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Elephantorrhiza Elephantina
''Elephantorrhiza elephantina'', commonly known as the eland's wattle or elephant's root, is a subshrub in the mimosoid clade of legumes. They occur widely and in several bioregions of southern Africa. Considerable size variation has been noted, and polyploidy was suspected. Description They have a suffrutescent habit typical of their genus. They produce unbranched and unarmed aerial stems of less than a metre tall. The various populations show considerable variation in terms of the number of pinnae pairs and the number, size and shape of the leaflets. They flower from September to November and are pollinated mainly by the African honeybee. The flowering racemes are typically confined to the lower part of the stem, so that the pods are usually suspended just above ground level, or alternatively rest inconspicuously on the ground. Similar species '' Elephantorrhiza burkei'' has similar aerial parts, but its seeds are consistently smaller than those of ''E. elephantina''.cf. Botha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William John Burchell
__NOTOC__ William John Burchell (23 July 1781 – 23 March 1863) was an English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist, and author. His thousands of plant specimens, as well as field journals from his South African expedition, are held by Kew Gardens, and his insect collection by the Oxford University Museum. Early life and education William John Burchell was born in Fulham, London, the son of Matthew Burchell, botanist and owner of Fulham Nursery, and his wife. His father owned nine and a half acres of land adjacent to the gardens of Fulham Palace. Burchell served a botanical apprenticeship at Kew and was elected F.L.S. (Fellow of the Linnaen Society) in 1803. At about this time, he became enamoured of Lucia Green of Fulham, but faced strong disapproval from his parents when he broached the idea of an engagement. Career On 7 August 1805 Burchell at the age of 24 sailed for St. Helena aboard the East Indiaman intending to set up there as a merchant with a partner from Lond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subshrub
A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Derivation and Accent; Published by Gerald Duckworth & Co. London, 4th ed 1928 Because the criteria are matters of degree (normally of height) rather than of kind, the definition of a subshrub is not sharply distinguishable from that of a shrub; examples of reasons for describing plants as subshrubs include ground-hugging stems or low growth habit. Subshrubs may be largely herbaceous though still classified as woody, with overwintering perennial woody growth much lower-growing than deciduous summer growth. Some plants described as subshrubs are only weakly woody and some persist for only for a few years; others however, such as ''Oldenburgia paradoxa'' live indefinitely (though is still vulnerable to external effects), rooted in rocky cracks. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mimosoideae
The Mimosoideae are a traditional subfamily of trees, herbs, lianas, and shrubs in the pea family (Fabaceae) that mostly grow in tropical and subtropical climates. They are typically characterized by having radially symmetric flowers, with petals that are twice divided (valvate) in bud and with numerous showy, prominent stamens. Recent work on phylogenetic relationships has found that the Mimosoideae form a clade nested with subfamily Caesalpinioideae and the most recent classification by ''The Legume Phylogeny Working Group'' refer to them as the Mimosoid clade within subfamily Caesalpinioideae. The group includes about 40 genera and 2,500 species. Taxonomy Some classification systems, for example the Cronquist system, treat the Fabaceae in a narrow sense, raising the Mimisoideae to the rank of family as Mimosaceae. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group treats Fabaceae in the broad sense. The Mimosoideae were historically subdivided into four tribes (Acacieae, Ingeae, Mimoseae, and Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legume
A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, soybeans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. Legumes are notable in that most of them have symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in structures called root nodules. For that reason, they play a key role in crop rotation. Terminology The term ''pulse'', as used by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is reserved for legume crops harvested solely for the dry seed. This excludes green beans and green peas, which a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyploidy
Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains one or more chromosomes and comes from each of two parents, resulting in pairs of homologous chromosomes between sets. However, some organisms are polyploid. Polyploidy is especially common in plants. Most eukaryotes have diploid somatic cells, but produce haploid gametes (eggs and sperm) by meiosis. A monoploid has only one set of chromosomes, and the term is usually only applied to cells or organisms that are normally diploid. Males of bees and other Hymenoptera, for example, are monoploid. Unlike animals, plants and multicellular algae have life cycles with two alternating multicellular generations. The gametophyte generation is haploid, and produces gametes by mitosis, the sporophyte generation is diploid and produces spores by mei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Bee
The East African lowland honey bee (''Apis mellifera scutellata'') is a subspecies of the western honey bee. It is native to central, southern and eastern Africa, though at the southern extreme it is replaced by the Cape honey bee (''Apis mellifera capensis''). This subspecies has been determined to constitute one part of the ancestry of the Africanized bees (also known as "killer bees") spreading through North and South America. The introduction of the Cape honey bee into northern South Africa poses a threat to East African lowland honey bees. If a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an East African lowland honey bee nest, she is not attacked, partly due to her resemblance to the East African lowland honey bee queen. As she is capable of parthenogenetic reproduction, she may begin laying eggs which hatch as "clones" of herself, which will also lay eggs, causing the parasitic ''A. m. capensis'' workers to increase in number. The death of the host colony results fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elephantorrhiza Burkei
''Elephantorrhiza burkei'', commonly known as the elephant root or sumach bean, is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the mimosoid clade of legumes. It is native to southern Africa, where it is found on rocky slopes or ridges, in either woodland, grassland or scrubland. The species is named after the botanist Joseph Burke. Description The shrub or small tree has a dense rounded crown, and usually reaches between 1 and 3 metres in height. The grey bark turns brown and eventually blackish as the tree ages. The bipinnately compound leaves measure some 25 cm long, and bear 4 to 8 pinnae with 12 to 23 pairs of leaflets each. Their fragrant, creamy white to yellow flowers appear in early summer, and are pollinated mainly by the African honeybee. Mature specimens carry their flowering racemes on branched stems some distance from the ground, and the pods are consequently conspicuous. The flower spikes grow from the leaf axils and are 5 to 10 cm long. Their elongate, flattened, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entada
''Entada'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, in the mimosoid clade of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It consists of some 30 species of trees, shrubs and tropical lianas. About 21 species are known from Africa, six from Asia, two from the American tropics and one with a pantropical distribution. They have compound leaves and produce exceptionally large seedpods of up to long. Their seeds are buoyant and survive lengthy journeys via rivers and ocean currents, to eventually wash up on tropical beaches. Species The following species have been accepted: * ''Entada abyssinica'' Steudel ex A. Rich. * ''Entada africana'' Guill. & Perr. * ''Entada arenaria'' Schinz * ''Entada bacillaris'' F.White * ''Entada borneensis'' Ridl. * ''Entada camerunensis'' Villiers * ''Entada chrysostachys'' (Benth.) Drake * ''Entada dolichorrhachis'' Brenan * '' Entada gigas'' (L.) Fawc. & Rendle - sea heart, cœur de la mer (Pantropical) * ''Entada glandulosa'' Gagnep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of Namibia
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] |
Endangered Plants
As of September 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 3654 endangered plant species. 17% of all evaluated plant species are listed as endangered. The IUCN also lists 99 subspecies and 101 varieties as endangered. No subpopulations of plants have been evaluated by the IUCN. For a species to be considered endangered by the IUCN it must meet certain quantitative criteria which are designed to classify taxa facing "a very high risk of exintction". An even higher risk is faced by ''critically endangered'' species, which meet the quantitative criteria for endangered species. Critically endangered plants are listed separately. There are 6147 plant species which are endangered or critically endangered. Additionally 1674 plant species (7.6% of those evaluated) are listed as '' data deficient'', meaning there is insufficient information for a full assessment of conservation status. As these species typically have small distributions and/or populations, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
