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Friedrich Ritter
Friedrich Ritter (9 May 1898 – 9 April 1989) was a German botanist who collected and described many species of cacti. '' Ritterocereus'' is named in his honour. References 1898 births 1989 deaths {{botanist-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word (''botanē'') meaning " pasture", " herbs" "grass", or " fodder"; is in turn derived from (), "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists (in the strict sense) study approximately 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants (including approximately 369,000 species of flowering plants), and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes. Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and later cultivate – ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cacti
A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek word (''káktos''), a name originally used by Theophrastus for a spiny plant whose identity is now not certain. Cacti occur in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Although some species live in quite humid environments, most cacti live in habitats subject to at least some drought. Many live in extremely dry environments, even being found in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. Because of this, cacti show many adaptations to conserve water. For example, almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts adapted to store water. Unlike many other succulents, the stem is the only part of most cacti where this vital process takes place. Most species of cacti have lost true leaves, retaining only spines, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ritterocereus
''Stenocereus'' ( Gk. ''stenos'', narrow, L. ''cereus'', candle) is a genus of columnar or tree-like cacti from the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of Mexico, Arizona in the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela and the ABC islands of the Dutch Caribbean. The genus has been enlarged by the addition of species from several other genera. A close relative is the peculiar chinoa or chende cactus, ''Polaskia chende''. Description The flowers are mostly borne near the apex of the stems and mostly nocturnal. They are considered easy to grow and generally grow slowly. ''Stenocereus thurberi'' (the organ pipe cactus) is a well-known member of this genus and is widely distributed in Arizona and northern Mexico. The fruit is similar to a dragon fruit. Those of ''Stenocereus gummosus'', acidic and very refreshing, are highly favored by the Seris of northwestern Mexico who call the cactus ''ziix is ccapxl'' - "thing whose fruit is sour". It is commonly known i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1898 Births
Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. * January 13 – Novelist Émile Zola's open letter to the President of the French Republic on the Dreyfus affair, ''J'Accuse…!'', is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper ''L'Aurore'', accusing the government of wrongfully imprisoning Alfred Dreyfus and of antisemitism. * February 12 – The automobile belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton rolls out of control down a hill in Purley, London, England, and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on a public highway. * February 15 – Spanish–American War: The USS ''Maine'' explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba, for reasons never fully established, killing 266 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
