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Haumania Liebrechtsiana
''Haumania liebrechtsiana'' is a species of plant in the family Marantaceae. It grows as an understorey herb or climber in tropical forests in Central Africa. The leaves and shoots are eaten by gorillas and chimpanzees, and the leaves and stems have traditional uses. Description ''Haumania liebrechtsiana'' is a perennial, rhizomatous, climbing plant that can grow to or more. The stems are hairy and branching, and the leaves are alternate. The long petiole sheaths the stem for most of its length and has a short calloused section just beneath the leaf blade. On the upper side of the blade there is a beak where this calloused region becomes the midvein. The blade is ovate or oblong, up to , with a rounded base and pointed tip. The inflorescence is a raceme up to long, with a zigzag stem, bearing white, fragrant, bisexual flowers, with parts in threes. The fruit is a round, yellowish capsule containing black seeds. Distribution and habitat ''Haumania liebrechtsiana'' is endemic to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Émile Auguste Joseph De Wildeman
Émile Auguste Joseph De Wildeman (19 October 1866, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode – 1947) was a Belgian botanist and phycologist. He is known for his investigations of Congolese flora. From 1883 to 1887, he studied pharmacy at the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 1891, he began work as a preparateur at the Jardin Botanique National de Belgique, an institution where he later served as director. In 1892, he received his doctorate in sciences (academic advisor, Leo Errera) and in 1926 attained the title of professor. Selected works ''Contributions a l'étude de la flore de Bulgarie'' 1894 (with A. Tocheff, (1867-1944)) – Contributions to the Study of Bulgarian Flora. * ''Prodrome de la flore algologique des Indes Néerlandaises (Indes Néerlandaises et parties des territoires de Bornéo et de la Papuasie non Hollandaises)'', 1897 – Prodome of phycological flora in the Netherlands East Indies. * ''Illustrations de la flore du Congo'', 1898 to 1920 (with Théophile Alexis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raceme
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoot grows in height, with no predetermined growth limit. Examples of racemes occur on mustard (genus ''Brassica'') and radish (genus ''Raphanus'') plants. Definition A ''raceme'' or ''racemoid'' is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing pedicellate flowers (flowers having short floral stalks called ''pedicels'') along its axis. In botany, an ''axis'' means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In indeterminate inflorescence-like racemes, the oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoot grows in height, with no predetermined growth limit. A plant that flowers on a showy raceme may have this reflected in its scientific name, e.g. the species ''Cimicifuga racemosa''. A compou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of Africa
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] |
Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies, such as the anti-malarial group of drugs called artemisinin isolated from ''Artemisia annua'', a herb that was known in Chinese medicine to treat fever. There is limited scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of plants used in 21st century herbalism, which generally does not provide standards for purity or dosage. The scope of herbal medicine commonly includes fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts. Herbal medicine is also called phytomedicine or phytotherapy. Paraherbalism describes alternative and pseudoscientific practices of using unrefined plant or animal extracts as unproven medicines or health-promoting agents. Paraherbalism relies on the belief that preserving various subst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dryas Monkey
The Dryas monkey (''Chlorocebus dryas''), also known as Salonga monkey, ''ekele'', or ''inoko'', is a little-known species of Old World monkey found only in the Congo Basin, restricted to the left bank of the Congo River. It is now established that the animals that had been classified as ''Cercopithecus salongo'' (the common name being Zaire Diana monkey) were in fact Dryas monkeys. Some older sources treat the Dryas monkey as a subspecies of the Diana monkey and classify it as ''C. diana dryas'', but it is geographically isolated from any known Diana monkey population. While the Dryas monkey had been considered data deficient, evidence suggests it is very rare and its total population possibly numbers fewer than 200 individuals. Consequently, its status was changed to critically endangered in the 2008 IUCN Red List. Database entry includes justification for why this species was listed as critically endangered Along with being listed by the IUCN, this species is also listed o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorilla
Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of humans, from 95 to 99% depending on what is included, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after chimpanzees and bonobos. Gorillas are the largest living primates, reaching heights between 1.25 and 1.8 metres, weights between 100 and 270 kg, and arm spans up to 2.6 metres, depending on species and sex. They tend to live in troops, with the leader being called a silverback. The Eastern gorilla is distinguished from the Western by darker fur colour and some other minor morphological differences. Gorillas tend to live 35–40 years in the wild. The oldest gorilla known is Fatou (b. 1957), who is still alive at the advanced age of 65 years. Gorillas' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zenker's Fruit Bat
Zenker's fruit bat or Tear-drop bat (''Scotonycteris zenkeri'') is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. Its natural habitats are tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests and swamps. Description This very small fruit bat is distinguished by having pale-coloured lips and three white patches on the head, one on the forehead and one behind each eye. The fur is soft, dense and fluffy; the dorsal pelage is medium-brown to rusty brown, the flanks are medium to greyish-brown and the chest and belly are whitish to pale grey, with scantier, stiffer hairs. The wing membranes are brown or greenish-brown and there is no discernable tail. Distribution and habitat This fruit bat is endemic to tropical West and Central Africa. Its range includes Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, its range is not continuous throughout these countries, as it is onl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole () is the stalk that attaches the leaf blade to the stem, and is able to twist the leaf to face the sun. This gives a characteristic foliage arrangement to the plant. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole in some species are called stipules. Leaves with a petiole are said to be petiolate, while leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile or apetiolate. Description The petiole is a stalk that attaches a leaf to the plant stem. In petiolate leaves, the leaf stalk may be long, as in the leaves of celery and rhubarb, or short. When completely absent, the blade attaches directly to the stem and is said to be sessile. Subpetiolate leaves have an extremely short petiole, and may appear sessile. The broomrape family Orobanchaceae is an example of a family in which the leaves are always sessile. In some other plant groups, such as the speedwell genus '' Veronica'', petiolate and sessile leaves may occur in different species. In the grasses (Poaceae), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Théophile Alexis Durand
Théophile Alexis Durand (4 September 1855, in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode – 12 January 1912) was a Belgian botanist. He studied pharmacy at the University of Liège, afterwards travelling to Switzerland, where he befriended botanist Henri François Pittier, with whom he collaborated on studies of Swiss flora. When Pittier later moved to Costa Rica, he provided Durand with dried specimens for study purposes.Botanic Garden Meise, History biography Beginning in 1879, he was associated with the , where in 1901, he succeeded |
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow horizontally. The rhizome also retains the ability to allow new shoots to grow upwards. A rhizome is the main stem of the plant that runs underground horizontally. A stolon is similar to a rhizome, but a stolon sprouts from an existing stem, has long internodes, and generates new shoots at the end, such as in the strawberry plant. In general, rhizomes have short internodes, send out roots from the bottom of the nodes, and generate new upward-growing shoots from the top of the nodes. A stem tuber is a thickened part of a rhizome or stolon that has been enlarged for use as a storage organ. In general, a tuber is high in starch, e.g. the potato, which is a modified stolon. The term "tuber" is often used imprecisely and is sometimes applied to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus ''Pan''. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that ''Pan'' is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing for males and for females and standing . The chimpanzee lives in groups that range in size from 15 to 150 members, although individuals travel and forage in much smaller groups during the day. The species lives in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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