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Alvar
An alvar is a biological environment based on a limestone plain with thin or no soil and, as a result, sparse grassland vegetation. Often flooded in the spring, and affected by drought in midsummer, alvars support a distinctive group of prairie-like plants. Most alvars occur either in northern Europe or around the Great Lakes in North America. This stressed habitat supports a community of rare plants and animals, including species more commonly found on prairie grasslands. Lichen and mosses are common species. Trees and bushes are absent or severely stunted. The primary cause of alvars is the shallow exposed bedrock. Flooding and drought, as noted, add to the stress of the site and prevent many species from growing. Disturbance may also play a role. In Europe, grazing is frequent, while in North America, there is some evidence that fire may also prevent encroachment by forest. The habitat also has strong competition gradients, with better competitors occupying the deepe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when these minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life. About 20% to 25% of sedimentary rock is carbonate rock, and most of this is limestone. The remaining carbonate rock is mostly dolomite, a closely related rock, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, . ''Magnesian limestone'' is an obsolete and poorly-defined term used variously for dolomite, for limes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area. Definitions Included among the variety of definitions for grasslands are: * "...any plant community, including harvested forages, in which grasses and/or legumes make up the dominant vegetation." * "...terrestrial ecosystems dominated by herbaceous and shrub vegetation, and maintained by fire, grazing, drought and/or freezing temperatures." (Pilot Assessment of Global Ecosystems, 2000) * "A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Meadowlark
The eastern meadowlark (''Sturnella magna'') is a medium-sized blackbird (family: Icteridae), very similar in appearance to sister species western meadowlark. It occurs from eastern North America to northern South America, where it is also most widespread in the east. The Chihuahuan meadowlark was formerly considered to be conspecific with the eastern meadowlark. Taxonomy The eastern meadowlark was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the larks and pipits in the genus '' Alauda'' and adopted the binomial name ''Alauda magna''. Linnaeus based his description on the "large lark" that had been described and illustrated in 1729–1732 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby. Catesby also used the Latin ''Alauda magna'' but as his book predates the introduction of the binomial system, he is not acknowledged as the authority. Catesby reported that "they inhabit Carolina, Virginia and most o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cypripedium Arietinum
''Cypripedium arietinum'', the ram's head lady's slipper, is a rare orchid that grows in lightly shaded areas with calcareous soils. It is characteristic of the alvars around the Great Lakes in North America, as well as in New England. In Canada, it is found from Quebec to Saskatchewan, plus an isolated population in Nova Scotia, where it grows on gypsum based soils, 330 km away from the nearest population in Maine. Description ''Cypripedium arietinum'' is a herbaceous perennial small lady's slipper growing to . It typically has 3, but sometimes 4-5, leaves and normally has a single flower per flowering stem but in the form biflorum there maybe two flowers per stem. The purplish-red flower has light venation and is white at the lip. The flower has three petals, one modified into a densely hairy pouch with white and purplish markings. The sepals are green with reddish-brown markings and the side sepals are to some degree spirally twisted, linear to linear-lanceolate in shap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pellaea Atropurpurea
''Pellaea atropurpurea'', commonly known as purple-stem cliffbrake or just purple cliffbrake, is a fern native to North and Central America. ''Brake'' is an old word for fern, related to the word ''bracken''. Like many other members of the Pteridaceae, it is a rock plant, needing a calcareous substrate. ''P. atropurpurea'' is an apogamous autotriploid, with ''3n=87'' (actual base number, ''n=29''), and is one of the historical parents of the hybrid species complex, '' Pellaea glabella''. Apogamy, or the ability to reproduce non-sexually, is common among rock ferns in the Pteridaceae. Characteristics This fern produces clumps of widely arching fronds. The stipe and rachis of the blade are purple, while the blade itself has a blue-gray tinge to it. The upper pinnae are long, narrow, and undivided, while the lower ones are divided into 3–15 pinnules. The pinnae are, for the most part, opposite. Fertile fronds are longer and more heavily divided. They produce sori, which lack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plain
In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands. In a valley, a plain is enclosed on two sides, but in other cases a plain may be delineated by a complete or partial ring of hills, by mountains, or by cliffs. Where a geological region contains more than one plain, they may be connected by a pass (sometimes termed a gap). Coastal plains mostly rise from sea level until they run into elevated features such as mountains or plateaus. Plains are one of the major landforms on earth, where they are present on all continents, and cover more than one-third of the world's land area. Plains can be formed from flowing lava; from deposition of sediment by water, ice, or wind; or formed by erosion by the agents from hills and mountains. Biomes on plains include grassland ( temperate or subtr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily (zoology), superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers (formerly the superfamily "Hesperioidea"), and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies (formerly the superfamily "Hedyloidea"). Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, as like most insects they undergo Holometabolism, complete metamorphosis. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snail
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have a coiled shell that is large enough for the animal to retract completely into. When the word "snail" is used in this most general sense, it includes not just land snails but also numerous species of sea snails and freshwater snails. Gastropods that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are mostly called '' slugs'', and land snails that have only a very small shell (that they cannot retract into) are often called ''semi-slugs''. Snails have considerable human relevance, including as food items, as pests, and as vectors of disease, and their shells are used as decorative objects and are incorporated into jewelry. The snail has also had some cultural significance, tending to be associated with lethargy. The sn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris Lacustris
''Iris lacustris'', the dwarf lake iris, is a plant species in the genus ''Iris'', subgenus '' Limniris'' and in the section ''Lophiris'' (crested irises). It is a rhizomatous, beardless perennial plant, native to the Great Lakes region of eastern North America. It has lavender blue or violet-blue flowers, a very short stem and long fan-like green leaves. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It is closely related to '' Iris cristata'' (another North American crested iris). Description It is similar in form to ''Iris cristata'' but is chromosomally different and smaller.British Iris Society (1997) James Cullen, Sabina G. Knees, H. Suzanne Cubey (Editors) It has slender, wiry,Richard Lynch or cord-like, greenish-brown, or yellow rhizomes. It has a large central section and outer sections, which are long and 0.8–1.2 cm wide. The outer sections have fibrous roots (underneath), and 2–3 brown scale-like leaves above. It creeps across the ground, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Towhee
The eastern towhee (''Pipilo erythrophthalmus'') is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been under debate in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the spotted towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee. Their breeding habitat is brushy areas across eastern North America. They nest either low in bushes or on the ground under shrubs. Northern birds migrate to the southern United States. There has been one record of this species as a vagrant to western Europe: a single bird in Great Britain in 1966. The song is a short ''drink your teeeeea'' lasting around one second, starting with a sharp call ("drink!") and ending with a short trill "teeeeea". The name "towhee" is onomatopoeic description of one of the towhee's most common calls, a short two-part call rising in pitch and sometimes also called a "chewink" call. Taxonomy The eastern towhee was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hymenoxys Acaulis
''Tetraneuris acaulis'' is a North American species of flowering plants in the sunflower family.Tetraneuris acaulis'. ITIS.Tetraneuris acaulisLady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center'', University of Texas.Hymenoxys acaulis'. ''The Jepson Manual, University of Calilfornia''Hymenoxys acaulis''. United States Geologic Survey, Native Wildflowers of the North Dakota Grasslands. Southwest Colorado Wildflowers. Tetraneuris acaulis '. CalFlora taxon report, University of California [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carex Juniperorum
''Carex juniperorum'', the juniper sedge, is a perennial flowering plant native to North America, first described by botanist William J. Crins in 1993. ''C. juniperorum'' is in the ''Cyperaceae'' (sedge) family, and is closely related to '' C. jamesii'' and '' C. willdenowii''. It is commonly called juniper sedge as it is often seen growing in areas with red cedar (''Juniperus virginiana''), though the presence of cedar is not necessarily a requirement for it to grow. Distribution Juniper sedge is globally rare. It only occurs in sections of Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia in the United States. In Canada, it is found in the province of Ontario. Description and habitat Juniper sedge prefers dry, open, calcareous soils that are periodically disturbed to maintain canopy cover. The plant grows forming a clump, with grass-like leaves up to 30cm long with a reddish-brown basal sheath. Flowers occur in early may on a small basal spike. Small (1.5-2mm) ellipsoid perigynia form in lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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