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Gasteria Polita
''Gasteria polita'', the polished gasteria, is a recently discovered succulent plant, restricted to a locality in the Afro-temperate forest of the Western Cape, South Africa. Description It is a small, stemless plant which forms a rosette up to 30 cm wide. Its short, triangular, strongly keeled leaves have rounded ends (obtuse to subacute and mucronate apex), and are shiny with white spots. The shiny surface of its leaves is the origin of its species name ''"polita"'', which means ''"polished"'' in Latin. They sometimes attain a purple colour in the stress of full sun. It flowers in summer (around October, November & December especially; though some populations begin flowering in August already). The dangling flowers have typical ''Gasteria'' shape and colouring (pink at the base; white and green at the tip). The flower stalks first grow upwards, and then spread out horizontally (much like its relative ''Gasteria acinacifolia''). The stalks are sometimes single, and someti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Succulent
In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meaning "juice" or "sap". Succulent plants may store water in various structures, such as leaves and stems. The water content of some succulent organs can get up to 90–95%, such as '' Glottiphyllum semicyllindricum'' and '' Mesembryanthemum barkleyii''. Some definitions also include roots, thus geophytes that survive unfavorable periods by dying back to underground storage organs may be regarded as succulents. The habitats of these water-preserving plants are often in areas with high temperatures and low rainfall, such as deserts, but succulents may be found even in alpine ecosystems growing in rocky soil. Succulents are characterized by their ability to thrive on limited water sources, such as mist and dew, which makes them equipped to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gasteria Nitida
''Gasteria nitida'', the Bathurst gasteria, is a succulent plant, native to the Eastern Cape grasslands of South Africa. Description Adult plants The species name ''"nitida"'' means ''"shiny"'' in Latin, and refers to the leaf surfaces. The fat, shiny, spotted, triangular leaves usually (but not always) grow as a rosette. The plant is acaulescent (without a stem) and some plants proliferate from the base to form offsets and clumps. It is highly variable and plants' appearance depends very much on the environment (e.g. in fynbos which is subject to frequent fires, the plants never leave their juvenile phase, and stay tiny and close to the ground, not unlike the "armstrongii" plant discussed below). It is easily confused with the larger '' Gasteria excelsa'' to the east, but that massive species has more spreading leaves with sharp serrulate margins, and marginate keels. '' Gasteria excelsa'' also has light pink flowers on its massive inflorescences. The flowers of ''Gasteria nit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fynbos
Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting of about 80% (8,500 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it. Overview and history The word fynbos is often confusingly said to mean "fine bush" in Afrikaans, as "bos" means "bush". Typical fynbos foliage is ericoid rather than fine. The term, in its pre-Afrikaans, Dutch form, ''fynbosch'', was recorded by Nob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nature's Valley
Nature's Valley is a holiday resort and small village on the Garden Route along the southern Cape coast of South Africa. Nature's Valley lies between the Salt River, the foothills of the Tsitsikamma Mountains, the Indian Ocean and the Groot River lagoon. Nature's Valley has a balmy climate and is surrounded by the de Vasselot Nature Reserve which is part of the Tsitsikamma Park, and in turn part of the Garden Route National Park. History Nature's Valley, and the surrounding coastline, was occupied by Old Stone Age or Paleolithic man from 1 million years ago. Paleolithic man lived in the area in caves and under overhangs, collecting food in the tidal zone and hunting for a rich variety of wildlife. Various glacial periods interrupted this coastal occupation. San hunter-gatherers lived in this area from about 10,000 years ago until they were displaced by Khoikhoi herders from the interior. The Groot River pass For a long time travel along the Garden Route parallel to the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Médéric De Vasselot De Régné
Comte Médéric de Vasselot de Régné (4 August 1837 – 23 April 1919) was a French-born forest officer trained at the National School of Forestry in Nancy, France, and appointed as Superintendent of Woods and Forests in South Africa in 1880. Médéric and his elder brother Marin Gabriel were sons of Jean Gabriel Charles Auguste de Vasselot de Régné (1780–1842) and Eugénie Gabrielle Elisabeth Selima Vasselot de la Chesnaye (1807–1879). Since the earliest days of European settlement at the Cape, the indigenous forests of the southern Cape were used as a seemingly inexhaustible source of timber and fuel. From 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape until the 1880s, the forests and the fauna they supported were despoiled in the same way as those of the United States and Australia, with little or no thought given to sustainability. About 1776 a woodcutting centre was established at George, a step which heralded a century of plundering of the surrounding forests. An im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garden Route National Park
The Garden Route National Park is a national park in the Garden Route region of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces in South Africa. It is a coastal reserve well known for its indigenous forests, dramatic coastline, and the Otter Trail. It was established on 6 March 2009 by amalgamating the existing Tsitsikamma and Wilderness National Parks, the Knysna National Lake Area, and various other areas of state-owned land. The park covers about of land; of this, about was already part of the predecessor national parks. The park includes a continuous complex of approximately of indigenous forest. The Garden Route National Park (Tsitsikamma, Knysna and Wilderness Sections) has a pleasant, temperate climate; it is unique in Africa as the only area in which rainfall occurs throughout the year. Sections Tsitsikamma section The Tsitsikamma section of the park covers an long stretch of coastline with Nature's Valley is at the western end of the park. The section is known f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gasteria
''Gasteria'' is a genus of succulent plants, native to South Africa (and the far south-west corner of Namibia). Naming The genus is named for its stomach-shaped flowers (''"gaster"'' is Latin for "stomach") that result from the swollen base on the corolla. Common names include ''ox-tongue'', ''cow-tongue'', ''lawyer's tongue'' and, occasionally, ''mother-in-law's tongue''. Description Gasterias are recognisable from their thick, hard, succulent "tongue-shaped" leaves. These are either in two opposite ranks (distichous), or in various distinctive spiral arrangements. Their inflorescence is also unique, with their curved, stomach-shaped flowers, which hang from inclined racemes. Distribution The species of this genus are mostly native to the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, where the bulk of the species occur – especially in the small area between Makhanda and Uniondale which enjoys rainfall throughout the year. However distribution of several species extends widely a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plettenberg Bay
Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plet or Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of the census of 2001, there were 29,149 population. It was originally named Bahia Formosa ("beautiful bay") by early Portuguese explorers and lies on South Africa's Garden Route 210 km from Port Elizabeth and about 600 km from Cape Town. History Middle and Later Stone Age Nelson Bay Cave on Robberg and Matjies River Cave at nearby Keurboomstrand were inhabited for over 100,000 years by Middle Stone Age man and then later by ancestors of the Khoisan, who were possibly the same people who traded with the Portuguese survivors of the Sao Goncalves shipwreck. Their tools, ornaments and food debris can be viewed in these caves, which are still being excavated. Colonial period Long before Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape, Portuguese explorers charted the bay in the 15th and 16th centuries, the first being Bartolomeu Dias i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1 Gasteria Species - Distribution Map South Africa
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. In conventions of sign where zero is considered neither positive nor negative, 1 is the first and smallest positive integer. It is also sometimes considered the first of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, followed by 2, although by other definitions 1 is the second natural number, following 0. The fundamental mathematical property of 1 is to be a multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. Most if not all properties of 1 can be deduced from this. In advanced mathematics, a multiplicative identity is often denoted 1, even if it is not a number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number; this was not universally accepted until the mid-20th century. Additionally, 1 is the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gasteria Armstrongii
''Gasteria'' is a genus of succulent plants, native to South Africa (and the far south-west corner of Namibia). Naming The genus is named for its stomach-shaped flowers (''"gaster"'' is Latin for "stomach") that result from the swollen base on the corolla. Common names include ''ox-tongue'', ''cow-tongue'', ''lawyer's tongue'' and, occasionally, ''mother-in-law's tongue''. Description Gasterias are recognisable from their thick, hard, succulent "tongue-shaped" leaves. These are either in two opposite ranks (distichous), or in various distinctive spiral arrangements. Their inflorescence is also unique, with their curved, stomach-shaped flowers, which hang from inclined racemes. Distribution The species of this genus are mostly native to the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, where the bulk of the species occur – especially in the small area between Makhanda and Uniondale which enjoys rainfall throughout the year. However distribution of several species extends widely a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gasteria Glauca
''Gasteria glauca'', the Kouga gasteria, is a succulent plant of the family Asphodelaceae native to the cliffs and rocky hillsides above the Kouga River, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is most closely related to the species '' G. ellaphieae'', '' G. vlokii'' and '' G. nitida''. The flowers of all four species are also nearly identical, displaying the signature “gastric”, stomach-shaped blossoms that earn the genus the name of ''Gasteria''. The blossoms are a favorite among pollinators, such as bees, lepidopterans, hoverflies, hummingbirds and sunbirds. This species has thick and fleshy bluish—hence the term ''glauca'', meaning "glaucous"—leaves, which are distichous in young plants but grow to become a dense rosette. Much like other ''Gasteria'' species, the growth habit of this plant appears to progress in an almost "horizontal" way, rather than in a truly circular rosette fashion. The leaves are also comparatively smooth, yet velvety-feeling, compared to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes (the archaea and bacteria). By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for "green plants") which is sister of the Glaucophyta, and consists of the green algae and Embryophyta (land plants). The latter includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns and their allies, hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. Most plants are multicellular organisms. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
