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The Pinnacles (Western Australia)
The Pinnacles are limestone formations within Nambung National Park, near the town of Cervantes, Western Australia. Features The area contains thousands of weathered limestone pillars. Some of the tallest pinnacles reach heights of up to 3.5m above the yellow sand base. The different types of formations include ones which are much taller than they are wide and resemble columnssuggesting the name of Pinnacleswhile others are only a meter or so in height and width resembling short tombstones. A cross-bedding structure can be observed in many pinnacles where the angle of deposited sand changed suddenly due to changes in prevailing winds during formation of the limestone beds. Pinnacles with tops similar to mushrooms are created when the calcrete capping is harder than the limestone layer below it. The relatively softer lower layers weather and erode at a faster rate than the top layer leaving behind more material at the top of the pinnacle. Formation The raw material for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinnacles Pano 2005-08-26
A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly used in Gothic architecture. The pinnacle had two purposes: # Ornamental – adding to the loftiness and verticity of the structure. They sometimes ended with statues, such as in Milan Cathedral. # Structural – the pinnacles were very heavy and often rectified with lead, in order to enable the flying buttresses to contain the stress of the structure vaults and roof. This was done by adding compressive stress (a result of the pinnacle weight) to the thrust vector and thus shifting it downwards rather than sideways. History The accounts of Jesus' temptations in Matthew's and Luke's gospels both suggest that the Second Temple in Jerusalem had one or more pinnacles ( gr, το πτερυγιον του ιερου): :Then he (Satan) br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plants
Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes (the archaea and bacteria). By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for "green plants") which is sister of the Glaucophyte, Glaucophyta, and consists of the green algae and Embryophyte, Embryophyta (land plants). The latter includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns and Fern ally, their allies, hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. Most plants are multicellular organisms. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green colo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaevola Crassifolia
''Scaevola crassifolia'' is a shrub in the family Goodeniaceae, native to Western Australia and South Australia. Common names include cushion fanflower, thick-leaved fanflower and thick-leaved scaevola. It grows up to 1.5 metres high and 3 metres wide and produces white, blue or pale purple flowers from July to February in its native range. The similarity to ''Scaevola nitida ''Scaevola nitida'' (common name - shining fanflower) is an erect shrub in the family Goodeniaceae, native to Western Australia. It grows to a height of 0.3 to 3 m, and its blue-purple flowers may be seen from August to December. Description ...'' is very close - the difference being ''S. nitida'' is a larger shrub with thinner leaves.Barrett, Russell and Eng Pin Tay (2005) Perth Plants, Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, Perth Western Australia References crassifolia Flora of South Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Asterales of Australia {{Australia-asterid-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthocercis
''Anthocercis'', commonly known as tailflower, is a genus of shrubs which are endemic to southern temperate Australia with the center of distribution in the South West Botanical Province of Western Australia.George ''et al.''. (1982) All species of ''Anthocercis'' contain tropane alkaloids, and have occasionally caused poisoning in children or suspected of poisoning stock. Anthocercis is known as the only Solanaceous plant known to produce resin compounds on glandular trichomes. Taxonomy The genus, which is placed within the family Solanaceae, was first formally described by botanist Jacques Labillardière in ''Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen'', Vol. 2: 19 (1806). The type species of the genus is ''Anthocercis littorea'' Labill. ''Anthocercis'' lies in the subfamily Nicotianoideae. The genus is considered to be part of the tribe "Anthocercideae," but the monophyly of this grouping has been called into question. The species within ''Anthocercis'', however, form a monophyletic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santalum Acuminatum
''Santalum acuminatum'', the desert quandong, is a hemiparasitic plant in the sandalwood family, Santalaceae, (Native to Australia) which is widely dispersed throughout the central deserts and southern areas of Australia. The species, especially its edible fruit, is also commonly referred to as quandong or native peach. The use of the fruit as an exotic flavouring, one of the best known bush tucker (bush food), has led to the attempted domestication of the species. Desert quandong is an evergreen tree, its fruit can be stewed to make pie filling for quandong pies or made into a fruit juice drink. The seed (kernel) inside the tough shell can be extracted to be crushed into a paste then be used on sore gums or an oral gum boil to ease the pain. In far-west New South Wales being one of the few drought-tolerant fruit trees around, many Aboriginal communities and local Australians that know about this fruit like to grow it. Description ''Santalum acuminatum'' grows as a tall shrub, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pimelea Suaveolens
''Pimelea suaveolens'', commonly known as scented banjine, is a slender shrub with large, rather hairy yellow inflorescences. It occurs in forest areas of the south-west of Western Australia from New Norcia to Albany. Description ''Pimelea suaveolens'' is an erect, spindly, often multi-stemmed shrub which grows to a height of . The stems and leaves are glabrous and the leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, sword-shaped and long. The inflorescences are across and consist of many pale to deep yellow flowers surrounded by hairy, petal-like bracts and hang from the branches. Flowering occurs from June to October. Taxonomy ''Pimelea suaveolens'' was first formally described in 1845 by Carl Meissner and the description was published in Lehmann's ''Plantae Preissianae'' from a specimen collected by James Drummond at Greenmount in 1839. The Latin specific epithet ''suaveolens'' means "sweet-smelling". In 1988, Barbara Rye named two subspecies of ''P. suaveolens'' in the journa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acacia Truncata
''Acacia truncata'', commonly known as the angle leaved wattle or west coast wattle, is a coastal shrub in the family Fabaceae, with a native distribution along the southwest coast of Western Australia. A specimen of this wattle was part of an early European botanical collection, perhaps the first from Australia. Description The shrub is a dense and dome shaped plant high. It has ribbed and glabrous branchlets. Flowerheads are globe-shaped and composed of 7-16 pale yellow flowers, on stalks between long. Following flowering it will form blackish curved to linear seed pods that are about in length and wide with thick yellowish margins. The shiny brown seeds are longitudinally arranged in the pod. They have an oblong to elliptic shape and are long. Like many other ''Acacia'' species, ''A. truncata'' has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The triangular phyllodes range from long and wide. Taxonomy The species was initially described as ''Adiantum truncatum'' by Nicolaas Lau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acacia Lasiocarpa
''Acacia lasiocarpa'', commonly known as Panjang or Pajang or glow wattle, is a shrub of the genus '' Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Pulchellae'' that is endemic to Western Australia. Description The shrub typically grows to a height of and across. The branchlets are covered in spines. The pinnae occur in pairs and have a length of with two to eight pairs of pinnules that are long and wide. The foliage is lime green in colour. It blooms from May to October and produces yellow flowers. The rudimentary inflorescences have globular flowerheads containing 16 to 50 golden flowers. Following flowering flat or undulate brown seed pods form that are in length and wide. The sometimes mottled seeds inside have an oblong to elliptic or circular shape and are in length. Taxonomy The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1837 as part of the Bentham, Stephan Endlicher, Eduard Fenzl and Heinrich Wilhelm Schott work ''Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morelia Spilota
''Morelia spilota'', commonly referred to as the carpet python, is a large snake of the family Pythonidae found in Australia, New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), Bismarck Archipelago, and the northern Solomon Islands. Many subspecies are described; ITIS lists six, the Reptile Database six, and the IUCN eight. Description ''M. spilota'' is a large species of python in the genus, reaching between in length and weighing up to . ''M. s. mcdowelli ''is the largest subspecies, regularly attaining lengths of . '' M. s. variegata'' is the smallest subspecies, typically in length. The average adult length is roughly . However, one 3-year-old captive male ''M. s. mcdowelli'', measured in Ireland, was found to exceed . Males are typically smaller than females; in some regions, females are up to four times heavier. The head is triangular with a conspicuous row of thermoreceptive labial pits. The colouring of ''M. spilota'' is highly variable, ranging from olive to black with whit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sand Goanna
The sand goanna (''Varanus gouldii'') is a species of large Australian monitor lizard, also known as Gould's monitor, sand monitor, or racehorse goanna. Taxonomy John Edward Gray described the species in 1838 as ''Hydrosaurus gouldii'', noting the source of the type specimen as "New Holland" and distinguishing the new varanid by "two yellow streaks on the sides of the neck" and small flat scales at the orbits. An earlier description, ''Tupinambis endrachtensis'' Péron, F. 1807, was determined as likely to refer to this animal, but the epithet ''gouldii'' was conserved and a new specimen designated as the type. This neotype was obtained in 1997 at the near coastal Western Australian suburb of Karrakatta, and placed with the British Museum of Natural History. The decision of a nomenclatural commission (ICZN) was to issue an opinion suppressing the earlier names, ''Tupinambis endrachtensis'' and ''Hydrosaurus ocellarius'' Blyth, 1868, that were unsatisfactory to some who had comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiliqua Rugosa
''Tiliqua rugosa'', most commonly known as the shingleback lizard or bobtail lizard, is a short-tailed, slow-moving species of blue-tongued skink (genus ''Tiliqua'') endemic to Australia. It is commonly known as the shingleback or sleepy lizard. Three of its four recognised subspecies are found in Western Australia, where the ''bobtail'' name is most frequently used. The fourth subspecies, ''T. rugosa asper,'' is the only one native to eastern Australia, where it goes by the common name of the eastern shingleback. Apart from bobtail and shingleback, a variety of other common names are used in different states, including two-headed skink, stumpy-tailed skink, or , pinecone lizard. The Noongar Aboriginal people refer to ''rugosa'' as ''yoorn'' in their language. ''T. rugosa'' has a short, wide, stumpy tail that resembles its head and may serve the purpose of confusing predators. The tail also contains fat reserves, which are drawn upon during brumation in winter, during which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baudin's Black Cockatoo
Baudin's black cockatoo (''Zanda baudinii''), also known as Baudin's cockatoo or the long-billed black cockatoo, is a species of genus '' Zanda'' found in southwest Australia. The epithet commemorates the French explorer Nicolas Baudin. It has a short crest on the top of its head, and the plumage is mostly greyish black. It has prominent white cheek patches and a white tail band. The body feathers are edged with white giving a scalloped appearance. Adult males have a dark grey beak and pink eye-rings. Adult females have a bone coloured beak, grey eye-rings and ear patches that are paler than those of the males. Taxonomy and naming Baudin's black cockatoo was depicted in 1832 by the English artist Edward Lear in his ''Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots'' from a specimen owned by the naturalist Benjamin Leadbeater. Lear used the common name "Baudin's cockatoo" and coined the binomial name ''Calyptorhynchus baudinii''. The common name and specific epithet commem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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