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Alternanthera Echinocephala
''Alternanthera echinocephala'', known as spiny-headed chaff flower, is a shrubby plant in the family Amaranthaceae native to the Galápagos Islands, mainland Ecuador, and Peru. Its relatively large spiny "heads" of flowers distinguish it from other species of '' Alternanthera'' found in the Galápagos. Description ''Alternanthera echinocephala'' is a much-branched shrub up to tall. Its leaves are arranged oppositely and are narrow and pointed (lanceolate) with untoothed margins, long. The flowers are grouped into somewhat rounded spikes ("heads") about across. Each flower has one large and two small bracts below it, which form the most conspicuous part of the flower head. The bracts are greenish-white, sometimes with pinkish tones. The small sepals are similar in colour, only long. The flowers have no petals and five stamens. Thirteen species of '' Alternanthera'' are found in the Galápagos Islands, of which six are endemics; ''A. echinocephala'' is said to be easy t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height, less than tall. Small shrubs, less than 2 m (6.6 ft) tall are sometimes termed as subshrubs. Many botanical groups have species that are shrubs, and others that are trees and herbaceous plants instead. Some definitions state that a shrub is less than and a tree is over 6 m. Others use as the cut-off point for classification. Many species of tree may not reach this mature height because of hostile less than ideal growing conditions, and resemble a shrub-sized plant. However, such species have the potential to grow taller under the ideal growing conditions for that plant. In terms of longevity, most shrubs fit in a class between perennials and trees; some may only last about five y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropicos
Tropicos is an online botanical database containing taxonomic information on plants, mainly from the Neotropical realm (Central, and South America). It is maintained by the Missouri Botanical Garden and was established over 25 years ago. The database contains images and taxonomical and bibliographical data on more than 4.2 million herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ... specimens. In addition, it contains data on over 49,000 scientific publications. The database can be queried in English, French, and Spanish. The oldest records in the database go back to 1703. References External links * Online botany databases Online taxonomy databases Missouri Botanical Garden {{database-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of The Galápagos Islands
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plants Described In 1847
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes (the archaea and bacteria). By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for "green plants") which is sister of the Glaucophyta, and consists of the green algae and Embryophyta (land plants). The latter includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns and their allies, hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. Most plants are multicellular organisms. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ability ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santiago Island (Galápagos)
Santiago Island () is one of the Galápagos Islands. It is also known as San Salvador, named after the first island discovered by Columbus in the Caribbean Sea (see San Salvador Island), or as James Island. The island, which consists of two overlapping volcanoes, has an area of and a maximum altitude of , atop the northwestern shield volcano. The volcano in the island's southeast erupted along a linear fissure, and is much lower. The oldest lava flows on the island date back to 750,000 years ago. Geology Santiago Island was formed from a shield volcano eponymously named Santiago. The low, flat summits of the volcano allowed the low-viscosity lava to flow for large distances from the source vents. The volcanic origin of the island has led it to be dotted with holocene pyroclastic rock that can be found across the island. On the eastern and western sides of the island, tuff cones, formed from the rapid interaction of hot lava and water, are visible. The summit of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Fe Island
Santa Fe Island (Spanish: ''Isla Santa Fe''), also called Barrington Island after admiral Samuel Barrington, is a small island of which lies in the centre of the Galápagos archipelago, to the south-east of Santa Cruz Island. Visitor access is by a wet landing in Barrington Bay on the north-eastern side of the island. Environment Geologically, the island is one of the oldest of the archipelago; volcanic rocks of about 4 million years old have been found. The vegetation of the island is characterized by brush, palo santo trees and stands of a large subvariety of the Galápagos prickly pear cactus, ''Opuntia galapageia'' subvar. ''barringtonensis''. Santa Fe is home to two endemic species and two endemic subspecies: the Barrington land iguana (''Conolophus pallidus''), the Barrington leaf-toed gecko (''Phyllodactylus barringtonensis''), www.reptile-database.org. the Santa Fe marine iguana (''Amblyrhynchus cristatus trillmichi'') and the Santa Fe rice rat (''Aegialomys gal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Cristóbal Island
San Cristóbal Island ( es, Isla San Cristóbal) and named previously by the English as ''Chatham Island'', is the easternmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, as well as one of the oldest geologically. It is administratively part of San Cristóbal Canton, Ecuador. Its Spanish (and official Ecuadorian) name "San Cristóbal" comes from the patron saint of seafarers, St. Christopher. English speakers increasingly use that name in preference to the traditional English name of Chatham Island, derived from William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. History San Cristobal Island is composed of three or four fused volcanoes, all extinct. It is home to the oldest permanent settlement of the islands and is the island where Darwin first went ashore in 1835. A small lake called El Junco is the only source of fresh water in the islands. The availability of fresh water is what led to the early settlement of San Cristobal. A penal colony was built on San Cristóbal Island in 1880 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinzón Island
Pinzón Island (Spanish: ''Isla Pinzón''), sometimes called Duncan Island (after Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan), is an island in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. Pinzón is home to giant Galápagos tortoises of the endemic subspecies '' Chelonoidis duncanensis'', Galápagos sea lions and other endemic species. It has no visitor facilities and a permit is required to visit. It has an area of 18 km2 and a maximum altitude of 458 meters. Pinzón marks the geographical center of the Galápagos Islands, but neither of the two main Galápagos tree species are present. A unique species of daisy tree is found in the humid zone. Restoration During January 2012, invasive rodents were removed from the island by The Galápagos National Park, assisted by Island Conservation Island Conservation is a non-profit organization with the mission to prevent extinctions by removing invasive species from islands. Island Conservation has therefore focused its efforts on islands with specie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinta Island
Pinta Island (Spanish: ''Isla Pinta''), also known as Abingdon Island, after the Earl of Abingdon, is an island located in the Galápagos Islands group, Ecuador. It has an area of and a maximum altitude of . Pinta was the original home to Lonesome George, perhaps the most famous tortoise in the Galápagos Islands. He was the last known representative of the subspecies ''Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii''. Pinta Island is also home to swallow-tailed gulls, marine iguanas, Galapagos hawks, Galapagos fur seals and a number of other birds and mammals. The most northern major island in the Galápagos, at one time Isla Pinta had a thriving tortoise population. The island's vegetation was devastated over several decades by introduced feral goats, thus diminishing food supplies for the native tortoises. A prolonged effort to exterminate goats introduced to Pinta was completed in 1990, and the vegetation of the island is starting to return to its former state. The elongated island of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabela Island (Galápagos)
Isabela Island () is the largest island of the Galápagos Islands, Galápagos with an area of and length of , almost four times larger than Santa Cruz, the second largest of the archipelago. Isabela Island is larger than every other island in the Galápagos combined. It was named after Queen Isabella I of Castile. The island straddles the equator. This island was originally named Albemarle Island for the Duke of Albemarle by Ambrose Cowley, one of the first Europeans to set foot on the islands, in 1684. Geology One of the youngest islands, Isabela is located on the western edge of the archipelago near the Galápagos hotspot. At approximately 1 million years old, the seahorse-shaped island was formed by the merger of six shield volcanoes; Alcedo Volcano, Alcedo, Cerro Azul (Ecuador volcano), Cerro Azul, Darwin, Volcán Ecuador, Ecuador, Sierra Negra (Galápagos), Sierra Negra, and Volcán Wolf, Wolf. All of these volcanoes except Ecuador are still active, making it one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floreana Island
Floreana Island (Spanish: ''Isla Floreana'') is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It was named after Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago. It was previously called Charles Island (after King Charles II of England), and Santa María after one of the caravels of Columbus. The island has an area of . It was formed by volcanic eruption. The island's highest point is Cerro Pajas at , which is also the highest point of the volcano like most of the smaller islands of Galápagos. History Since the 19th century, whalers kept a wooden barrel at Post Office Bay, so that mail could be picked up and delivered to their destination by ships on their way home, mainly to Europe and the United States. Cards and letters are still placed in the barrel without any postage. Visitors sift through the letters and cards in order to deliver them by hand. Due to its relatively flat surface, suppl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Española Island
Española Island (Spanish: ''Isla Española'') is part of the Galápagos Islands. The English named it ''Hood Island'' after Viscount Samuel Hood. It is located in the extreme southeast of the archipelago and is considered, along with Santa Fe, one of the oldest, at approximately four million years. A popular tourist stop, Isla Española is the most southerly island in the Galápagos Archipelago. The climate is very dry, like most of the Archipelago. But due to the flatness of the island, it is the driest of these islands, with only a few inches of rain per year. It is about a 10- to 12-hour trip by boat from Isla Santa Cruz. Wildlife Tourists come to see the waved albatrosses (from March to January, almost the entire world population breeds on the island) and the mating dances of blue-footed boobies. Two spots are especially popular with visitors: Bahía Gardner, which has a lovely beach; and Punta Suárez, of interest because of its varied bird-life. This island has its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
