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Alnus Formosana
''Alnus formosana'', the Formosan alder, is a species of alder endemic to Taiwan. It is a medium-sized tree, up to in height and in trunk diameter. Description The formosan alder is a trees up to 20 meters in height with dark gray-brown bark. The petiole is 1.2-2.2 cm, slender; leaves elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, rarely ovate-oblong, 6-12 × 2–5 cm, hairy in the axils of lateral veins beneath, almost hairless above, rounded or broadly cuneate base, irregularly minutely serrated margin, acuminate or acute apex; lateral veins 6 or 7 on each side of the midrib. It has one female inflorescence, or 2-4 in a cluster, ellipsoid, 1-2.5 cm; peduncle 3–5 mm. Distribution and habitat It is found in Taiwan. It is a common species growing on riverbanks from near sea level to . It is commonly found in disturbed habitats as a pioneer species. Ecology ''Alnus formosana'' flowers between May–June, fruiting between July–September. Uses This tree is used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Henry Burkill
Isaac Henry Burkill (18 May 1870 – 8 March 1965) was an English botanist who worked in India and in the Straits Settlements (present day Singapore). He worked primarily in economic botany but published extensively on plant biology, ethno-botany, insect-plant interactions and described several species. He published a two volume compilation on the plants of economic importance in the Malay Peninsula, collating local names and knowledge. He also wrote a detailed history of botany in India. The plant genera ''Burkillia'' and '' Burkillianthus'' were named in his honour. Life and career Burkill was born in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, Yorkshire, he studied at Repton School and received a B.A. with Honours in Natural Science from Caius College, Cambridge winning the Frank Smart Prize. He then joined the University Herbarium at Cambridge as Curator from 1891 to 1896 during which time he obtained a master's degree receiving a Walsingham medal in 1894. In 1897 he joined the Royal Botanic Gard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tomitaro Makino
image:Makino Tomitaro.jpg, 200px, Tomitaro Makino was a pioneer Japanese botanist noted for his taxonomic work. He has been called "Father of Japanese Botany". He was one of the first Japanese botanists to work extensively on classifying Japanese plants using the system developed by Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus. His research resulted in documenting 50,000 specimens, many of which are represented in his ''Makino's Illustrated Flora of Japan''. Despite having dropped out of grammar school, he eventually attained a Doctor of Science degree, and his birthday is remembered as ''Botany Day'' in Japan. Early life Tomitaro Makino was born in Sakawa, Kōchi, Sakawa, Kōchi Prefecture, Kōchi to a prestigious sake brewer. His parents died during his early childhood, and he was raised mainly by his grandmother. Though he dropped out of school after two years, he cultivated a strong interest in English, geography, and especially in botany. In 1880, he became a teacher at the Primary education ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alder
Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species extending into Central America, as well as the northern and southern Andes. Description With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same plant as shorter female catkins, often before leaves appear; they are mainly wind-pollinated, but also visited by bees to a small extent. These trees differ from the birches (''Betula'', another genus in the family) in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the seeds in a similar manner to many conifer cones. The largest species are red alder (''A. rubra'') on the west coast of North America, and black alder (''A. glutinosa''), native ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. The territories controlled by the ROC consist of 168 islands, with a combined area of . The main island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', has an area of , with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly urbanised population is concentrated. The capital, Taipei, forms along with New Taipei City and Keelung the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Other major cities include Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. With around 23.9 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the most densely populated countries in the world. Taiwan has been settled for at least 25,000 years. Ancestors of Taiwanese indigenous peoples settled the isla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pioneer Species
Pioneer species are hardy species that are the first to colonize barren environments or previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems that have been disrupted, such as by wildfire. Pioneer flora Some lichens grow on rocks without soil, so may be among the first of life forms, and break down the rocks into soil for plants.LICHEN BIOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, LICHENS OF NORTH AMERICA, Sylvia and Stephen Sharnoff/ref> Since some uninhabited land may have thin, poor quality soils with few nutrients, pioneer species are often hardy plants with adaptations such as long roots, root nodes containing Diazotroph, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and leaves that employ transpiration. Note that they are often photosynthetic plants, as no other source of energy (such as other species) except light energy is often available in the early stages of succession, thus making it less likely for a pioneer species to be non-photosynthetic. The plants that are often pioneer species also tend to be wind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Fungus
''Tremella fuciformis'' is a species of fungus; it produces white, frond-like, gelatinous basidiocarps (fruiting bodies). It is widespread, especially in the tropics, where it can be found on the dead branches of broadleaf trees. This fungus is commercially cultivated and is one of the most popular fungi in the cuisine and medicine of China. ''Tremella fuciformis'' is commonly known as snow fungus, snow ear, silver ear fungus, white jelly mushroom, and white cloud ears. ''Tremella fuciformis'' is a parasitic yeast, and grows as a slimy, mucus-like film until it encounters its preferred hosts, various species of '' Annulohypoxylon'' (or possibly ''Hypoxylon'') fungi, whereupon it then invades, triggering the aggressive mycelial growth required to form the fruiting bodies. Taxonomy and naming ''Tremella fuciformis'' was first described in 1856 by English mycologist Miles Joseph Berkeley, based on collections made in Brazil by the botanist and explorer Richard Spruce. In 1939, J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shiitake
The shiitake (alternate form shitake) (; ''Lentinula edodes'') is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is now cultivated and consumed around the globe. It is considered a medicinal mushroom in some forms of traditional medicine. Taxonomy and naming The fungus was first described scientifically as ''Agaricus edodes'' by Miles Joseph Berkeley in 1877. It was placed in the genus ''Lentinula'' by David Pegler in 1976. The fungus has acquired an extensive synonymy in its taxonomic history: *''Agaricus edodes'' Berk. (1878) *''Armillaria edodes'' (Berk.) Sacc. (1887) *''Mastoleucomychelloes edodes'' (Berk.) Kuntze (1891) *''Cortinellus edodes'' (Berk.) S.Ito & S.Imai (1938) *''Lentinus edodes'' (Berk.) Singer (1941) *''Collybia shiitake'' J.Schröt. (1886) *''Lepiota shiitake'' (J.Schröt.) Nobuj. Tanaka (1889) *''Cortinellus shiitake'' (J.Schröt.) Henn. (1899) *''Tricholoma shiitake'' (J.Schröt.) Lloyd (1918) *''Lentinus shiitake'' (J.Schröt.) Singer (1936) *''Lentinu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atayal People
The Atayal (), also known as the Tayal and the Tayan, are a Taiwanese indigenous people. The Atayal people number around 90,000, approximately 15.9% of Taiwan's total indigenous population, making them the third-largest indigenous group. The preferred endonym is "Tayal", although the Taiwanese government officially recognizes them as "Atayal". Etymology The Atayal word for Atayal is , meaning "human" or "man". Origins The first record of Atayal inhabitance is found near the upper reaches of the Zhuoshui River. During the late 17th century, they crossed the Central Mountain Ranges into the wilderness of the east. They then settled in the Liwu River valley. Seventy-nine Atayal villages can be found here. Genetics Taiwan is home of a number of Austronesian indigenous groups since before 4,000 BC. However, genetic analysis suggests that the different peoples may have different ancestral source populations originating in mainland Asia, and developed in isolation from each oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pas-ta'ai
Pas-ta'ai (Chinese: 矮靈祭; pinyin: ''Ǎilíngjì''), the “Ritual to the Spirits of the Short eople, is a ritual of the Saisiyat people, a Taiwanese aboriginal group. The ritual commemorates the ''Ta'ai'', a tribe of short dark-skinned people they say used to live near them. The ritual is held every two years and all Saisiyat are expected to participate. History The Pas-ta'ai ritual is purported to have been practiced for 400 years and was initially practiced every year during the harvest season. It was first recorded in 1915 in the ''Surveys of the Customs of Barbarian Tribes'' by researchers operating under the colonial Japanese government. Under Japanese rule, the frequency was reduced to once every two years. According to anthropologist and filmmaker Hu Tai-li, from the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica, the tradition had died down to the point to where it was largely only the elders of the Saisiyat who could practice the rituals; over the last 20 years, ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saisiyat People
The Saisiyat (; Hakka Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''賽夏族(Sòi-hà-tshu̍k)''), also spelled Saisiat, are an indigenous people of Taiwan. In 2000 the Saisiyat numbered 5,311, which was approximately 1.3% of Taiwan's total indigenous population, making them one of the smallest aboriginal groups in the country. The Saisiyat inhabit Western Taiwan, overlapping the border between Hsinchu County and Miaoli County. They are divided into the Northern Branch ( Wufong in the mountainous Hsinchu area) and the Southern Branch (Nanzhuang and Shitan in the highlands of Miaoli), each with its own dialect. Their language is also known as Saisiyat. Names Saisiyat are sometimes rendered as Saiset, Seisirat, Saisett, Saisiat, Saisiett, Saisirat, Saisyet, Saisyett, Amutoura, or Bouiok. History A series of major conflicts between the Kingdom of Tungning and the Saisiyat people left the Saisiyat decimated and with much of their land in the hands of the Kingdom. The details of the conflicts remain mysterio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alnus
Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species extending into Central America, as well as the northern and southern Andes. Description With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same plant as shorter female catkins, often before leaves appear; they are mainly wind-pollinated, but also visited by bees to a small extent. These trees differ from the birches (''Betula'', another genus in the family) in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the seeds in a similar manner to many conifer cones. The largest species are red alder (''A. rubra'') on the west coast of North America, and black alder (''A. glutinosa''), native to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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