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Indian Pipe
''Monotropa uniflora'', also known as ghost plant, ghost pipe, or Indian pipe, is an herbaceous perennial plant native to temperate regions of Asia, North America, and northern South America, but with large gaps between areas. The plant is sometimes completely waxy white, but often has black flecks or pale pink coloration. Rare variants may have a deep red color. The name "Monotropa" is Greek for "one turn" and "uniflora" is Latin for "one flowered" as there is one sharply curved stem for each single flower. Description The stems reach heights of , sheathed with highly reduced leaves long, best identified as scales or bracts. These structures are small, thin, and translucent; they do not have petioles but instead extend in a sheath-like manner out of the stem. As its scientific name suggests, and unlike the related ''Monotropa hypopitys'' (but like the close relation '' Monotropastrum humile''), the stems bear a single flower long, with 3–8 translucent petals, 10–12 stamen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Redwood National Forest
The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one national park and three state parks, cooperatively managed, located in the United States along the coast of northern California. Comprising Redwood National Park (established 1968) and California's State Parks: Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek (dating from the 1920s), the combined RNSP contain , and feature old-growth temperate rainforests. Located within Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, the four parks, protect 45 percent of all remaining coast redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') old-growth forests, totaling at least . These trees are the tallest, among the oldest, and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. In addition to the redwood forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, waterways, and of pristine coastline. In 1850, old-growth redwood forest covered more than of the California coast. The northern portion of that area wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mycoheterotroph
Myco-heterotrophy (from Greek μύκης , "fungus", ἕτερος ', "another", "different" and τροφή ', "nutrition") is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food from parasitism upon fungi rather than from photosynthesis. A myco-heterotroph is the parasitic plant partner in this relationship. Myco-heterotrophy is considered a kind of cheating relationship and myco-heterotrophs are sometimes informally referred to as "mycorrhizal cheaters". This relationship is sometimes referred to as mycotrophy, though this term is also used for plants that engage in mutualistic mycorrhizal relationships. Relationship between myco-heterotrophs and host fungi Full (or obligate) myco-heterotrophy exists when a non-photosynthetic plant (a plant largely lacking in chlorophyll or otherwise lacking a functional photosystem) gets all of its food from the fungi that it parasitizes. Partial (or facultative) myco-heterotr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glycoside
In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. These can be activated by enzyme hydrolysis, which causes the sugar part to be broken off, making the chemical available for use. Many such plant glycosides are used as medications. Several species of ''Heliconius'' butterfly are capable of incorporating these plant compounds as a form of chemical defense against predators. In animals and humans, poisons are often bound to sugar molecules as part of their elimination from the body. In formal terms, a glycoside is any molecule in which a sugar group is bonded through its anomeric carbon to another group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides can be linked by an O- (an ''O-glycoside''), N- (a ''glycosylamine''), S-(a ''thioglycoside''), or C- (a '' C-glycoside'') glycosidic bond. According to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engleriana'' subgenus is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known ''Fagus'' subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. The European beech (''Fagus sylvatica'') is the most commonly cultivated. Beeches are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The fruit of the beech tree, known as beechnuts or mast, is found in small burrs that drop from the tree in autumn. They are small, roughly triangular, and edible, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russulaceae
The Russulaceae are a diverse family of fungi in the order Russulales, with roughly 1,900 known species and a worldwide distribution. They comprise the brittlegills and the milk-caps, well-known mushroom-forming fungi that include some edible species. These gilled mushrooms are characterised by the brittle flesh of their fruitbodies. In addition to these typical agaricoid forms, the family contains species with fruitbodies that are laterally striped ( pleurotoid), closed (secotioid or gasteroid), or crust-like (corticioid). Molecular phylogenetics has demonstrated close affinities between species with very different fruitbody types and has discovered new, distinct lineages. An important group of root-symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi in forests and shrublands around the world includes ''Lactifluus'', ''Multifurca'', ''Russula'', and ''Lactarius''. The crust-forming genera ''Boidinia'', ''Gloeopeniophorella'', and ''Pseudoxenasma'', all wood-decay fungi, have basal positions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophytes during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants, or from the male cone to the female cone of gymnosperms. If pollen lands on a compatible pistil or female cone, it germinates, producing a pollen tube that transfers the sperm to the ovule containing the female gametophyte. Individual pollen grains are small enough to require magnification to see detail. The study of pollen is called palynology and is highly useful in paleoecology, paleontology, archaeology, and forensics. Pollen in plants is used for transferring haploid male genetic material from the anther of a single flower to the stigma of another in cross-pollination. In a case of self-pollination, this process takes place from the anth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bumblebee
A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera (e.g., ''Calyptapis'') are known from fossils. They are found primarily in higher altitudes or latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also found in South America, where a few lowland tropical species have been identified. European bumblebees have also been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania. Female bumblebees can sting repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals. Most bumblebees are social insects that form colonies with a single queen. The colonies are smaller than those of honey bees, growing to as few as 50 individuals in a nest. Cuckoo bumblebees are brood parasitic and do not make nests or form colonies; their queens aggressively invade the nests of other bumblebee species, kill the resident queen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ephemeral Plant
An ephemeral plant is one marked by short life cycles. The word ephemeral means transitory or quickly fading. In regard to plants, it refers to several distinct growth strategies. The first, spring ephemeral, refers to perennial plants that emerge quickly in the spring and die back to their underground parts after a short growth and reproduction phase. Desert ephemerals are plants which are adapted to take advantage of the short wet periods in arid climates. Mud-flat ephemerals take advantage of short periods of low water. In areas subjected to recurring human disturbance, such as plowing, weedy ephemerals are very short-lived plants whose entire life cycle takes less than a growing season. In each case, the species has a life cycle timed to exploit a short period when resources are freely available. Spring ephemerals Spring ephemerals are perennial woodland wildflowers which develop aerial parts (i.e. stems, leaves, and flowers) of the plant early each spring and then quickly bl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ericaceae
The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron (including azaleas), and various common heaths and heathers (''Erica'', ''Cassiope'', ''Daboecia'', and ''Calluna'' for example). Description The Ericaceae contain a morphologically diverse range of taxa, including herbs, dwarf shrubs, shrubs, and trees. Their leaves are usually evergreen, alternate or whorled, simple and without stipules. Their flowers are hermaphrodite and show considerable variability. The petals are often fused (sympetalous) with shapes ranging from narrowly tubular to funnelform or widely urn-shaped. The corollas are usually ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotropaceae
Monotropoideae, sometimes referred to as monotropes, are a flowering plant subfamily in the family Ericaceae. Members of this subfamily are notable for their mycoheterotrophic and non-photosynthesizing or achlorophyllous characteristics. Description The overall morphology of these plants is highly reduced compared to other members of the Ericaceae, which are practically all subshrubs, shrubs, or trees. By contrast, the Monotropoideae are all herbaceous perennials, in which an annual shoot reemerges seasonally (in spring or early summer, depending on climate) from a perennial root. The shoot can be characterized as a single inflorescence or cluster of inflorescences, and is generally a raceme with one to many flowers per axis, though occasionally the raceme may be so reduced as to appear similar to a spike, and in ''Monotropa'', the inflorescence can take the form of a solitary flower. Notably, the shoots are achlorophyllous, in keeping with the mycoheterotrophic and non-photosynth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chromosome
A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are the histones. These proteins, aided by chaperone proteins, bind to and condense the DNA molecule to maintain its integrity. These chromosomes display a complex three-dimensional structure, which plays a significant role in transcriptional regulation. Chromosomes are normally visible under a light microscope only during the metaphase of cell division (where all chromosomes are aligned in the center of the cell in their condensed form). Before this happens, each chromosome is duplicated ( S phase), and both copies are joined by a centromere, resulting either in an X-shaped structure (pictured above), if the centromere is located equatorially, or a two-arm structure, if the centromere is located distally. The joined copies are now called si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plant Propagation
Plant propagation is the process by which new plants grow from a variety of sources: seeds, cuttings, and other plant parts. Plant propagation can also refer to the man-made or natural dispersal of seeds. Propagation typically occurs as a step in the overall cycle of plant growth. For seeds, it happens after ripening and dispersal; for vegetative parts, it happens after detachment or pruning; for asexually-reproducing plants, such as strawberry, it happens as the new plant develops from existing parts. Plant propagation can be divided into four basic types: sexual, asexual (vegetative), layering, and grafting. Countless plants are propagated each day in horticulture and agriculture. The materials commonly used for plant propagation are seeds and cuttings. Sexual propagation Seeds and spores can be used for reproduction (e.g. sowing). Seeds are typically produced from sexual reproduction within a species because genetic recombination has occurred. A plant grown from seeds may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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