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Linanthus Demissus
''Linanthus demissus'' (humble gilia or desertsnow) is a small flowering plant found in the Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States, from southeastern California east to Arizona and southern Utah. Description It is an annual plant with decumbent (creeping) growth to 2–10 cm tall with downy stems. The leaves are opposite, 6–10 mm long and 1–2 mm broad, with an acuminate apex. It has fragrant white flowers with petals that twist much like a windmill, just a few millimeters across. A key distinguishing characteristic is the pair of small purple lines or wedges at the base of each corolla lobe. Habitat It is inconspicuous when not in flower, and tends to blend in with gravel and rock pebbles. It is found on limestone desert pavements and in sandy washes, and can be found in large numbers around Death Valley National Park and the Mojave National Preserve south of Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway System, Interstate H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asa Gray
Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually exclusive. Gray was adamant that a genetic connection must exist between all members of a species. He was also strongly opposed to the ideas of hybridization within one generation and special creation in the sense of its not allowing for evolution. He was a strong supporter of Darwin, although Gray's theistic evolution was guided by a Creator. As a professor of botany at Harvard University for several decades, Gray regularly visited, and corresponded with, many of the leading natural scientists of the era, including Charles Darwin, who held great regard for him. Gray made several trips to Europe to collaborate with leading European scientists of the era, as well as trips to the southern and western United States. He also built an extensive ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some parts of the English speaking world. The term wind engine is sometimes used to describe such devices. Windmills were used throughout the High Middle Ages, high medieval and early modern periods; the horizontal or panemone windmill first appeared in Persia during the 9th century, and the vertical windmill first appeared in northwestern Europe in the 12th century. Regarded as an icon of Culture of the Netherlands, Dutch culture, there are approximately 1,000 windmills in the Netherlands today. Forerunners Wind-powered machines may have been known earlier, but there is no clear evidence of windmills before the 9th century. Hero of Alexandria (Heron) in first-century Roman Egypt described what appears to be a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North American Desert Flora
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is related to the Old High German ''nord'', both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit *''ner-'', meaning "left; below" as north is to left when facing the rising sun. Similarly, the other cardinal directions are also related to the sun's position. The Latin word ''borealis'' comes from the Greek '' boreas'' "north wind, north", which, according to Ovid, was personified as the wind-god Boreas, the father of Calais and Zetes. ''Septentrionalis'' is from ''septentriones'', "the seven plow oxen", a name of ''Ursa Major''. The Greek ἀρκτικός (''arktikós'') is named for the same constellation, and is the source of the English word ''Arctic''. Other languages have other derivations. For example, in Lezgian, ''kefer'' can mean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linanthus
''Linanthus'' is a genus of annual and perennial plants in the phlox family Polemoniaceae. The species are found in western North America and in Chile, with the greatest diversity in California. The stems are erect, with multiple branches arising directly from the base, and grow 2–15 cm tall. The leaves are stem-like (''cauline'') and opposite, with shapes ranging from entire to palmately lobed, the 3-9 lobes being linear to lanceolate or spatulate. Flowers have a tubular calyx, and the corolla may be funnel- or bell-shaped, or . The genus name is from the Greek for "flax flower", since the flowers superficially resemble those of flax. The genus has recently been split, with many of the species formerly included now transferred to the genus '' Leptosiphon'' (Jepson Manual). ;Selected species * '' Linanthus bellus'' (Gray) Greene * '' Linanthus bigelovii'' (A. Gray) Greene * '' Linanthus concinnus'' Milliken * '' Linanthus demissus'' (A. Gray) Greene * '' Linanthus dian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstate 15 In California
Route 15, consisting of the contiguous segments of State Route 15 (SR 15) and Interstate 15 (I-15), is a major north–south state highway and Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ..., connecting San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino, Riverside County, California, Riverside, and San Diego County, California, San Diego Counties. The route consists of the southernmost of Interstate 15, I-15, which extends north through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana to the Canada–United States border, Canada–US border. It is a major thoroughfare for traffic between San Diego and the Inland Empire, as well as between Southern California, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Intermountain West ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mojave National Preserve
Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 in California, Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, 1994, with the passage of the California Desert Protection Act by the US Congress, which also established Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park as National park, National Parks. Previously, some lands contained within the Preserve were the East Mojave National Scenic Area, under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. At , within the contiguous United States it is the third largest unit of the National Park System and the first largest National preserve, National Preserve. The preserve was created within the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service and remains within that jurisdiction today. Natural features include the Kelso Dunes, the Marl Mountains and the Cima Dome & Volcanic Field National Natur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, as well as the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. It contains Badwater Basin, the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and lowest in North America at below sea level. More than 93% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment including creosote bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass. The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz. Calcium carbonate is the second most common type of sand, for example, aragonite, which has mostly been created, over the past 500million years, by various forms of life, like coral and shellfish. For example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean. Somewhat more rarely, sand may be composed of calciu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when these minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life. About 20% to 25% of sedimentary rock is carbonate rock, and most of this is limestone. The remaining carbonate rock is mostly dolomite, a closely related rock, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, . ''Magnesian limestone'' is an obsolete and poorly-defined term used variously for dolomite, for limes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classified by particle size range and includes size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. In the Udden-Wentworth scale gravel is categorized into granular gravel () and pebble gravel (). ISO 14688 grades gravels as fine, medium, and coarse, with ranges 2–6.3 mm to 20–63 mm. One cubic metre of gravel typically weighs about 1,800 kg (or a cubic yard weighs about 3,000 lb). Gravel is an important commercial product, with a number of applications. Almost half of all gravel production is used as aggregate for concrete. Much of the rest is used for road construction, either in the road base or as the road surface (with or without asphalt or other binders.) Naturally occurring porous gravel deposits have a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers may facilitate outcrossing (fusion of sperm and eggs from different individuals in a population) resulting from cross-pollination or allow selfing (fusion of sperm and egg from the same flower) when self-pollination occurs. There are two types of pollination: self-pollination and cross-pollination. Self-pollination occurs when the pollen from the anther is deposited on the stigma of the same flower, or another flower on the same plant. Cross-pollination is when pollen is transferred from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower on a different individual of the same species. Self-pollination happens in flowers where the stamen and carpel mature at the same time, and are positi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Lee Greene
Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American West. Early life Edward Lee Greene was born on August 20, 1843 in Hopkinton, Rhode Island. In 1859 Greene moved to Wisconsin and began studying at Albion Academy, a very reputable institution with a religious emphasis. There Greene met Thure Kumlien, a Swedish Naturalist with an interest in botany. Greene accompanied Kumlein on field trips, further developing Greene's interest in botany. In August 1862, Greene joined his father and brothers in joining the 13th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army. Though he never rose above the rank of private in his three years of service, Greene was able to advance his botanical studies, collecting specimens as he marched through Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. Following his release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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