1.
Agave americana
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Today, it is cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant. It has become naturalized in regions, including the West Indies, parts of South America, the southern Mediterranean Basin, and parts of Africa, India, China, Thailand. Despite the common name American aloe, it is not closely related to plants in the genus Aloe, although it is called the century plant, it typically lives only 10 to 30 years. It has a spread around 6–10 ft with gray-green leaves of 3–5 ft long, each with a prickly margin and a heavy spike at the tip that can pierce deeply. Near the end of its life, the plant sends up a tall, branched stalk, laden with yellow blossoms and its common name derives from its semelparous nature of flowering only once at the end of its long life. The plant dies after flowering, but produces suckers or adventitious shoots from the base, a. americana was one of the many species described by Carl Linnaeus in the 1753 edition of Species Plantarum, with the binomial name that is still used today. A. americana is cultivated as a plant for the large dramatic form of mature plants - for modernist, drought tolerant. It is often used in hot climates and where drought conditions occur, the plants can be evocative of 18th-19th-century Spanish colonial and Mexican provincial eras in the Southwestern United States, California, and xeric Mexico. It is also a landscape plant in beach gardens in Florida. Two subspecies and two varieties of A. americana are recognized by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, protamericana Gentry A. a. var. expansa Gentry A. a. var. If the flower stem is cut without flowering, a liquid called aguamiel gathers in the heart of the plant. This may be fermented to produce the drink called pulque, the leaves also yield fibers, known as pita, which are suitable for making rope, matting, or coarse cloth, and are used for embroidery of leather in a technique known as piteado. Both pulque and maguey fiber were important to the economy of pre-Columbian Mexico, in the tequila-producing regions of Mexico, agaves are called mezcales. The high-alcohol product of agave distillation is called mezcal, A. americana is one of several agaves used for distillation, a mezcal called tequila is produced from Agave tequilana, commonly called blue agave. The many different types of mezcal include some which may be flavored with the very pungent mezcal worm, in mezcal and tequila production, the sugars are extracted from the piñas by heating them in ovens, rather than by collecting aguamiel from the plants cut stalk. Thus, if one were to distill pulque, it would not be a form of mezcal, Agave nectar is marketed as a natural form of sugar with a low glycemic index that is due to its high fructose content. The plant figures in the coat of arms of Don Diego de Mendoza, el maguey y el pulque en los códices mexicanos. Mexico City, Fondo de Cultura Económica 1956, memoria sobre el maguey mexicano y sus diversos productos
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
3.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
4.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
5.
Monocotyledon
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Monocotyledons, commonly referred to as monocots, are flowering plants whose seeds typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. However, molecular research has shown that while the monocots form a monophyletic group or clade. Monocots have almost always recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks. The APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called monocots, the monocots include about 60,000 species. The largest family in this group by number of species are the orchids, about half as many species belong to the true grasses, which are economically the most important family of monocots. In agriculture the majority of the biomass produced comes from monocots and these include not only major grains, but also forage grasses, sugar cane, and the bamboos. Other economically important monocot crops include various palms, bananas, gingers and their relatives, turmeric and cardamom, asparagus and the onions and garlic family. Additionally most of the bulbs, plants cultivated for their blooms, such as lilies, daffodils, irises, amaryllis, cannas, bluebells. The monocots or monocotyledons have, as the name implies, a single cotyledon, or embryonic leaf, from a diagnostic point of view the number of cotyledons is neither a particularly useful characteristic, nor is it completely reliable. Nevertheless, monocots are sufficiently distinctive that there has rarely been disagreement as to membership of this group, however, morphological features that reliably characterise major clades are rare. Thus monocots are distinguishable from other angiosperms both in terms of their uniformity and diversity, although largely herbaceous, some arboraceous monocots reach great height, length and mass. The latter include agaves, palms, pandans, and bamboos and this creates challenges in water transport that monocots deal with in various ways. Some such as species of Yucca develop anomalous secondary growth, while palm trees, the axis undergoes primary thickening, that progresses from internode to internode, resulting in a typical inverted conical shape of the basal primary axis. The limited conductivity also contributes to limited branching of the stems, despite these limitations a wide variety of adaptive growth forms has resulted from epiphytic orchids and bromeliads to submarine Alismatales and mycotrophic Burmanniaceae and Triuridaceae. Other monocots, particularly Poales have adopted a life form. Leaves The cotyledon, the primordial Angiosperm leaf consists of a proximal leaf base or hypophyll, in moncots the hypophyll tends to be the dominant part in contrast to other angiosperms. Mature monocot leaves are narrow and linear, forming a sheathing around the stem at its base. There is usually only one leaf per node because the leaf base encompasses more than half the circumference, the evolution of this monocot characteristic has been attributed to developmental differences in early zonal differentiation rather than meristem activity
6.
Asparagales
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Asparagales is an order of plants in modern classification systems such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. The order takes its name from the type family Asparagaceae and is placed in the monocots amongst the lilioid monocots, the order has only recently been recognized in classification systems. It was first put forward by Huber in 1977 and later taken up in the Dahlgren system of 1985 and then the APG in 1998,2003 and 2009. Before this, many of its families were assigned to the old order Liliales, DNA sequence analysis indicated that many of the taxa previously included in Liliales should actually be redistributed over three orders, Liliales, Asparagales and Dioscoreales. The boundaries of the Asparagales and of its families have undergone a series of changes in recent years, future research may lead to further changes and ultimately greater stability. In the APG circumscription, Asparagales is the largest order of monocots with 14 families,1,122 genera, the order is clearly circumscribed on the basis of molecular phylogenetics, but is difficult to define morphologically, since its members are structurally diverse. Most species of Asparagales are herbaceous perennials, although some are climbers, the order also contains many geophytes. According to telomere sequence, at least two evolutionary switch-points happened within the order, basal sequence is formed by TTTAGGG like in majority of higher plants. Basal motif was changed to vertebrate-like TTAGGG and finally the most divergent motif CTCGGTTATGGG appears in Allium, one of the defining characteristics of the order is the presence of phytomelanin, a black pigment present in the seed coat, creating a dark crust. Phytomelanin is found in most families of the Asparagales, the leaves of almost all species form a tight rosette, either at the base of the plant or at the end of the stem, but occasionally along the stem. The flowers are not particularly distinctive, being lily type, with six tepals, from an economic point of view, the order Asparagales is second in importance within the monocots to the order Poales. Species are used as food and flavourings, as cut flowers, and as garden ornamentals. Thus although most species in the order are herbaceous, some no more than 15 cm high, there are a number of climbers, as well as several genera forming trees, succulent genera occur in several families. Almost all species have a cluster of leaves, either at the base of the plant or at the end of a more-or-less woody stem as with Yucca. In some cases the leaves are produced along the stem, the flowers are in the main not particularly distinctive, being of a general lily type, with six tepals, either free or fused from the base and up to six stamina. They are frequently clustered at the end of the plant stem and they are generally geophytes, but with linear leaves, and a lack of fine reticular venation. The seeds characteristically have the external epidermis either obliterated, or if present, have a layer of black carbonaceous phytomelanin in species with dry fruits. The inner part of the coat is generally collapsed, in contrast to Liliales whose seeds have a well developed outer epidermis, lack phytomelanin
7.
Asparagaceae
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Asparagaceae is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. In earlier classification systems, the species involved were often treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae, the revised APG III system of 2009 allows only the broader sense. A paper published at the time proposed seven subfamilies to correspond to the originally separate families. Unless otherwise noted, the alphabetical list below is based on genera accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families as in the family Asparagaceae, the reference against the subfamily name is to the source which places the genus in that subfamily. Asparagaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz, the families of flowering plants, descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Https, //web. archive. org/web/20070103200438/http, //delta-intkey. com, 80/ Liliaceae in Flora of North America NCBI Taxonomy Browser links at CSDL, Texas
8.
Agavoideae
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Agavoideae is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, order Asparagales. It has previously been treated as a family, Agavaceae. The group includes many desert and dry zone types such as the agave, yucca. There are about 640 species in around 23 genera, widespread in the tropical, subtropical, species may be succulent or not. In general, Agavoideae leaves occur as rosettes at the end of a woody stem, the leaves are parallel-veined, and usually appear long and pointed, often with a hardened spine on the end, and sometimes with additional spines along the margins. Agave species are used to make tequila, pulque and mezcal and they are quite popular for xeriscaping as many have showy flowers. The taxonomy of the group has varied widely and this is based on data from molecular systematics. Stevens comments that The broad concept of Agavoideae may not seem very satisfactory, sources prior to 2009 will still have Agavaceae as a separate family and may contain varying numbers of other families included in Agavoideae in the APG III system. Some genera formerly placed in group have been separated off, e. g. Dracaena. A partial list of the genera included in the Agavoideae is given below, the reference is to the source which places the genus in this subfamily. List of foliage plant diseases David J. Bogler, J. Chris Pires, phylogeny of Agavaceae based on ndhF, rbcL, and ITS sequences, implications of molecular data for classification. David J. Bogler and Beryl B, a Chloroplast DNA Study of the Agavaceae. David J. Bogler and Beryl B, phylogeny of Agavaceae Based on ITS rDNA Sequence Variation. Agavaceae in Flora of North America, Agavaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz. The families of flowering plants, descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval
9.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
10.
Species
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In biology, a species is the basic unit of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is defined as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. While this definition is often adequate, looked at more closely it is problematic, for example, with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, or in a ring species, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear. Other ways of defining species include similarity of DNA, morphology, all species are given a two-part name, a binomial. The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs, the second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet. For example, Boa constrictor is one of four species of the Boa genus, Species were seen from the time of Aristotle until the 18th century as fixed kinds that could be arranged in a hierarchy, the great chain of being. In the 19th century, biologists grasped that species could evolve given sufficient time, Charles Darwins 1859 book The Origin of Species explained how species could arise by natural selection. Genes can sometimes be exchanged between species by horizontal transfer, and species may become extinct for a variety of reasons. In his biology, Aristotle used the term γένος to mean a kind, such as a bird or fish, a kind was distinguished by its attributes, for instance, a bird has feathers, a beak, wings, a hard-shelled egg, and warm blood. A form was distinguished by being shared by all its members, Aristotle believed all kinds and forms to be distinct and unchanging. His approach remained influential until the Renaissance, when observers in the Early Modern period began to develop systems of organization for living things, they placed each kind of animal or plant into a context. Many of these early delineation schemes would now be considered whimsical, animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species permanently, one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa. In the 18th century, the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus classified organisms according to shared physical characteristics and he established the idea of a taxonomic hierarchy of classification based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships. At the time, however, it was widely believed that there was no organic connection between species, no matter how similar they appeared. However, whether or not it was supposed to be fixed, by the 19th century, naturalists understood that species could change form over time, and that the history of the planet provided enough time for major changes. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in his 1809 Zoological Philosophy, described the transmutation of species, proposing that a species could change over time, in 1859, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace provided a compelling account of evolution and the formation of new species. Darwin argued that it was populations that evolved, not individuals and this required a new definition of species. Darwin concluded that species are what appear to be, ideas
11.
Genus
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A genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of classification, genus comes above species. In binomial nomenclature, the name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. Felis catus and Felis silvestris are two species within the genus Felis, Felis is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist, the standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. Moreover, genera should be composed of units of the same kind as other genera. The term comes from the Latin genus, a noun form cognate with gignere, linnaeus popularized its use in his 1753 Species Plantarum, but the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort is considered the founder of the modern concept of genera. The scientific name of a genus may be called the name or generic epithet. It plays a role in binomial nomenclature, the system of naming organisms. The rules for the names of organisms are laid down in the Nomenclature Codes. The standard way of scientifically describing species and other lower-ranked taxa is by binomial nomenclature, the generic name forms its first half. For example, the gray wolfs binomial name is Canis lupus, with Canis being the name shared by the wolfs close relatives. The specific name is written in lower-case and may be followed by names in zoology or a variety of infraspecific names in botany. Especially with these names, when the generic name is known from context. Because animals are typically only grouped within subspecies, it is written as a trinomen with a third name. Dog breeds, meanwhile, are not scientifically distinguished, there are several divisions of plant species and therefore their infraspecific names generally include contractions explaining the relation. For example, the genus Hibiscus includes hundreds of other species apart from the Rose of Sharon or common garden hibiscus, Rose of Sharon doesnt have subspecies but has cultivars that carry desired traits, such as the bright white H. syriaca Diana. Hawaiian hibiscus, meanwhile, includes several separate species, since not all botanists agree on the divisions or names between species, it is common to specify the source of the name using author abbreviations
12.
Monocot
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Monocotyledons, commonly referred to as monocots, are flowering plants whose seeds typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. However, molecular research has shown that while the monocots form a monophyletic group or clade. Monocots have almost always recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks. The APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called monocots, the monocots include about 60,000 species. The largest family in this group by number of species are the orchids, about half as many species belong to the true grasses, which are economically the most important family of monocots. In agriculture the majority of the biomass produced comes from monocots and these include not only major grains, but also forage grasses, sugar cane, and the bamboos. Other economically important monocot crops include various palms, bananas, gingers and their relatives, turmeric and cardamom, asparagus and the onions and garlic family. Additionally most of the bulbs, plants cultivated for their blooms, such as lilies, daffodils, irises, amaryllis, cannas, bluebells. The monocots or monocotyledons have, as the name implies, a single cotyledon, or embryonic leaf, from a diagnostic point of view the number of cotyledons is neither a particularly useful characteristic, nor is it completely reliable. Nevertheless, monocots are sufficiently distinctive that there has rarely been disagreement as to membership of this group, however, morphological features that reliably characterise major clades are rare. Thus monocots are distinguishable from other angiosperms both in terms of their uniformity and diversity, although largely herbaceous, some arboraceous monocots reach great height, length and mass. The latter include agaves, palms, pandans, and bamboos and this creates challenges in water transport that monocots deal with in various ways. Some such as species of Yucca develop anomalous secondary growth, while palm trees, the axis undergoes primary thickening, that progresses from internode to internode, resulting in a typical inverted conical shape of the basal primary axis. The limited conductivity also contributes to limited branching of the stems, despite these limitations a wide variety of adaptive growth forms has resulted from epiphytic orchids and bromeliads to submarine Alismatales and mycotrophic Burmanniaceae and Triuridaceae. Other monocots, particularly Poales have adopted a life form. Leaves The cotyledon, the primordial Angiosperm leaf consists of a proximal leaf base or hypophyll, in moncots the hypophyll tends to be the dominant part in contrast to other angiosperms. Mature monocot leaves are narrow and linear, forming a sheathing around the stem at its base. There is usually only one leaf per node because the leaf base encompasses more than half the circumference, the evolution of this monocot characteristic has been attributed to developmental differences in early zonal differentiation rather than meristem activity
13.
Arid
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A region is arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Environments subject to arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic, most arid climates surround the equator, these places include most of Africa and parts of South America, Central America and Australia. The distribution of aridity observed at any one point in time is largely the result of the circulation of the atmosphere. The latter does change significantly over time through climate change, for example, temperature increase across the Nile Basin over the next 30–40 years could change the region from semi-arid to arid, resulting in a significant reduction in agricultural land. In addition, changes in use can result in greater demands on soil water. Durrenberger, R. W. Arid Climates, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 92-101, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, ISBN 0-87933-009-0. J Aridity Indexes, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 102-107, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, blue Peace for the Nile Report,2009, Strategic Foresight Group
14.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
15.
Southwestern United States
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The population of the area is around 11 million people, with over half that in Arizona, the most populous cities are Phoenix, El Paso, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and Tucson. Most of the area was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Spanish Empire before becoming part of Mexico and it became part of the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase. The deserts dominate the southern and western reaches of the area, the two major rivers of the region are the Colorado River, running in the northern and western areas, and the Rio Grande, running in the south. Formed approximately 8000 years ago, the Chihuahuan Desert is a dry desert. The Chihuahuan Desert spreads across the portion of the region, covering from southeastern Arizona, across southern New Mexico. While it is the second largest desert in the United States, only a third of the desert is within the United States, El Paso is the major city in this desert, with other smaller cities being Las Cruces and Roswell in New Mexico. The Chihuahuan is a rain shadow desert, formed two mountain ranges which block oceanic precipitation from reaching the area. The most prolific plants in this region are agave, yucca and creosote bushes, when people think of the desert southwest, the landscape of the Sonoran Desert is what mostly comes to mind. Rainfall averages between 4–12 inches per year, and the deserts most widely known inhabitant is the saguaro cactus and it is bounded on the northwest by the Mojave Desert, to the north by the Colorado Plateau and to the east by the Arizona Mountains forests and the Chihuahuan Desert. The portion of the Sonora Desert which lies in the Southwestern United States is the most populated area within the region. Six of the top ten major population centers of the region are found within its borders, Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, also within its borders are Yuma and Prescott Arizona. The most northwest portion of the American Southwest is covered by the Mojave Desert, bordered on the south by the Sonoran Desert and the east by the Colorado Plateau, its range within the region makes up the southeast tip of Nevada, and the northwestern corner of Arizona. In terms of topography, the Mojave is very similar to the Great Basin Desert, the Mojave is the smallest, driest and hottest desert within the United States. The Mojave gets less than six inches of rain annually, the most prolific vegetation is the tall Joshua tree, which grow as tall as 40 feet, and are thought to live almost 1000 years. Other major vegetation includes the Parry saltbush and the Mojave sage, the Colorado Plateau varies from the large stands of forests in the west, including the largest stand of ponderosa pine trees in the world, to the Mesas to the east. Although not called a desert, the Colorado Plateau is mostly made up of high desert, the Plateau is characterized by a series of plateaus and mesas, interspersed with canyons. The most dramatic example is the Grand Canyon, but that is one of many dramatic vistas included within the Plateau, which includes spectacular lava formations, painted deserts, sand dunes, and badlands. One of the most distinctive features of the Plateau is its longevity, the Plateau can be divided into six sections, three of which fall into the Southwest region
16.
Tropics
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The tropics are a region of the Earth surrounding the equator. The tropics are also referred to as the zone and the torrid zone. The tropics include all the areas on the Earth where the Sun is at a point directly overhead at least once during the solar year. The tropics are distinguished from the climatic and biomatic regions of Earth, which are the middle latitudes. Tropical is sometimes used in a sense for a tropical climate to mean warm to hot and moist year-round. Many tropical areas have a dry and wet season, the wet season, rainy season or green season, is the time of year, ranging from one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. Areas with wet seasons are disseminated across portions of the tropics and subtropics, under the Köppen climate classification, for tropical climates, a wet season month is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 millimetres or more. Tropical rainforests technically do not have dry or wet seasons, since their rainfall is distributed through the year. When the wet season occurs during the season, or summer, precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon. The wet season is a time when air quality improves, freshwater quality improves and vegetation grows significantly, floods cause rivers to overflow their banks, and some animals to retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases, the incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures. Animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wetter regime, unfortunately, the previous dry season leads to food shortages into the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature. Regions within the tropics may well not have a tropical climate, there are alpine tundra and snow-capped peaks, including Mauna Kea, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Andes as far south as the northernmost parts of Chile and Argentina. Under the Köppen climate classification, much of the area within the tropics is classed not as tropical but as dry including the Sahara Desert. Tropical plants and animals are those native to the tropics. Tropical ecosystems may consist of rainforests, dry forests, spiny forests, desert. There are often significant areas of biodiversity, and species present, particularly in rainforests. In biogeography, the tropics are divided into Paleotropics and Neotropics, together, they are sometimes referred to as the Pantropic
17.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
18.
Perennial plant
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A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions because they dont survive the winter. There is also a class of evergreen, or non-herbaceous, perennials, an intermediate class of plants is known as subshrubs, which retain a vestigial woody structure in winter, e. g. Penstemon. The local climate may dictate whether plants are treated as shrubs or perennials, for instance, many varieties of Fuchsia are shrubs in warm regions, but in colder temperate climates may be cut to the ground every year as a result of winter frosts. The symbol for a plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, is. Perennial plants can be short-lived or they can be long-lived, as are some plants like trees. They include an assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the highly diverse flowering plants like orchids. Plants that flower and fruit only once and then die are termed monocarpic or semelparous, however, most perennials are polycarpic, flowering over many seasons in their lifetime. Perennials typically grow structures that allow them to adapt to living one year to the next through a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seeding. These structures include bulbs, tubers, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others and they might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to extreme climatic. Some have adapted to hot and dry conditions or cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and often do not flower, Many perennials produce relatively large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants. Some annuals produce many seeds per plant in one season, while some perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds. In warmer and more favorable climates, perennials grow continuously, in seasonal climates, their growth is limited to the growing season. In some species, perennials retain their foliage all year round, other plants are deciduous perennials, for example, in temperate regions a perennial plant may grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, with the foliage dying back in the winter
19.
Rosette (botany)
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In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a similar height. Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem, often, rosettes form in perennial plants whose upper foliage dies back with the remaining vegetation protecting the plant. Another form occurs when internodes along a stem are shortened, bringing the leaves together, as in lettuce and dandelion. In yet other forms, the rosette persists at the base of the plant, part of the protective function of a rosette like the dandelion is that it is hard to pull from the ground, the leaves come away easily while the taproot is left intact. Another kind of protection is provided by the caulescent rosette which is part of the form of the giant Espeletia genus in South America. Many plant families have varieties with rosette morphology, they are common in Asteraceae, Brassicaceae. The fern, Blechnum fluviatile or New Zealand Water Fern is a rosette plant, the flowers have seven to nine, often even more, white egg-shaped petals. The slightly rosette-like ground leaves are bigger and of different shape than the sparse and this is explained in that side shoots with greatly prolonged internodes may spring from rosettes. They have one or more flowers at their tip, like the primrose, especially in biennial plants, the main shoot can, too, grow with prolonged internodes and even branch. It is not unusual that the leaves of the rosette and those of the shoot differ in shape, as form then, rosette is used to describe plants that perpetually grow as a rosette and the immature stage of plants such as some ferns. Asteraceae Bromeliad Bilbergia Fern Birds Nest Fern Ostrich Fern Wild Birds-nest Fern
20.
Semelparity and iteroparity
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Semelparity and iteroparity are two classes of possible reproductive strategies available to living organisms. Some plant scientists use the parallel terms monocarpy and polycarpy, in truly semelparous species, death after reproduction is part of an overall strategy that includes putting all available resources into maximizing reproduction, at the expense of future life. This distinction is also related to the difference between annual and perennial plants, an annual is a plant that completes its life cycle in a single season, and is usually semelparous. Perennials live for more than one season and are usually iteroparous, Semelparity and iteroparity are not, strictly speaking, alternative strategies, but extremes along a continuum of possible modes of reproduction. Many organisms considered to be semelparous can, under certain conditions, the word semelparity was coined by evolutionary biologist Lamont Cole, and comes from the Latin semel once, a single time and pario to beget. Semelparity is also known as big bang reproduction, since the single event of semelparous organisms is usually large as well as fatal. A classic example of an organism is Pacific salmon, which lives for many years in the ocean before swimming to the freshwater stream of its birth, spawning. Other semelparous animals include many insects, including species of butterflies, cicadas, and mayflies, many arachnids. Semelparity also occurs in smelt and capelin, but is rare in vertebrates other than bony fish. Annual plants, including all grain crops and most domestic vegetables, are semelparous, long-lived semelparous plants include century plant, Lobelia telekii, and some species of bamboo. The term iteroparity comes from the Latin itero, to repeat, an example of an iteroparous organism is a human—though people may choose to have only one child, humans are biologically capable of having offspring many times over the course of their lives. Iteroparous vertebrates include all birds, most reptiles, virtually all mammals, among invertebrates, most mollusca and many insects are iteroparous. Of relevance here is the trade-off between fecundity, growth, and survivorship in its life history strategy and these trade-offs come into play in the evolution of iteroparity and semelparity. It has been demonstrated that semelparous species produce more offspring in their single fatal reproductive episode than do closely related iteroparous species in any one of theirs. However, the opportunity to more than once in a lifetime. One class of models tries to explain the differential evolution of semelparity and iteroparity examines the shape of the trade-off between offspring produced and offspring forgone. In economic terms, offspring produced is equivalent to a benefit function, in this situation, the organism only devotes a portion of its resources to reproduction, and uses the rest of its resources on growth and survivorship so that it can reproduce again in the future. However, it is possible for the marginal cost of offspring produced to increase
21.
Agave tequilana
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The high production of sugars, mostly fructose, in the core of the plant is the main characteristic that makes it suitable for the preparation of alcoholic beverages. The tequila agave is native to the states of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, the plant favors altitudes of more than 1,500 metres and grows in rich and sandy soils. Blue agave plants grow into large succulents, with fleshy leaves. Blue agaves sprout a stalk when about five years old that can grow an additional 5 metres, the stalk is cut off from commercial plants so the plant will put more energy into the heart. The flowers are pollinated by a bat and produce several thousand seeds per plant. The shoots on plants are removed when about a year old to allow the heart to grow larger. The plants are then reproduced by planting these shoots, this has led to a loss of genetic diversity in cultivated blue agave. Tequila is made only from a cultivar of Agave tequilana called Weber Azul. This cultivar is larger and blue-gray in color compared to the smaller, tequila is produced by removing the heart of the plant in its eighth to fourteenth year. Harvested piñas normally weigh 80–200 pounds and this heart is stripped of its leaves and heated to convert the starches to sugars, which is fermented and distilled. As agave production has moved to a scale since the end of the 1980s, diseases and pests. Through the 1990s, diseases spread, particularly Fusarium fungi and Erwinia bacteria, other problems include the agave weevil, Scyphophorus acupunctatus, and a fungus, Thielaviopsis paradoxa. According to a 2004 study, additional pathogens, Erwinia carotovora, Enterobacter agglomerans, Pseudomonas mendocina, the homoisoflavanones 5, 7-dihydroxy-3--chroman-4-one, 7-hydroxy-3--chroman-4-one and 4’-demethyl-3, 9-dihydro-punctatin can be isolated from A. tequilana. It is rarely kept as a houseplant, but a 50-year-old blue agave in Boston grew a 30-foot stalk requiring a hole in the greenhouse roof and flowered in the summer of 2006
22.
Tequila
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Although tequila is similar to mezcal, modern tequila differs somewhat in the method of its production, in the use of only blue agave plants, as well as in its regional specificity. Tequila is commonly served neat in Mexico and as a shot with salt, the red volcanic soil in the surrounding region is particularly well suited to the growing of the blue agave, and more than 300 million of the plants are harvested there each year. Agave tequila grows differently depending on the region, Blue agaves grown in the highlands Los Altos region are larger in size and sweeter in aroma and taste. Agaves harvested in the lowlands, on the hand, have a more herbaceous fragrance. Mexican laws state that tequila can only be produced in the state of Jalisco and limited municipalities in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, Tequila is recognized as a Mexican designation of origin product in more than 40 countries. Tequila is most often made at a 38% alcohol content for domestic consumption, per U. S law, tequila must contain at least 40% alcohol to be sold in the United States. Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, the native Chichimeca and otomí had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, long before the Spanish arrived in 1521. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North Americas first indigenous distilled spirits. Some 80 years later, around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, by 1608, the colonial governor of Nueva Galicia had begun to tax his products. Spains King Carlos IV granted the Cuervo family the first license to make tequila. Don Cenobios grandson Don Francisco Javier gained international attention for insisting that there cannot be tequila where there are no agaves and his efforts led to the practice that real tequila can come only from the State of Jalisco. Although some tequilas have remained as family-owned brands, most well-known tequila brands are owned by multinational corporations. However, over 100 distilleries make over 900 brands of tequila in Mexico, due to this, each bottle of tequila contains a serial number depicting in which distillery the tequila was produced. Because only so many distilleries are used, multiple brands of tequila come from the same location, in 2003, Mexico issued a proposal that would require all Mexican-made tequila be bottled in Mexico before being exported to other countries. The Mexican government said that bottling tequila in Mexico would guarantee its quality, on January 17,2006, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement allowing the continued bulk import of tequila into the United States. The agreement also created a tequila bottlers registry to identify approved bottlers of tequila, the Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico originally did not permit flavored tequila to carry the tequila name. In 2004, the Council decided to allow flavored tequila to be called tequila, with the exception of 100% agave tequila, which still cannot be flavored. A new Norma Oficial Mexicana for tequila was issued in 2006, a one-liter bottle of limited-edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 in July 2006 in Tequila, Jalisco, by the company Tequila Ley.925
23.
Agave nectar
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Agave nectar is a sweetener commercially produced from several species of agave, including Agave tequilana and Agave salmiana. Agave syrup is sweeter than honey and tends to be less viscous, most agave syrup comes from Mexico and South Africa. To produce agave syrup from the Agave americana and A. tequilana plants, the juice is then extracted from the core of the agave, called the piña. The juice is filtered, then heated to break the complex components into simple sugars, the main polysaccharide is called inulin or fructosan and is mostly fructose. This filtered juice is concentrated to a syrupy liquid, slightly thinner than honey. Its color varies from light- to dark-amber, depending on the degree of processing, Agave salmiana is processed differently from Agave tequiliana. As the plant develops, it starts to grow a stalk called a quiote, the stalk is cut off before it fully grows, creating a hole in the center of the plant that fills with a liquid called aguamiel. The liquid is heated, breaking down its complex components into fructose and glucose. Aspergillus niger, a commonly used in industrial fermentations, is generally recognized as safe by the U. S. Food. Agave nectar consists primarily of fructose and glucose, one source gives 47% fructose and 16% glucose, another gives 56% fructose and 20% glucose. These differences probably reflect variation from one vendor of agave nectar to another, Agave syrup is 1.4 to 1.6 times sweeter than sugar and is often substituted for sugar or honey in recipes. In cooking, it is used as a vegan alternative to honey. Agave syrup dissolves quickly and so it can be used as a sweetener for cold beverages such as iced tea and it is added to some breakfast cereals as a binding agent. Agave syrups are sold in light, amber, dark, light agave syrup has a mild, almost neutral flavor, and is therefore sometimes used in delicate-tasting dishes and beverages. Amber agave syrup has a medium-intensity caramel flavor and is used in dishes. Dark agave syrup has stronger caramel notes and imparts a flavor to dishes, such as some desserts, poultry, meat. Both amber and dark agave syrups are sometimes used out of the bottle as a topping for pancakes, waffles. The dark version is unfiltered and therefore contains a concentration of the agave plants minerals
24.
Sugar substitute
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A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweet taste like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy. Some sugar substitutes are produced by nature, and others produced synthetically and those that are not produced by nature are, in general, called artificial sweeteners. An important class of sugar substitutes is known as high-intensity sweeteners and these are compounds with many times the sweetness of sucrose, common table sugar. As a result, much less sweetener is required and energy contribution is often negligible, the sensation of sweetness caused by these compounds is sometimes notably different from sucrose, so they are often used in complex mixtures that achieve the most natural sweet sensation. If the sucrose that is replaced has contributed to the texture of the product, in the United States, seven intensely sweet sugar substitutes have been approved for use. They are stevia, aspartame, sucralose, neotame, acesulfame potassium, saccharin, cyclamates are used outside the U. S. but have been prohibited in the U. S. since 1969. Others, which may or may not be approved depending on jurisdiction, include allulose, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration regulates artificial sweeteners as food additives. Food additives must be approved by the FDA, which publishes a generally recognized as safe list of additives, stevia is exempt under the FDAs GRAS policy due to its being a natural substance in wide use well before 1958, and the FDA has approved it on these grounds. The conclusions about safety are based on a review of a large body of information. The majority of sugar substitutes approved for use are artificially synthesized compounds. However, some bulk natural sugar substitutes are known, including sorbitol and xylitol, which are found in berries, fruit, vegetables and it is not commercially viable to extract these products from fruits and vegetables, so they are produced by catalytic hydrogenation of the appropriate reducing sugar. For example, xylose is converted to xylitol, lactose to lactitol, other natural substitutes are known, but these have yet to gain official approval for food use. Sorbitol and xylitol are examples of sugar alcohols and these are, in general, less sweet than sucrose but have similar bulk properties and can be used in a wide range of food products. Sometimes the sweetness profile is fine-tuned by mixing these with high-intensity sweeteners, as with all food products, the development of a formulation to replace sucrose is a complex proprietary process. This allows them to eat the foods they normally would while allowing them to lose weight. Dental care – Carbohydrates and sugars usually adhere to the tooth enamel, the bacteria convert the sugar to acids that decay the teeth. Sugar substitutes, unlike sugar, do not erode teeth as they are not fermented by the microflora of the dental plaque. A sweetener that can actually benefit dental health is xylitol, which tends to prevent bacteria from adhering to the surface, thus preventing plaque formation
25.
Sap
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Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant, sap is not to be confused with latex, resin or cell sap, it is a separate substance, separately produced, and with different components and functions. Saps may be divided into two types, xylem sap and phloem sap. Xylem sap consists primarily of a solution of hormones, mineral elements. Transport of sap in xylem is characterized by movement from the roots toward the leaves, xylem sap transport can be disrupted by cavitation—an abrupt phase change from liquid to vapor—resulting in air-filled xylem conduits. Phloem sap consists primarily of sugars, hormones, and mineral elements dissolved in water and it flows from where carbohydrates are produced or stored to where they are used. The pressure flow hypothesis proposes a mechanism for phloem sap transport, although other hypotheses have been proposed. Phloem sap is also thought to play a role in sending informational signals throughout vascular plants, loading and unloading patterns are largely determined by the conductivity and number of plasmodesmata and the position-dependent function of solute-specific, plasma membrane transport proteins. Recent evidence indicates that proteins and RNA are part of the plants long-distance communication signaling system. Evidence also exists for the transport and sorting of macromolecules as they pass through plasmodesmata. A large number of insects of the order Hemiptera, feed directly on phloem sap, a much larger set of animals do however consume phloem sap by proxy, either through feeding on the honeydew of phloem-feeding hemipterans. Maple syrup is made from reduced sugar maple sap, the sap often is harvested from the Sugar Maple, Acer saccharum. In some countries harvesting the early spring sap of trees for human consumption is common practice. Preparations made from the sap of Aloe vera are widely used for their purported soothing, moisturizing, Aloe vera gel is also used as an ingredient in commercially available lotions, yogurt, beverages, and some desserts. Note, however, that so-called aloe products such as aloes and they are largely distinct substances, different from each other and different from the true phloem and cellular saps. They also are produced in different cellular structures, much as other materials such as latex. Certain palm tree sap can be used to make palm syrup, in the Canary Islands they use the Canary Island Date Palm while in Chile they use the Chilean Wine Palm to make their syrup called miel de palma
26.
Sugar
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Sugar is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. There are various types of derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose, fructose, the table sugar or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugar is used in prepared foods and it is added to some foods, in the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk, longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol may also have a sweet taste, low-calorie food substitutes for sugar, described as artificial sweeteners, include aspartame and sucralose, a chlorinated derivative of sucrose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants and are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient commercial extraction in sugarcane, the world production of sugar in 2011 was about 168 million tonnes. The average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, since the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, the etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word sugar ultimately originates from the Sanskrit शर्करा, via Arabic سكر as granular or candied sugar, the contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar, respectively, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre and the contemporary French, sucre, the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin – Portuguese jagara from the Sanskrit शर्करा. Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and it was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness, sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule, one of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. Sugar was found in Europe by the 1st century AD, but only as an imported medicine and it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut, sugar is used only for medical purposes. Sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store, crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD
27.
Breakfast cereal
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Breakfast cereal is a food product made from processed grains that is often eaten as the first meal of the day. It is eaten hot or cold, usually mixed with milk, yogurt, some companies promote their products for the health benefits from eating oat-based and high-fiber cereals. In America, cereals are often fortified with vitamins, a significant proportion of cold cereals are made with high sugar content. Many breakfast cereals are produced via extrusion, the breakfast cereal industry has gross profit margins of 40-45%, 90% penetration in some markets, and steady and continued growth throughout its history. The number of different types of breakfast cereals in the U. S. has grown from 160 to 340 to 4,945, Porridge was a traditional food in much of Northern Europe and Russia back to antiquity. Barley was a common grain used, though other grains and yellow peas could be used, in many modern cultures, porridge is still eaten as a breakfast dish. North American natives had found a way to make ground corn palatable, later called grits, while this became a staple in the southern U. S. grits never gained a hold in the northern states. Food reformers in the 19th century called for cutting back on meat consumption at breakfast. Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant, began the revolution in 1854 with a hand oats grinder in the back room of a small store in, Akron. His German Mills American Oatmeal Company was the nations first commercial oatmeal manufacturer and he marketed the product locally as a substitute for breakfast pork. Improved production technology, combined with an influx of German and Irish immigrants, quickly boosted sales, in 1877, Schumacher adopted the Quaker symbol, the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal. The acceptance of food for human consumption encouraged other entrepreneurs to enter the industry. Henry Parsons Crowell started operations in 1882, and John Robert Stuart in 1885, Crowell cut costs by consolidating every step of the processing—grading, cleaning, hulling, cutting, rolling, packaging, and shipping—in one factory operating at Ravenna, Ohio. Stuart operated mills in Chicago and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Stuart and Crowell combined in 1885 and initiated a price war. After a fire at his mill in Akron, Schumacher joined Stuart, the American Cereal Company created a cereal made from oats in 1877, manufacturing the product in Akron, Ohio. Separately, in 1888, a trust or holding company combined the nations seven largest mills into the American Cereal Company using the Quaker Oats brand name. By 1900 technology, entrepreneurship, and the Man in Quaker Garb—a symbol of honesty and reliability—gave Quaker Oats a national market. Early in the 20th century, the Quaker Oats Company jumped into the world market, Schumacher, the innovator, Stuart, the manager and financial leader and Crowell, the creative merchandiser, advertiser, and promoter, doubled sales every decade
28.
Agave chiapensis
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Agave chiapensis is a species of agave native to the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. It has also reported from Costa Rica and Guatemala. It is an agave, with spreading rosettes of light green leaves that are variable. The teeth of the margins are deltoid and may be found either small and closely spaced. The strong terminal spine of the leaf is 2-3.5 cm in length, the flower spike typically reaches 2 meters in height, with the flowers spread along the upper 1/3 to 1/4 of its length. The flowers are 60–70 mm long, yellow or green in color but flushed with red or purple shading, as well as the bractlets, the filaments are also dark and at 70–80 mm extend far out of the flower, with 30-mm anthers on the ends
29.
Succulent plant
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The word succulent comes from the Latin word sucus, meaning juice, or sap. Succulent plants may store water in various structures, such as leaves, some definitions also include roots, so that geophytes that survive unfavorable periods by dying back to underground storage organs may be regarded as succulents. In horticultural use, the term succulent is often used in a way which excludes plants that botanists would regard as succulents, Succulents are often grown as ornamental plants because of their striking and unusual appearance. Many plant families have multiple succulents found within them, in some families, such as Aizoaceae, Cactaceae, and Crassulaceae, most species are succulents. The habitats of these water preserving plants are often in areas with high temperatures, Succulents have the ability to thrive on limited water sources, such as mist and dew, which makes them equipped to survive in an ecosystem which contains scarce water sources. A general definition of succulents is that they are drought resistant plants in which the leaves, other sources exclude roots as in the definition a plant with thick, fleshy and swollen stems and/or leaves, adapted to dry environments. This difference affects the relationship between succulents and geophytes – plants that survive unfavorable seasons as a bud on an underground organ. These underground organs, such as bulbs, corms and tubers, are fleshy with water-storing tissues. Thus if roots are included in the definition, many geophytes would be classed as succulents, plants adapted to living in dry environments such as succulents are termed xerophytes. Nor are all succulents xerophytes, since plants like Crassula helmsii are both succulent and aquatic and those who grow succulents as a hobby use the term in a different way to botanists. In horticultural use, the term succulent regularly excludes cacti, however, in botanical terminology, cacti are succulents. Horticulturists may also exclude other groups of plants, e. g. bromeliads, a practical, but unscientific, horticultural definition is a succulent plant is any desert plant that a succulent plant collector wishes to grow. Such plants less often include geophytes but do include plants with a caudex, which is a swollen above-ground organ at soil level, formed from a stem, a further difficulty is that plants are not either succulent or non-succulent. Different sources may classify the same species differently, the storage of water often gives succulent plants a more swollen or fleshy appearance than other plants, a characteristic known as succulence. In addition to succulence, succulent plants variously have other water-saving features, high temperatures and low precipitation force plants to collect and store water to survive long dry periods. Some species of cactus can survive for months without rainfall, Succulents also occur as inhabitants of sea coasts and dry lakes, which are exposed to high levels of dissolved minerals that are deadly to many other plant species. Plant families and genera in which succulent species occur are listed below, the table below shows the number of succulent species found in some families, Succulents are very difficult to kill, and if properly potted require little maintenance to survive indoors. Succulents are very adaptable houseplants and will thrive in a range of indoor conditions, Succulents can be propagated by different means
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Leaves
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A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant and is the principal lateral appendage of the stem. The leaves and stem together form the shoot, Leaves are collectively referred to as foliage, as in autumn foliage. Although leaves can be seen in different shapes, sizes and textures, typically a leaf is a thin, dorsiventrally flattened organ, borne above ground. Most leaves have distinctive upper surface and lower surface that differ in colour, hairiness, broad, flat leaves with complex venation are known as megaphylls and the species that bear them, the majority, as broad-leaved or megaphyllous plants. In others, such as the clubmosses, with different evolutionary origins, some leaves, such as bulb scales are not above ground, and in many aquatic species the leaves are submerged in water. Succulent plants often have thick juicy leaves, but some leaves are without major photosynthetic function and may be dead at maturity, as in some cataphylls, furthermore, several kinds of leaf-like structures found in vascular plants are not totally homologous with them. Examples include flattened plant stems called phylloclades and cladodes, and flattened leaf stems called phyllodes which differ from both in their structure and origin. Many structures of plants, such as the phyllids of mosses and liverworts and even of some foliose lichens. Leaves are the most important organs of most vascular plants and these are then further processed by chemical synthesis into more complex organic molecules such as cellulose, the basic structural material in plant cell walls. The plant must therefore bring these three together in the leaf for photosynthesis to take place. Once sugar has been synthesized, it needs to be transported to areas of growth such as the plant shoots and roots. Vascular plants transport sucrose in a tissue called the phloem. The phloem and xylem are parallel to each other but the transport of materials is usually in opposite directions. Within the leaf these vascular systems branch to form veins which supply as much as the leaf as possible and they are arranged on the plant so as to expose their surfaces to light as efficiently as possible without shading each other, but there are many exceptions and complications. For instance plants adapted to windy conditions may have pendent leaves, such as in many willows, the flat, or laminar, shape also maximises thermal contact with the surrounding air, promoting cooling. Functionally, in addition to photosynthesis the leaf is the site of transpiration and guttation. Many gymnosperms have thin needle-like or scale-like leaves that can be advantageous in cold climates with frequent snow and these are interpreted as reduced from megaphyllous leaves of their Devonian ancestors. For xerophytes the major constraint is not light flux or intensity, some window plants such as Fenestraria species and some Haworthia species such as Haworthia tesselata and Haworthia truncata are examples of xerophytes. and Bulbine mesembryanthemoides
31.
Thorns, spines, and prickles
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Leaf margins may also have teeth, and if those teeth are sharp, they are called spinose teeth on a spinose leaf margin. On a leaf apex, if there is a process, and if it is especially sharp, stiff. When the leaf epidermis is covered very long, stiff trichomes, it may be referred to as a hispid vestiture, if the trichomes are stinging trichomes. There can be found also spines or spinose structures derived from roots, the predominant function of thorns, spines and prickles is deterring herbivory in a mechanical form. For this reason they are classified as physical or mechanical defenses, not all functions of spines or glochids are limited to defense from physical attacks by herbivores and other animals. In some cases, spines have been shown to shade or insulate the plants that grow them, for example, saguaro cactus spines shade the apical meristem in summer, and in members of the Opuntioideae, glochids insulate the apical meristem in winter. Agrawal et al. found that seem to have little effect on specialist pollinators. Thorns are modified branches or stems and they may be simple or branched. Spines are modified leaves, stipules, or parts of leaves, some authors prefer not to distinguish spines from thorns because, like thorns, and unlike prickles, they commonly contain vascular tissue. The plants of the family are particularly well known for their dense covering of spines. Cacti often have a kind of spine called a glochidium or glochid. Prickles are comparable to hairs but can be quite coarse and they are extensions of the cortex and epidermis. Technically speaking, many plants commonly thought of as having thorns or spines actually have prickles, other similar structures are spinose teeth, spinose apical processes, and trichomes. Trichomes are often effective defenses against small insect herbivores, thorns, spines, spinescent is a term describing plants that bear any sharp structures that deter herbivory. It also can refer to the state of tending to be or become spiny in some sense or degree, there are also spines derived from roots, like the ones on the trunk of the Root Spine Palms. The trunk roots of Cryosophila guagara grow downwards to a length of 6–12 cm, then stop growing, the anatomy of crown roots on this species also alters during their life. They initially grow upwards and then turn down and finally they, too, lateral roots on these two types of roots, as well as those on the stilt roots on this species, also become spinous. Some authors believe that some of these short spiny laterals have a ventilating function so they are pneumorhizae, short spiny laterals that may have a ventilating funcion may also be found on roots of Iriartea exorrhiza
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Yucca
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Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and they are native to the hot and dry parts of the Americas and the Caribbean. Early reports of the species were confused with the cassava, consequently, Linnaeus mistakenly derived the generic name from the Taíno word for the latter, yuca. It is commonly found growing in rural graveyards and when in bloom the cluster of flowers on a thin stalk appear as floating apparitions, the natural distribution range of the genus Yucca covers a vast area of the Americas. The genus is represented throughout Mexico and extends into Guatemala and it also extends to the north through Baja California in the west, northwards into the southwestern United States, through the drier central states as far north as southern Alberta in Canada. Yucca is also native to the lowlands and dry scrub of the Gulf. Yuccas have adapted to an equally vast range of climatic and ecological conditions, Yucca species are the host plants for the caterpillars of the yucca giant-skipper, ursine giant-skipper, and Streckers giant-skipper. Species of yucca have adapted to a variety of climates in mountains, coastal sand, grasslands and prairies as well as rocky badlands. Most species of yucca have thick, waxy skins to prevent loss of water through evaporation and they frequently store water in thick roots. Some yuccas store water in thick, fleshy leaves, some desert plants have an oily coating on their leaves or pads that traps moisture, thereby reducing water loss. Some species drop their leaves during drought to prevent the loss of water through transpiration, dead leaves of yucca collecting against the trunk of the trees help protect it from the sun. The channeled leaves of a yucca direct dew and rainfall water to their roots, yuccas are said to be fire adapted, that is, they grow and spread vigorously after wildfires. Yuccas are widely grown as ornamental plants in gardens, many species also bear edible parts, including fruits, seeds, flowers, flowering stems, and more rarely roots. References to yucca root as food often arise from confusion with the similarly pronounced, roots of soaptree yucca are high in saponins and are used as a shampoo in Native American rituals. Dried yucca leaves and trunk fibers have a low ignition temperature, in rural Appalachian areas, species such as Yucca filamentosa are referred to as meat hangers. The tough, fibrous leaves with their tips were used to puncture meat. Yuccas are widely grown as architectural plants providing a dramatic accent to landscape design and they tolerate a range of conditions, but are best grown in full sun in subtropical or mild temperate areas. In gardening centres and horticultural catalogues they are grouped with other architectural plants such as cordylines
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Ornamental plant
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Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as houseplants, for cut flowers and specimen display. The cultivation of these, called floriculture, forms a branch of horticulture. Commonly, ornamental plants are grown for the display of aesthetic features including, leaves, scent, overall foliage texture, fruit, stem and bark, and aesthetic form. In some cases, unusual features may be considered to be of interest, such as the prominent thorns of Rosa sericea, in all cases, their purpose is for the enjoyment of gardeners, visitors, and the public institutions. Similarly certain trees may be called ornamental trees and this term is used when they are used as part of a garden, park, or landscape setting, for instance for their flowers, their texture, form, size and shape, and other aesthetic characteristics. In some countries trees in utilitarian landscape use such as screening, for plants to be considered to be ornamental, they may require specific work and activity by a gardener. Ornamental plants and trees are distinguished from utilitarian and crop plants, such as used for agriculture and vegetable crops. This does not preclude any type of plant being grown both for ornamental qualities in the garden, and for utilitarian purposes in other settings. Thus lavender is typically grown as a plant in gardens. The term ornamental plant is used here in the sense that it is generally used in the horticultural trades. The term largely corresponds to garden plant, though the latter is less precise. Ornamental plants are plants which are grown for display purposes, rather than functional ones, Ornamental plants are the keystone of ornamental gardening, and they come in a range of shapes, sizes and colors suitable to a broad array of climates, landscapes, and gardening needs. Some ornamental plants are grown for showy foliage and their foliage may be deciduous, turning bright orange, red, and yellow before dropping off in the fall, or evergreen, in which case it stays green year-round. Other ornamental plants are cultivated for their blooms, flowering ornamentals are a key aspect of many gardens, with many flower gardeners preferring to plant a variety of flowers so that the garden is continuously in flower through the spring and summer. Media related to Ornamental plants at Wikimedia Commons
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Flower
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A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in plants that are floral. The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs, Flowers may facilitate outcrossing or allow selfing. Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization, Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen. After fertilization, the ovary of the flower develops into fruit containing seeds, the essential parts of a flower can be considered in two parts, the vegetative part, consisting of petals and associated structures in the perianth, and the reproductive or sexual parts. A stereotypical flower consists of four kinds of structures attached to the tip of a short stalk, each of these kinds of parts is arranged in a whorl on the receptacle. The four main whorls are as follows, Collectively the calyx, corolla, the next whorl toward the apex, composed of units called petals, which are typically thin, soft and colored to attract animals that help the process of pollination. Androecium, the whorl, consisting of units called stamens. Stamens consist of two parts, a called a filament, topped by an anther where pollen is produced by meiosis. Gynoecium, the innermost whorl of a flower, consisting of one or more units called carpels, the carpel or multiple fused carpels form a hollow structure called an ovary, which produces ovules internally. Ovules are megasporangia and they in turn produce megaspores by meiosis which develop into female gametophytes and these give rise to egg cells. The gynoecium of a flower is described using an alternative terminology wherein the structure one sees in the innermost whorl is called a pistil. A pistil may consist of a carpel or a number of carpels fused together. The sticky tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen, the supportive stalk, the style, becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma. The relationship to the gynoecium on the receptacle is described as hypogynous, perigynous, although the arrangement described above is considered typical, plant species show a wide variation in floral structure. These modifications have significance in the evolution of flowering plants and are used extensively by botanists to establish relationships among plant species, the four main parts of a flower are generally defined by their positions on the receptacle and not by their function. Many flowers lack some parts or parts may be modified into other functions and/or look like what is typically another part, in some families, like Ranunculaceae, the petals are greatly reduced and in many species the sepals are colorful and petal-like. Other flowers have modified stamens that are petal-like, the flowers of Peonies and Roses are mostly petaloid stamens
35.
Basal shoot
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Basal shoots, root sprouts, adventitious shoots, water sprouts and suckers are various types of shoots which grow from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from adventitious buds in its roots. A plant that produces suckers is referred to as surculose, root suckers may emerge some distance from the originating plant, are considered a form of vegetative dispersal, and may originate a habitat patch where that tree is the dominant species. Suckers also may arise from the roots of trees that have cut down. In botany, a sucker is a plant growing not from a seed and this is a phenomenon of natural asexual spread, also known in plants as vegetative reproduction. It is a plant propagation strategy and the complex of individuals formed by a plant and all its clones produced form a single genetic individual. The plant suckers are clones from the mother plant, the plant will have a genome identical to that from which it arose. Many species of plant reproduce through vegetative reproduction, such as the Canada thistle, cherry, Apple, Ligustrum, hazel, Tree of Heaven, the guava, a tropical tree, is also known to propagate through basal shoots. The basal shoot is a variety of dispersal vector that allows the plants to reach specific habitats that are favorable for their survival and they create a shaded area where new species will grow and gradually replace them in many cases. In trees, the roots normally grow outward to about three times the branch spread, only half of a trees root system occurs between the trunk and the circumference of its canopy. Roots on one side of a tree normally supply the foliage on that side of the tree. Thus when roots on one side of a tree are injured, for some trees however, such as the maple family, the effect of a root injury may show itself anywhere in the tree canopy. Stolons are stems which grow at the surface or just below ground and form adventitious roots at the nodes. Thus, not all horizontal stems are called stolons, plants with stolons are called stoloniferous. Rhizomes, in contrast, are root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the surface or in other orientations underground. Suckers and basal shoots can be used to propagate woody plants, suckers can be dug or broken off with some of the roots attached. Stool beds involve cutting a young plant to near ground level and heaping soil over it so that basal shoots will form adventitious roots, the technique is used particularly for vegetative propagation of rootstocks for apple trees. Suckers on some plants are considered undesirable by horticulturists because the plants energy is diverted to the sucker rather than to crown growth. Horticulturists recommend removing suckers on trees and shrubs by tearing them away as close to the base as possible, the buds that give rise to suckers are more completely destroyed through tearing than through cutting
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Cactus
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A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word cactus derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek κάκτος, kaktos, Cacti occur in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Most cacti live in habitats subject to at least some drought, many live in extremely dry environments, even being found in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth. Cacti show many adaptations to conserve water, almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts adapted to store water. Unlike many other succulents, the stem is the part of most cacti where this vital process takes place. Most species of cacti have lost true leaves, retaining only spines, as well as defending against herbivores, spines help prevent water loss by reducing air flow close to the cactus and providing some shade. In the absence of leaves, enlarged stems carry out photosynthesis, Cacti are native to the Americas, ranging from Patagonia in the south to parts of western Canada in the north—except for Rhipsalis baccifera, which also grows in Africa and Sri Lanka. Cactus spines are produced from specialized structures called areoles, a kind of highly reduced branch, areoles are an identifying feature of cacti. As well as spines, areoles give rise to flowers, which are usually tubular, Cactus stems are often ribbed or fluted, which allows them to expand and contract easily for quick water absorption after rain, followed by long drought periods. Like other succulent plants, most cacti employ a mechanism called crassulacean acid metabolism as part of photosynthesis. Transpiration, during which carbon enters the plant and water escapes, does not take place during the day at the same time as photosynthesis. The plant stores the carbon dioxide it takes in as malic acid, retaining it until daylight returns, because transpiration takes place during the cooler, more humid night hours, water loss is significantly reduced. Many smaller cacti have globe-shaped stems, combining the highest possible volume for water storage, the tallest free-standing cactus is Pachycereus pringlei, with a maximum recorded height of 19.2 m, and the smallest is Blossfeldia liliputiana, only about 1 cm in diameter at maturity. A fully grown saguaro is said to be able to absorb as much as 200 U. S. gallons of water during a rainstorm, a few species differ significantly in appearance from most of the family. At least superficially, plants of the genus Pereskia resemble other trees and they have persistent leaves, and when older, bark-covered stems. Their areoles identify them as cacti, and in spite of their appearance, they, Pereskia is considered close to the ancestral species from which all cacti evolved. In tropical regions, other cacti grow as forest climbers and epiphytes and their stems are typically flattened, almost leaf-like in appearance, with fewer or even no spines, such as the well-known Christmas cactus or Thanksgiving cactus. Cacti have a variety of uses, many species are used as ornamental plants, others are grown for fodder or forage, cochineal is the product of an insect that lives on some cacti
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Aloe
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Aloe, also written Aloë, is a genus containing over 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most widely known species is Aloe vera, or true aloe, other species, such as Aloe ferox, also are cultivated or harvested from the wild for similar applications. The APG IV system places the genus in the family Asphodelaceae, in the past, it has been assigned to the family Aloaceae or to a broadly circumscribed family Liliaceae. The plant Agave americana, which is sometimes called American aloe, belongs to the Asparagaceae, the genus is native to tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula, and various islands in the Indian Ocean. A few species have become naturalized in other regions. Most Aloe species have a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves, Aloe flowers are tubular, frequently yellow, orange, pink, or red, and are borne, densely clustered and pendant, at the apex of simple or branched, leafless stems. Many species of Aloe appear to be stemless, with the rosette growing directly at ground level and they vary in color from grey to bright-green and are sometimes striped or mottled. Some aloes native to South Africa are tree-like, the APG IV system places the genus in the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae. In the past it has also assigned to the families Liliaceae and Aloeaceae, as well as the family Asphodelaceae sensu stricto. The circumscription of the genus has varied widely, many genera, such as Lomatophyllum, have been brought into synonymy. Species at one time placed in Aloe, such as Agave americana, have moved to other genera. Over 500 species are accepted in the genus Aloe, plus even more synonyms and unresolved species, subspecies, varieties, Aloe species are frequently cultivated as ornamental plants both in gardens and in pots. Many aloe species are highly decorative and are valued by collectors of succulents, Aloe vera is used both internally and externally on humans, and is claimed to have some medicinal effects, which have been supported by scientific and medical research. They can also be made into types of special soaps, historical use of various aloe species is well documented. Documentation of the effectiveness is available, although relatively limited. Of the 500+ species, only a few were used traditionally as herbal medicines, also included are A. perryi and A. ferox. The Ancient Greeks and Romans used Aloe vera to treat wounds, in the Middle Ages, the yellowish liquid found inside the leaves was favored as a purgative. Unprocessed aloe that contains aloin is generally used as a laxative, some species, particularly Aloe vera, are used in alternative medicine and first aid
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Larva
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A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a phase of their life cycle. The larvas appearance is very different from the adult form. A larva often has unique structures and organs that do not occur in the adult form and their diet may also be considerably different. Larvae are frequently adapted to separate from adults. For example, some such as tadpoles live almost exclusively in aquatic environments. By living in an environment, larvae may be given shelter from predators. Animals in the stage will consume food to fuel their transition into the adult form. In some species like barnacles, adults are immobile but their larvae are mobile, some larvae are dependent on adults to feed them. In many eusocial Hymenoptera species, the larvae are fed by female workers, in Ropalidia marginata the males are also capable of feeding larvae but they are much less efficient, spending more time and getting less food to the larvae. The larvae of species can become pubescent and do not develop further into the adult form. This is a type of neoteny and it is a misunderstanding that the larval form always reflects the groups evolutionary history. This could be the case, but often the stage has evolved secondarily. In these cases the form may differ more than the adult form from the groups common origin. Within Insects, only Endopterygotes show different types of larvae, several classifications have been suggested by many entomologists, and following classification is based on Antonio Berlese classification in 1913. There are four types of endopterygote larvae types, Apodous larvae - no legs at all and are poorly sclerotized. Based on sclerotization, three forms are recognized. Eucephalous - with well sclerotized head capsule, found in Nematocera, Buprestidae and Cerambycidae families
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Lepidoptera
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The Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes moths and butterflies. 180,000 species of Lepidoptera are described, in 126 families and 46 superfamilies and it is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world. The term was coined by Linnaeus in 1735 and is derived from Ancient Greek λεπίδος, the Lepidoptera show many variations of the basic body structure that have evolved to gain advantages in lifestyle and distribution. Recent estimates suggest the order may have more species than earlier thought, and is among the four most speciose orders, along with the Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera. Lepidopteran species are characterized by more than three derived features, some of the most apparent being the scales covering their bodies and wings, the scales are modified, flattened hairs, and give butterflies and moths their extraordinary variety of colors and patterns. Almost all species have some form of wings, except for a few that have reduced wings or are wingless. Like most other insects, butterflies and moths are holometabolous, meaning they undergo complete metamorphosis, mating and the laying of eggs are carried out by adults, normally near or on host plants for the larvae. As they grow, these change in appearance, going through a series of stages called instars. Once fully matured, the larva develops into a pupa A few butterflies and many species spin a silk case or cocoon prior to pupating, while others do not. A butterfly pupa, called a chrysalis, has a hard skin, once the pupa has completed its metamorphosis, a sexually mature adult emerges. Accordingly, this is the most recognized and popular of insect orders with many involved in the observation, study, collection, rearing of. A person who collects or studies this order is referred to as a lepidopterist, in many species, the female may produce from 200 to 600 eggs, while in others, the number may approach 30,000 eggs in one day. The caterpillars hatching from eggs can cause damage to large quantities of crops. Many moth and butterfly species are of economic interest by virtue of their role as pollinators, the word Lepidoptera comes from the Latin word for scaly wing, from the Ancient Greek λεπίς meaning scale and πτερόν meaning wing. The origins of the common names butterfly and moth are varied, the English word butterfly is from Old English buttorfleoge, with many variations in spelling. Other than that, the origin is unknown, although it could be derived from the yellow color of many species wings suggesting the color of butter. The species of Heterocera are commonly called moths, the origins of the English word moth are more clear, deriving from the Old English moððe from Common Germanic. The Lepidoptera are among the most successful groups of insects, among the most northern dwelling species of butterflies and moths is the Arctic Apollo, which is found in the Arctic Circle in northeastern Yakutia, at an altitude of 1500 m above sea level
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Butterfly
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Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, the group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies. Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, which was about 56 million years ago, Butterflies have the typical four-stage insect life cycle. Winged adults lay eggs on the plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars. The caterpillars grow, sometimes rapidly, and when fully developed. When metamorphosis is complete, the skin splits, the adult insect climbs out. Butterflies are often polymorphic, and many species use of camouflage, mimicry. Some, like the monarch and the lady, migrate over long distances. Many butterflies are attacked by parasites or parasitoids, including wasps, protozoans, flies, some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees, other species are agents of pollination of some plants. Larvae of a few butterflies eat harmful insects, and a few are predators of ants, culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts. The Oxford English Dictionary derives the word straightforwardly from Old English butorflēoge, butter-fly, similar names in Old Dutch, the earliest Lepidoptera fossils are of a small moth, Archaeolepis mane, of Jurassic age, around 190 million years ago. Butterflies evolved from moths, so while the butterflies are monophyletic, the oldest butterflies are from the Palaeocene MoClay or Fur Formation of Denmark. The oldest American butterfly is the Late Eocene Prodryas persephone from the Florissant Fossil Beds, traditionally, the butterflies have been divided into the superfamily Papilionoidea excluding the smaller groups of the Hesperiidae and the more moth-like Hedylidae of America. Butterfly adults are characterized by their four scale-covered wings, which give the Lepidoptera their name, as in all insects, the body is divided into three sections, the head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax is composed of three segments, each with a pair of legs, in most families of butterfly the antennae are clubbed, unlike those of moths which may be threadlike or feathery. The long proboscis can be coiled when not in use for sipping nectar from flowers, some day-flying moths, such as the hummingbird hawk-moth, are exceptions to these rules. Butterfly larvae, caterpillars, have a head with strong mandibles used for cutting their food. They have cylindrical bodies, with ten segments to the abdomen, generally with short prolegs on segments 3–6 and 10, many are well camouflaged, others are aposematic with bright colours and bristly projections containing toxic chemicals obtained from their food plants
41.
Moth
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Moths comprise a group of insects related to butterflies, belonging to the order Lepidoptera. Most lepidopterans are moths, and there are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, most species of moth are nocturnal, but there are also crepuscular and diurnal species. While the butterflies form a group, the moths, comprising the rest of the Lepidoptera. Moth antennae can be varied in appearance, but in particular lack the club end. The divisions are named by this principle, club-antennae or varied-antennae, the modern English word moth comes from Old English moððe from Common Germanic. Moth larvae, or caterpillars, make cocoons from which emerge as fully grown moths with wings. Some moth caterpillars dig holes in the ground, where they live until they are ready to turn into adult moths, moths evolved long before butterflies, fossils having been found that may be 190 million years old. Both types of lepidoptera are thought to have evolved along with flowering plants, mainly because most modern species feed on flowering plants, one of the earliest species thought to be a moth-ancestor is Archaeolepis mane, whose fossil fragments show scaled wings similar to caddisflies in their veining. Some moths, particularly their caterpillars, can be agricultural pests in many parts of the world. Examples include corn borers and bollworms, the caterpillar of the gypsy moth causes severe damage to forests in the northeastern United States, where it is an invasive species. In temperate climates, the codling moth causes extensive damage, especially to fruit farms, in tropical and subtropical climates, the diamondback moth is perhaps the most serious pest of brassicaceous crops. Several moths in the family Tineidae are commonly regarded as pests because their larvae eat fabric such as clothes and they are less likely to eat mixed materials containing some artificial fibers. There are some reports that they may be repelled by the scent of wood from juniper and cedar, by lavender, or by natural oils, however. Naphthalene is considered effective, but there are concerns over its effects on human health. Moth larvae may be killed by freezing the items which they infest for several days at a temperature below −8 °C, despite being notorious for eating clothing, most moth adults do not eat at all. Many, like the Luna, Polyphemus, Atlas, Promethea, cecropia, among those adult moths that do eat, they will drink nectar. Some moths are farmed for their economic value, the most notable of these is the silkworm, the larva of the domesticated moth Bombyx mori. It is farmed for the silk with which it builds its cocoon, as of 2002, the silk industry produces more than 130 million kilograms of raw silk, worth about 250 million U. S. dollars, each year
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Rhizome
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In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a modified subterranean stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks and rootstocks, Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and are diageotropic or grow perpendicular to the force of gravity. The rhizome also retains the ability to new shoots to grow upwards. If a rhizome is separated into pieces, each piece may be able to rise to a new plant. The plant uses the rhizome to store starches, proteins, and these nutrients become useful for the plant when new shoots must be formed or when the plant dies back for the winter. This is a known as vegetative reproduction and is used by farmers and gardeners to propagate certain plants. This also allows for lateral spread of grasses like bamboo and bunch grasses, examples of plants that are propagated this way include hops, asparagus, ginger, irises, Lily of the Valley, cannas, and sympodial orchids. Some rhizomes which are used directly in cooking include ginger, turmeric, galangal, stored rhizomes are subject to bacterial and fungal infections, making them unsuitable for replanting and greatly diminishing stocks. However, rhizomes can also be produced artificially from tissue cultures, the ability to easily grow rhizomes from tissue cultures leads to better stocks for replanting and greater yields. The plant hormones ethylene and jasmonic acid have found to help induce and regulate the growth of rhizomes. Ethylene that was applied externally was found to affect internal ethylene levels, knowledge of how to use these hormones to induce rhizome growth could help farmers and biologists producing plants grown from rhizomes more easily cultivate and grow better plants. The poplars are an example of trees that propagate using a rhizome, the Pando colony in Utah is a famous example, which has been living for about 80,000 years. In general, rhizomes have short internodes, they send out roots from the bottom of the nodes, a stem tuber is a thickened part of a rhizome or stolon that has been enlarged for use as a storage organ. In general, a tuber is high in starch, for example, the common potato, the term tuber is often used imprecisely, and is sometimes applied to plants with rhizomes. Some plants have rhizomes that grow above ground or that lie at the surface, including some Iris species. Rhizomes generally form a layer, but in Giant Horsetails. Many rhizomes have culinary value, and some, such as zheergen, are consumed raw. Aspen Corm Mycorrhiza Media related to Rhizomes at Wikimedia Commons
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Agave vilmoriniana
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Agave vilmoriniana, sometimes misspelled vilmoriana, and popularly known as Octopus agave, is a species of agave endemic to Mexico. It is known for its untoothed arching and twisting leaves, wild plants had been found in 1899 by Joseph Nelson Rose near Guadalajara, Jalisco. The species was named by Alwin Berger in 1913 in honor of Maurice de Vilmorin, based on specimens collected by Leon Diguet and grown at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In nature, the octopus agave prefers the cliffs of barrancas of southern Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Durango, Nayarit and Aguascalientes, the octopus agave is cultivated as an ornamental plant for planting in gardens and containers
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Agave lechuguilla
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Agave lechuguilla is an agave species found only in the Chihuahuan Desert, where it is an indicator species. It typically grows on calcareous soils, the plant flowers once in its life, then it dies. The flowers are a source of nutrients for insects, bats, the leaves are long, tough and rigid, with very sharp, hard points which can easily penetrate clothing and even leather, giving the colloquial name shin-daggers. Native Americans have used fibers from the leaves (commonly called ixtle, the water stored in the flowering stalks of this plant, rich in salts and minerals, is sold in Mexico as a sport drink. The plant makes up a part of the diet of the collared peccary in some areas. It is toxic to cattle and sheep, however, least Concern ver 3.1, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
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