|
Jamaican Dry Forests
The Jamaican dry forests is a tropical dry forest ecoregion located in southern Jamaica. Geography The ecoregion covers three discontinuous areas of Jamaica. The largest area extends along the south coast of the island, from Morant Point, Jamaica's easternmost point, to Black River Bay in the west. Kingston, Jamaica's capital and largest city, is in the ecoregion. Smaller areas of dry forest occur around Negril at the western end of the island, and east of Montego Bay along the island's northern shore. The most extensive dry forests are in the limestone hills of the Hellshire Hills in Saint Catherine Parish and Portland Ridge in Clarendon Parish in southern Jamaica. These areas are dry because they lie in the orographic rain shadow of the Blue Mountains. The Hellshire Hills have been described as one of the last substantial areas of primary, undisturbed dry forest in the Caribbean. Much of the remaining Jamaican dry forest lies within the Portland Bight Protected Area which in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alligator Pond
Alligator Pond is a fishing village on the southwestern coast of Jamaica in the parish of Manchester. Unlike the tourist-oriented coasts in the northern part of the country, Alligator Pond's shoreline is as much about work as play; here fishermen launch their boats to catch some of the island's best-regarded fish while women conduct the wholesale business of the catch. Weather-worn cookshops and bars line the sand's edge, supplying food staples such as curried goat and Red Stripe beer. Geography Alligator Pond lies at the foot of the Don Figueroa Mountains to the north-east, some 35 km from Mandeville. The name is said by locals to derive from the shape of the mountain range, which viewed from the beach has bumps which suggest an alligator's back. The Alligator Pond River is a bathing spot about 3.2 km (2 miles) west of the village off the road leading to Port Kaiser. The Little Ochie ''The Little Ochie'', a fish restaurant, is located in several huts on the be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Mountains (Jamaica)
The Blue Mountains are the longest mountain range in Jamaica. They include the island's highest point, Blue Mountain Peak, at 2256 m (7402 ft). From the summit, accessible via a walking track, both the north and south coasts of the island can be seen. On a clear day, the outline of the island of Cuba, away, can also be seen. The mountain range spans four parishes: Portland, St. Thomas, St. Mary and St. Andrew. Geography The Blue Mountains dominate the eastern third of Jamaica, while bordering the eastern parishes of Portland, St. Thomas, St. Mary and St. Andrew to the south. Part of the Blue Mountains is contained in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park established in 1992, which is maintained by the Jamaican government. The Blue Mountains rise to its elevations from the coastal plain in the space of about , thus producing one of the steepest general gradients in the world. This forms cooling relief from the sweltering heat of the city of Kingston, visi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drypetes Lateriflora
''Drypetes'' is a plant genus of the family Putranjivaceae, in the order Malpighiales. It was previously in the family Euphorbiaceae, tribe Drypeteae, and was the sole pantropical zoochorous genus of the family. The genus comprises about 200 species, found in Africa, southern Asia, Australia, Central America, the Caribbean, southern Florida, Mexico, and various oceanic islands. They are dioecious trees or shrubs. Along with ''Putranjiva'', also in the Putranjivaceae, ''Drypetes'' contains the only plants outside the Brassicales known to contain mustard oils. Species The Kew ''World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP)'' lists: # ''Drypetes acuminata'' – Queensland # '' Drypetes aetoxyloides'' – Sabah # '' Drypetes aframensis'' – W Africa # '' Drypetes afzelii'' – W Africa # '' Drypetes alba'' – West Indies # '' Drypetes amazonica'' – Ecuador, NW Brazil # '' Drypetes ambigua'' – Madagascar # '' Drypetes andamanica'' – Myanmar, Andaman Is # '' Drypetes a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drypetes
''Drypetes'' is a plant genus of the family Putranjivaceae, in the order Malpighiales. It was previously in the family Euphorbiaceae, tribe Drypeteae, and was the sole pantropical zoochorous genus of the family. The genus comprises about 200 species, found in Africa, southern Asia, Australia, Central America, the Caribbean, southern Florida, Mexico, and various oceanic islands. They are dioecious trees or shrubs. Along with ''Putranjiva'', also in the Putranjivaceae, ''Drypetes'' contains the only plants outside the Brassicales known to contain mustard oils. Species The Kew ''World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP)'' lists: # ''Drypetes acuminata'' – Queensland # '' Drypetes aetoxyloides'' – Sabah # '' Drypetes aframensis'' – W Africa # '' Drypetes afzelii'' – W Africa # '' Drypetes alba'' – West Indies # '' Drypetes amazonica'' – Ecuador, NW Brazil # '' Drypetes ambigua'' – Madagascar # '' Drypetes andamanica'' – Myanmar, Andaman Is # '' Drypetes ... [...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] |
Bignoniaceae
Bignoniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales commonly known as the bignonias or trumpetvines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). . It is not known to which of the other families in the order it is most closely related.Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). "Bignoniaceae" At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Botanical Databases At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links'' below) Nearly all of the Bignoniaceae are woody plants, but a few are subwoody, either as vines or subshrubs. A few more are herbaceous plants of high-elevation Montane ecology, montane habitats, in three exclusively herbaceous genera: ''Tourrettia'', ''Argylia'', and ''Incarvillea''. The family includes many lianas, climbing by tendrils, by twining, or rarely, by aerial roots. The largest Tribe (biology), tribe in the family, called Bignonieae, consists mostly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fabaceae
The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. Article 18.5 states: "The following names, of long usage, are treated as validly published: ....Leguminosae (nom. alt.: Fabaceae; type: Faba Mill. Vicia L.; ... When the Papilionaceae are regarded as a family distinct from the remainder of the Leguminosae, the name Papilionaceae is conserved against Leguminosae." English pronunciations are as follows: , and . commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, are a large and agriculturally important of |
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Central America consists of eight countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Within Central America is the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active geologic faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc, there is a high amount of seismic activity in the region, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes which has resulted in death, injury, and property damage. In the pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west and the Isthmo-Colombian peoples to the south and east. Following the Spanish expedition of Christopher Columbus' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southern subregion of a single continent called America. South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent generally includes twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and one internal territory: French Guiana. In addition, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ascension Island (dependency of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory), Bouvet Island ( dependency of Norway), Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rican Dry Forests
The Puerto Rican dry forests are a tropical dry forest ecoregion located in southwestern and eastern Puerto Rico and on the offshore islands. They cover an area of . These forests grow in areas receiving less than of rain annually. Many of the trees are deciduous, losing their leaves during the dry season which normally lasts from December to April. Geography The dry forest life zone exist in two areas on the island of Puerto Rico - along the south coast of the island (in the dry orographic rain shadow of the Cordillera Central) and in the northeastern corner of the island near Fajardo, where the combination of low elevation and strong winds off the ocean result in a dry environment. Dry forests also exist on the adjacent off-shore islands of Culebra, Mona, Monito, Desecheo, Caja de Muertos, Cayo Santiago and most of the island of Vieques. Dry forests along the south coast cover a strip of land from Guayama in the east to Cabo Rojo in the west, and extends inland fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myrtaceae
Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All species are woody, contain essential oils, and have flower parts in multiples of four or five. The leaves are evergreen, alternate to mostly opposite, simple, and usually entire (i.e., without a toothed margin). The flowers have a base number of five petals, though in several genera, the petals are minute or absent. The stamens are usually very conspicuous, brightly coloured, and numerous. Evolutionary history Scientists hypothesize that the family Myrtaceae arose between 60 and 56 million years ago (Mya) during the Paleocene era. Pollen fossils have been sourced to the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. The breakup of Gondwana during the Cretaceous period (145 to 66 Mya) geographically isolated disjunct taxa and allowed for rapid speciation; i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are shrubs or trees, such as ''Hevea brasiliensis''. Some, such as ''Euphorbia canariensis'', are succulent and resemble cacti because of convergent evolution. This family has a cosmopolitan global distribution. The greatest diversity of species is in the tropics, however, the Euphorbiaceae also have many species in nontropical areas of all continents except Antarctica. Description The leaves are alternate, seldom opposite, with stipules. They are mainly simple, but where compound, are always palmate, never pinnate. Stipules may be reduced to hairs, glands, or spines, or in succulent species are sometimes absent. The plants can be monoecious or dioecious. The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Endemism")
_W_IMG_2431.jpg "Click for more on -> Myrtaceae")
