin and eastern Heilongjiang provinces of China, between 500 and 1100 metres in elevation.
This deciduous coniferous tree grows to 25–30 meters tall with a trunk reaching a meter in diameter at breast high, with gray to gray-brown bark with flaking and scaly fissured bark. Its leaves are needle-like, dark-green, 1.5–3 cm long and 1 cm wide. The reddish purple or violet cones mature to light brown, sometimes tinged with purple, and range from 18 to 25 mm long. Pollination occurs in May with seeds maturing in September-October. It grows in mountains and on moist slopes and in swamps. The timber has many uses in construction and for wood fiber. The trunk is used to produce resin while the bark is used for tannins.
"Olga Bay larch" is sometimes treated as a variety of Dahurian Larch "Larix gmelinii var. olgensis" (Ostenf. & Syrach).
"Larix olgensis" is a vulnerable species.


Acanthorrhinum

Acanthorrhinum is a monotypic genus in the family Plantaginaceae that contains only the species Acanthorrhinum ramosissimum. It is found in Spain and North Africa.


Moraea polystachya

Moraea polystachya is a species of plant in the family Iridaceae native to southern Africa.
Description.
"Moraea polystachya" is a herbaceous perennial geophyte growing to about 80mm high. Leaves are green, linear, long and narrow, resembling a grass blade. Flowers in clusters at the tip of branches. The flowers are blue to lilac and have a typical Iris appearance. It flowers mainly March to May (in the southern hemisphere). The plant is found in Namibia, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and North West Province of South Africa. The plant is listed as Least Concern in the SANBI redlist.


Aglaia australiensis

Aglaia australiensis is a species of plant in the family Meliaceae. It is endemic to Australia.


Krameria cistoidea

Krameria cistoidea is a perennial shrub in the plant family Krameriaceae. The biological action of genus members is caused by the astringent rhataniatannic acid, which is similar to tannic acid. Members of "Krameria" are found across the Americas, with most native to the tropical regions. An example occurrence is in the Cerro La Campana of central Chile, where it is found in association with the Chilean Wine Palm, "Jubaea chilensis". They are perennial shrubs which act as root parasites on other plants. The flowers have glands called elaiophores which produce a lipid which is collected by bees of the genus "Centris" as they pollinate the flowers.


Nepenthes cid

Nepenthes cid is a tropical pitcher plant native to the Philippines. It is known only from Bukidnon Province, Mindanao, where it has been recorded as an epiphyte on tall trees at 770 m altitude.
This species belongs to the informal ""N. micramphora" group", which also includes "N. abgracilis" from northeastern Mindanao and "N. micramphora" from southeastern Mindanao. N. cid harbors diminutive, subcylindrical pitchers that narrow to the middle and gradually expand towards the base.
The specific epithet "cid" refers to F. Cid of the University of the Philippines herbarium, who collected the type specimen in 1952.
The authors recommend that this species be assessed as Critically Endangered because the only population is composed of two individuals in a region facing extensive habitat conversion and issues from commercial logging.


Nototrichium

Nototrichium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae. All members of the genus are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. They are known in Hawaiian as kuluī.


Transpiration

Transpiration is the process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from aerial parts, such as leaves, stems and flowers. Water is necessary for plants but only a small amount of water taken up by the roots is used for growth and metabolism. The remaining 97–99.5% is lost by transpiration and guttation. Leaf surfaces are dotted with pores called stomata (singular "stoma"), and in most plants they are more numerous on the undersides of the foliage. The stomata are bordered by guard cells and their stomatal accessory cells (together known as stomatal complex) that open and close the pore. Transpiration occurs through the stomatal apertures, and can be thought of as a necessary "cost" associated with the opening of the stomata to allow the diffusion of carbon dioxide gas from the air for photosynthesis. Transpiration also cools plants, changes osmotic pressure of cells, and enables mass flow of mineral nutrients and water from roots to shoots. Two major factors influence the rate of water flow from the soil to the roots: the hydraulic conductivity of the soil and the magnitude of the pressure gradient through the soil. Both of these factors influence the rate of bulk flow of water moving from the roots to the stomatal pores in the leaves via the xylem.
Mass flow of liquid water from the roots to the leaves is driven in part by capillary action, but primarily driven by water potential differences. If the water potential in the ambient air is lower than the water potential in the leaf airspace of the stomatal pore, water vapor will travel down the gradient and move from the leaf airspace to the atmosphere. This movement lowers the water potential in the leaf airspace and causes evaporation of liquid water from the mesophyll cell walls. This evaporation increases the tension on the water menisci in the cell walls and decrease their radius and thus the tension that is exerted on the water in the cells. Because of the cohesive properties of water, the tension travels through the leaf cells to the leaf and stem xylem where a momentary negative pressure is created as water is pulled up the xylem from the roots. As evaporation occurs at the leaf surface, the properties of adhesion and cohesion work in tandem to pull water molecules from the roots, through xylem tissue, and out of the plant through stomata. In taller plants and trees, the force of gravity can only be overcome by the decrease in hydrostatic (water) pressure in the upper parts of the plants due to the diffusion of water out of stomata into the atmosphere. Water is absorbed at the roots by osmosis, and any dissolved mineral nutrients travel with it through the xylem.
The cohesion-tension theory explains how leaves pull water through the xylem. Water molecules stick together, or exhibit cohesion. As a water molecule evaporates from the surface of the leaf, it pulls on the adjacent water molecule, creating a continuous flow of water through the plant.
Regulation.
Plants regulate the rate of transpiration by controlling the size of the stomatal apertures. The rate of transpiration is also influenced by the evaporative demand of the atmosphere surrounding the leaf such as boundary layer conductance, humidity, temperature, wind and incident sunlight. Along with above ground factors, soil temperature and moisture can influence stomatal opening, and thus transpiration rate. The amount of water lost by a plant also depends on its size and the amount of water absorbed at the roots. Transpiration accounts for most of the water loss by a plant by the leaves and young stems. Transpiration serves to evaporatively cool plants, as the evaporating water carries away heat energy due to its large latent heat of vaporization of 2260 kJ per litre.
During a growing season, a leaf will transpire many times more water than its own weight. An acre of corn gives off about 3,000–4,000 gallons (11,400–15,100 liters) of water each day, and a large oak tree can transpire 40,000 gallons (151,000 liters) per year. The transpiration ratio is the ratio of the mass of water transpired to the mass of dry matter produced; the transpiration ratio of crops tends to fall between 200 and 1000 ("i.e.", crop plants transpire 200 to 1000 kg of water for every kg of dry matter produced).
Transpiration rates of plants can be measured by a number of techniques, including potometers, lysimeters, porometers, photosynthesis systems and thermometric sap flow sensors. Isotope measurements indicate transpiration is the larger component of evapotranspiration. Recent evidence from a global study of water stable isotopes shows that transpired water is isotopically different from groundwater and streams. This suggests that soil water is not as well mixed as widely assumed.
Desert plants have specially adapted structures, such as thick cuticles, reduced leaf areas, sunken stomata and hairs to reduce transpiration and conserve water. Many cacti conduct photosynthesis in succulent stems, rather than leaves, so the surface area of the shoot is very low. Many desert plants have a special type of photosynthesis, termed crassulacean acid metabolism or CAM photosynthesis, in which the stomata are closed during the day and open at night when transpiration will be lower.
Cavitation.
To maintain the pressure gradient necessary for a plant to remain healthy they must continuously uptake water with their roots. They need to be able to meet the demands of water lost due to transpiration. If a plant is incapable of bringing in enough water to remain in equilibrium with transpiration an event known as cavitation occurs. Cavitation is when the plant cannot supply its xylem with adequate water so instead of being filled with water the xylem begins to be filled with water vapor. These particles of water vapor come together and form blockages within the xylem of the plant. This prevents the plant from being able to transport water throughout its vascular system. There is no apparent pattern of where cavitation occurs throughout the plant's xylem. If not effectively taken care of, cavitation can cause a plant to reach its permanent wilting point, and die. Therefore, the plant must have a method by which to remove this cavitation blockage, or it must create a new connection of vascular tissue throughout the plant. The plant does this by closing its stomates overnight, which halts the flow of transpiration. This then allows for the roots to generate over 0.05 mPa of pressure, and that is capable of destroying the blockage and refilling the xylem with water, reconnecting the vascular system. If a plant is unable to generate enough pressure to eradicate the blockage it must prevent the blockage from spreading with the use of pit pears and then create new xylem that can re-connect the vascular system of the plant.
Scientists have begun using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor the internal status of the xylem during transpiration, in a non invasive manner. This method of imaging allows for scientists to visualize the movement of water throughout the entirety of the plant. It also is capable of viewing what phase the water is in while in the xylem, which makes it possible to visualize cavitation events. Scientists were able to see that over the course of 20 hours of sunlight more than 10 xylem vessels began filling with gas particles becoming cavitated. MRI technology also made it possible to view the process by which these xylem structures are repaired in the plant. After three hours in darkness it was seen that the vascular tissue was resupplied with liquid water. This was possible because in darkness the stomates of the plant are closed and transpiration no longer occurs. When transpiration is halted the cavitation bubbles are destroyed by the pressure generated by the roots. These observations suggest that MRIs are capable of monitoring the functional status of xylem and allows scientists to view cavitation events for the first time.


Dioon stevensonii

Dioon stevensonii is a species of cycad native to Mexico.


Collomia grandiflora

Collomia grandiflora is a western North American annual plant in the phlox family (Polemoniaceae), known by the common names grand collomia, large-flowered mountain trumpet, and large-flowered collomia. It is cultivated as an ornamental.
Description.
The plant produces an erect, hairy or fuzzy stem which may be red to green in color. Arranged at wide intervals along the stem are long, lance-shaped leaves, the lowermost sometimes toothed along the edges. Atop the stem is an inflorescence of several flowers in white to yellow or orange. Lower flowerheads may branch from the axils of the alternate leaves. Each tubular, flat-faced flower is 2 or 3 centimeters wide with 5 curving, light-colored petals and 5 stamens tipped with anthers which bear blue pollen. The fruit is a capsule containing sticky seeds.
Uses.
Some Native Americans used the roots and leaves for medicinal purposes.


Polygala ramosa

Polygala ramosa is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It is endemic to the coastal areas of the Southern and Eastern United States. It is an annual herb with a height of that produces yellow flowers between the months of May and September.


Ditrichaceae

Ditrichaceae is a family of haplolepideous mosses (Dicranidae) in the order Dicranales.
Genera.
The family Ditrichaceae contains over twenty genera:


Diospyros muricata

Diospyros muricata is a tree in the family Ebenaceae. It grows up to tall. The twigs are covered with short hairs. Inflorescences bear up to seven flowers. The fruits are ovoid, up to in diameter. The specific epithet "" is from the Latin meaning "rough with short, hard points", referring to the fruits. Habitat is lowland mixed dipterocarp forests from sea level to altitude. "D. muricata" is endemic to Borneo.


Begonia incarnata

Begonia incarnata is a species of plant in the family Begoniaceae, native to Brazil. It is a shrublike evergreen perennial growing to , bearing large, asymmetrical green leaves with a metallic sheen, and dark green veins. It produces small hairy pink flowers. As it does not tolerate temperatures below , in temperate regions it must be grown under glass.
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit under the synonym "Begonia metallica".


Pleurosoriopsis

Pleurosoriopsis is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Polypodioideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). The genus has only one species, Pleurosoriopsis makinoi, native to China (north-central, south-central and Manchuria), Japan, Korea, and Primorsky Krai in Russia.


Brownlowioideae

Brownlowioideae is a subfamily of the botanical family Malvaceae. The genera in this subfamily used to be a part of the paraphyletic Tiliaceae until taxonomic revisions in part by the APG II system.


Lycium andersonii

Lycium andersonii is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its common names include water-jacket, redberry desert-thorn, Anderson thornbush, Anderson's desert thorn, Anderson boxthorn, Anderson lycium, Anderson wolfberry, and squawberry.
The species is native to the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, where it is distributed in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Baja California, Sinaloa, and Sonora. It grows in many habitat types and plant communities, including pinyon-juniper woodland, creosote bush scrub, sagebrush scrub, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub.
This plant is a shrub growing up to about in maximum height. It grows from a large fibrous root system which can extend over from the base of the plant. The shrub is rounded in shape with many branches covered in many thin spines up to long. The flat leaves are thick and fleshy, measuring up to long. They are shed from the plant in dry conditions. The flowers have funnel-shaped white or purple-tinged corollas up to a centimeter long. The fruit is a red or orange berry less than a centimeter long.
This plant grows in sandy, gravelly washes and on slopes and mesas. It tolerates some soil salinity and alkaline soils such as caliche. It thrives in hot, dry climates. It is rarely dominant in the local flora. Common associates include creosote bush ("Larrea tridentata"), yellow palo verde ("Parkinsonia microphylla"), white bursage, ("Ambrosia dumosa"), smoke tree ("Psorothamnus spinosus"), Nevada ephedra ("Ephedra nevadensis"), hop sage ("Grayia spinosa"), pale wolfberry ("Lycium pallidum"), blackbrush ("Coleogyne ramosissima"), singlewhorl burrobrush ("Hymenoclea monogyra"), and Joshua tree ("Yucca brevifolia").
It was named after Charles Lewis Anderson by Asa Gray.


Ulva burmanica

Ulva burmanica is a species of seaweed in Ulvaceae family that can be found in Pegu, Burma.


Steyermarkochloa

Steyermarkochloa is a genus of plants in the grass family. The only known species is Steyermarkochloa angustifolia, native to Colombia (Guainía), Venezuela (Amazonas), and Brazil (Amazonas).


Clematis socialis

Clematis socialis is a rare species of flowering plant in the buttercup family known by the common name Alabama leather flower. It is native to the US states of Alabama and Georgia, where it is known from only five populations. The species is seriously threatened by habitat destruction. It is a federally listed endangered species.
This plant was discovered in 1980 next to a highway in St. Clair County, Alabama, and described to science as a new species in 1982. A second, very small population was found a few years later in Cherokee County. When searches revealed no more occurrences the plant was placed on the endangered species list in 1986. As of 2010 there are four populations in Alabama and one in Georgia; four of the five populations appear stable but two of these occupy less than of territory each and only two are protected.
This is a rhizomatous perennial herb growing up to half a meter in erect height. It is not viny like many other "Clematis". The plant generally forms colonies of stems that sprout up from its horizontal rhizome, so what appears to be a number of plants are actually one plant with several clones attached to its root. The lower leaves are simple or lobed, and the upper leaves may be compound, divided into thin, lance-shaped leaflets. Leaves at the very base of the plant may be scale like. The inflorescence is a solitary flower at the tip of the stem. Its four purple-blue sepals are arranged in an urn shape with spreading, pointed tips; there are no petals. The flower may reach 3 centimeters in length. The fruit is up to 2.5 centimeters long including its hairy, elongated beak.
Sexual reproduction is rare in this species, which undergoes vegetative reproduction by sprouting repeatedly from its rhizome. The formation of seed is inhibited when the plant is shaded in the understory. It is dependent on pollinators for fertilization. The most effective pollinator is the bee "Anthophora ursina", and the bumblebee "Bombus pennsylvanicus" is generally the first pollinator to visit the flowers in an early-bloom season. Other insects that visit the plant include the butterflies Juvenal's duskywing ("Erynnis juvenalis") and snowberry clearwing ("Hemaris diffinis") and the eastern carpenter bee ("Xylocopa virginica"). Research suggests the plant is not pollinated by insects often enough to have an optimum fruit yield. Surprisingly, a genetic analysis of the species revealed a moderate level of genetic diversity, a level higher than would be expected for a rare narrow endemic plant that favors vegetative reproduction as much as this one.
The natural habitat is probably a mix of prairie and swampy forest ecosystems, but what types are uncertain because the plant is only known from human-altered habitat today. Its ability to exist amid such disturbance suggests it may be adapted to a naturally disturbed type of habitat, such as one that burns often. The plant is more abundant and undergoes sexual reproduction more often in open areas where it receives at least partial sun. It is often found with "Phlox glaberrima", a common flower of the prairie which is now considered an indicator of potential appropriate habitat for the "Clematis".
The main threat to this species is the destruction, degradation, and modification of its habitat. Some populations known to have existed have since been destroyed by such activities as installation of gas pipelines and road resurfacing. The first population ever discovered was on a highly disturbed patch of land that had been dug up to remove diseased trees. It was situated next to a highway where it had experienced road maintenance and landscaping activity such as herbicides, mowing, and erosion. This patch of land was private property that was slated for residential development. When it was added to the endangered species list the species was called "imminently threatened" and "extremely vulnerable".
All the current populations are experiencing competition from other plants. When the plant does succeed in reproducing sexually, mice ("Peromyscus" spp.) often eat the seeds. Climate change is suggested as a potential threat to the species by several means, such as decreasing pollinator numbers. As of 2010 the plant is still designated endangered.