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Dischidia Major
''Dischidia major'', the Malayan urn vine, is a plant in the genus ''Dischidia''. They carry modified leaves, offering accommodation to ants, including those of the family Dolichoderinae, and in return gain some sustenance from increased carbon dioxide and nitrogen levels, and a degree of protection from noxious animals and plants. This mutualism trait, known as myrmecophily, is widespread across the plant world and clearly carries considerable benefits for both ants and plant. ''Dischidia major'' twines around the branches and trunks of trees, having a preference for those that are decaying. It produces both circular succulent leaves of about 2 cm diameter, and hollow, pouch-like 12 cm long leaves, reminiscent of the fruits of ''Araujia sericifera'', a related species. These modified leaves, pitchers or ascidia, are purplish and richly dotted with stomata on the inner surface, and have an opening at the top end near the stalk. Organic debris and rainwater, possibly aug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plantae Asiaticae Rariores
''Plantae Asiaticae Rariores'' is a horticultural work (alternative title ''Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants'') published in 1830–1832 by the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich. ''Plantae Asiaticae Rariores'' was published in London, Paris and Strassburg between 1829 and 1832 and consisted of 3 volumes bound from the 12 original parts in folio size (21½ × 14½ inches) with 294 hand-coloured plates lithographed by Maxim Gauci. Wallich went on extended leave in 1828 to supervise the printing and hand-colouring of the illustrations in England. Foremost of the watercolour artists who executed the original paintings were two Indian artists, Vishnupersaud, responsible for 114 plates and Gorachand for 87. Vishnupersaud (occasionally referred to as Vishnu Prasad) was an Indian artist frequently employed by naturalists working in India, such as John Forbes Royle and Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. Vishnupersaud’s skill was legendary and Wilfri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umbels
In botany, an umbel is an inflorescence that consists of a number of short flower stalks (called pedicels) that spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The word was coined in botanical usage in the 1590s, from Latin ''umbella'' "parasol, sunshade". The arrangement can vary from being flat-topped to almost spherical. Umbels can be simple or compound. The secondary umbels of compound umbels are known as umbellules or umbellets. A small umbel is called an umbellule. The arrangement of the inflorescence in umbels is referred to as umbellate, or occasionally subumbellate (almost umbellate). Umbels are a characteristic of plants such as carrot, parsley, dill, and fennel in the family Apiaceae; ivy, ''Aralia'' and ''Fatsia'' in the family Araliaceae; and onion (''Allium'') in the family Alliaceae. An umbel is a type of indeterminate inflorescence. A compressed cyme, which is a determinate inflorescence, is called umbelliform if it resembles an umbel. Gallery File:C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of Australia
The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, and below the family level has a highly endemic angiosperm flora whose diversity was shaped by the effects of continental drift and climate change since the Cretaceous. Prominent features of the Australian flora are adaptations to aridity and fire which include scleromorphy and serotiny. These adaptations are common in species from the large and well-known families Proteaceae (''Banksia''), Myrtaceae (''Eucalyptus'' - gum trees), and Fabaceae (''Acacia'' - wattle). The arrival of humans around 50,000 years ago and the settlement by Europeans from 1788, has had a significant impact on the flora. The use of fire-stick farming by Aboriginal people led to significant changes in the distribution of plant species over time, and the large-sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of Asia
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. 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 (1849). Prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately.Thurmann, J. (1849). ''Essai de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wettstein
__NOTOC__ Richard Wettstein (30 June 1863 in Vienna – 10 August 1931 in Trins) was an Austrian botanist. His taxonomic system, the Wettstein system, was one of the earliest based on phyletic principles. Wettstein studied in Vienna, where he was a disciple of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (1831-1898) and married his daughter Adele. He was a professor at the University of Prague from 1892, and at the University of Vienna from 1899. He newly laid out the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna. In 1901 he became president of the Vienna Zoological-Botanical Society (''Zoologisch-Botanische Gesellschaft''), and during the same year took part in a scientific expedition to Brazil. In 1919 he was appointed vice-president of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. During his later years (1929–30), he traveled with his son, Friedrich, to eastern and southern Africa. The mycological genus ''Wettsteinina'' is named in his honor and also '' Wettsteiniola'', which is a genus of flowering plants ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myrmecochory
Myrmecochory ( (sometimes myrmechory); from grc, μύρμηξ, mýrmēks ("ant") and ''khoreíā'' ("circular dance") is seed dispersal by ants, an ecologically significant ant–plant interaction with worldwide distribution. Most myrmecochorous plants produce seeds with elaiosomes, a term encompassing various external appendages or "food bodies" rich in lipids, amino acids, or other nutrients that are attractive to ants. The seed with its attached elaiosome is collectively known as a diaspore. Seed dispersal by ants is typically accomplished when foraging workers carry diaspores back to the ant colony, after which the elaiosome is removed or fed directly to ant larvae. Once the elaiosome is consumed, the seed is usually discarded in underground middens or ejected from the nest. Although diaspores are seldom distributed far from the parent plant, myrmecochores also benefit from this predominantly mutualistic interaction through dispersal to favourable locations for germina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elaiosome
Elaiosomes ( grc, ἔλαιον ''élaion'' "oil" + ''sóma'' "body") are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome is rich in lipids and proteins, and may be variously shaped. Many plants have elaiosomes that attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae. After the larvae have consumed the elaiosome, the ants take the seed to their waste disposal area, which is rich in nutrients from the ant frass and dead bodies, where the seeds germinate. This type of seed dispersal is termed myrmecochory from the Greek "ant" (myrmex) and "circular dance" (khoreíā). This type of symbiotic relationship appears to be mutualistic, more specifically dispersive mutualism according to Ricklefs, R.E. (2001), as the plant benefits because its seeds are dispersed to favorable germination sites, and also because it is planted (carried underground) by the ants. Elaiosomes develop in various ways either from seed ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Follicle (fruit)
In botany, a follicle is a dry unilocular fruit formed from one carpel, containing two or more seeds. It is usually defined as dehiscing by a suture in order to release seeds, for example in ''Consolida'' (some of the larkspurs), peony and milkweed (''Asclepias''). Some difficult cases exist however, so that the term indehiscent follicle is sometimes used, for example with the genus ''Filipendula'', which has indehiscent fruits that could be considered intermediate between a (dehiscent) follicle and an (indehiscent) achene. An aggregate fruit that consists of follicles may be called a follicetum. Examples include hellebore, aconite, ''Delphinium'', ''Aquilegia'' or the family Crassulaceae, where several follicles occur in a whorl on a shortened receptacle, or ''Magnolia'', which has many follicles arranged in a spiral on an elongated receptacle. The follicles of some species dehisce by the ventral suture (as in ''Banksia''), or by the dorsal suture (as in ''Magnolia'').Kapil, R. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dischidia Parvifolia
''Dischidia'' is a genus of plants in the “dog-bane” family Apocynaceae, collectively known as the “milkweeds” (true perennial milkweeds in the ''Apocynaceae'' are found in the genus ''Asclepias''). They are epiphytes, native to tropical areas of China, India as well as Bhutan’s southern borders, wherever minimal frost occurs. Additionally, they are known from most areas of Indo-China, including forested areas of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and some parts of Malaysia and Singapore. ''Dischidia'' are closely related to their sister-genus '' Hoya'', whose range they overlap in some regions. Unlike ''Hoya'', the genus ''Dischidia'' is poorly-known and has not been studied as closely. A few of the species are in widespread cultivation, and can be kept as houseplants in temperate regions, or in protected conditions. At some point, between the years 2015-2020, a few species and cultivars became known via the houseplant trade, especially ''D. ovata'', ''D. nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Vahl
Martin Henrichsen Vahl (10 October 1749 – 24 December 1804) was a Danish-Norwegian botanist, herbalist and zoologist. Biography Martin Vahl was born in Bergen, Norway and attended Bergen Cathedral School. He studied botany at the University of Copenhagen and at Uppsala University under Carl Linnaeus. He edited ''Flora Danica'' fasc. XVI-XXI (1787–1799), ''Symbolæ Botanicæ'' I-III (1790–1794), ''Eclogæ Americanæ'' I-IV (1796–1807) and ''Enumeratio Plantarum'' I-II (1804–1805). He lectured at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1779 to 1782. Vahl made several research trips in Europe and North Africa between 1783 and 1788. He became professor at the Society for Natural History at the University of Copenhagen in 1786 and was a full professor of botany from 1801 to his death. In 1792, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He died in Copenhagen, Denmark at age 55. His son Jens Vahl also became a botanist. Authorit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dischidia Astephana
Dischidia astephana is a species of plant in the genus Dischidia native to Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. A vining epiphyte that can cover an entire tree branch in dense leaves, it is often found growing near other Dischidia including '' D. albida,'' '' D. parvifolia,'' and ''D. vadosa''. Its leaves are shaped like flat rings or domes, some of which will be tightly appressed to the surface of the tree where it grows. It lives symbiotically with ants of the ''Crematogaster ''Crematogaster'' is an ecologically diverse genus of ants found worldwide, which are characterised by a distinctive heart-shaped gaster (abdomen), which gives them one of their common names, the Saint Valentine ant. Members of this genus are a ...'' genus on trees, with the roots growing inside ant nests and using debris for nutrients. References astephana Plants described in 1908 {{Apocynaceae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Araujia Sericifera
''Araujia sericifera'' is a perennial vining plant in the genus '' Araujia'', of the family Apocynaceae. The species was described in 1817 by the Portuguese botanist Félix de Avelar Brotero. The synonym ''Araujia hortorum'' is in more frequent use in New Zealand. Its common names include moth plant, white bladderflower, common moth vine, cruel vine, and false choko. Its attractive and abundant fragrant flowering make it a specimen worth cultivating. Its strong robustness combined with high seed production can make it invasive in certain environments, but not in France due to its sensitivity to frost. Etymology The genus name (''Araujia'') derives from António de Araújo e Azevedo, 1st Count of Barca (1754–1817), a Portuguese amateur botanist who conducted scientific studies and experiments in his own botanical garden. The species' Latin name ''sericifera'' means "silk-bearing" and refers to the silky hairs surrounding the seeds inside the fruits. ''Araujia sericofera'' is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
