Epiphyte
An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, water or from debris accumulating around it. Epiphytes take part in nutrient cycles and add to both the diversity and biomass of the ecosystem in which they occur, like any other organism, they are an important source of food for many species. The older parts of a plant will have more epiphytes growing on them. Epiphytes differ from parasites in that epiphytes grow on other plants for physical support and do not negatively affect the host. An epiphytic organism, not a plant is sometimes called an epibiont. Epiphytes are found in the temperate zone or in the tropics. Epiphyte species make good houseplants due to their minimal soil requirements. Epiphytes provide a rich and diverse habitat for other organisms including animals, fungi and myxomycetes. Epiphyte is one of the subdivisions of the Raunkiær system; the term epiphytic derives from the Greek epi- and phyton. Epiphytic plants are sometimes called "air plants".
However, there are many aquatic species of algae. The best-known epiphytic plants include mosses and bromeliads such as Spanish moss, but epiphytes may be found in every major group of the plant kingdom. 89% of terrestrial epiphyte species are flowering plants. The second largest group are the leptosporangiate ferns, with about 2800 species. In fact, about one third of all ferns are epiphytes; the third largest group is clubmosses, with 190 species, followed by a handful of species in each of the spikemosses, other ferns and cycads. The first important monograph on epiphytic plant ecology was written by A. F. W. Schimper. Assemblages of large epiphytes occur most abundantly in moist tropical forests, but mosses and lichens occur as epiphytes in all biomes. In Europe there are no dedicated epiphytic plants using roots, but rich assemblages of mosses and lichens grow on trees in damp areas, the common polypody fern grows epiphytically along branches. Grass, small bushes or small trees may grow in suspended soils up trees.
Epiphytes however, can be categorized into holo-epiphytes or hemi-epiphytes. A holo-epiphyte is a plant that spends its whole life cycle without contact with the ground and a hemi-epiphyte is a plant that spends only half of its life without the ground before the roots can reach or make contact with the ground. Orchids are a common example of holo-epiphytes and Strangler Figs are an example of hemi-epiphytes. Epiphytes are not connected to the soil, must get nutrients from other sources, such as fog, dew and mist, or from nutrients being released from the ground rooted plants by decomposition or leaching, dinitrogen fixation. Epiphytic plants attached to their hosts high in the canopy have an advantage over herbs restricted to the ground where there is less light and herbivores may be more active. Epiphytic plants are important to certain animals that may live in their water reservoirs, such as some types of frogs and arthropods. Epiphytes can have a significant effect on the microenvironment of their host, of ecosystems where they are abundant, as they hold water in the canopy and decrease water input to the soil.
Some non-vascular epiphytes such as lichens and mosses are well known for their ability to take up water rapidly. The epiphytes create a cooler and moister environment in the host plant canopy greatly reducing water loss by the host through transpiration; the ecology of epiphytes in marine environments differs from those in terrestrial ecosystems. Epiphytes in marine systems are species of algae, fungi, bryozoans, protozoa, crustaceans and any other sessile organism that grows on the surface of a plant seagrasses or algae. Settlement of epiphytic species is influenced by a number of factors including light, currents and trophic interactions. Algae are the most common group of epiphytes in marine systems. Photosynthetic epiphytes account for a large amount of the photosynthesis in systems in which they occur; this is between 20 and 60% of the total primary production of the ecosystem. They are a general group of organisms and are diverse, providing food for a great number of fauna. Snail and nudibranch species are two common grazers of epiphytes.
Epiphyte species composition and the amount of epiphytes can be indicative of changes in the environment. Recent increases in epiphyte abundance have been linked to excessive nitrogen put into the environment from farm runoff and storm water. High abundance of epiphytes are considered detrimental to the plants that they grow on causing damage or death in seagrasses; this is. Epiphytes in marine systems are known to grow with fast generation times. Epiphyllum - a genus of epiphytic cacti Parasitic plant Epilith, an organism that grows in a rock Epibiont, an organism that grows on another life form Epiphytic bacteria Epiphytic fungus Epiphytes on a Scot's Pine in Gorbie Glen, Scotland
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist and zoologist who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin, 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 higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and published the first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands, he returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals and minerals, while publishing several volumes, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe at the time of his death. Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly." Swedish author August Strindberg wrote: "Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist." Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum and "The Pliny of the North". He is considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany and zoology, the abbreviation L. is used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for a species' name. In older publications, the abbreviation "Linn." is found. Linnaeus's remains comprise the type specimen for the species Homo sapiens following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, since the sole specimen that he is known to have examined was himself. Linnaeus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707, he was the first child of Christina Brodersonia. His siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, Emerentia Linnæa, his father taught him Latin as a small child.
One of a long line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister, the curate of the small village of Stenbrohult in Småland. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Samuel Brodersonius. A year after Linnaeus's birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult; the family moved into the rectory from the curate's house. In his early years, Linnaeus 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 showed flowers to Linnaeus and told him their names. Soon Linnaeus was given his own patch of earth. Carl's father was the first in his ancestry to adopt a permanent surname. Before that, ancestors had used the patronymic naming system of Scandinavian countries: his father was named Ingemarsson after his father Ingemar Bengtsson; when Nils was admitted to the University of Lund, he had to take on a family name. He adopted the Latinate name Linnæus after a giant linden tree, lind in Swedish, that grew on the family homestead.
This name was spelled with the æ ligature. When Carl was born, he was named Carl Linnæus, with his father's family name; the son always spelled it with the æ ligature, both in handwritten documents and in publications. Carl's patronymic would have been Nilsson, as in Carl Nilsson Linnæus. Linnaeus's father began teaching him basic Latin and geography at an early age; when Linnaeus was seven, Nils decided to hire a tutor for him. The parents picked a son of a local yeoman. Linnaeus did not like him, writing in his autobiography that Telander "was better calculated to extinguish a child's talents than develop them". Two years after his tutoring had begun, he was sent to the Lower Grammar School at Växjö in 1717. Linnaeus studied going to the countryside to look for plants, he reached the last year of the Lower School when he was fifteen, taught by the headmaster, Daniel Lannerus, interested in botany. Lannerus gave him the run of his garden, he introduced him to Johan Rothman, the state doctor of Småland and a teacher at Katedralskolan in Växjö.
A botanist, Rothman broadened Linnaeus's interest in botany and helped him develop an interest in medicine. By the age of 17, Linnaeus had become well acquainted with the existing botanical literature, he remarks in his journal that he "read day and night, knowing like the back of my hand, Arvidh Månsson's Rydaholm Book of Herbs, Tillandz's Flora Åboensis, Palmberg's Serta Florea Suecana, Bromelii Chloros Gothica and Rudbeckii Hortus Upsaliensis...."Linnaeus entered the Växjö Katedralskola in 1724, where he studied Greek, Hebrew and mathematics, a curriculum designed for boys preparing for the priesthood. In the last year at the gymnasium, Linnaeus's father visited to ask the professors how his son's studies were progressing. Rothman believed otherwise; the doctor offered to have Linnaeus live with his family in Växjö and to teach him physiology and botany. Nils accepted this offer. Rothman showed Linnaeus that botany was a serious sub
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. Some sources cite perennial plants being plants; 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, which are technically perennials. Perennials small flowering plants, that grow and bloom over the spring and summer, die back every autumn and winter, return in the spring from their rootstock, are known as herbaceous perennials. However, depending on the rigors of local climate, a plant, a perennial in its native habitat, or in a milder garden, may be treated by a gardener as an annual and planted out every year, from seed, from cuttings or from divisions. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural tropical/subtropical habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions because they don't survive the winter. There is a class of evergreen, or non-herbaceous, including plants like Bergenia which retain a mantle of leaves throughout the year.
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 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 perennial plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, is, the astronomical symbol for the planet Jupiter. Perennial plants can be short-lived or they can be long-lived, as are some woody plants like trees, they include a wide assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the diverse flowering plants like orchids and grasses. Plants that flower and fruit only once and die are termed monocarpic or semelparous. However, most perennials are polycarpic. Perennials grow structures that allow them to adapt to living from one year to the next through a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seeding; these structures include bulbs, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others.
They might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Annuals produce seeds to continue the species as a new generation while the growing season is suitable, the seeds survive over the cold or dry period to begin growth when the conditions are again suitable. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to survive extreme climatic and environmental conditions; some have adapted to survive cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and do not flower and set seed until after a few years of growth. Many perennials produce large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants; some annuals produce many more seeds per plant in one season, while some perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds but can produce seeds over many years. Dividing perennial plants is something that gardeners do around the months of October.
The point of doing the division at this time is to allow 6 weeks for adequate root growth prior to the ground reaching a freezing temperature. Due to the leaves falling from trees, as well as the excessive amount of rain received in most places during the fall weeks, the ground has adequate moisture for rapid growth; each type of plant must be separated differently. However, plants such as Irises have a root system known as a Rhizomes, these root systems should be planted with the bulb of the plant just above ground level, with leaves from the following year showing; the point of dividing perennials is to increase the amount of a single breed of plant in your garden. The more you divide your perennial plants every year, the more vast your garden will grow. 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.
In many parts of the world, seasonality is expressed as wet and dry periods rather than warm and cold periods, deciduous perennials lose their leaves in the dry season. With their roots protected below ground in the soil layer, perennial plants are notably tolerant of wildfire. Herbaceous perennials are able to tolerate the extremes of cold in temperate and Arctic winters, with less sensitivity than trees or shrubs. Perennial plants can be differentiated from annuals and biennials in that perennials have the ability to remain dormant over long periods of time and continue growth and reproduction; the meristem of perennial plants communicates with the hormones produced due to environmental situations and stage of development to begin and halt the ability to grow or flower. There is a distinction between the ability to grow and actual task of growth. For example, most trees regain the ability to grow in the midst of winter but do not initiate physical growth until the spring and summer months.
The start of dormancy can be seen in perennials pla
Begonia foliosa
Begonia foliosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Begoniaceae, native to Colombia and Venezuela. It is a shrublike begonia growing to 1 metre, bearing succulent, pendent stems 45 centimetres long, thickly clothed with glossy oval green leaves, producing panicles of small white flowers; the variety cultivated is B. foliosa var. miniata with pink or red flowers. As it does not tolerate temperatures below 0 °C, in temperate regions it requires winter protection; the variety B. foliosa var. miniata has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit
Synonym (taxonomy)
In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that goes by a different scientific name, although the term is used somewhat differently in the zoological code of nomenclature. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies; this name is no longer in use: it is now a synonym of the current scientific name, Picea abies. Unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms have a different status. For any taxon with a particular circumscription and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation: it is always an alternative to a different scientific name. Given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name, one taxonomist's synonym may be another taxonomist's correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is named more than once, independently.
They may arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to become one, a species is moved to a different genus, a variety is moved to a different species, etc. Synonyms come about when the codes of nomenclature change, so that older names are no longer acceptable. To the general user of scientific names, in fields such as agriculture, ecology, general science, etc. A synonym is a name, used as the correct scientific name but, displaced by another scientific name, now regarded as correct, thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as "a taxonomic name which has the same application as another one, superseded and is no longer valid." In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have synonyms mentioned as such after the current scientific name, so as to avoid confusion. For example, if the much advertised name change should go through and the scientific name of the fruit fly were changed to Sophophora melanogaster, it would be helpful if any mention of this name was accompanied by "".
Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the term "synonym" in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes: they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural. A name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature. Speaking in general, name changes for nomenclatural reasons have become less frequent over time as the rules of nomenclature allow for names to be conserved, so as to promote stability of scientific names. In zoological nomenclature, codified in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names of the same taxonomic rank that pertain to that same taxon. For example, a particular species could, over time, have had two or more species-rank names published for it, while the same is applicable at higher ranks such as genera, orders, etc.
In each case, the earliest published name is called the senior synonym, while the name is the junior synonym. In the case where two names for the same taxon have been published the valid name is selected accorded to the principle of the first reviser such that, for example, of the names Strix scandiaca and Strix noctua, both published by Linnaeus in the same work at the same date for the taxon now determined to be the snowy owl, the epithet scandiaca has been selected as the valid name, with noctua becoming the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest published name, the senior synonym, by default takes precedence in naming rights and therefore, unless other restrictions interfere, must be used for the taxon. However, junior synonyms are still important to document, because if the earliest name cannot be used the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. For other purposes, if a researcher is interested in consulting or compiling all known information regarding a taxon, some of this may well have been published under names now regarded as outdated and so it is again useful to know a list of historic synonyms which may have been used for a given current taxon name.
Objective synonyms refer to taxa with same rank. This may be species-group taxa of the same rank with the same type specimen, genus-group taxa of the same rank with the same type species or if their type species are themselves objective synonyms, of family-group taxa with the same type genus, etc. In the case of subjective synonyms, there is no such shared type, so the synonymy is open to taxonomic judgement, meaning that th
South America
South America is a continent in the Western Hemisphere in the Southern Hemisphere, with a small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It may be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, how it is viewed in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of the Americas; 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 on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Tobago, Panama may be considered part of South America. South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers, its population as of 2016 has been estimated at more than 420 million. South America ranks fourth in fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the continent's population, followed by Colombia, Argentina and Peru. In recent decades Brazil has concentrated half of the region's GDP and has become a first regional power.
Most of the population lives near the continent's western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. The geography of western South America is dominated by the Andes mountains. Most of the continent lies in the tropics; the continent's 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 overwhelming majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish, societies and states reflect Western traditions. South America occupies the southern portion of the Americas; the continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border, although some may consider the border instead to be the Panama Canal. Geopolitically and geographically all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is included in North America alone and among the countries of Central America.
All of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate. South America is home to Angel Falls in Venezuela. South America's major mineral resources are gold, copper, iron ore and petroleum; these resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries in times of war or of rapid economic growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity has hindered the development of diversified economies; the fluctuation in the price of commodities in the international markets has led to major highs and lows in the economies of South American states causing extreme political instability. 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, piranha, vicuña, tapir; the Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a major proportion of the Earth's species.
Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the continent's land area and population. The remaining countries and territories are divided among three regions: The Andean States, the Guianas and the Southern Cone. Traditionally, South America includes some of the nearby islands. Aruba, Curaçao, Trinidad and the federal dependencies of Venezuela sit on the northerly South American continental shelf and are considered part of the continent. Geo-politically, the island states and overseas territories of the Caribbean are grouped as a part or subregion of North America, since they are more distant on the Caribbean Plate though San Andres and Providencia are politically part of Colombia and Aves Island is controlled by Venezuela. Other islands that are included with South America are the Galápagos Islands that belong to Ecuador and Easter Island, Robinson Crusoe Island, Chiloé and Tierra del Fuego. In the Atlantic, Brazil owns Fernando de Noronha and Martim Vaz, the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, while the Falkland Islands are governed by the United Kingdom, whose sovereignty over the islands is disputed by Argentina.
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands may be associate
