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Spurge Family
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are shrubs or trees, such as ''Hevea brasiliensis''. Some, such as ''Euphorbia canariensis'', are succulent and resemble cacti because of convergent evolution. This family has a cosmopolitan global distribution. The greatest diversity of species is in the tropics, however, the Euphorbiaceae also have many species in nontropical areas of all continents except Antarctica. Description The leaves are alternate, seldom opposite, with stipules. They are mainly simple, but where compound, are always palmate, never pinnate. Stipules may be reduced to hairs, glands, or spines, or in succulent species are sometimes absent. The plants can be monoecious or dioecious. The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candlenut Tree
''Aleurites moluccanus'', the candlenut, is a flowering tree in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as candleberry, Indian walnut, ''kemiri'', varnish tree, ''nuez de la India'', ''buah keras'', ''godou'', kukui nut tree, and ''rata kekuna''. Description The candlenut grows to a height of up to , with wide spreading or pendulous branches. The leaves are pale green, simple, and ovate or heart-shaped on mature shoots, but may be three-, five-, or seven-lobed on saplings. They are up to long and wide and young leaves are densely clothed in rusty or cream stellate hairs. Petioles measure up to long and stipules about . Flowers are small—male flowers measure around in diameter, female flowers about . The fruit is a drupe about in diameter with one or two lobes; each lobe has a single soft, white, oily, kernel contained within a hard shell which is about in diameter. The kernel is the source of candlenut oil. Taxonomy This plant was first described by Carl Linnaeu ... [...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] |
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] |
Dioecious
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] |
Monoecious
Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is connected to anemophily. It can prevent self-pollination in an individual flower but cannot prevent self-pollination between male and female flowers on the same plant. Monoecy in angiosperms has been of interest for evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin. Terminology Monoecious comes from the Greek words for one house. History The term monoecy was first introduced in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus. Darwin noted that the flowers of monoecious species sometimes showed traces of the opposite sex function. Monoecious hemp was first reported in 1929. Occurrence Monoecy is most common in temperate climates and is often associated with inefficient pollinators or wind-pollinated plants. It may be beneficial to reducing pollen-stigma interferenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spine (botany)
In plant morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles, and in general spinose structures (sometimes called ''spinose teeth'' or ''spinose apical processes''), are hard, rigid extensions or modifications of leaves, roots, stems or buds with sharp, stiff ends, and generally serve the same function: physically deterring animals from eating the plant material. Description In common language the terms are used more or less interchangeably, but in botanical terms, thorns are derived shoots (so that they may or may not be branched, they may or may not have leaves, and they may or may not arise from a bud),Simpson, M. G. 2010. "Plant Morphology". In: ''Plant Systematics, 2nd. edition''. Elsevier Academic Press. Chapter 9.Judd, Campbell, Kellogg, Stevens, Donoghue. 2007. "Structural and Biochemical Characters". In: ''Plant Systematics, a phylogenetic approach, third edition''. Chapter 4. spines are derived from leaves (either the entire leaf or some part of the leaf that has vascular bundles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trichome
Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant is an indumentum, and the surface bearing them is said to be pubescent. Algal trichomes Certain, usually filamentous, algae have the terminal cell produced into an elongate hair-like structure called a trichome. The same term is applied to such structures in some cyanobacteria, such as '' Spirulina'' and ''Oscillatoria''. The trichomes of cyanobacteria may be unsheathed, as in ''Oscillatoria'', or sheathed, as in ''Calothrix''. These structures play an important role in preventing soil erosion, particularly in cold desert climates. The filamentous sheaths form a persistent sticky network that helps maintain soil structure. Plant trichomes Plant trichomes have many different features that vary between both species of plants an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinnate
Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in patterns of erosion or stream beds. The term derives from the Latin word ''pinna'' meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar concept is "pectination," which is a comb-like arrangement of parts (arising from one side of an axis only). Pinnation is commonly referred to in contrast to "palmation," in which the parts or structures radiate out from a common point. The terms "pinnation" and "pennation" are cognate, and although they are sometimes used distinctly, there is no consistent difference in the meaning or usage of the two words.Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Derivation and Accent; Published by Gerald Duckworth & Co. London, 4th ed 1928 Plants Botanically, pinnation is an arrangement of discr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palmate
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular or irregular, may be smooth or bearing hair, bristles or spines. For more terms describing other aspects of leaves besides their overall morphology see the leaf article. The terms listed here all are supported by technical and professional usage, but they cannot be represented as mandatory or undebatable; readers must use their judgement. Authors often use terms arbitrarily, or coin them to taste, possibly in ignorance of established terms, and it is not always clear whether because of ignorance, or personal preference, or because usages change with time or context, or because of variation between specimens, even specimens from the same plant. For example, whether to call leaves on the same tree "acuminate", "lanceolate", or "linear" could ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stipule
In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many species they may be inconspicuous —or sometimes entirely absent, and the leaf is then termed ''exstipulate''. (In some older botanical writing, the term "stipule" was used more generally to refer to any small leaves or leaf-parts, notably prophylls.) The word ''stipule'' was coined by Linnaeus''Concise English Dictionary'' Wordsworth Editions Ltd. 1994, from Latin ''stipula'', straw, stalk. Types of stipules General characteristics The position of stipules on a plant varies widely from species to species, though they are often located near the base of a leaf. Stipules are most common on dicotyledons, where they appear in pairs alongside each leaf. Some monocotyledon plants display stipule-like structures, but only display one per leaf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leaf
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, flower, and fruit collectively form the shoot system. In most leaves, the primary photosynthetic tissue is the palisade mesophyll and is located on the upper side of the blade or lamina of the leaf but in some species, including the mature foliage of ''Eucalyptus'', palisade mesophyll is present on both sides and the leaves are said to be isobilateral. Most leaves are flattened and have distinct upper (adaxial) and lower ( abaxial) surfaces that differ in color, hairiness, the number of stomata (pores that intake and output gases), the amount and structure of epicuticular wax and other features. Leaves are mostly green in color due to the presence of a compound called chlorophyll that is essential for photosynthesis as it absorbs light ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Croton Petra
Croton may refer to: Biology *Crotoneae, a tribe of the flowering plant subfamily Crotonoideae * ''Croton'' (plant), a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae **'' Croton capitatus'', also known as the woolly croton **''Croton hancei'', a species of ''Croton'' endemic to Hong Kong *'' Caperonia'', a genus of plants of the family Euphorbiaceae commonly known as "false croton" *''Codiaeum variegatum'', an ornamental plant formerly classified in the genus ''Croton'', and commonly called "croton" * German cockroach (''Blattella germanica''), known as the Croton bug Places In Italy * Crotone, ancient Kroton, a city in Calabria * Crotone Airport, an airport serving the above city * Province of Crotone, a province in Calabria In the United States In New York *Croton-on-Hudson, New York, a village in Westchester County ** Croton–Harmon (Metro-North station) ** Croton North Railroad Station **Croton Point, a peninsula in the Hudson River *Croton Falls, a hamlet in North Salem, New Yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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