|
Abrotanella Forsteroides
''Abrotanella forsteroides'', commonly known as the Tasmanian cushion plant, is an endemic angiosperm of Tasmania, Australia. The plant is a dicot species of the daisy family Asteraceae and can be identified by its bright green and compact cushion like appearance. The term cushion plant refers to a characteristic growth habit adopted by a variety of species and families growing in alpine and subalpine environments. The growth habit is an adaptation to low nutrient areas and typically involves deep tap roots and densely-packed stems, which decay to form a layer of peat under the plants. This dense growth pattern provides insulating properties to the plant, preventing root exposure to sub-zero temperatures, and forms a mat- or cushion-like structure. Description A herbaceous perennial, the plant is low growing, woody, compact and spreads in mat-like manner to 3m in diameter. The large mat is commonly interspersed with other cushion plant species such as ''Dracophyllum minim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cushion Plant
A cushion plant is a compact, low-growing, mat-forming plant that is found in alpine, subalpine, arctic, or subarctic environments around the world. The term "cushion" is usually applied to woody plants that grow as spreading mats, are limited in height above the ground (a few inches at most), have relatively large and deep tap roots, and have life histories adapted to slow growth in a nutrient-poor environment with delayed reproductivity and reproductive cycle adaptations. The plant form is an example of parallel or convergent evolution with species from many different plant families on different continents converging on the same evolutionary adaptations to endure the harsh environmental conditions.Went, F. W. (1971). Parallel evolution. ''Taxon'', 20(2/3): 197-226. Description Cushion plants form large, low-growing mats that can grow up to in diameter. The typical form is a compact mass of closely spaced stems with minimal apical dominance that terminate in individual rosettes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angiosperm
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants that produce their seeds enclosed within a fruit. They are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species. Angiosperms were formerly called Magnoliophyta (). Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants. They are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within their seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. The closest fossil relatives of flowering plants are uncertain and contentious. The earliest angiosperm fossils are in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown. Most species of Asteraceae are annual, biennial, or perennial herbaceous plants, but there are also shrubs, vines, and trees. The family has a widespread distribution, from subpolar to tropical regions in a wide variety of habitats. Most occur in hot desert and cold or hot semi-desert climates, and they are found on every continent but Antarctica. The primary common characteristic is the existence of sometimes hundreds of tiny individual florets which are held together by protective involucres in flower heads, or more technicall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dracophyllum Minimum
''Dracophyllum minimum'', commonly known as heath cushionplant or claspleaf heath, is a species of bolster cushion plant endemic to Tasmania, Australia. It is a low growing, highly compacted plant with white flowers, commonly found in alpine areas of the south, centre and west of Tasmania. Description ''Dracophyllum minimum'' is a highly compacted cushion plant that grows close to the ground. It can form a large spreading mat, often interspersed with other cushion plant species such as ''Oreobolus pumilio'', '' Abrotanella forsteroides'', ''Donatia novae-zelandiae'' and ''Mitrasacme archeri''. This undulating mat of mixed species is referred to as mosaic cushion heath. The leaves of ''D. minimum'' are bright green and sessile, with reddish tips and a broad sheathing base as long as the blade, approx . The flowers are small, solitary, white, and tubular, sitting directly on top of the foliage. The plant can often be mistaken for the vegetatively similar cushion plants ''Abrotanella ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donatia Novae-zelandiae
''Donatia novae-zelandiae'' is a species of cushion plant in the family Donatiaceae and is closely related to species in the family Stylidiaceae. It is found in the alpine and subalpine regions of New Zealand and Tasmania.Wagstaff, S.J. and Wege, J. (2002)Patterns of diversification in New Zealand Stylidiaceae. ''American Journal of Botany'', 89(5): 865-874.Good, R. (1925). On the geographical distribution of the Stylidiaceae. ''New Phytologist'', 24(4): 225-240. ''Donatia novae-zelandiae'' has free stamens and petals, paracytic stomata, and a pollen morphology distinct from the genera of the sister family Stylidiaceae.Laurent, N., Bremer, B., and Bremer, K. (1999). Phylogeny and generic interrelationships of the Stylidiaceae (Asterales), with a possible extreme case of floral paedomorphosis. ''Systematic Botany'', 23(3): 289-304. It was first described by Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scree
Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically have a concave upwards form, where the maximum inclination corresponds to the angle of repose of the mean debris particle size. The exact definition of scree in the primary literature is somewhat relaxed, and it often overlaps with both ''talus'' and ''colluvium''. The term ''scree'' comes from the Old Norse term for landslide, ''skriða'', while the term ''talus'' is a French word meaning a slope or embankment. In high-altitude arctic and subarctic regions, scree slopes and talus deposits are typically adjacent to hills and river valleys. These steep slopes usually originate from late-Pleistocene periglacial processes. Notable scree sites in Eastern North America include the Ice Caves at White Rocks National Recreation Area in southern Ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of Tasmania
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. Etymology The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work cataloguing such vegetation. Moreover, "Flora" was used to refer to the flowers of an artificial garden in the seventeenth century. The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) was first made by Jules Thurmann (1849). Prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately.Thurmann, J. (1849). ''Essai de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abrotanella
''Abrotanella'' is a genus in the family Asteraceae, of 23 species, native to Australia, New Zealand and southern South America. They are usually small plants, sometimes not reaching more than a few millimeters above the ground, although some form cushions in bolster heath Bolster heath or cushion moorland is a type of vegetation community that features a patchwork of very low growing, tightly packed plants found at the limits of some alpine environments. The cushion plants form a smooth surfaced 'cushions' from sever ...s reaching up to a metre in diameter. ; Species ; Synonyms * ''Abrotanella crassipes'' Skottsb. is synonym of '' Abrotanella linearifolia'' A.Gray * ''Abrotanella filiformis'' Petrie is synonym of '' Abrotanella linearis'' Bergg. * '' Rhamphogyne rhynchocarpa'' was formerly placed here with the name '' Abrotanella rhynchocarpa'' References Bibliography * * * Swenson U. 1995. Systematics of Abrotanella, an amphi-Pacific genus of Asteraceae (Senecioneae). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.JPG "Click for more on -> Angiosperm")
