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Mount Roraima
Mount Roraima ( es, Monte Roraima; Tepuy Roraima; Cerro Roraima pt, Monte Roraima ) is the highest of the Pakaraima chain of tepuis (table-top mountain) or plateaux in South America. It is located at the junction of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. A characteristic large flat-topped mountain surrounded by cliffs 400 to 1,000 meters high. The highest point of Mount Roraima is located on the southern edge of the cliff at an altitude of 2,810 meters in Venezuela, and another protrusion at an altitude of 2,772 meters at the junction of the three countries in the north of the plateau is the highest point in Guyana. The name of Mount Roraima came from the native Pemon people. ''Roroi'' in the Pemon language means "blue-green", and ''ma'' means "great". Leaching caused by intense rainfall has shaped the peculiar topography of the summit, and the geographical isolation of Mount Roraima has made it home to much endemic flora and fauna. Western exploration of Mount Roraima did not begin unti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kukenán-tepui
Kukenán, also known as Matawi or Cuquenán, is a tepui in Bolívar State, Guayana Region, Venezuela. It has an estimated surface area of 2185 hectares (equivalent to 21.85 square kilometres). It is high and about 3 km (1.9 mi) long. Kukenan Falls, which is high, is located at the south end of the tepui. Kukenán is located in Canaima National Park. Next to Kukenán, to the southeast, is Mount Roraima, a better known tepui. Kukenán is more difficult to climb, so it is ascended much less frequently than Mount Roraima. Canaima National Park is also home to the highest waterfall in the world, which is located in Auyán Tepui. Scenery on top of Kukenán provided inspiration for the 2009 film '' Up''. See also *Gran Sabana La Gran Sabana (, en, The Great Savanna) is a region in southeastern Venezuela, part of the Guianan savanna ecoregion. The savanna spreads into the regions of the Guiana Highlands and south-east into Bolívar State, extending further to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Ferdinand Appun
Carl Ferdinand Appun (24 May 1820, Bunzlau- July 1872, Guyana) was a German naturalist. On the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt Appun was employed by Frederick William IV of Prussia as a botanist in Venezuela where excepting a one-year break in Germany, he spent ten years exploring the flora. After that he went to British Guayana, where he researched as a botanist on behalf the British government. He also visited parts of Brazil -the Rio Branco and Rio Negro on the Amazon to Tabatinga. During a visit in Germany (1868–1871) he published a set of essays in different magazines . His best known work'' Unter den Tropen'' (''Under the Tropics'') was at that time extremely popular. In 1871 he undertook a second exploration of Guyana, where he had an accident which led to his death. His last writings were essays about Indigenous peoples in Venezuela. Appun described many new plant species and is also known as an entomologist. Works *''Über die Behandlung von Säme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Hermann Schomburgk
Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 – 11 March 1865) was a German-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missions for Great Britain in the Dominican Republic and Thailand. Life and career Schomburgk was born at Freyburg, Prussian Saxony, the son of a Protestant minister. In 1820, while staying with his uncle, he learned botany from a professor. Commercial career He entered commercial life and, in 1828, went to the United States, where he worked for a time as a clerk in Boston and Philadelphia. In 1828, he was requested to supervise a transport of Saxon sheep to the American state of Virginia, where he lived for a time. The same year, he became a partner in a tobacco manufactory at Richmond. The factory was burned, and Schomburgk was ruined. He suffered further setbacks on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, where he lost all his belongings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion in Ireland, helped defend England against the Spanish Armada and held political positions under Elizabeth I. Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine Champernowne. He was the younger half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and a cousin of Sir Richard Grenville. Little is known of his early life, though in his late teens he spent some time in France taking part in the religious civil wars. In his 20s he took part in the suppression of rebellion in the colonisation of Ireland; he also participated in the siege of Smerwick. Later, he became a landlord of property in Ireland and mayor of Youghal in East Munster, where his house still stands in Myrtle Grove. He rose rapidly in the favour o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epiphytes
An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phorophytes. Epiphytes take part in nutrient cycles and add to both the diversity and biomass of the ecosystem in which they occur, like any other organism. They are an important source of food for many species. Typically, the older parts of a plant will have more epiphytes growing on them. Epiphytes differ from parasites in that they grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily affect the host negatively. An organism that grows on another organism that is not a plant may be called an epibiont. Epiphytes are usually found in the temperate zone (e.g., many mosses, liverworts, lichens, and algae) or in the tropics (e.g., many ferns, cacti, orchids, and bromeliads). Epiphyte species make good houseplants due to their minimal wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bromeliad
The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, '' Pitcairnia feliciana''. It is among the basal families within the Poales and is the only family within the order that has septal nectaries and inferior ovaries.Judd, Walter S. Plant systematics a phylogenetic approach. 3rd ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc., 2007. These inferior ovaries characterize the Bromelioideae, a subfamily of the Bromeliaceae. The family includes both epiphytes, such as Spanish moss ('' Tillandsia usneoides''), and terrestrial species, such as the pineapple ('' Ananas comosus''). Many bromeliads are able to store water in a structure formed by their tightly overlapping leaf bases. However, the family is diverse enough to include the tank bromeliads, grey-leaved epiphyte '' Tillandsia'' species ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astragalus
''Astragalus'' is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names include milkvetch (most species), locoweed (in North America, some species) and goat's-thorn ( ''A. gummifer'', ''A. tragacantha''). Some pale-flowered vetches (''Vicia'' spp.) are similar in appearance, but they are more vine-like than ''Astragalus''. Description Most species in the genus have pinnately compound leaves. There are annual and perennial species. The flowers are formed in clusters in a raceme, each flower typical of the legume family, with three types of petals: banner, wings, and keel. The calyx is tubular or bell-shaped. Ecology ''Astragalus'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including many case-bearing moths of the genus ''Col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palmaceae
The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees. Currently, 181 genera with around 2,600 species are known, most of which are restricted to tropical and subtropical climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, arranged at the top of an unbranched stem. However, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts. Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families. They have been important to humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods are derived from palms. In contemporary times, palms are also widely used in landscaping. In many historical cultures, because of their importance as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diorite
Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-silica (mafic) gabbro and high-silica ( felsic) granite. Diorite is found in mountain-building belts (''orogens'') on the margins of continents. It has the same composition as the fine-grained volcanic rock, andesite, which is also common in orogens. Diorite has been used since prehistoric times as decorative stone. It was used by the Akkadian Empire of Sargon of Akkad for funerary sculptures, and by many later civilizations for sculptures and building stone. Description Diorite is an intrusive igneous rock composed principally of the silicate minerals plagioclase feldspar (typically andesine), biotite, hornblende, and sometimes pyroxene. The chemical composition of diorite is intermediate, between that of mafic gabbro and felsic g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian reptiles, like the dinosaurs; an abundance of conifers and ferns; a hot greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea. The Mesozoic is the middle of the three eras since complex life evolved: the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic. The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest well-documented mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction whose victims included the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, and plesiosaurs. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climatic, and evolutionary activity. The era witnessed the gradual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures and pressures than schist. Gneiss nearly always shows a banded texture characterized by alternating darker and lighter colored bands and without a distinct cleavage. Gneisses are common in the ancient crust of continental shields. Some of the oldest rocks on Earth are gneisses, such as the Acasta Gneiss. Description Orthogneiss from the Czech Republic In traditional English and North American usage, a gneiss is a coarse-grained metamorphic rock showing compositional banding ( gneissic banding) but poorly developed schistosity and indistinct cleavage. In other words, it is a metamorphic rock composed of mineral grains easily seen with the unaided eye, which form obvious compositional layers, but which has only a weak tendency to fract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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