|
Choupal National Forest
Choupal National Forest () is a national forest in Coimbra, Portugal. It is a short distance from the city downtown and runs alongside the Mondego River. The forest has trails for jogging, walking, cycling and horse-riding. This grove of poplar trees (''choupos'', whence ''choupal'' "poplar grove"), was planted in an attempt to stop the floods of the Mondego river. In 1791, the engineer and ''Padre'' (Father, priest) Estêvão Cabral directed a big project that was meant to decrease the levels of silt in the river. The trees of Choupal were therefore planted to allow a better settling of the riverbed. Since the 19th century many other trees, including planes (sycamores; Platanus orientalis), beeches, laurels, and eucalyptus have grown in the area. Today the forest is a popular place for recreation, exercise and picnics. Location Choupal is located within the northwestern section of Coimbra, bordering the right-side margins of the Mondego for about 2 kilometres. It is se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Choupal 1 - Coimbra
Choupal National Forest () is a national forest in Coimbra, Portugal. It is a short distance from the city downtown and runs alongside the Mondego River. The forest has trails for jogging, walking, cycling and horse-riding. This grove of poplar trees (''choupos'', whence ''choupal'' "poplar grove"), was planted in an attempt to stop the floods of the Mondego river. In 1791, the engineer and ''Padre'' (Father, priest) Estêvão Cabral directed a big project that was meant to decrease the levels of silt in the river. The trees of Choupal were therefore planted to allow a better settling of the riverbed. Since the 19th century many other trees, including planes (sycamores; Platanus orientalis), beeches, laurels, and eucalyptus have grown in the area. Today the forest is a popular place for recreation, exercise and picnics. Location Choupal is located within the northwestern section of Coimbra, bordering the right-side margins of the Mondego for about 2 kilometres. It is se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coimbra
Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest city of the Coimbra (district), district of Coimbra and the Centro Region, Portugal, Centro Region. About 460,000 people live in the Região de Coimbra, comprising 19 municipalities and extending into an area of . Among the many archaeological structures dating back to the Roman Empire, Roman era, when Coimbra was the settlement of Aeminium, are its well-preserved aqueduct (watercourse), aqueduct and cryptoporticus. Similarly, buildings from the period when Coimbra was the capital of Portugal (from 1131 to 1255) still remain. During the late Middle Ages, with its decline as the political centre of the Kingdom of Portugal, Coimbra began to evolve into a major cultural centre. This was in large part helped by the establ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mondego River
The Rio Mondego () or Mondego River is the longest river entirely within Portuguese territory. It has its source in Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain range in mainland Portugal (i.e. excluding the Portuguese islands). It runs from the Gouveia municipality, at above sea level in Serra da Estrela, to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean next to the city of Figueira da Foz. Etymology The river's name is believed to be derived from the pre-Roman, Hispano-Celtic word ''Munda'' or ''Monda'' — by which names it had been referred to in the classical antiquity by Pliny and Ptolemy —, later latinised into ''Mondæcus'' until evolving into the present name. Geography It flows through the districts of Guarda, Viseu and Coimbra, all in Central Portugal. It flows near the towns of Celorico da Beira, Fornos de Algodres, Nelas, Tábua, Carregal do Sal and Mortágua and the cities of Seia, Gouveia, Guarda, Oliveira do Hospital, Mangualde and Santa Comba Dão, before cros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Populus
''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The western balsam poplar ('' P. trichocarpa'') was the first tree to have its full DNA code determined by DNA sequencing, in 2006. Description The genus has a large genetic diversity, and can grow from tall, with trunks up to in diameter. The bark on young trees is smooth, white to greenish or dark gray, and often has conspicuous lenticels; on old trees, it remains smooth in some species, but becomes rough and deeply fissured in others. The shoots are stout, with (unlike in the related willows) the terminal bud present. The leaves are spirally arranged, and vary in shape from triangular to circular or (rarely) lobed, and with a long petiole; in species in the sections ''Populus'' and ''Aigeiros'', the petioles are laterally flattened, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when dry, and lacks plasticity when wet. Silt also can be felt by the tongue as granular when placed on the front teeth (even when mixed with clay particles). Silt is a common material, making up 45% of average modern mud. It is found in many river deltas and as wind-deposited accumulations, particularly in central Asia, north China, and North America. It is produced in both very hot climates (through such processes as collisions of quartz grains in dust storms) and very cold climates (through such processes as glacial grinding of quartz grains.) Loess is soil rich in silt which makes up some of the most fertile agricultural land on Earth. However, silt is very vulnerable to erosion, and it has poor mechanical properties, making construction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stream Bed
A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow (Channel (geography), channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream Bank (geography), banks or river banks, during all but flood stage. Under certain conditions a river can branch from one stream bed to multiple stream beds. A flood occurs when a stream overflows its banks and flows onto its flood plain. As a general rule, the bed is the part of the stream channel, channel up to the normal water line, and the banks are that part above the normal water line. However, because water flow varies, this differentiation is subject to local interpretation. Usually, the bed is kept clear of terrestrial vegetation, whereas the banks are subjected to water flow only during unusual or perhaps infrequent high water stages and therefore might support vegetation some or much of the time. The nature of any stream bed is always a function of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platanus
''Platanus'' is a genus consisting of a small number of tree species native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae. All mature members of ''Platanus'' are tall, reaching in height. All except for '' P. kerrii'' are deciduous, and most are found in riparian or other wetland habitats in the wild, though proving drought-tolerant in cultivation. The hybrid London plane (''Platanus ''×'' acerifolia'') has proved particularly tolerant of urban conditions, and has been widely planted in London and elsewhere in the United Kingdom. They are often known in English as ''planes'' or ''plane trees''. A formerly used name that is now rare is ''plantain tree'' (not to be confused with other, unrelated, species with the name). Some North American species are called ''sycamores'' (especially ''Platanus occidentalis''), although the term is also used for several unrelated species of trees. The genus name ''Platanus'' comes from Ancient Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engleriana'' subgenus is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known ''Fagus'' subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. The European beech (''Fagus sylvatica'') is the most commonly cultivated. Beeches are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The fruit of the beech tree, known as beechnuts or mast, is found in small burrs that drop from the tree in autumn. They are small, roughly triangular, and edible, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurel Family
Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genera worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 ). They are dicotyledons, and occur mainly in warm temperate and tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America. Many are aromatic evergreen trees or shrubs, but some, such as ''Sassafras'', are deciduous, or include both deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, especially in tropical and temperate climates. The genus ''Cassytha'' is unique in the Lauraceae in that its members are parasitic vines. Most laurels are highly-poisonous. Overview The family has a worldwide distribution in tropical and warm climates. The Lauraceae are important components of tropical forests ranging from low-lying to montane. In several forested regions, Lauraceae are among the top five families in terms of the number of species present. The Lauraceae give their name to habitats kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as eucalypts. Plants in the genus ''Eucalyptus'' have bark that is either smooth, fibrous, hard or stringy, leaves with oil glands, and sepals and petals that are fused to form a "cap" or operculum over the stamens. The fruit is a woody capsule commonly referred to as a "gumnut". Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are native to Australia, and every state and territory has representative species. About three-quarters of Australian forests are eucalypt forests. Wildfire is a feature of the Australian landscape and many eucalypt species are adapted to fire, and resprout after fire or have seeds which survive fire. A few species are native to islands north of Australia and a smaller number are only found outside the continent. Eucalypts have been grow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Picnic
A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding an open-air theater performance, and usually in summer. It is different from other meals because it requires free time to leave home. History shows us that the idea of a meal that was jointly contributed to and enjoyed out-of-doors was essential to picnic from the early 19th century. Picnickers like to sit on the ground on a rug or blanket. Picnics can be informal with throwaway plates or formal with silver cutlery and crystal wine glasses. Tables and chairs may be used but this is less common. Outdoor games or some other form of entertainment are common at large picnics. In public parks, a picnic area generally includes picnic tables and possibly built-in grills, water faucets (taps), garbage (rubbish) containers and restrooms (toi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
