1.
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
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.
Eudicots
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The eudicots, Eudicotidae or eudicotyledons are a monophyletic clade of flowering plants that had been called tricolpates or non-magnoliid dicots by previous authors. The close relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains was initially seen in studies of shared derived characters. These plants have a trait in their pollen grains of exhibiting three colpi or grooves paralleling the polar axis. Later molecular evidence confirmed the basis for the evolutionary relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains. The term means true dicotyledons, as it contains the majority of plants that have been considered dicots and have characteristics of the dicots, the term eudicots has subsequently been widely adopted in botany to refer to one of the two largest clades of angiosperms, monocots being the other. The remaining angiosperms are sometimes referred to as basal angiosperms or paleodicots, the other name for the eudicots is tricolpates, a name which refers to the grooved structure of the pollen. Members of the group have tricolpate pollen, or forms derived from it and these pollens have three or more pores set in furrows called colpi. In contrast, most of the seed plants produce monosulcate pollen. The name tricolpates is preferred by some botanists to avoid confusion with the dicots, numerous familiar plants are eudicots, including many common food plants, trees, and ornamentals. Most leafy trees of midlatitudes also belong to eudicots, with exceptions being magnolias and tulip trees which belong to magnoliids, and Ginkgo biloba. The name eudicots is used in the APG system, of 1998 and it is applied to a clade, a monophyletic group, which includes most of the dicots. The eudicots can be divided into two groups, the basal eudicots and the core eudicots, basal eudicot is an informal name for a paraphyletic group. The core eudicots are a monophyletic group, a 2010 study suggested the core eudicots can be divided into two clades, Gunnerales and a clade called Pentapetalae, comprising all the remaining core eudicots
6.
Rosids
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The rosids are members of a large clade of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classification and these orders, in turn, together comprise about 140 families. Fossil rosids are known from the Cretaceous period, molecular clock estimates indicate that the rosids originated in the Aptian or Albian stages of the Cretaceous, between 125 and 99.6 million years ago. The name is based upon the name Rosidae, which had usually been understood to be a subclass, in 1967, Armen Takhtajan showed that the correct basis for the name Rosidae is a description of a group of plants published in 1830 by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling. The clade was later renamed Rosidae and has been variously delimited by different authors, the name rosids is informal and not assumed to have any particular taxonomic rank like the names authorized by the ICBN. The rosids are monophyletic based upon evidence found by molecular phylogenetic analysis, three different definitions of the rosids were used. Some authors included the orders Saxifragales and Vitales in the rosids, others excluded both of these orders. The circumscription used in this article is that of the APG IV classification, which includes Vitales, the rosids and Saxifragales form the superrosids clade. This is one of three groups compose the Pentapetalae, the others being Dilleniales and the superasterids. The rosids consist of two groups, the order Vitales and the eurosids, the eurosids, in turn, are divided into two groups, fabids and malvids. The rosids consist of 17 orders, in addition to Vitales, there are 8 orders in fabids and 8 orders in malvids. Some of the orders have only recently been recognized and these are Vitales, Zygophyllales, Crossosomatales, Picramniales, and Huerteales. The phylogeny of Rosids shown below is adapted from the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group website, the nitrogen-fixing clade contains a high number of actinorhizal plants. Not all plants in this clade are actinorhizal, however, media related to Rosids at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Malpighiales
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The Malpighiales comprise one of the largest orders of flowering plants, containing about 16,000 species, about 7. 8% of the eudicots. The order is very diverse, containing plants as different as the willow, violet, Poinsettia, and coca plant and it is not part of any of the classification systems based only on plant morphology. Molecular clock calculations estimate the origin of stem group Malpighiales at around 100 million years ago, the Malpighiales are divided into 32 to 42 families, depending upon which clades in the order are given the taxonomic rank of family. In the APG III system,35 families are recognized, medusagynaceae, Quiinaceae, Peraceae, Malesherbiaceae, Turneraceae, Samydaceae, and Scyphostegiaceae are consolidated into other families. The largest family, by far, is the Euphorbiaceae, with about 6300 species in about 245 genera, in a 2009 study of DNA sequences of 13 genes,42 families were placed into 16 groups, ranging in size from one to 10 families. Almost nothing is known about the relationships among these 16 groups, Malpighiales and Lamiales are the two large orders whose phylogeny remains mostly unresolved. Malpighiales is a member of a group called the COM clade, which consists of the orders Celastrales, Oxalidales. Some describe it as containing an order, Huales, separating the family Huaceae into its own order. Some recent studies have placed Malpighiales as sister to Oxalidales sensu lato, the COM clade is part of an unranked group known as Fabidae or eurosids I. The fabids, in turn, are part of a group that has long recognized, namely. The family Malpighiaceae was the family for one of the orders created by Jussieu in his 1789 work Genera Plantarum. Friedrich von Berchtold and Jan Presl described such an order in 1820, unlike modern taxonomists, these authors did not use the suffix ales in naming their orders. The name Malpighiales is attributed by some to Carl von Martius, in the 20th century, it was usually associated with John Hutchinson, who used it in all three editions of his book, The Families of Flowering Plants. The name was not used by those who later, in the 1970s, 80s. The taxon was largely presaged by Hans Hallier in 1912 in an article in the Archiv, the first semblance of Malpighiales as now known came from a phylogeny of seed plants published in 1993 and based upon DNA sequences of the gene rbcL. This study recovered a group of rosids unlike any found in any previous system of plant classification. Malpighiales is monophyletic and in phylogenetic studies, it receives strong statistical support. Since the APG II system was published in 2003, minor changes to the circumscription of the order have been made, the family Peridiscaceae has been expanded from two genera to three, and then to four, and transferred to Saxifragales
8.
Euphorbiaceae
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Most spurges such as Euphorbia paralias are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are shrubs or trees, such as Hevea brasiliensis. Some, such as Euphorbia canariensis, are succulent and resemble cacti because of convergent evolution and this family occurs mainly in the tropics, with the majority of the species in the Indo-Malayan region and tropical America a good second. A large variety occurs in tropical Africa, but they are not as abundant or varied as in the two other tropical regions. However, Euphorbia also has many species in areas such as the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, South Africa. The leaves are alternate, seldom opposite, with stipules and they are mainly simple, but where compound, are always palmate, never pinnate. Stipules may be reduced to hairs, glands, or spines, the plants can be monoecious or dioecious. The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, with the male and female usually on the same plant. As can be expected from such a family, a wide variety exists in the structure of the flowers. The stamens number from one to 10, the female flowers are hypogynous, that is, with superior ovaries. The genera in tribe Euphorbieae, subtribe Euphorbiinae show a highly specialized form of pseudanthium called a cyathium and this is usually a small, cup-like involucre consisting of fused-together bracts and peripheral nectary glands, surrounding a ring of male flowers, each a single stamen. In the middle of the stands an female flower, a single pistil with branched stigmas. This whole arrangement resembles a single flower, the fruit is usually a schizocarp, but sometimes a drupe. A typical schizocarp is the regma, a fruit with three or more cells, each of which splits open at maturity into separate parts and then breaks away explosively. The family contains a variety of phytotoxins, mainly diterpene esters, alkaloids, glycosides. A milky latex is a characteristic of the subfamilies Euphorbioideae and Crotonoideae, the latex is poisonous in the Euphorbioideae, but innocuous in the Crotonoideae. White mangrove, or blind-your-eye mangrove latex causes blistering on contact, other common names are milky mangrove, buta buta, and gewa. The latex of spurge was used as a laxative, recent molecular studies have shown that the enigmatic family Rafflesiaceae, which was only recently recognized to belong to order Malpighiales, is derived from within the Euphorbiaceae. The Euphorbiaceae family has about 7,500 species organised into 300 genera,37 tribes, prominent plants include cassava, castor oil plant, Barbados nut, and the Para rubber tree
9.
Manihot
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Manihot is a genus of in the diverse milkspurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It was described as a genus in 1754, species of Manihot are monecious trees, shrubs and a few herbs that are native to the Americas, from Arizona in the United States south to Argentina and Uruguay. The best known member of this genus is the widely cultivated cassava, Manihot species are used as food plants by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera including Endoclita sericeus and Hypercompe hambletoni. Species variety treated as a species Manihot carthaginensis subsp, glaziovii = Manihot glaziovii Allem formerly included moved to Aleurites Cnidoscolus Jatropha Media related to Manihot at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Manihot at Wikispecies
10.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
11.
Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz
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Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz was a botanist and a physician. In 1750 he obtained his doctorate of medicine in Vienna, where he was a pupil of Gerard van Swieten and he studied obstetrics in Paris and London. In Paris he was influenced by André Levret and Nicolas Puzos and he was first married to Anna Susanne Petrasch and then to Magda Lena de Tremon. He had two sons and one daughter and he became a lecturer in obstetrics at St. Marys Hospital in Vienna in 1754. From 1756 to 1774, he taught physiology and materia medica at the university in that city and he was the author of, Einleitung in eine wahre und gegründete Hebammenkunst. Commentarius de rupto in partus doloribus a foetu utero, commentatio de instrumentorum in arte obstetricia historia utilitate et recta ac praepostera applicatione. Materia medica et chirurgica De aquis medicatis principatus Transsylvaniae and he recommended better methods of hygiene for midwives. In addition to his work in medicine, he studied chemistry, botany, the plant genus Crantzia was named for him by Thomas Nuttall
12.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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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 which is 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 are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, 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 that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the 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, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
13.
Shrub
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A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant. It is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs, generally less than 2 m tall, such as lavender, periwinkle, an area of cultivated shrubs in a park or a garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, suitable species or varieties of shrubs develop dense foliage, many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a stool results in long new stems known as canes. Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure, shrubs in common garden practice are generally considered broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as mountain pine and common juniper are also shrubby in structure. Species that grow into a shrubby habit may be deciduous or evergreen
14.
Euphorbia
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For the family commonly called euphorbias, see Euphorbiaceae Euphorbia is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the spurge family. Euphorbia is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae, some euphorbias are commercially widely available, such as poinsettias at Christmas. Some are commonly cultivated as ornamentals, or collected and highly valued for the appearance of their unique floral structures. Some are used as ornamentals in landscaping, because of beautiful or striking overall forms, euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees. The genus has over or about 2,000 members, making it one of the largest genera of flowering plants and it also has one of the largest ranges of chromosome counts, along with Rumex and Senecio. Euphorbia antiquorum is the species for the genus Euphorbia. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum, the plants share the feature of having a poisonous, milky, white, latex-like sap, and unusual and unique floral structures. The genus may be described by properties of its members gene sequences, or by the shape, when viewed as a whole, the head of flowers looks like a single flower. It has a kind of pseudanthium, called a cyathium. The individual flowers are male or female, with the male flowers reduced to only the stamen. These flowers have no sepals, petals, or other parts that are typical of flowers in other kinds of plants and it is the only genus of plants that has all three kinds of photosynthesis, CAM, C3, and C4. The genus can be all over the world. The forms range from annual plants laying on the ground, to well-developed tall trees, in deserts in Madagascar and southern Africa, convergent evolution has led to cactus-like forms where the plants occupy the same ecological niche as cacti do in deserts of North and South America. The genus is found in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and the Americas. Succulent species originate mostly from Africa, the Americas, and Madagascar, a wide range of insular species can be found. Among laypersons, Euphorbia species are among the most commonly confused plant taxa with cacti, euphorbias secrete a sticky, milky-white fluid with latex, but cacti do not. Individual flowers of euphorbias are usually tiny and nondescript, without petals and sepals, unlike cacti, euphorbias from desert habitats with growth forms similar to cacti have thorns, which are different from the spines of cacti. The common name derives from the Middle English/Old French espurge
15.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
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
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Subtropics
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The subtropics are geographic and climate zones located roughly between the tropic circle of latitude at 23.5 latitude and temperate latitudes. Subtropical climates are characterized by warm to hot summers and cool to mild winters with infrequent frost. Subtropical climates can occur at elevations within the tropics, such as in the southern end of the Mexican Plateau and in Vietnam. Six climate classifications use the term to define the various temperature. A great portion of the deserts are located within the subtropics. Within savanna regimes in the subtropics, a wet season is seen annually during the summer, within Mediterranean climate regimes, the wet season occurs during the winter. Areas bordering warm oceans are prone to heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones. Plants such as palms, citrus, mango, lychee, the tropics have been historically defined as lying between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, located at 23. 45° north and south latitude respectively. The poleward fringe of the subtropics is located at approximately 40° north and south latitude respectively, northern fringes of the type can go further north due to moderating effects of ocean streams, like in parts of Southern Europe due to heat transported by the Gulf Stream. Several methods have used to define the subtropical climate. In the Trewartha climate classification, a subtropical region should have at least eight months with a temperature greater than 10 °C. According to the Troll-Paffen climate classification, there exists one large subtropical zone named the warm-temperate subtropical zone. According to the E. Neef climate classification, the zone is divided into two parts, Rainy winters of the west sides and Eastern subtropical climate. According to the Wilhelm Lauer & Peter Frankenberg climate classification, the zone is divided into three parts, high-continental, continental, and maritime. According to the Siegmund/Frankenberg climate classification, subtropical is one of six zones in the world. Heating of the earth near the equator leads to large amounts of upward motion and convection along the trough or Intertropical convergence zone. The upper-level divergence over the near-equatorial trough leads to air rising and moving away from the equator aloft, as the air moves towards the Mid-Latitudes, it cools and sinks, which leads to subsidence near the 30th parallel of both hemispheres. This circulation is known as the Hadley cell and leads to the formation of the subtropical ridge, many of the worlds deserts are caused by these climatological high-pressure areas, located within the subtropics
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Starch
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Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants as an energy store and it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets and is contained in large amounts in staple foods such as potatoes, wheat, maize, rice, and cassava. Pure starch is a white, tasteless and odorless powder that is insoluble in water or alcohol. It consists of two types of molecules, the linear and helical amylose and the branched amylopectin, depending on the plant, starch generally contains 20 to 25% amylose and 75 to 80% amylopectin by weight. Glycogen, the store of animals, is a more branched version of amylopectin. In industry, starch is converted into sugars, for example by malting and it is processed to produce many of the sugars used in processed foods. Dissolving starch in water gives wheatpaste, which can be used as a thickening, stiffening or gluing agent. The biggest industrial non-food use of starch is as an adhesive in the papermaking process, starch can be applied to parts of some garments before ironing, to stiffen them. The word starch is from a Germanic root with the strong, stiff. Amylum for starch is from the Greek αμυλον, amylon which means not ground at a mill, the root amyl is used in biochemistry for several compounds related to starch. Starch grains from the rhizomes of Typha as flour have been identified from grinding stones in Europe dating back to 30,000 years ago, starch grains from sorghum were found on grind stones in caves in Ngalue, Mozambique dating up to 100,000 years ago. Pure extracted wheat starch paste was used in Ancient Egypt possibly to glue papyrus, the extraction of starch is first described in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder around AD 77–79. Romans used it also in cosmetic creams, to powder the hair, persians and Indians used it to make dishes similar to gothumai wheat halva. Rice starch as surface treatment of paper has been used in production in China. In addition to starchy plants consumed directly,66 million tonnes of starch were being produced per year world-wide by 2008. In the EU this was around 8.5 million tonnes, with around 40% being used for applications and 60% for food uses. Most green plants use starch as their energy store, an exception is the family Asteraceae, where starch is replaced by the fructan inulin. In photosynthesis, plants use light energy to produce glucose from carbon dioxide, the glucose is used to make cellulose fibers, the structural component of the plant, or is stored in the form of starch granules, in amyloplasts
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Tuber
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Tubers are enlarged structures in some plant species used as storage organs for nutrients. They are used for the plants perennation, to energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season. Stem tubers form from thickened rhizomes or stolons, common plant species with stem tubers include potato and yam. Some sources also treat modified lateral roots under the definition, these are encountered in sweet potato, cassava, the term originates from Latin tuber, meaning lump, bump, swelling. Some sources define the term tuber to mean only structures derived from stems, a stem tuber forms from thickened rhizomes or stolons. The top sides of the tuber produce shoots that grow into stems and leaves. They tend to form at the sides of the parent plant and are most often located near the soil surface, the underground stem tuber is normally a short-lived storage and regenerative organ developing from a shoot that branches off a mature plant. The offsprings or new tubers are attached to a parent tuber or form at the end of a hypogeogenous rhizome, some plants also form smaller tubers and/or tubercules which act like seeds, producing small plants that resemble seedlings. Stem tubers generally start off as enlargements of the section of a seedling. Tuberous begonia, yams, and Cyclamen are commonly grown stem tubers, mignonette vine produces aerial stem tubers on 12-to-25-foot-tall vines, the tubers fall to the ground and grow. Enlarged stolons thicken to develop into storage organs, the tuber has all the parts of a normal stem, including nodes and internodes. The nodes are the eyes and each has a leaf scar, the nodes or eyes are arranged around the tuber in a spiral fashion beginning on the end opposite the attachment point to the stolon. The terminal bud is produced at the farthest point away from the stolon attachment, internally, a tuber is filled with starch stored in enlarged parenchyma like cells. The inside of a tuber has the cell structures of any stem, including a pith, vascular zones. The tuber is produced in one growing season and used to perennate the plant, as the main shoot develops from the tuber, the base of the shoot close to the tuber produces adventitious roots and lateral buds on the shoot. The shoot also produces stolons that are long etiolated stems, the stolon elongates during long days with the presence of high auxins levels that prevent root growth off of the stolon. Before new tuber formation begins, the stolon must be a certain age, the enzyme lipoxygenase makes a hormone, jasmonic acid, which is involved in the control of potato tuber development. The stolons are easily recognized when potato plants are grown from seeds, as the plants grow, stolons are produced around the soil surface from the nodes
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Carbohydrate
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A carbohydrate is a biological molecule consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2,1, in other words, with the empirical formula Cmn. This formula holds true for monosaccharides, some exceptions exist, for example, deoxyribose, a sugar component of DNA, has the empirical formula C5H10O4. Carbohydrates are technically hydrates of carbon, structurally it is accurate to view them as polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones. The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide, a group that includes sugars, starch, the saccharides are divided into four chemical groups, monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides and disaccharides, the smallest carbohydrates, are referred to as sugars. The word saccharide comes from the Greek word σάκχαρον, meaning sugar, while the scientific nomenclature of carbohydrates is complex, the names of the monosaccharides and disaccharides very often end in the suffix -ose. For example, grape sugar is the glucose, cane sugar is the disaccharide sucrose. Carbohydrates perform numerous roles in living organisms, polysaccharides serve for the storage of energy and as structural components. The 5-carbon monosaccharide ribose is an important component of coenzymes and the backbone of the genetic molecule known as RNA, the related deoxyribose is a component of DNA. Saccharides and their derivatives include many other important biomolecules that play key roles in the system, fertilization, preventing pathogenesis, blood clotting. In food science and in informal contexts, the term carbohydrate often means any food that is particularly rich in the complex carbohydrate starch or simple carbohydrates. Often in lists of information, such as the USDA National Nutrient Database, the term carbohydrate is used for everything other than water, protein, fat, ash. This will include chemical compounds such as acetic or lactic acid, carbohydrates are found in wide variety of foods. The important sources are cereals, potatoes, sugarcane, fruits, table sugar, bread, milk, starch and sugar are the important carbohydrates in our diet. Starch is abundant in potatoes, maize, rice and other cereals, sugar appears in our diet mainly as sucrose which is added to drinks and many prepared foods such as jam, biscuits and cakes. Glucose and fructose are found naturally in fruits and some vegetables. Glycogen is carbohydrate found in the liver and muscles, cellulose in the cell wall of all plant tissue is a carbohydrate. It is important in our diet as fibre which helps to maintain a healthy digestive system, formerly the name carbohydrate was used in chemistry for any compound with the formula Cm n
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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
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Tapioca
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Tapioca is a starch extracted from cassava root. This species is native to the North Region of Brazil but spread throughout South America, the plant was carried by Portuguese and Spanish explorers to most of the West Indies, and the continents of Africa and Asia, including the Philippines and Taiwan. Its a shrubby, tropical, perennial plant that is common in the temperate zone. Tapioca thrives better in poor soils than any other major food plant, as a result, fertilization is rarely necessary Around the world, Tapioca is a vital staple food for about 500 million people. Tapiocas starchy roots produce more energy per unit of land than any other staple crop. Its leaves, commonly eaten as a vegetable in parts of Asia and Africa, provide vitamins, nutritionally, the Tapioca is comparable to potatoes, except that it has twice the fiber content and a higher level of potassium. Its used as an agent in various foods. Tapioca is derived from the word tipióka, its name in the Tupí language spoken by natives when the Portuguese first arrived in the Northeast Region of Brazil around 1707 and this Tupí word refers to the process by which the cassava starch is made edible. Tapioca is one of the purest forms of food. The cassava plant has red or green branches with blue spindles on them. The root of the green-branched variant requires treatment to remove linamarin, a cyanogenic glycoside occurring naturally in the plant, konzo is a paralytic disease associated with several weeks of almost exclusive consumption of insufficiently processed bitter cassava. In the north and northeast of Brazil, traditional community-based production of tapioca is a by-product of manioc flour production from cassava roots, in this process, the manioc is ground to a pulp with a small hand- or diesel-powered mill. This masa is then squeezed to dry it out, the wet masa is placed in a long woven tube called a tipiti. This liquid is collected and the water allowed to evaporate, leaving behind a fine-grained tapioca powder similar in appearance to corn starch, commercially, the starch is processed into several forms, hot soluble powder, meal, pre-cooked fine/coarse flakes, rectangular sticks, and spherical pearls. Pearls are the most widely available shape, sizes range from about 1 mm to 8 mm in diameter, flakes, sticks, and pearls must be soaked well before cooking, in order to rehydrate, absorbing water up to twice their volume. After rehydration, tapioca products become leathery and swollen, processed tapioca is usually white, but sticks and pearls may be colored. Traditionally, the most common color applied to tapioca has been brown, Tapioca pearls are generally opaque when raw, but become translucent when cooked in boiling water. Brazil in South America, Thailand in Asia, and Nigeria in Africa are the worlds largest producers of cassava, currently, Thailand accounts for about 60 percent of worldwide exports
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Garri
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Garri is a popular West African food made from cassava tubers. The spelling garri is used in Cameroon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Benin, Togo. In some sub-Saharan regions of Africa, it is referred to as gali, Garri originates from the Hausa Language in Northern Nigeria, it is used to describe any powdery material especially foodstuff. Flour grains e. g. Garin Dawa, Garin masara and it can also be used for ground substances, as in Garin Magani. Flour food stuff mixed with water used to be the diet in the Hausa lands. This was especially used by traveler who cannot always carry cooked meals, traveling on horseback on donkeys and trekking takes very long time and required ready fast food. For example, nowadays it takes 1hr 15min to go from kano from Zaria, Before 120 years ago it was a standard 5 days journey and you need to take a lot of garri with you. The age of this ancient word in Hausa language can be realized by its occurrence in old proverbs and in the naming of towns, yaro da garri abokin tafiyar manya. Meaning, A young boy who has garri can journey with the elders, wanda Allah ya zuba ma garin nono ba zai sha da tsamiya Ba. Meaning, who God powers his garri with milk, will not have to drink it with just tamarind, wanka da garri ba ya maganin yunwa. Meaning, taking a bath with garri is not going to cure hunger and it is also the name of an old town in sokoto state called Shagari To make garri, cassava tubers are peeled, washed and grated or crushed to produce a mash. The mash could be mixed with oil before being placed in a porous bag. It is then placed in a press machine for 1–3 hours to remove excess starchy water. When the cassava has become dry enough, it is ready for the next step and it is then sieved and fried in a large clay frying pot with or without palm oil. The resulting dry granular garri can be stored for long periods and it may be pounded or ground to make a fine flour. Eba is a dough made by soaking gari in hot water. Kokoro is a snack food in Nigeria, especially in southern and southeast Nigeria, especially Abia state, Rivers state, Anambra state, Enugu state. It is made from a paste of flour, mixed with garri and sugar
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Rice
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Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
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Maize
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Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration
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Staple food
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The staple food of a specific society may be eaten as often as every day or every meal, and most people live on a diet based on just a small number of staples. Typical examples of staples include tubers and roots, and grains, legumes, such nonperishable foods are the only possible staples during seasons of shortage, such as dry seasons or cold temperate winters, against which times harvests have been stored. During seasons of plenty, wider choices of foods may be available. Most staple plant foods are derived either from cereals such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rice, or starchy tubers or root vegetables such as potatoes, yams, taro, arrowroot, other staple foods include pulses, sago, and fruits. Staple foods may contain, sorghum, olive oil, coconut oil. Most staples are plant materials, but in some fishing is the primary source of nutrition. Of the more than 50,000 edible plant species in the world, although there are over 10,000 species in the cereal family, just a few have been widely cultivated over the past 2,000 years. The staple food in different parts of the world is a function of weather patterns, local terrain, farming constraints, acquired tastes, for example, the main energy source staples in the average African diet are cereals, roots and tubers and animal products. In Western Europe the main staples in the diet are animal products, cereals and roots. Regional staples include rye, soybeans, barley, oats and teff, just 15 crop plants provide 90 percent of the worlds food energy intake, with rice, maize and wheat comprising two-thirds of human food consumption. The three are the staples of about 80% of the population, and rice feeds almost half of humanity. Roots and tubers, meanwhile, are important staples for over 1 billion people in the developing world, roots and tubers are high in carbohydrates, calcium and vitamin C but low in protein. Cassava root is a staple food in the developing world. With economic development and free trade, many countries have shifted away from low-nutrient-density staple foods to higher-nutrient-density staples, despite this trend, there is growing recognition of the importance of traditional staple crops in nutrition. Efforts are underway to identify better strains with superior nutrition, disease resistance, some foods like quinoa—a pseudocereal grain that originally came from the Andes—were also staple foods centuries ago. Oca, ulluco and amaranth seed are other foods claimed to be staples in Andean history, pemmican was a staple of the Plains Indians of North America. In 2010, the consumption of speciality grains such as quinoa was very small compared to other staples such as rice, wheat. These grains, once popular but then forgotten, are being reevaluated and reintroduced, most staple food is produced using modern and conventional farming practices
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Antinutrient
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Antinutrients are natural or synthetic compounds that interfere with the absorption of nutrients. Nutrition studies focus on antinutrients commonly found in food sources and beverages. Protease inhibitors are substances that inhibit the actions of trypsin, pepsin and other proteases in the gut, preventing the digestion, for example, Bowman-Birk trypsin inhibitor is found in soybeans. Lipase inhibitors interfere with enzymes, such as pancreatic lipase. For example, the anti-obesity drug orlistat causes a percentage of fat to pass through the digestive tract undigested, amylase inhibitors prevent the action of enzymes that break the glycosidic bonds of starches and other complex carbohydrates, preventing the release of simple sugars and absorption by the body. Amylase inhibitors, like lipase inhibitors, have used as a diet aid. Amylase inhibitors are present in many types of beans, commercially available amylase inhibitors are extracted from white kidney beans, phytic acid has a strong binding affinity to minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, and zinc. This results in precipitation, making the minerals unavailable for absorption in the intestines, phytic acids are common in the hulls of nuts, seeds and grains. Oxalic acid and oxalates are present in plants, particularly in members of the spinach family. Oxalates bind to calcium and prevent its absorption in the human body, glucosinolates prevent the uptake of iodine, affecting the function of the thyroid and thus are considered goitrogens. They are found in broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower, excessive intake of required nutrients can also result in them having an anti-nutrient action. Excessive intake of fiber can reduce the time through the intestines to such a degree that other nutrients cannot be absorbed. Some proteins can also be antinutrients, such as the trypsin inhibitors and these enzyme inhibitors interfere with digestion. Another particularly widespread form of antinutrients are the flavonoids, which are a group of compounds that include tannins. These compounds chelate metals such as iron and zinc and reduce the absorption of these nutrients, saponins in plants may serve as anti-feedants. Antinutrients are found at some level in almost all foods for a variety of reasons, however, their levels are reduced in modern crops, probably as an outcome of the process of domestication. Such processing methods are used in societies where cereals and legumes form a major part of the diet. An important example of such processing is the fermentation of cassava to produce cassava flour, this fermentation reduces the levels of both toxins and antinutrients in the tuber
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Cyanide
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A cyanide is any chemical compound that contains monovalent combining group CN. This group, known as the group, consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. The cyanide ion is isoelectronic with carbon monoxide and with molecular nitrogen, organic cyanides are usually called nitriles, in these, the CN group is linked by a covalent bond to a carbon-containing group, such as methyl in methyl cyanide. Because they do not release cyanide ions, nitriles are generally toxic, or in the case of insoluble polymers such as acrylic fiber. Hydrocyanic acid, also known as hydrogen cyanide, or HCN, is a volatile liquid used to prepare acrylonitrile, which is used in the production of acrylic fibers, synthetic rubber. Cyanides are employed in a number of processes, including fumigation, case hardening of iron and steel, electroplating. In nature, substances yielding cyanide are present in seeds, such as the pit of the cherry. In IUPAC nomenclature, organic compounds that have a functional group are called nitriles. An example of a nitrile is CH3CN, acetonitrile, also known as methyl cyanide, nitriles usually do not release cyanide ions. A functional group with a hydroxyl and cyanide bonded to the carbon is called cyanohydrin. Unlike nitriles, cyanohydridins do release hydrogen cyanide, in inorganic chemistry, salts containing the C≡N− ion are referred to as cyanides. The word is derived from the Greek kyanos, meaning dark blue, cyanides are produced by certain bacteria, fungi, and algae and are found in a number of plants. Cyanides are found in substantial amounts in certain seeds and fruit stones, e. g. those of apricots, apples, in plants, cyanides are usually bound to sugar molecules in the form of cyanogenic glycosides and defend the plant against herbivores. Cassava roots, an important potato-like food grown in tropical countries, the Madagascar bamboo Cathariostachys madagascariensis produces cyanide as a deterrent to grazing. In response, the bamboo lemur, which eats the bamboo, has developed a high tolerance to cyanide. The cyanide radical CN· has been identified in interstellar space, the cyanide radical is used to measure the temperature of interstellar gas clouds. Hydrogen cyanide is produced by the combustion or pyrolysis of certain materials under oxygen-deficient conditions, for example, it can be detected in the exhaust of internal combustion engines and tobacco smoke. Certain plastics, especially derived from acrylonitrile, release hydrogen cyanide when heated or burnt
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Food security
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Food security is a condition related to the supply of food, and individuals access to it. Concerns over food security have existed throughout history, at the 1974 World Food Conference the term food security was defined with an emphasis on supply. Later definitions added demand and access issues to the definition, household food security exists when all members, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Individuals who are food secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation, in the years 2011-2013, an estimated 842 million people were suffering from chronic hunger. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or FAO, identified the four pillars of food security as availability, access, utilization, and stability. The United Nations recognized the Right to Food in the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the 1996 World Summit on Food Security declared that food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure. Food security indicators and measures are derived from country level household income, in general the objective of food security indicators and measures is to capture some or all of the main components of food security in terms of food availability, access and utilization or adequacy. While availability and utilization/adequacy seemed much easier to estimate, thus more popular, the factors influencing household food access are often context specific. Household Hunger Scale - measures the experience of household food deprivation based on a set of reactions, captured through a survey. Coping Strategies Index - assesses household behaviours and rates them based on a set of varied established behaviours on how households cope with food shortages. The methodology for research is based on collecting data on a single question, What do you do when you do not have enough food. Food insecurity is measured in the United States by questions in the Census Bureaus Current Population Survey, the FAO, World Food Programme, and International Fund for Agricultural Development collaborate to produce The State of Food Insecurity in the World. The 2012 edition described improvements made by the FAO to the prevalence of undernourishment indicator that is used to measure rates of food insecurity. New features include revised minimum dietary energy requirements for individual countries, updates to the population data. Measurements that factor into the indicator include dietary energy supply, food production, food prices, food expenditures, the stages of food insecurity range from food secure situations to full-scale famine. A new peer-reviewed journal of Food Security, The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production, with its prevalence of undernourishment indicator, the FAO reported that almost 870 million people were chronically undernourished in the years 2010-2012. This represents 12. 5% of the population, or 1 in 8 people. Higher rates occur in developing countries, where 852 million people are chronically undernourished, the UN noted that about 2 billion people do not consume a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals
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Cultivar
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The term cultivar most commonly refers to an assemblage of plants selected for desirable characteristics that are maintained during propagation. More generally, cultivar refers to the most basic classification category of cultivated plants governed by the ICNCP, most cultivars have arisen in cultivation, but a few are special selections from the wild. Popular ornamental garden plants like roses, camellias, daffodils, rhododendrons, trees used in forestry are also special selections grown for their enhanced quality and yield of timber. Cultivars form a part of Liberty Hyde Baileys broader grouping. Cultivar was coined by Bailey and it is regarded as a portmanteau of cultivated and variety. A cultivar is not the same as a variety, a taxonomic rank below subspecies. In recent times, the naming of cultivars has been complicated by the use of statutory plant patents, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants offers legal protection of plant cultivars to people or organisations who introduce new cultivars to commerce. UPOV requires that a cultivar be distinct, uniform and stable, to be distinct, it must have characteristics that easily distinguish it from any other known cultivar. To be uniform and stable, the cultivar must retain these characteristics under repeated propagation, a cultivar is given a cultivar name, which consists of the scientific Latin botanical name followed by a cultivar epithet. The cultivar epithet is usually in a vernacular language, for example, the full cultivar name of the King Edward potato is Solanum tuberosum King Edward. The King Edward part of the name is the cultivar epithet, the origin of the term cultivar arises from the need to distinguish between wild plants and those with characteristics that have arisen in cultivation. This distinction dates back to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, the Father of Botany, botanical historian Alan Morton notes that Theophrastus in his Enquiry into Plants had an inkling of the limits of culturally induced changes and of the importance of genetic constitution. In Species Plantarum, Linnaeus listed all the known to him. Most of the listed by Linnaeus were of garden origin rather than being wild plants. Over time there was an increasing need to distinguish between plants growing in the wild, and those with variations that had produced in cultivation. In the nineteenth century many garden-derived plants were given names, sometimes in Latin. In the twentieth century an improved international terminology was proposed for the classification and it is essentially the equivalent of the botanical variety except in respect to its origin. However, Bailey was never explicit about the etymology of the word, and it has suggested that it is a contraction of the words cultigen and variety
31.
Coordinate axis
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The order of the coordinates is significant, and they are sometimes identified by their position in an ordered tuple and sometimes by a letter, as in the x-coordinate. The coordinates are taken to be real numbers in elementary mathematics, the use of a coordinate system allows problems in geometry to be translated into problems about numbers and vice versa, this is the basis of analytic geometry. The simplest example of a system is the identification of points on a line with real numbers using the number line. In this system, an arbitrary point O is chosen on a given line. The coordinate of a point P is defined as the distance from O to P. Each point is given a unique coordinate and each number is the coordinate of a unique point. The prototypical example of a system is the Cartesian coordinate system. In the plane, two lines are chosen and the coordinates of a point are taken to be the signed distances to the lines. In three dimensions, three perpendicular planes are chosen and the three coordinates of a point are the distances to each of the planes. This can be generalized to create n coordinates for any point in n-dimensional Euclidean space, depending on the direction and order of the coordinate axis the system may be a right-hand or a left-hand system. This is one of many coordinate systems, another common coordinate system for the plane is the polar coordinate system. A point is chosen as the pole and a ray from this point is taken as the polar axis, for a given angle θ, there is a single line through the pole whose angle with the polar axis is θ. Then there is a point on this line whose signed distance from the origin is r for given number r. For a given pair of coordinates there is a single point, for example, and are all polar coordinates for the same point. The pole is represented by for any value of θ, there are two common methods for extending the polar coordinate system to three dimensions. In the cylindrical coordinate system, a z-coordinate with the meaning as in Cartesian coordinates is added to the r and θ polar coordinates giving a triple. Spherical coordinates take this a further by converting the pair of cylindrical coordinates to polar coordinates giving a triple. A point in the plane may be represented in coordinates by a triple where x/z and y/z are the Cartesian coordinates of the point
32.
Protein
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Proteins are large biomolecules, or macromolecules, consisting of one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, responding to stimuli, a linear chain of amino acid residues is called a polypeptide. A protein contains at least one long polypeptide, short polypeptides, containing less than 20–30 residues, are rarely considered to be proteins and are commonly called peptides, or sometimes oligopeptides. The individual amino acid residues are bonded together by peptide bonds, the sequence of amino acid residues in a protein is defined by the sequence of a gene, which is encoded in the genetic code. In general, the code specifies 20 standard amino acids, however. Sometimes proteins have non-peptide groups attached, which can be called prosthetic groups or cofactors, proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable protein complexes. Once formed, proteins only exist for a period of time and are then degraded and recycled by the cells machinery through the process of protein turnover. A proteins lifespan is measured in terms of its half-life and covers a wide range and they can exist for minutes or years with an average lifespan of 1–2 days in mammalian cells. Abnormal and or misfolded proteins are degraded more rapidly due to being targeted for destruction or due to being unstable. Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and nucleic acids, proteins are essential parts of organisms, many proteins are enzymes that catalyse biochemical reactions and are vital to metabolism. Proteins also have structural or mechanical functions, such as actin and myosin in muscle and the proteins in the cytoskeleton, other proteins are important in cell signaling, immune responses, cell adhesion, and the cell cycle. In animals, proteins are needed in the diet to provide the essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized, digestion breaks the proteins down for use in the metabolism. Methods commonly used to study structure and function include immunohistochemistry, site-directed mutagenesis, X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance. Most proteins consist of linear polymers built from series of up to 20 different L-α-amino acids, all proteinogenic amino acids possess common structural features, including an α-carbon to which an amino group, a carboxyl group, and a variable side chain are bonded. Only proline differs from this structure as it contains an unusual ring to the N-end amine group. The amino acids in a chain are linked by peptide bonds. Once linked in the chain, an individual amino acid is called a residue, and the linked series of carbon, nitrogen. The peptide bond has two forms that contribute some double-bond character and inhibit rotation around its axis, so that the alpha carbons are roughly coplanar
33.
Nutrient
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A nutrient is a component in foods that an organism uses to survive and grow. Macronutrients provide the energy an organisms metabolic system needs to function while micronutrients provide the necessary cofactors for metabolism to be carried out. Both types of nutrients can be acquired from the environment, micronutrients are used to build and repair tissues and to regulate body processes while macronutrients are converted to, and used for, energy. Methods of nutrient intake are different for plants and animals, plants take in nutrients directly from the soil through their roots and from the atmosphere through their leaves. Animals and protists have specialized digestive systems that work to break down macronutrients for energy, organic nutrients consist of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and vitamins. Inorganic chemical compounds such as minerals, water, and oxygen may also be considered nutrients. A nutrient is considered if it must be obtained from an external source either because the organism cannot synthesize it or because insufficient quantities are produced. Nutrients needed in small amounts are called micronutrients while those needed in large quantities are called macronutrients. The effects of nutrients are dose-dependent, shortages are called deficiencies, macronutrients are defined in several different ways. The chemical elements humans consume in the largest quantities are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, the classes of chemical compounds humans consume in the largest quantities and which provide bulk energy are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Water and atmospheric oxygen also must be consumed in large quantities, calcium, salt, magnesium, and potassium are sometimes added to the list of macronutrients because they are required in large quantities compared to other vitamins and minerals. They are sometimes referred to as the macrominerals, carbohydrates are compounds made up of types of sugars. Carbohydrates are classified by their number of units, monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides. Proteins are organic compounds that consist of amino acids joined by peptide bonds, the body cannot manufacture some of the amino acids, the diet must supply them. Proteins, in nutrition, are broken down through digestion by proteases back into free amino acids, fats consist of a glycerin molecule with three fatty acids attached. Fatty acids are unbranched hydrocarbon chains,1 connected by single bonds alone or by double and single bonds. Fats are needed to keep cell membranes functioning properly, to insulate body organs against shock, to body temperature stable. The body does not manufacture certain fatty acids and the diet must supply them, although alcohol provides energy, and can thus be compared to macronutrients, it is not a substance that is essential for normal function
34.
Amino acid
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Amino acids are organic compounds containing amine and carboxyl functional groups, along with a side chain specific to each amino acid. The key elements of an acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen. About 500 amino acids are known and can be classified in many ways, in the form of proteins, amino acids comprise the second-largest component of human muscles, cells and other tissues. Outside proteins, amino acids perform critical roles in such as neurotransmitter transport. In biochemistry, amino acids having both the amine and the acid groups attached to the first carbon atom have particular importance. They are known as 2-, alpha-, or α-amino acids and they include the 22 proteinogenic amino acids, which combine into peptide chains to form the building-blocks of a vast array of proteins. These are all L-stereoisomers, although a few D-amino acids occur in bacterial envelopes, as a neuromodulator, twenty of the proteinogenic amino acids are encoded directly by triplet codons in the genetic code and are known as standard amino acids. The other two are selenocysteine, and pyrrolysine, pyrrolysine and selenocysteine are encoded via variant codons, for example, selenocysteine is encoded by stop codon and SECIS element. N-formylmethionine is generally considered as a form of methionine rather than as a separate proteinogenic amino acid, codon–tRNA combinations not found in nature can also be used to expand the genetic code and create novel proteins known as alloproteins incorporating non-proteinogenic amino acids. Many important proteinogenic and non-proteinogenic amino acids also play critical roles within the body. Nine proteinogenic amino acids are called essential for humans because they cannot be created from other compounds by the human body, others may be conditionally essential for certain ages or medical conditions. Essential amino acids may also differ between species, because of their biological significance, amino acids are important in nutrition and are commonly used in nutritional supplements, fertilizers, and food technology. Industrial uses include the production of drugs, biodegradable plastics, the first few amino acids were discovered in the early 19th century. In 1806, French chemists Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet isolated a compound in asparagus that was subsequently named asparagine, cystine was discovered in 1810, although its monomer, cysteine, remained undiscovered until 1884. Glycine and leucine were discovered in 1820, usage of the term amino acid in the English language is from 1898. Proteins were found to yield amino acids after enzymatic digestion or acid hydrolysis, in the structure shown at the top of the page, R represents a side chain specific to each amino acid. The carbon atom next to the group is called the α–carbon. Amino acids containing an amino group bonded directly to the alpha carbon are referred to as amino acids
35.
Methionine
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Methionine is an essential amino acid in humans. Overconsumption of methionine, as is typical in the standard American diet, Methionine was first isolated in 1921 by John Howard Mueller. Methionine is an acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains a group, an α-carboxylic acid group. Methionine is coded for by the initiation codon, meaning it indicates the start of the region and is the first amino acid produced in a nascent polypeptide during mRNA translation. Together with cysteine, methionine is one of two sulfur-containing proteinogenic amino acids, excluding the few exceptions where methionine may act as a redox sensor, methionine residues do not have a catalytic role. This is in contrast to cysteine residues, where the group has a catalytic role in many proteins. This situation is not unique and may have occurred with ornithine and arginine, Methionine is one of only two amino acids encoded by a single codon in the standard genetic code. In reflection to the origin of its codon, the other AUN codons encode isoleucine. In the mitochondrial genome of several organisms, including metazoa and yeast, in the standard genetic code AUA codes for isoleucine and the respective tRNA uses the unusual base lysidine or agmatine to discriminate against AUG. The methionine codon AUG is also the most common start codon, a Start codon is message for a ribosome that signals the initiation of protein translation from mRNA when the AUG codon is in a Kozak consensus sequence. In bacteria, the derivative N-formylmethionine is used as the amino acid. The methionine-derivative S-adenosyl methionine is a cofactor that serves mainly as a methyl donor, SAM is composed of an adenosyl molecule attached to the sulfur of methionine, therefore making it a sulfonium cation. The sulfur acts as soft Lewis acid allows the S-methyl group to be transferred to an oxygen, nitrogen or aromatic system, some enzymes use SAM to initiate a radical reaction, these are called radical SAM enzymes. As a result of the transfer of the group, S-adenosyl-homocysteine is obtained. As an essential amino acid, methionine is not synthesized de novo in humans and other animals, in plants and microorganisms, methionine biosynthesis belongs to the aspartate family, along with threonine and lysine. The main backbone is derived from acid, while the sulfur may come from cysteine. First, aspartic acid is converted via β-aspartyl-semialdehyde into homoserine by two steps of the terminal carboxyl group
36.
Tryptophan
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Tryptophan is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains a group, an α-carboxylic acid group. It is essential in humans, meaning the body cannot synthesize it, tryptophan is also a precursor to the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin. Like other amino acids, tryptophan is a zwitterion at physiological pH where the group is protonated. The isolation of tryptophan was first reported by Frederick Hopkins in 1901 through hydrolysis of casein, from 600 grams of crude casein one obtains 4-8 grams of tryptophan. As an essential amino acid, tryptophan is not synthesized from more basic substances in humans and other animals, the ring of the ribose moiety is opened and subjected to reductive decarboxylation, producing indole-3-glycerinephosphate, this, in turn, is transformed into indole. In the last step, tryptophan synthase catalyzes the formation of tryptophan from indole and these strains carry either mutations that prevent the reuptake of aromatic amino acids or multiple/overexpressed trp operons. The conversion is catalyzed by the tryptophan synthase. For many organisms, tryptophan is needed to prevent illness or death, amino acids, including tryptophan, act as building blocks in protein biosynthesis, and proteins are required to sustain life. In addition, tryptophan functions as a precursor for the following compounds, Serotonin. Serotonin, in turn, can be converted to melatonin, via N-acetyltransferase and 5-hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase activities, niacin, also known as vitamin B3, is synthesized from tryptophan via kynurenine and quinolinic acids as key biosynthetic intermediates. The disorder fructose malabsorption causes improper absorption of tryptophan in the intestine, reduced levels of tryptophan in the blood, some studies did not find reduced tryptophan in cases of lactose maldigestion. In bacteria that synthesize tryptophan, high levels of this amino acid activate a repressor protein. Binding of this repressor to the tryptophan operon prevents transcription of downstream DNA that codes for the involved in the biosynthesis of tryptophan. So high levels of tryptophan prevent tryptophan synthesis through a feedback loop and. The genetic organisation of the trp operon thus permits tightly regulated, tryptophan is a routine constituent of most protein-based foods or dietary proteins. Contrary to the belief that turkey contains an abundance of tryptophan. A common assertion in the US is that consumption of turkey meat results in drowsiness
37.
Albert Eckhout
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Albert Eckhout was a Dutch portrait and still life painter. Eckhout, who was born in Groningen, was among the first European artists to paint scenes from the New World, in 1636 he traveled to Dutch Brazil, where he stayed until 1644, invited by count John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen. There, he painted portraits of the natives, slaves and mulattos of Brazil in the century, besides numerous sketches of plants. Eckhout is also famous for his paintings of Brazilian fruits. The majority of his work is now located in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, in art history, he is taken to be part of Baroque. Minor planet 11241 Eckhout is named for him, Eckhout was born in Groningen, the son of Albert Eckhout and Marryen Roeleffs, but his training as an artist and early career are unknown. Many works attributed to him are unsigned, Eckhout focused on the people, plants and animals of the region. He painted eight life-size ethnographic representations of Brazils inhabitants, twelve still lifes and these ethnographic works, done between 1641 and 1643 for Maurits, were subsequently gifted to Mauritss cousin, King Frederick III of Denmark, and they remain in Copenhagen. Alexander von Humboldt saw the paintings in 1827, as Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II in 1876, while Post was focusing on painting maps and landscapes, Eckhout made pieces about the inhabitants and still lifes with fruits and vegetables. His work is said to give the first realistic image of the population, part of the Tupi. One of his famous works is of a calmly composed Tupian woman, who holds a hand and has a human leg in her basket. The Tapuya dance, performed by eight Tapuia Indians with their characteristic mushroom hair style, cudgels and spears and this picture was much more in accordance with the mental image of the natives back in Europe. Another famous work of art by Eckhout from his time in Brazil is the Mameluca Woman and this is a depiction of a woman in a flowing white dress balancing a basket of flowers in one hand. Her other hand is lifting her dress to reveal a portion of her leg. She is believed to be a mix of European and the people of Brazil given by the title “Mameluca. ”This painting has many aspects that were characteristic of Eckhouts other paintings from his time in Brazil. The two guinea pigs at the feet show his interest in the natural life of Brazil. In addition the flowers that she is carrying and the plant life around her were Eckhouts way of representing the fertility of Brazil, for a couple of reasons, the series of twelve still-life paintings by Albert Eckhout are unique. First, they show Brazils abundant crops and second, these are the only known still-life paintings from the seventeenth century showing an overcast sky in the background
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Dutch Brazil
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Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654. The main cities of the Nieuw Nederland were the capital Mauritsstad, Frederikstadt, Nieuw Amsterdam, Saint Louis, São Cristóvão, Fortaleza, Sirinhaém, from 1630 onward, the Dutch Republic conquered almost half of Brazils area at the time, with their capital in Recife. The Dutch West India Company set up their headquarters in Recife, the governor, Johan Maurits, invited artists and scientists to the colony to help promote Brazil and increase immigration. However, the tide turned against the Dutch when the Portuguese won a significant victory at the Second Battle of Guararapes in 1649, on 26 January 1654, the Dutch surrendered and signed the capitulation, but only as a provisory pact. By May 1654, the Dutch demanded that the Dutch Republic was to be given New Holland back, on 6 August 1661, New Holland was formally ceded to Portugal through the Treaty of The Hague. While of only transitional importance for the Dutch, this period was of importance in the History of Brazil. The Low Countries had long been part of the Spanish Empire, however, in 1568 the Eighty Years War broke out, a consequence of the war was Dutch raiding of Spanish lands, colonies, and ships. In 1594 Phillip II, who was king both of Spain and of Portugal, gave permission for Dutch ships bound for Brazil to sail together once a year in a fleet of twenty ships. As part of the truce, the Dutch also agreed to delay the creation of a West India Company, by the end of the truce, the Dutch had vastly expanded its trade networks, and gained over half of the carrying trade between Brazil and Europe. There were 29 sugar refineries in the Northern Netherlands by 1622, in 1621, the twelve-year peace treaty expired and the Dutch West India Company was immediately created. The Dutch–Portuguese War resumed, and through the new company, the Dutch now started to interfere with the Spanish, the expedition consisted of 26 ships and 3,300 men. They arrived there on May 8,1624, on which Portuguese Governor Diogo Tristão de Mendonça Furtado surrendered to the Dutch. However, by April 30,1625, the Portuguese recaptured the city, with the help of a combined Spanish and Portuguese force, the city was to then play a critical role as a base of the Portuguese struggle against the Dutch for the control of Brazil. In 1628, the seizure of a Spanish silver convoy by Piet Heyn in Matanzas Bay provided the Dutch WIC the funds for another attempt to conquer Brazil at Pernambuco. In the summer of 1629, the Dutch coveted a newfound interest in obtaining the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, the largest and richest sugar-producing area in the world. The Dutch fleet of 65 ships was led by Hendrick Corneliszoon Loncq, the WIC gained control of Olinda by February 16,1630, and Recife and António Vaz by March 3. Matias de Albuquerque, the Portuguese governor, led a strong Portuguese resistance which hindered the Dutch from developing their forts on the lands which they had captured. By 1631, the Dutch left Olinda and tried to control of the Fort of Cabedello on Paraíba, the Rio Grande, Rio Formoso
39.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
40.
Gulf of Mexico
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The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north, Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the south coast, in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the north coast. One of the seven main areas is the Gulf of Mexico basin. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, the Gulfs basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, with the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2, almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters, the consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. It was created by the collision of plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, first, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time and it was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading, at this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling. The subsidence was the result of a combination of stretching, cooling. Initially, the combination of stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional
41.
Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems
42.
El Salvador
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El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. El Salvadors capital and largest city is San Salvador, as of 2015, the country had a population of approximately 6.38 million, consisting largely of Mestizos of European and Indigenous American descent. El Salvador was for centuries inhabited by several Mesoamerican nations, especially the Cuzcatlecs, as well as the Lenca, in the early 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. In 1821, the country achieved independence from Spain as part of the First Mexican Empire, from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, El Salvador endured chronic political and economic instability characterized by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers. The conflict ended with a settlement that established a multiparty constitutional republic. El Salvador has since reduced its dependence on coffee and embarked on diversifying the economy by opening up trade and financial links, the colón, the official currency of El Salvador since 1892, was replaced by the U. S. dollar in 2001. As of 2010, El Salvador ranks 12th among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index, however, the country continues to struggle with high rates of poverty, inequality, and crime. Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado named the new province for Jesus Christ – El Salvador, the full name was Provincia De Nuestro Señor Jesus Cristo, El Salvador Del Mundo, which was subsequently abbreviated to El Salvador. Tomayate is a site located on the banks of the river of the same name in the municipality of Apopa. The site has produced abundant Salvadoran megafauna fossils belonging to the Pleistocene epoch, at the same time, it is considered the richest vertebrate paleontological site in Central America and one of the largest accumulations of proboscideans in the Americas. Sophisticated civilization in El Salvador dates to its settlement by the indigenous Lenca people, theirs was the first, the Lenca were succeeded by the Olmecs, who eventually also disappeared, leaving their monumental architecture in the form of the pyramids still extant in western El Salvador. The Maya arrived and settled in place of the Olmecs, the Pipil were the last indigenous people to arrive in El Salvador. They called their territory Kuskatan, a Pipil word meaning The Place of Precious Jewels, backformed into Classical Nahuatl Cōzcatlān, the people of El Salvador today are referred to as Salvadoran, while the term Cuzcatleco is commonly used to identify someone of Salvadoran heritage. In pre-Columbian times, the country was inhabited by various other indigenous peoples, including the Lenca. Cuzcatlan was the domain until the Spanish conquest. Since El Salvador resided on the edge of the Maya Civilization. However, it is agreed that Mayas likely occupied the areas around Lago de Guija. Other ruins such as Tazumal, Joya de Cerén and San Andrés may have built by the Pipil or the Maya or possibly both
43.
Pre-Columbian era
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For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific. Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, however, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were then very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools
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. PMID 10318928.
The dictionary definition of cassava at Wiktionary
