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Elaphoglossum Serpens
''Elaphoglossum serpens'' is a rare species of fern that grows only on Cerro de Punta, the highest mountain in Puerto Rico. The fern grows at one location, where there are 22 known specimens. It was federally listed as an endangered species of the United States in 1993.USFWSRecovery Plan for Puerto Rican Endangered Ferns (7 spp.).January 1995. The fern was described in 1947 from specimens found at Monte Jayuya. This habitat was cleared for construction and the plant was extirpated. It was later located on Cerro de Punta. This fern is an epiphyte which grows on the trunks of the tree species '' Lyonia rubiginosa'' var. ''stahlii''. There are only six trees that together host the 22 ferns. This mountain summit is coveted for its ideal location for communications facilities and construction of these facilities has led to destruction of part of the forest there.USFWS3 Puerto Rican Ferns: Five-year Review.January 2010. This fern produces a few fronds of two different types. The steri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except the lycopods, and differ from mosses and other bryophytes by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase. Ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls, that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns. They produce coiled fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate (Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns. Ferns first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elfin Forest
Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem featuring miniature trees, inhabited by small species of fauna such as rodents and lizards. They are usually located at high elevations, under conditions of sufficient air humidity but poor soil. There are two main dwarf forest ecosystem types, involving different species and environmental characteristics: coastal temperate and montane tropical regions. Temperate coastal dwarf forest is common for parts of Southern California. Montane tropical forests are found across tropical highlands of Central America, northern South America and Southeast Asia. There are also other isolated examples of dwarf forests scattered across the world, while the largest dwarf forest is found in the Philippines. High-elevation tropical dwarf forest High-elevation tropical locations in cloud forests contain mossy wet elfin forests due to high-elevation precipitation. These regions are characterized by low rainfall, with most of the wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dryopteridaceae
The Dryopteridaceae are a Family (biology), family of leptosporangiate ferns in the Order (biology), order Polypodiales. They are known Common name, colloquially as the wood ferns. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), the family is placed in the suborder Polypodiineae. Alternatively, it may be treated as the subfamily Dryopteridoideae of a very broadly defined family Polypodiaceae ''Sensu, sensu lato''. The family contains about 1700 species and has a cosmopolitan distribution. Species may be terrestrial plant, terrestrial, epipetric, hemiepiphyte, hemiepiphytic, or epiphytic. Many are Gardening, cultivated as ornamental plants. The largest genera are ''Elaphoglossum'' (600+), ''Polystichum'' (260), ''Dryopteris'' (225), and ''Ctenitis'' (150). These four genera contain about 70% of the species. Dryopteridaceae Evolutionary radiation, diverged from the other families in eupolypods I about 100 million years ago. Description The rhizomes are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo was a powerful Cape Verde tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread damage across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. Across its track, Hugo affected approximately 2 million people. Its direct effects killed 67 people and inflicted $11 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ) in damage. The damage wrought by the storm was more costly than any Atlantic hurricane preceding it. At its peak strength east of the Lesser Antilles, Hugo was classified as a Category 5 hurricane—the highest rating on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Over the course of five days, Hugo made landfalls on Guadeloupe, Saint Croix, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina, bringing major hurricane conditions to these and surrounding areas. Lesser effects were felt along the periphery of the hurricane's path in the Lesser Antilles and across the Eastern United States into Eastern Canada. The scale of Hugo's impacts led to the retirement of the name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, and possibly many times more if microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dodos, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat Destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby reducing biodiversity and species abundance. Habitat destruction is the leading cause of biodiversity loss. Fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of the most important topics of research in ecology as they are major threats to the survival of endangered species. Activities such as harvesting natural resources, industrial production and urbanization are human contributions to habitat destruction. Pressure from agriculture is the principal human cause. Some others include mining, logging, trawling, and urban sprawl. Habitat destruction is currently considered the primary cause of species extinction worldwide. Environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly. Geological processes, climate change, introdu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canopy (biology)
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant cropping or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns. In forest ecology, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms ( epiphytes, lianas, arboreal animals, etc.). The communities that inhabit the canopy layer are thought to be involved in maintaining forest diversity, resilience, and functioning. Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent of the outer layer of leaves of an individual tree or group of trees. Shade trees normally have a dense canopy that blocks light from lower growing plants. Observation Early observations of canopies were made from the ground using binoculars or by examining fallen material. Researchers would sometimes erroneously rely on extrapolation by using more reachable samples taken from the understory. In some cases, they would use unconventional methods such as chairs susp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cloud Forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level, formally described in the ''International Cloud Atlas'' (2017) as silvagenitus. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests. Mossy forests usually develop on the saddles of mountains, where moisture introduced by settling clouds is more effectively retained. Cloud forests are among the most biodiversity rich ecosystems in the world with a large amount of species directly or indirectly depending on them. Other moss forests include black spruce/feathermoss climax forest, with a moderately dense canopy and a forest floor of feathermosses including ''Hylocomium splendens'', ''Pleurozium schreberi'' and ''Ptil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dimorphic Frond
Frond dimorphism refers to a difference in ferns between the fertile and sterile fronds. Since ferns, unlike flowering plants, bear spores on the leaf blade itself, this may affect the form of the frond itself. In some species of ferns, there is virtually no difference between the fertile and sterile fronds, such as in the genus '' Dryopteris'', other than the mere presence of the sori, or fruit-dots, on the back of the fronds. Some other species, such as '' Polystichum acrostichoides'' (Christmas fern), or some ferns of the genus '' Osmunda'', feature dimorphism on a portion of the frond only. Others, such as some species of '' Blechnum'' and '' Woodwardia'', have fertile fronds that are markedly taller than the sterile. Still others, such as ''Osmunda cinnamomea'' (Cinnamon fern), or plants of the family Onocleaceae, have fertile fronds that are completely different from the sterile. Only members of the ''Onocleaceae'' and ''Blechnaceae'' exhibit a propensity towards dimorphy, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cerro De Punta
Cerro de Punta or just Cerro Punta is the highest peak in Puerto Rico, rising to above sea level.As of February, 1981, the US Geological Survey reports the height as 1,328 meters. (See''Geographic Names Information System: Feature Query Results.''United States Geological Survey. 13-FEB-1981. Retrieved 22 August 2013.) However, Gousha (1995) and Metrodata (1998) report the height as 1,338 meters. (See Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico en Bayamon. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Matematicas. Retrieved 22 August 2013.) The mountain is part of the Cordillera Central and is located in the municipality of Ponce. Location The mountain is part of the Cordillera Central and is located on the border between the municipalities of Jayuya and Ponce. The access road to the point closest to the highest elevation is from the municipality of Jayuya. It is part of the Toro Negro Forest Reserve, and it has been described as "an alpine runt." It is located on the western end of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyonia Rubiginosa , a former journal on ecological research from the University of Hawaii
{{Disambiguation, genus ...
''Lyonia'' may refer to: * ''Lyonia (brachiopod)'', a fossil genus of brachiopods in the family Monticuliferidae * ''Lyonia (plant)'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae * Lyonia (journal) ''Lyonia'' was an electronic, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary scientific journal published by the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum and stored in the ScholarSpace digital institutional repository of the University of Hawaii at Manoa library. The journal wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phorophytes. Epiphytes take part in nutrient cycles and add to both the diversity and biomass of the ecosystem in which they occur, like any other organism. They are an important source of food for many species. Typically, the older parts of a plant will have more epiphytes growing on them. Epiphytes differ from parasites in that they grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily affect the host negatively. An organism that grows on another organism that is not a plant may be called an epibiont. Epiphytes are usually found in the temperate zone (e.g., many mosses, liverworts, lichens, and algae) or in the tropics (e.g., many ferns, cacti, orchids, and bromeliads). Epiphyte species make good houseplants due to their minimal wat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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