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Piliostigma Reticulatum
''Piliostigma reticulatum'' is a legume in the Cercidoideae subfamily. It occurs throughout western tropical Africa to Ethiopia. The species has been shown to be useful as an intercrop for crops such as millet in the Sahel. Description A perennial dioecious species, it is capable of growing up to 10 m tall. The plant has a deeply fissured to cracked grey bark and fibrous slash turning brown . It has alternate leaves that are bilobed in outline, the lobes are rounded to cuneate; leaf-blade is 5–11 cm long and 4–18 cm wide, petiole is 1-3.5 cm long, the leaf surface is leathery and glabrous. Inflorescence is either terminal or axillary panicles with white-pink striped flowers. Fruit is a glabrous pod. Distribution Widespread in the Sudan and Sahel savannah regions of West Africa, east towards Sudan. Ecology In West African Sahel environments, research identified that some cropped fields with ''Piliostigma reticulatum'' and ''Guiera senegalensis'' have be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legume
A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, soybeans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. Legumes are notable in that most of them have symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in structures called root nodules. For that reason, they play a key role in crop rotation. Terminology The term ''pulse'', as used by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is reserved for legume crops harvested solely for the dry seed. This excludes green beans and green peas, which a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cercidoideae
Cercidoideae is a subfamily in the pea family, Fabaceae. Well-known members include ''Cercis'' (redbuds), including species widely cultivated as ornamental trees in the United States and Europe, ''Bauhinia'', widely cultivated as an ornamental tree in tropical Asia, and ''Tylosema'' , a semi-woody genus of Africa. The subfamily occupies a basal position within the Fabaceae and is supported as monophyly, monophyletic in many molecular phylogenetics, molecular phylogenies. At the 6th International Legume Conference, the Legume Phylogeny Working Group proposed elevating the tribe Cercidae to the level of subfamily within the Leguminosae (Fabaceae). The consensus agreed to the change, which was fully implemented in 2017. It has the following clade-based definition: The most inclusive crown clade containing ''Cercis canadensis'' L. and ''Bauhinia divaricata'' L. but not ''Poeppigia procera'' C.Presl, ''Duparquetia orchidacea'' Baill., or ''Bobgunnia fistuloides'' (Harms) J.H.Kirkbr. & W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intercrop
Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice that involves growing two or more crops in proximity. In other words, intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources or ecological processes that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. Methods The degree of spatial and temporal overlap in the two crops can vary somewhat, but both requirements must be met for a cropping system to be an intercrop. Numerous types of intercropping, all of which vary the temporal and spatial mixture to some degree, have been identified. Maslin Mixed intercropping, (also known as maslin) is the most basic form in which multiple crops are freely mixed in the available space. Maslin is a common practice in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Georgia, and a few other places. Maslin has been practiced for thousands of years. In Medieval England, farmer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets also belong to various other taxa. Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa (especially in India, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger), with 97% of millet production in developing countries. This crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, high-temperature conditions. Millets are indigenous to many parts of the world. The most widely grown millets are sorghum and pearl millets, which are important crops in India and parts of Africa. Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species. Millets may have been consumed by humans for about 7,000 years and potentially had "a pivotal role in the rise of multi-crop agriculture and settled farming societies." Descript ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sahel
The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid climate, it stretches across the south-central latitudes of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. The Sahel part of Africa includes – from west to east – parts of northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme south of Algeria, Niger, the extreme north of Nigeria, Cameroon and Central African Republic, central Chad, central and southern Sudan, the extreme north of South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Historically, the western part of the Sahel was sometimes known as the Sudan region (''bilād as-sūdān'' "lands of the Sudan"). This belt was located between the Sahara and the coastal areas of West Africa. There are frequent shortages of food and water due to the dry h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dioecy
Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is biparental reproduction. Dioecy has costs, since only about half the population directly produces offspring. It is one method for excluding self-fertilization and promoting allogamy (outcrossing), and thus tends to reduce the expression of recessive deleterious mutations present in a population. Plants have several other methods of preventing self-fertilization including, for example, dichogamy, herkogamy, and self-incompatibility. Dioecy is a dimorphic sexual system, alongside gynodioecy and androdioecy. In zoology In zoology, dioecious species may be opposed to hermaphroditic species, meaning that an individual is either male or female, in which case the synonym gonochory is more often used. Most animal species are dioecious (gon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guiera
''Guiera'' is a flowering plant genus in the family Combretaceae. ''Guiera senegalensis'' is the only known species in the genus, found in Tropical Africa in dry areas from Senegal to Sudan (requiring much sunlight and light dry soil). The plant produces the tannin 3,4,5-Tri-O-galloylquinic acid and several alkaloids of the harmane family. Uses The plant as a whole is often decorative, however the leaves are known as a medicinal 'cure-all' in Africa: It is known for being hypotensive, antidiarrhetic, anti-inflammatory, and helpful for coughs. Its bark yields a marketable gum; its branches are used for baskets, framework, and fences; its roots for toothpicks; and its smoke repels flies. Ecology Guiera is a pioneer species, spread via animal dispersal and grows well in impoverished soil. It is an indicator species of overgrazed land. Water pump Guiera naturally "pumps" water to the surface in a process called '' hydraulic lift'' or ''hydraulic redistribution'' (HR): When ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydraulic Redistribution
Hydraulic redistribution is a passive mechanism where water is transported from moist to dry soils via subterranean networks. It occurs in vascular plants that commonly have roots in both wet and dry soils, especially plants with both taproots that grow vertically down to the water table, and lateral roots that sit close to the surface. In the late 1980s, there was a movement to understand the full extent of these subterranean networks. Since then it was found that vascular plants are assisted by fungal networks which grow on the root system to promote water redistribution. Process Hot, dry periods, when the surface soil dries out to the extent that the lateral roots exude whatever water they contain, will result in the death of such lateral roots unless the water is replaced. Similarly, under extremely wet conditions when lateral roots are inundated by flood waters, oxygen deprivation will also lead to root peril. In plants that exhibit hydraulic redistribution, there are xylem path ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tartaric Acid
Tartaric acid is a white, crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many fruits, most notably in grapes, but also in bananas, tamarinds, and citrus. Its salt, potassium bitartrate, commonly known as cream of tartar, develops naturally in the process of fermentation. It is commonly mixed with sodium bicarbonate and is sold as baking powder used as a leavening agent in food preparation. The acid itself is added to foods as an antioxidant E334 and to impart its distinctive sour taste. Naturally occurring tartaric acid is a useful raw material in organic chemical synthesis. Tartaric acid is an alpha-hydroxy-carboxylic acid, is diprotic and aldaric in acid characteristics, and is a dihydroxyl derivative of succinic acid. History Tartaric acid has been known to winemakers for centuries. However, the chemical process for extraction was developed in 1769 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Tartaric acid played an important role in the discovery of chemical chiral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bògòlanfini
Bògòlanfini or bogolan ( bm, bɔgɔlanfini; "mud cloth"; sometimes called mud-dyed cloth or mud-painted cloth in English) is a handmade Malian cotton fabric traditionally dyed with fermented mud. It has an important place in traditional Malian culture and has, more recently, become a symbol of Malian cultural identity. The cloth is exported worldwide for use in fashion, fine art and decoration. Origins and etymology The dye technique is associated with several Malian ethnic groups, but the Bamana version has become best known outside Mali. In the Bambara language, the word ''bògòlanfini'' is a composite of ''bɔgɔ'', meaning "earth" or "mud"; ''lan'', meaning "with" or "by means of"; and ''fini'', meaning "cloth". Although usually translated as "mud cloth," ''bògòlan'' actually refers to slip clay with a high iron content. The iron in the clay will stain handspun and handwoven cotton textiles black. Production The center of bògòlanfini production, and the source of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
