|
Kalaharituber
''Kalaharituber'' is a fungal genus in the family Pezizaceae. It is a monotypic genus, whose single truffle-like species, ''Kalaharituber pfeilii'', is found in the Kalahari Desert, which spans the larger part of Botswana, the east of Namibia and the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Taxonomy The fungus was first described scientifically in 1895 by German mycologist Paul Christoph Hennings as ''Terfezia pfeilii''. It was moved to its own genus in 2005 by James Trappe and Varda Kagan-Zur. Description Fruiting bodies can be up to 12 cm in diameter. These weigh approximately 200 grams, although larger rains (which affect weight) can cause them to weigh twice as much. These fruits grow close to the surface, which causes surface cracks on the ground above after rains. These fruiting bodies can occur as much as 40 cm away from the main hyphae. Habitat ''Kalaharituber pfeilii'' is found the Kalahari Desert, as well as in other arid regions of South Africa, Angola, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pezizaceae
The Pezizaceae (commonly referred to as cup fungi) are a family of fungi in the Ascomycota which produce mushrooms that tend to grow in the shape of a "cup". Spores are formed on the inner surface of the fruit body (mushroom). The cup shape typically serves to focus raindrops into splashing spores out of the cup. Additionally, the curvature enables wind currents to blow the spores out in a different manner than in most agarics and boletes. Cup fungi grow in peculiar shapes, frequently resembling cups or saucers. For example, the orange peel fungus (''Aleuria aurantia'') resembles a discarded orange rind. They may be vividly colored, like the scarlet cup (''Sarcoscypha coccinea''), which is often one of the first signs of spring where it grows. According to one 2008 estimate, the family contains 31 genera and 230 species. Subtaxa Pezizaceae includes the following: *'' Adelphella'' **'' Adelphella babingtonii'' *'' Amylascus'' **'' Amylascus tasmanicus'' *'' Aquapeziza'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grewia Flava
''Grewia flava'', the brandy bush, wild currant, velvet raisin, or raisin tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ..., native to southern Africa. A common shrub species, it is spreading into grasslands due to human rangeland management practices, and increasing rainfall. The berries are sweet and edible, but have little flesh and so are typically collected to ferment into alcoholic beverages. The desert truffle '' Kalaharituber pfeilii'' is often found in association with its roots. References flava Flora of Angola Flora of Zimbabwe Flora of Southern Africa Plants described in 1813 {{Grewioideae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Trappe
James Martin Trappe (born 1931) is a mycologist and expert in the field of North American truffle species. He has authored or co-authored 450 scientific papers and written three books on the subject. MycoBank lists him as either author or co-author of 401 individual species, and over the course of his career he has helped guide research on mycorrhizal fungi, and reshaped truffle taxonomy (biology), taxonomy: establishing a new order (biology), order, two new family (biology), families, and 40 individual genera. Research Hypogeous Fungi or ‘Truffles’ Trappe first encountered truffles in the wild in the late 1950s during his Ph.D. thesis research. Since then Trappe has become widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on truffles in the world. In his search for truffle specimens he has collected on "every continent except Africa and Antarctica". Mycorrhizae Trappe has also been keenly interested in the role that mycorrhizal fungi (which many truffles are) in natural en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eragrostis
''Eragrostis'' is a large and widespread genus of plants in the grass family, found in many countries on all inhabited continents and many islands. ''Eragrostis'' is commonly known as lovegrass or canegrass. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek words ἔρως (''eros''), meaning "love", and ἄγρωστις (''agrostis''), meaning "grass". Lovegrass is commonly used as livestock fodder. The seeds appear to be of high nutritional value for some animals, but they are also very tiny and collecting them for human food is cumbersome and hence uncommon. A notable exception is teff ('' E. tef''), which is used to make traditional breads on the Horn of Africa, such as Ethiopian ''injera'' and Somalian ''laxoox''. It is a crop of commercial importance. '' E. clelandii'' and '' E. tremula'' are recorded as famine foods in Australia and Chad, respectively. Other species, such as '' E. amabilis'', are used as ornamental plants. '' E. cynosuroides'' is used in the '' pūjā'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotypic Fungi Genera
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispecific" or "monospecific" is sometimes preferred. In botanical nomenclature, a monotypic genus is a genus in the special case where a genus and a single species are simultaneously described. In contrast, an oligotypic taxon contains more than one but only a very few subordinate taxa. Examples Just as the term ''monotypic'' is used to describe a taxon including only one subdivision, the contained taxon can also be referred to as monotypic within the higher-level taxon, e.g. a genus monotypic within a family. Some examples of monotypic groups are: Plants * In the order Amborellales, there is only one family, Amborellaceae and there is only one genus, '' Amborella'', and in this genus there is only one species, namely ''Amborella trichopoda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fungi Of Africa
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from the other eukaryotic kingdoms, which by one traditional classification include Plantae, Animalia, Protozoa, and Chromista. A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria, and some protists is chitin in their cell walls. Fungi, like animals, are heterotrophs; they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores (a few of which are flagellated), which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems. These and other differences place fungi in a single group of related organisms, named the ''Eumycota'' (''true fungi' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Climate Change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global average temperature is more rapid than previous changes, and is primarily caused by humans burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices increase greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide and methane. Greenhouse gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight. Larger amounts of these gases trap more heat in Earth's lower atmosphere, causing global warming. Due to climate change, deserts are expanding, while heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common. Increased warming in the Arctic has contributed to melting permafrost, glacial retreat and sea ice loss. Higher temperatures are also causing m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Over Harvesting
Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term applies to natural resources such as water aquifers, grazing pastures and forests, wild medicinal plants, fish stocks and other wildlife. In ecology, overexploitation describes one of the five main activities threatening global biodiversity. Ecologists use the term to describe populations that are harvested at an unsustainable rate, given their natural rates of mortality and capacities for reproduction. This can result in extinction at the population level and even extinction of whole species. In conservation biology, the term is usually used in the context of human economic activity that involves the taking of biological resources, or organisms, in larger numbers than their populations can withstand. The term is also used and defined so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khoisan
Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in the Nǁng language). The San were formerly called Bushmen, (from Afrikaans ''Boesmans'' from nl, Boschjesmens); and the were formerly known as " Hottentots", speculated to be a Dutch onomatopoeic term referring to the click consonants prevalent in the Khoekhoe languages. However there is no evidence of this etymology."A very large number of different etymologies for the name have been suggested ... The most frequently repeated suggestion ... is that the word was a spec. use of a formally identical Dutch word meaning ‘stammerer, stutterer’, which came to be applied to the Khoekhoe and San people on account of the clicks characteristic of their languages. However, evidence for the earlier general use appears to be lacking. Another fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian National Botanic Gardens
The Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) is a heritage-listed botanical garden located in , Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Established in 1949, the Gardens is administered by the Australian Government's Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. The botanic gardens was added to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004. The botanic gardens is the largest living collection of native Australian flora. The mission of the ANBG is to "study and promote Australia's flora". The gardens maintains a wide variety of botanical resources for researchers and cultivates native plants threatened in the wild. The herbarium code for the Australian National Botanic Gardens is ''CANB''. History When Canberra was being planned in the 1930s, the establishment of the gardens was recommended in a report in 1933 by the Advisory Council of Federal Capital Territory. In 1935, The Dickson Report set forth a framework for their development. A large site fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meerkats
MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Radio Telescope in Africa, and the locally designed and built MeerKAT was incorporated into the first phase of the SKA. MeerKAT was launched in 2018. Along with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), also in South Africa, and two radio telescopes in Western Australia, the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), the MeerKAT is one of four precursors to the final SKA. History MeerKAT is a precursor for the SKA-mid array, as are the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). Description It is located on the SKA site in the Karoo, and is a pathfinder for SKA-mid technologies and science. It was design ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynodon Dactylon
''Cynodon dactylon'', commonly known as Bermuda grass, is a grass found worldwide. It is native to Europe, Africa, Australia and much of Asia. It has been introduced to the Americas. Although it is not native to Bermuda, it is an abundant invasive species there. In Bermuda it has been known as "crab grass" (also a name for ''Digitaria sanguinalis''). It is also known by various names as ''Dhoob'', ''dūrvā'' grass, ''ethana'' grass, ''dubo'', dog grass, dog's tooth grass, Bahama grass, crab grass, devil's grass, couch grass, Indian ''doab'', ''arugampul'', grama, wiregrass and scutch grass. Description The blades are a grey-green colour and are short, usually long with rough edges. The erect stems can grow tall. The stems are slightly flattened, often tinged purple in colour. The seed heads are produced in a cluster of two to six spikes together at the top of the stem, each spike long. It has a deep root system; in drought situations with penetrable soil, the root system c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Khoisan")
