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Phyllary
In botanical terminology, a phyllary, also known an involucral bract or tegule, is a single bract of the involucre of a composite flower. The involucre is the grouping of bracts together. Phyllaries are reduced leaf-like structures that form one or more whorls immediately below a flower head. Function Phyllaries provide protection to developing flowers and fruits. In the dandelion hybrid ''Taraxacum japonicum'' × ''officinale'', recurved phyllaries help defend the flowers from herbivory by slugs. They sometimes assist in the dispersal of fruits. The hooked phyllaries of burdock species ('' Arctium'') cling to the fur and feathers of animals, dispersing the seeds away from the parent plant ( exozoochory). Structure and arrangement Phyllary morphology is useful in plant identification as between species of the Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown. Most species of Asteraceae are annual, biennial, or perennial herbaceous plants, but there are also shrubs, vines, and trees. The family has a widespread distribution, from subpolar to tropical regions in a wide variety of habitats. Most occur in hot desert and cold or hot semi-desert climates, and they are found on every continent but Antarctica. The primary common characteristic is the existence of sometimes hundreds of tiny individual florets which are held together by protective involucres in flower heads, or more te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture. Typically, they also look different from the parts of the flower, such as the petals or sepals. A plant having bracts is referred to as bracteate or bracteolate, while one that lacks them is referred to as ebracteate and ebracteolate, without bracts. Variants Some bracts are brightly-coloured and serve the function of attracting pollinators, either together with the perianth or instead of it. Examples of this type of bract include those of '' Euphorbia pulcherrima'' (poinsettia) and ''Bougainvillea'': both of these have large colourful bracts surrounding much smaller, less colourful flowers. In grasses, each floret (flower) is enclosed in a pair of papery bracts, called the lemma (lower bract) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lehmannia Valentiana
''Ambigolimax valentianus'' (also known as ''Lehmannia valentiana'') is a species of air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Limacidae. Description '' External appearance does not reliably distinguish ''Ambigolimax valentianus'' from other members of the genus, such as '' A. parvipenis'', with which it may co-occur. Like other members of the Limacidae, it has a pointed tail and the pneumostome lies in the posterior half of the mantle. Often the most obvious character of an ''Ambigolimax'' slug is the two parallel, sharply defined, dark lines along the mantle, sometimes with a thicker less well defined line lying between. Two similar lines may lie more posteriorly along the back either side of the midline, but all these lines may be faint or even absent in some individuals. Others have further dots and mottled patches of darker pigment. The dorsal coloration is most often pinkish brown, but sometimes dull yellowish or grey, and all shade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arctium
''Arctium'' is a genus of biennial plants commonly known as burdock, family Asteraceae. Native to Europe and Asia, several species have been widely introduced worldwide. Burdock's clinging properties, in addition to providing an excellent mechanism for seed dispersal, led to the invention of the hook and loop fastener. Description Plants of the genus ''Arctium'' have dark green leaves that can grow up to long. They are generally large, coarse and ovate, with the lower ones being heart-shaped. They are woolly underneath. The leafstalks are generally hollow. ''Arctium'' species generally flower from July through to October. Burdock flowers provide essential pollen and nectar for honeybees around August when clover is on the wane and before the goldenrod starts to bloom. Burdock's clinging properties provides it an excellent mechanism for seed dispersal. Taxonomy A large number of species have been placed in genus ''Arctium'' at one time or another, but most of them are now c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exozoochory
In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, such as the wind, and living ( biotic) vectors such as birds. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant individually or collectively, as well as dispersed in both space and time. The patterns of seed dispersal are determined in large part by the dispersal mechanism and this has important implications for the demographic and genetic structure of plant populations, as well as migration patterns and species interactions. There are five main modes of seed dispersal: gravity, wind, ballistic, water, and by animals. Some plants are serotinous and only disperse their seeds in response to an environmental stimulus. These modes are typically inferred based on adaptations, such as wings or fleshy fruit. However, this simplified view may ign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balsamorhiza Hookeri
''Balsamorhiza hookeri'' (Hooker's balsamroot) is a North American species of perennial plant in the family Asteraceae. It grows in the Great Basin and neighboring regions in the Western United States.Great Basin Wildflowers, Laird R. Blackwell, 2006, Morris Book Publishing LLC., . p. 115. It is found in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Description The leaves are compound pinnate, with the leaflet divisions also divided or deeply lobed. Basal leaves are hairy and may be up to long. There may be one to several stems, which are leafless and hairy, and topped by one flower each. It blooms from April to July. Flower heads are wide, and sunflower-like, with 10–21 fringe-tipped ray flowers and numerous disc flowers. Distribution and habitat It grows to in dry, grassy meadows in sagebrush steppe and montane plant communities in the Great Basin. Ecology It tends to grow in rockier habitats than its cousin, arrow-leaf balsamroot (''Balsamorhi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aster (genus)
''Aster'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Its circumscription has been narrowed, and it now encompasses around 170 species, all but one of which are restricted to Eurasia; many species formerly in ''Aster'' are now in other genera of the tribe Astereae. ''Aster amellus'' is the type species of the genus and the family Asteraceae. The name ''Aster'' comes from the Ancient Greek word (''astḗr''), meaning "star", referring to the shape of the flower head. Many species and a variety of hybrids and varieties are popular as garden plants because of their attractive and colourful flowers. 'Aster' species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species—see list of Lepidoptera that feed on ''Aster''. Asters can grow in all hardiness zones. Circumscription The genus ''Aster'' once contained nearly 600 species in Eurasia and North America, but after morphologic and molecular research on the genus during the 1990s, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erigeron
''Erigeron'' () is a large genus of plants in the family Asteraceae. It is closely related to the genus ''Aster'' and the true daisies in the genus ''Bellis''. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution in dry, mountainous areas and grassland, with the highest diversity in North America. Etymology Its English name, fleabane, is shared with related plants in several other genera. It appears to be derived from a belief that the dried plants repelled fleas or that the plants were poisonous to fleas. The generic name ''Erigeron'' is derived from the Ancient Greek words (''êri'') "early in the morning" and (''gérōn'') "old man", a reference to the appearance of the white hairs of the fruit soon after flowering or possibly alluding to the early appearance of the seed heads. The noun is masculine, so that specific epithets should have masculine endings (e.g. ''glaucus'') to agree with it. However, authors have incorrectly used neuter endings (e.g. ''glaucum''), because the endi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silphium Pinnatifidum
''Silphium pinnatifidum'', the tansy rosinweed or cutleaf prairie dock, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the Southeastern United States where it is found in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Its habitat is prairies Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as t ..., barrens, and cedar glades. Because of loss of its fire-dependent habitat, this species is uncommon and is considered vulnerable. Although most populations are distinct, intermediate populations have been reported between ''Silphium pinnatifidum'' and '' Silphium terebinthinaceum'', and some botanists consider ''S. pinnatifidum'' only a variety of ''S. terebinthinaceum''. ''S. pinnatifidum'' was once thought to be a result of hybridization between ''Silphium terebint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plant Morphology
Phytomorphology is the study of the physical form and external structure of plants.Raven, P. H., R. F. Evert, & S. E. Eichhorn. ''Biology of Plants'', 7th ed., page 9. (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2005). . This is usually considered distinct from plant anatomy, which is the study of the internal structure of plants, especially at the microscopic level. Plant morphology is useful in the visual identification of plants. Recent studies in molecular biology started to investigate the molecular processes involved in determining the conservation and diversification of plant morphologies. In these studies transcriptome conservation patterns were found to mark crucial ontogenetic transitions during the plant life cycle which may result in evolutionary constraints limiting diversification. Scope Plant morphology "represents a study of the development, form, and structure of plants, and, by implication, an attempt to interpret these on the basis of similarity of plan and origin". There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
