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Minchinhampton Common
Minchinhampton Common () is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1972. The site is owned and managed by the National Trust. The common is one of the largest grassland commons in the Cotswold area. It is south of Rodborough Common SSSI. Both commons are on Jurassic limestone and are a central plateau with steep sides. They drop down to the Nailsworth valley on the west side and the Frome valley on the north side. The site designation includes the outlying areas of Iron Mills and Littleworth Commons. Neu-Lindsey Nature Reserve adjoins the western edge of Minchinhampton Common. Minchinhampton Common is of both geological and biological importance. There are disused quarries near the centre which provide fossil evidence for research purposes. It is unimproved, ''herb-rich'' grassland. There are five units of assessment The limestone Longstone of Minchinhampton is supposedly the burial site of a Danish leader. Geo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minchinhampton Common In Blossom - Geograph
Minchinhampton is an ancient Cotswolds market town in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, South West England. The town is located on a hilltop, south-east of Stroud. The common offers wide views over the Severn Estuary into Wales and further into the Cotswolds. Toponymy The place-name 'Minchinhampton' is first attested as ''Hantone'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. It appears as ''Minchenhamtone'' in the Assize Rolls of 1221. The name was originally the Old English ''Heatun'', meaning "high town or settlement". The additional element is the Old English ''mynecen'', meaning a nun, which is related to the modern word "monk". Minchinhampton at one time belonged to the nunnery in Caen in Normandy, France. Thus the name means "the nuns' high town or settlement". . On a map of 1825 (published 1828) the town is labelled "Minching-Hampton" (see external links). Amenities and features The main square has a war memorial, and a 17th-century Market House, given to the town in 1919 by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bivalve
Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bivalves have no head and they lack some usual molluscan organs, like the radula and the odontophore. They include the clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, scallops, and numerous other families that live in saltwater, as well as a number of families that live in freshwater. The majority are filter feeders. The gills have evolved into ctenidia, specialised organs for feeding and breathing. Most bivalves bury themselves in sediment, where they are relatively safe from predation. Others lie on the sea floor or attach themselves to rocks or other hard surfaces. Some bivalves, such as the scallops and file shells, can swim. The shipworms bore into wood, clay, or stone and live inside these substances. The shell of a bivalve is composed of calc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harebell
''Campanula rotundifolia'', the harebell, Scottish bluebell, or bluebell of Scotland, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This herbaceous perennial is found throughout the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. In Scotland, it is often known simply as bluebell. It is the floral emblem of Sweden where it is known as small bluebell. It produces its violet-blue, bell-shaped flowers in late summer and autumn. The Latin specific epithet ''rotundifolia'' means "round leaved". However, not all leaves are round in shape. Middle stem-leaves are linear. Description ''Campanula rotundifolia'' is a slender, prostrate to erect herbaceous perennial, spreading by seed and rhizomes. The basal leaves are long-stalked, rounded to heart-shaped, usually slightly toothed, with prominent hydathodes, and often wither early. Leaves on the flowering stems are long and narrow and the upper ones are unstemmed. The inflorescence is a panicle or raceme, with 1 to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Rock-rose
''Helianthemum nummularium'' (known as common rock-rose) is a species of rock-rose (Cistaceae), native to most of Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia .... Description It is an evergreen trailing plant with loose terminal clusters of bright yellow, saucer-shaped flowers. In the flower centre is a tight cluster of orange stamens, which are sensitive to the touch, and spread outwards to reveal the tall stigma in the middle. The plant is common on chalk downs, and occasional in other grasslands, always on dry, base-rich soil. The wild species has yellow flowers, but garden varieties range from white through yellow to deep red. Though the individual blooms are short-lived, the plant produces a mass of flowers through the summer. It needs a dry, sunny place, like a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crested Dog's-tail
''Cynosurus cristatus'', the crested dog's-tail, is a short-lived perennial grass in the family Poaceae, characterised by a seed head that is flat on one side. It typically grows in species rich grassland. It thrives in a variety of soil types but avoids the acid and calcareous extremes of pH, and prefers well drained soils. retrieved 10 December 2010. It may be grown as an . Description 
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Quaking Grass
''Briza'' is a genus of annual and perennial plants in the grass family, native to northern temperate regions of Eurasia, North Africa, and certain islands in the Atlantic. The group is generally referred to as the quaking grasses because the flowers and seedheads shake on their stalks in the slightest breeze. Some of its members are grown as ornamental plants. ''Briza'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including '' Coleophora lixella''. ;Species includes photos and distribution maps for the three species ''B. maxima'', ''B. media'' and ''B. minor''. * '''' M.Bieb. â ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheep's Fescue
''Festuca ovina'', sheep's fescue or sheep fescue, is a species of grass. It is sometimes confused with hard fescue (''Festuca trachyphylla''). General description It is a perennial plant sometimes found in acidic ground, and in mountain pasture, throughout Europe (with the exception of some Mediterranean areas) and eastwards across much of Asia; it has also been introduced to North America. It is one of the defining species of the British NVC community CG2, i.e. ''Festuca ovina'' – ''Avenula pratensis'' grassland, one of the calcicolous grassland communities. However, the species has a wide ecological tolerance in the UK, occurring on both basic and acid soils, as well as old mining sites and spoil heaps that are contaminated with heavy metals. Sheep's fescue is a densely tufted perennial grass. Its greyish-green leaves are short and bristle-like. The panicles are both slightly feathery and a bit one-sided. It flowers from May until June, and is wind-pollinated. It has no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tor-grass
''Brachypodium pinnatum'', the heath false brome or tor-grass, is a species of grass with a widespread distribution in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It typically grows in calcareous grassland, and reaches tall. The flowerhead is open, with 10 to 15 erect spikelets. Distribution The plant can be found in such US states as California, Massachusetts, and Oregon. Ecology The caterpillars of some Lepidoptera use it as a food plant, e.g. the Essex skipper (''Thymelicus lineola''). It is also one of the most important host grasses for Auchenorrhyncha in central Europe.Nickel, H. (2003). ''The Leafhoppers and Planthoppers of Germany (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha): Patterns and Strategies in a Highly Diverse Group of Phytophagous Insects''. Sofia, Moscow: Pensoft and Keltern: Goecke & Evers. See also *''Brachypodium distachyon ''Brachypodium distachyon'', commonly called purple false brome or stiff brome, is a grass species native to southern Europe, northern Africa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upright Brome
''Bromus erectus'', commonly known as erect brome, upright brome or meadow brome, is a dense, course, tufted perennial grass. It can grow to . Like many brome grasses the plant is hairy. The Botanical name#Components of plant names, specific epithet ''erectus'' is Latin, meaning "erect". The diploid number of the grass is 56. Description ''Bromus erectus'' is a perennial, tufted grass with basal tufts of cespitose leaves that is Rhizome, nonrhizomatous. The culms grow between in height. The Internode (botany), internodes are typically glabrous. The flattened cauline leaves have pubescent or glabrous sheaths. The leaf blades are long and wide. The grass lacks Auricle (botany), auricles and the ligule is blunt but finely serrated, sometimes with hairy edges. The contracted and ellipsoid panicle is usually upright, rather than nodding, measuring long. The lanceolate spikelets are long and have five to twelve flowers. The glumes are acute, with the lower glumes one-nerved and lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). As of March 2022, the Reptile Database includes about 11,700 species. In the traditional Linnaean classification system, birds are considered a separate class to reptiles. However, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to other living reptiles, and so modern cladistic classification systems include birds within Reptilia, redefining the term as a clade. Other cladistic definitions abandon the term reptile altogether in favor of the clade Sauropsida, which refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. The study of the traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. The earliest known proto-reptiles originated around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crustacea
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the hexapods emerged deep in the Crustacean group, with the completed group referred to as Pancrustacea. Some crustaceans (Remipedia, Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda) are more closely related to insects and the other hexapods than they are to certain other crustaceans. The 67,000 described species range in size from '' Stygotantulus stocki'' at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to and a mass of . Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods, such as insects, myriapods and chelicerates, by the possession of biramous (two-parted) limbs, and by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. Each polyp excretes an exoskeleton near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a skeleton characteristic of the species which can measure up to several meters in size. Individual colonies grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously overnight, often around a full moon. Fertilized eggs form planulae, a mobile early form of the coral polyp which, when m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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