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Marcgravia Evenia
''Marcgravia evenia'' is a species of flowering vine in the family Marcgraviaceae. Within this family it belongs to the Galetae group, which is characterized by a long inflorescence axis and boat shaped nectaries. The plant is endemism, endemic to Cuba. Bat ecology ''Marcgravia evenia'' relies on ''Monophyllus'', a Cuban nectar-feeding bat, for pollination. This plant has evolved bowl shaped leaves which act as reflectors for a bat's biosonar. This helps the bats to find the plants with greater ease and hence pollinate them with more frequency. The shape of the leaves also helps to guide the bats in locating the hidden feeders. The reflectors are convergent evolution, convergent with those of a Bornean pitcher plant, ''Nepenthes hemsleyana'', that attracts bats to its pitchers as roosting sites and uses bat guano as a source of nutrition. References External links * * * * * Marcgravia, evenia Endemic flora of Cuba Vines {{ericales-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vine
A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Daydon (1928). ''A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Derivation and Accent'', 4th ed. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. In parts of the world, including the British Isles, the term "vine" usually applies exclusively to grapevines (''Vitis''), while the term "climber" is used for all climbing plants. Growth forms Certain plants always grow as vines, while a few grow as vines only part of the time. For instance, poison ivy and bittersweet can grow as low shrubs when support is not available, but will become vines when support is available. A vine displays a growth form based on very long stems. This has two purposes. A vine may use rock exposures, other plants, or other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcgraviaceae
The Marcgraviaceae are a neotropical angiosperm family in the order Ericales. The members of the family are shrubs, woody epiphytes, and lianas, with alternate, pinnately nerved leaves. The flowers are arranged in racemes. The flowers are accompanied by modified, fleshy, saccate bracts which produce nectar. The flowers are pentamerous. The fruits are capsules. General *''Marcgravia'' - (ca. 65 spp.): S Mexico, Mesoamerica, South America, Antilles *'' Marcgraviastrum'' - (15 spp.): S Nicaragua to Peru, Bolivia plus 2 spp. in E Brazil *'' Norantea'' - (2 spp.): Caribbean and Amazonian basin of NE South America *'' Ruyschia'' - (9 spp.): Mesoamerica, N Andes, Lesser Antilles *'' Sarcopera'' - (ca. 10 spp.): Honduras to N Bolivia, Guyayana Highlands *'' Schwartzia'' - (ca. 15 spp.): Costa Rica through the Andes south to Bolivia, in the Caribbean basin and 1 sp. in E Brazil *'' Souroubea'' - (19 spp.): Mexico to Bolivia (absent from the Antilles) There are 2 known subfamilies In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed on the axis of a plant. The modifications can involve the length and the nature of the internodes and the phyllotaxis, as well as variations in the proportions, compressions, swellings, adnations, connations and reduction of main and secondary axes. One can also define an inflorescence as the reproductive portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern. The stem holding the whole inflorescence is called a peduncle. The major axis (incorrectly referred to as the main stem) above the peduncle bearing the flowers or secondary branches is called the rachis. The stalk of each flower in the inflorescence is called a pedicel. A flower that is not part of an inflorescence is called a solitary flower and its stalk is al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nectar
Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists, which in turn provide herbivore protection. Common nectar-consuming pollinators include mosquitoes, hoverflies, wasps, bees, butterflies and moths, hummingbirds, honeyeaters and bats. Nectar plays a crucial role in the foraging economics and evolution of nectar-eating species; for example, nectar foraging behavior is largely responsible for the divergent evolution of the African honey bee, ''A. m. scutellata'' and the western honey bee. Nectar is an economically important substance as it is the sugar source for honey. It is also useful in agriculture and horticulture because the adult stages of some predatory insects feed on nectar. For example, a number of parasitoid wasps (e.g. the social wasp species ''Apoica flavissima'') rely ... [...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] |
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the American state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola ( Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The official area of the Republic of Cuba is (without the territorial waters) but a total of 350,730 km² (135,418 sq mi) including the exclusive economic zone. Cuba is the second-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti, with over 11 million inhabitants. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited by the Ciboney people from the 4th millennium BC with the Gua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monophyllus
''Monophyllus'', the Antillean long-tongued bats or single leaf bats , is a genus of bats in the family Phyllostomidae. They are distributed on the Antilles. Species It contains the following species: * ''Monophyllus plethodon'' Miller, 1900 — insular single leaf bat, Lesser Antillean long-tongued bat ** †''Monophyllus plethodon frater'' Anthony, 1917 — Puerto Rican long-nosed bat ** ''Monophyllus plethodon luciae'' Miller, 1902 ** ''Monophyllus plethodon plethodon'' Miller, 1900 * ''Monophyllus redmani'' Leach, 1821 — Leach's single leaf bat Leach's single leaf bat (''Monophyllus redmani''), also known as Greater Antillean long-tongued bat, is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found in the southern Bahamas and in all the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola ..., Greater Antillean long-tongued bat ** ''Monophyllus redmani clinedaphus'' Miller, 1900 ** ''Monophyllus redmani portoricensis'' Miller, 1900 ** ''Monophyllus redmani redmani'' Leach ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biosonar
Echolocation, also called bio sonar, is a biological sonar used by several animal species. Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects. Echolocation is used for navigation, foraging, and hunting in various environments. Echolocating animals include some mammals (most notably Laurasiatheria) and a few birds, especially some bat species and odontocetes (toothed whales and dolphins), but also in simpler forms in other groups such as shrews, and two cave-dwelling bird groups, the so-called cave swiftlets in the genus ''Aerodramus'' (formerly ''Collocalia'') and the unrelated oilbird ''Steatornis caripensis''. Early research The term ''echolocation'' was coined in 1938 by the American zoologist Donald Griffin, who, with Robert Galambos, first demonstrated the phenomenon in bats. As Griffin described in his book, the 18th century I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Convergent Evolution
Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last common ancestor of those groups. The cladistic term for the same phenomenon is homoplasy. The recurrent evolution of flight is a classic example, as flying insects, birds, pterosaurs, and bats have independently evolved the useful capacity of flight. Functionally similar features that have arisen through convergent evolution are ''analogous'', whereas '' homologous'' structures or traits have a common origin but can have dissimilar functions. Bird, bat, and pterosaur wings are analogous structures, but their forelimbs are homologous, sharing an ancestral state despite serving different functions. The opposite of convergence is divergent evolution, where related species evolve different traits. Convergent evolution is similar to parallel evo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nepenthes Hemsleyana
''Nepenthes hemsleyana'' is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo, where it grows in peat swamp forest and heath forest below 200 m above sea level. The specific epithet ''hemsleyana'' honours English botanist William Botting Hemsley, who described '' N. macfarlanei'' and '' N. smilesii''. Botanical history This species has a long and confused taxonomic history. It was first collected in 1877 by Frederick William Burbidge, who found it on "a rocky hill about five hundred feet [] high". The site was reached by a small stream and lay around from the Kedayan settlement of Meringit, located at the head of the Merapok River, Meropok branch of the Lawas River in Sarawak, Borneo. There the plant grew sympatrically with '' N. gracilis'', '' N. hirsuta'', '' N. rafflesiana'', and '' N. veitchii''. Burbidge informally called the plant ''N. rafflesiana'' "''glaberrima''", but there is no indication that this is the same taxon as the ''N.&nb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcgravia
''Marcgravia'' is a genus of plants in the Marcgraviaceae family commonly eaten by the dwarf little fruit bat. The genus is native to the Caribbean Islands, Central America, and South America, and genus is named in memory of the German naturalist Georg Marcgraf. The plant is visited by Thomas's nectar bat. General information ''Marcgravia'' is a genus of terrestrial vines. It was named after George Marcgraf who first saw it on a voyage to Brazil. ''Marcgravia'' is classified as a sub-parasitical shrub. ''Marcgravia'' is pollinated by Thomas's nectar bat. '' Marcgravia rectiflora'', '' Marcgravia sintenisill'', '' Marcgravia tobagensis'' and '' Marcgravi trinitatis'' are species of ''Marcgravia''. Locations *Belize, *Bolivia, *Brazil North, *Brazil Northeast, *Brazil South, *Brazil Southeast, *Brazil West-Central, *Central American Pac, *Colombia, *Costa Rica, *Cuba, *Dominican Republic, *Ecuador, *French Guiana, *Guatemala, *Guyana, *Haiti, *Honduras, *Jam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Flora Of Cuba
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 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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