Encephalartos
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Encephalartos
''Encephalartos'' is a genus of cycad native to Africa. Several species of ''Encephalartos'' are commonly referred to as bread trees, bread palms or kaffir bread, since a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem. The genus name is derived from the Greek words ''en'' (within), ''kephalē'' (head), and ''artos'' (bread), referring to the use of the pith to make food. They are, in evolutionary terms, some of the most primitive living gymnosperms. All the species are endangered, some critically, due to their exploitation by collectors and traditional medicine gatherers. The whole genus is listed under CITES Appendix I which prohibits international trade in specimens of these species except for certain non-commercial motives, such as scientific research. Description Several of the species possess stout trunks. In '' E. cycadifolius'', the main trunks are up to high, and several of them may be united at a base where a former main trunk once grew. The persist ...
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Encephalartos Hildebrandtii
''Encephalartos hildebrandtii'' is a species of cycad in the Zamiaceae family. It is native to Kenya and Tanzania at elevations of 0 to 600 meters. Description These plants have an erect stem, without branches, about 6 meters high and 30 cm in diameter, covered with linear cataphyll, covered with a thick yellowish hairs. The leaves, arranged in a crown at the apex of the stem, supported by a tomentose petiole 1–7 cm long, are 200–300 cm long and are composed of numerous lanceolate leaflets, 20–26 cm long, 28–36 mm wide, arranged on the spine at 45-80°; the basal leaflets are reduced to thorns. It is a dioecious species, with male specimens having 1-7 cylindrical-fusiform cones, sessile, green or yellow in color, 20–50 cm long and 5–9 cm in diameter, with large, rhombic-shaped microsporophylls, and specimens feminine that hold from 1 to 4 cylindrical cones, of yellow color, 28–60 cm long and 15–25 cm broad, with rhomboid macrosporophylls. The seeds have an oblon ...
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Encephalartos Friderici-guilielmi
''Encephalartos friderici-guilielmi'' is a species of cycad that is native to Eastern Cape province and KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ... at elevations of 700 up to 1400 meters. Description The trunks are tree-shaped and stand in groups individually or because of root shoots. The trunk becomes up to 4 m high and 35 to 60 cm wide. The crown is open and woolly brown. The numerous leaves are stiff, straight or slightly curved and spread horizontally, usually at right angles to the crown. The leaves are 1 to 1.5 m long, 18 to 20 cm. The petiole is 17 to 30 cm long, bare, and is circular in cross section. The leaflets are young silvery slightly, yellowish in old age. They are tight and upper leaf area they overlap. At the tip of ...
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Encephalartos Cycadifolius
''Encephalartos cycadifolius'' is a species of cycad that is native to the Winterberg mountains to the north of Bedford in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. It is found at elevations from 1,200 to 1,800 meters. Description It is a cycad with a trunk at least partly underground, up to 1.5 m high and with a diameter of 25-30 cm, often with secondary stems originating from shoots that arise at the base of the main stem. The leaves, pinnate, 60–90 cm long, are arranged in a crown at the apex of the stem and are supported by a 10-20 cm long petiole, without thorns; each leaf is composed of numerous pairs of lanceolate leaflets, with an entire margin, of an average length of 9-12 cm, of olive-green color, inserted on the yellowish rachis. It is a dioecious species with male specimens that have 1 or 2 cones, cylindrical-conical, 13–22 cm long and 5–7 cm broad, sessile, covered with a greyish tomentum, and female specimens with 1 or 2 cylindrical-ovoid cones, pedunculate, ...
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Encephalartos Villosus
''Encephalartos villosus'' is a South African cycad occurring from the East London vicinity, where it is found near the coast, to the northern border of Eswatini (Swaziland) where it may grow as far as 100 km inland. The species is common throughout its range and is the most frequently cultivated in Southern Africa, largely because of its affordable price. As a result of its large geographical distribution, it is notably variable in leaf and cone shape. A largely underground trunk results in very little of the plant being visible, so that it is described as a dwarf species. The preferred habitat of this species is frost-free coastal bush. It hybridises readily with ''Encephalartos altensteinii'' in the Eastern Cape and with ''Encephalartos lebomboensis'' in the Pongola area. The crown normally consists of tightly-packed bracts covered in dense grey woolly hair (''villosus'' = ''hairy''). As with all cycads this species is dioecious. Male plants may carry up to 15 cones, wh ...
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Encephalartos Ngoyanus
''Encephalartos ngoyanus'' is a species of cycad in Ngoye Forest, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Description The stem is 30 cm high for a diameter of 15–20 cm. The leaves are 50 to 150 cm long, dark green in color, with leaflets that branch off opposite to an angle of 180° from the rachis and that are reduced to thorns towards the base of the leaf. It is a dioecious species, with yellow, ovoid male cones 20–25 cm long by 5–7 cm in diameter, and yellow, ovoid female cones 25 cm long by 12–15 cm in diameter. The seeds are oblong in shape, 25–30 mm long and 15–20 mm wide, with a red sarcotesta The sarcotesta is a fleshy seedcoat, a type of testa. Examples of seeds with a sarcotesta are pomegranate and some cycad seeds. The sarcotesta of pomegranate seeds consists of epidermal cells derived from the integument In biology, an integu .... References External links * * ngoyanus {{cycad-stub ...
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Gymnosperms
The gymnosperms ( lit. revealed seeds) are a group of seed-producing plants that includes conifers, cycads, ''Ginkgo'', and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae. The term ''gymnosperm'' comes from the composite word in el, γυμνόσπερμος ( el, γυμνός, translit=gymnos, lit=naked, label=none and el, σπέρμα, translit=sperma, lit=seed, label=none), literally meaning 'naked seeds'. The name is based on the unenclosed condition of their seeds (called ovules in their unfertilized state). The non-encased condition of their seeds contrasts with the seeds and ovules of flowering plants (angiosperms), which are enclosed within an ovary. Gymnosperm seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, which are often modified to form cones, or solitary as in yew, ''Torreya'', ''Ginkgo''. Gymnosperm lifecycles involve alternation of generations. They have a dominant diploid sporophyte phase and a reduced haploid gametophyte phase which is dependent on ...
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Cycad
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow very slowly and live very long. Because of their superficial resemblance, they are sometimes mistaken for Arecaceae, palms or ferns, but they are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms (naked-seeded), meaning their fertilization, unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific species of beetle. Both male and female cycads bear cones (strobilus, strobili), somewhat similar to conife ...
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Stangeria
''Stangeria eriopus'' is a cycad endemic to southern Africa. It is the sole species in the genus ''Stangeria'', most closely related to the Australian genus ''Bowenia'', with which it forms the family Stangeriaceae. Description ''Stangeria eriopus'' is a very long-lived, perennial, evergreen cycad. The stalked, feathered, fern-like leaves are between 25 centimeters and two meters long, with the petiole comprising one third to one half of the overall length (in both varieties). They are pinnately-veined, which distinguishes the species from all other cycads. The petiole comprises half the length of the leaf. The young leaves are bent in bud position, the tip appears rolled up. Young leaves are dotted with short, gray hairs (trichomes), which usually fall off quickly and only stick to the petiole. These trichomes are unbranched and transparent or colored. The species occurs as two variable forms or varieties. The forest form, growing in regions with higher rainfall, is characterize ...
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Pith
Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...s of vascular plants. Pith is composed of soft, spongy ground tissue#Parenchyma, parenchyma cells, which in some cases can store starch. In eudicotyledons, pith is located in the center of the stem. In monocotyledons, it extends also into flowering stems and roots. The pith is encircled by a ring of xylem; the xylem, in turn, is encircled by a ring of phloem. While new pith growth is usually white or pale in color, as the tissue ages it commonly darkens to a deeper brown color. In trees pith is generally present in young growth, but in the trunk and older branches the pith often gets replaced – in great part – by xylem. In some plants, the pith in the middle of the stem may dry out ...
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Vervet Monkey
The vervet monkey (''Chlorocebus pygerythrus''), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus ''Chlorocebus''. The five distinct subspecies can be found mostly throughout Southern Africa, as well as some of the eastern countries. Vervets were introduced to Florida, St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, and Cape Verde. These mostly herbivorous monkeys have black faces and grey body hair color, ranging in body length from about for females, to about for males. In addition to behavioral research on natural populations, vervet monkeys serve as a nonhuman primate model for understanding genetic and social behaviors of humans. They have been noted for having human-like characteristics, such as hypertension, anxiety, and social and dependent alcohol (drug), alcohol use. Vervets live in social groups ranging from 10 to 70 individuals, with males moving to other groups at the tim ...
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Johann Georg Christian Lehmann
Johann Georg Christian Lehmann (25 February 1792 – 12 February 1860) was a German botanist. Born at Haselau, near Uetersen, Holstein, Lehmann studied medicine in Copenhagen and Göttingen, obtained a doctorate in medicine in 1813 and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena in 1814. He spent the rest of his life as professor of physics and natural sciences, and head librarian, at the '' Gymnasium Academicum'' in Hamburg. A prolific monographist of apparently quarrelsome character, he was a member of 26 learned societies and the founder of the Hamburg Botanical Garden (, now the Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg). Lehmann died at Hamburg in 1860. Some of Lehmann's later illustrations were executed by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen Johann Wilhelm Meigen (3 May 1764 – 11 July 1845) was a German entomologist famous for his pioneering work on Diptera. Life Early years Meigen was born in Solingen, the fifth of eight children of Johann Clemens ...
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Veniliodes
''Veniliodes'' is a genus of moths in the family Geometridae The geometer moths are moths belonging to the family Geometridae of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies. Their scientific name derives from the Ancient Greek ''geo'' γεω (derivative form of or "the earth"), and ''met .... References Geometridae {{Geometridae-stub ...
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