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Diospyros Dichrophylla
''Diospyros dichrophylla'' (Michel Gandoger, Gand.) De Winter (known as the "poison star-apple" or "Bostolbos") is a Southern African tree belonging to the ebony family of Ebenaceae and closely related to the Persimmon (''Diospyros kaki''). Description The genus ''Diospyros'' includes some 700 species, many of which are ornamental and many which bear edible and often cultivated fruit. This species grows into a medium-sized tree of up to 15 m tall. It is multi-stemmed and forms a dense canopy. The bark is greyish-brown, and smooth to slightly wrinkled, occasionally armed with robust, wooden spikes which are the remains of the bases of former branches. The young growth is covered in yellowish hairs with a velvety texture. The simple leaves are alternate, and oblong to oval with bluntly pointed or rounded tips, glossy, dark green above and pale green below. The leaf edges are often tightly rolled under. The creamy-white flowers are bell-shaped and pendulous, occurring between N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Gandoger
Abbé Jean Michel Gandoger (10 May 1850 – 4 October 1926), was a French botanist and mycologist. He was born in Arnas, Rhône, Arnas, the son of a wealthy vineyard owner in the Beaujolais region. Although he took holy orders at the age of 26, he devoted his life to the study of botany, specializing in the genus ''Rose, Rosa''. He travelled throughout the Mediterranean, notably Crete, Spain, Portugal, and Algeria, amassing a herbarium of over 800,000 specimens, now kept at the Jardin botanique de Lyon. However, he is notorious for having published thousands of plant species that are no longer accepted. He died at Arnas in 1926. Father J B Charbonnel published an obituary in the Bulletin de la Societe botanique de France (1927, Vol. 74, 3–11), listing Gandoger's many publications. Plants with the specific epithet of ''gandogeri'' are named after him, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard De Winter
Bernard de Winter (31 July 1924 - 8 May 2017 Pretoria) was a South African botanist who from 1973 was Director of the Botanical Research Institute, which later became the National Botanical Institute and then the South African National Biodiversity Institute. He attended Pretoria University from 1942 to 1946, and was awarded an MSc in 1947. After teaching for a period, he joined the staff of the National Herbarium, and was made Officer in Charge of Botanical Survey in 1959, and Assistant Director in 1963. His main contributions to botany have been publications on Ebenaceae and Gramineae, especially the genus ''Eragrostis''. He is commemorated in '' Kirkia dewinteri'', '' Aloe dewinteri'', ''Silene dewinteri'' and other taxa. The Pedaliaceae genus of '' Dewinteria'' is named after him, with the single curious species ''D. petrophila'' from the Kaokoveld in Namibia. His collection of some 9 500 specimens is housed in Pretoria with duplicates in several herbaria including Kew a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern African
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of river systems; the Zambezi River being the most prominent. The Zambezi flows from the northwest corner of Zambia and western Angola to the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. Along the way, the Zambezi River flows over the mighty Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the world and a major tourist attraction for the region. Southern Africa includes both subtropical and temperate climates, with the Tropic of Capricorn running through the middle of the region, dividing it into its subtropical and temperate halves. Countries commonly included in Southern Africa include Angola, Botswana, the Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ebenaceae
The Ebenaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to order Ericales. The family includes ebony and persimmon among about 768 species of trees and shrubs. It is distributed across the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. It is most diverse in the rainforests of Malesia, India, tropical Africa and tropical America. Many species are valued for their wood, particularly ebony, for fruit, and as ornamental plants. Biology The fruits contain tannins, a plant defense against herbivory, so they are often avoided by animals when unripe. The ripe fruits of many species are a food source for diverse animal taxa. The foliage is consumed by insects. The plants may have a strong scent. Some species have aromatic wood. They are important and conspicuous trees in many of their native ecosystems, such as lowland dry forests of the former Maui Nui in Hawaii, Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests, Khathiar–Gir dry deciduous forests, Louisiade Archipelago rain forests, Madagasc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persimmon
The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus ''Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-persimmon species of the genus are grown for ebony timber. In 2019, China produced 75% of the world total of persimmons. Description Like the tomato, persimmons are not commonly considered to be berries, but Morphology (biology), morphologically the fruit is in fact a berry (botany), berry. The tree ''Diospyros kaki'' is the most widely cultivated species of persimmon. Typically the tree reaches in height and is round-topped. It usually stands erect, but sometimes can be crooked or have a willowy appearance. The leaves are long, and are Glossary of leaf morphology#oblong, oblong in shape with brown-hairy Petiole (botany), petioles in length. They are leathery and glossy on the upper surface, brown and silky underneath. The leaves are dec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diospyros
''Diospyros'' is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. The majority are native to the tropics, with only a few species extending into temperate regions. Individual species valued for their hard, heavy, dark timber, are commonly known as ebony trees, while others are valued for their fruit and known as persimmon trees. Some are useful as ornamentals and many are of local ecological importance. Species of this genus are generally dioecious, with separate male and female plants. Taxonomy and etymology The generic name ''Diospyros'' comes from a Latin name for the Caucasian persimmon ('' D. lotus''), derived from the Greek διόσπυρος : dióspyros, from ''diós'' () and ''pyrós'' (). The Greek name literally means "Zeus's wheat" but more generally intends "divine food" or "divine fruit". Muddled translations sometimes give rise to curious and inappropriate interpretations such as " God's pear" and " Jove's fire". The genus is a large one a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pentamery (botany)
Merosity (from the greek "méros," which means "having parts") refers to the number of component parts in a distinct whorl of a plant structure. The term is most commonly used in the context of a flower where it refers to the number of sepals in a whorl of the calyx, the number of petals in a whorl of the corolla, the number of stamens in a whorl of the androecium, or the number of carpels in a whorl of the gynoecium. The term may also be used to refer to the number of leaves in a leaf whorl. The adjective ''n''-merous refers to a whorl of ''n'' parts, where ''n'' is any integer greater than one. In nature, five or three parts per whorl have the highest frequency of occurrence, but four or two parts per whorl are not uncommon. Be aware that two consecutive whorls of dimerous petals are often mistaken for tetramerous petals. If all of the whorls in a given floral arrangement have the same merosity, the flower is said to be isomerous, otherwise the flower is anisomerous. For exampl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tannins
Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'', from Medieval Latin ''tannāre'', from ''tannum'', oak bark) refers to the use of oak and other bark in tanning animal hides into leather. By extension, the term ''tannin'' is widely applied to any large polyphenolic compound containing sufficient hydroxyls and other suitable groups (such as carboxyls) to form strong complexes with various macromolecules. The tannin compounds are widely distributed in many species of plants, where they play a role in protection from predation (acting as pesticides) and might help in regulating plant growth. The astringency from the tannins is what causes the dry and puckery feeling in the mouth following the consumption of unripened fruit, red wine or tea. Likewise, the destruction or modification of tann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overberg
__NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the east. The boundaries of the Overberg are the Hottentots-Holland mountains in the West; the Riviersonderend Mountains, part of the Cape Fold Belt, in the North; the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the South and the Breede River in the East. The area has always been considered as the breadbasket of the Cape and is largely given to grain farming — mainly wheat. The wheat fields are a major breeding ground for South Africa's national bird, the blue crane. Another important crop in the Overberg is fruit, with the Elgin Valley producing about 60 percent of the total annual apple crop of about 819 000 tonnes (2012 data). Nestled in the Overberg, one can find the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve (recognised and registered with UNESCO) populated wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020. About two-thirds of these inhabitants live in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, which is also the provincial capital. The Western Cape was created in 1994 from part of the former Cape Province. The two largest cities are Cape Town and George. Geography The Western Cape Province is roughly L-shaped, extending north and east from the Cape of Good Hope, in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It stretches about northwards along the Atlantic coast and about eastwards along the South African south coast (Southern Indian Ocean). It is bordered on the north by the Northern Cape and on the east by the Eastern Cape. The total land area of the province is , about 10.6% of the country's total. It is roughly the size of England or the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 1994 out of the Xhosa homelands or bantustans of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province. The central and eastern part of the province is the traditional home of the indigenous Xhosa people. In 1820 this area which was known as the Xhosa Kingdom began to be settled by Europeans who originally came from England and some from Scotland and Ireland. Since South Africa's early years, many Xhosas believed in Africanism and figures such as Walter Rubusana believed that the rights of Xhosa people and Africans in general, could not be protected unless Africans mobilized and worked together. As a result, the Eastern Cape is home to many anti-apartheid leaders such as Robert Sobukwe, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KwaZulu/Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is located in the southeast of the country, with a long shoreline on the Indian Ocean and sharing borders with three other provinces and the countries of Mozambique, Eswatini and Lesotho. Its capital is Pietermaritzburg, and its largest city is Durban. It is the second-most populous province in South Africa, with slightly fewer residents than Gauteng. Two areas in KwaZulu-Natal have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park. These areas are extremely scenic as well as important to the surrounding ecosystems. During the 1830s and early 1840s, the northern part of what is now KwaZulu-Natal was established as the Zulu Kingdom while the southern part was, briefly, the Boer Natalia Repu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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