1.
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
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
Fagales
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The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches and they belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The other families were split into three different orders, placed among the Hamamelidae, the Casuarinales comprised the single family Casuarinaceae, the Juglandales comprised the Juglandaceae and Rhoipteleaceae, and the Myricales comprised the remaining forms. The change is due to studies suggesting the Myricales, so defined, are paraphyletic to the two groups. Modern molecular phylogenetics suggest the following relationships, Missouri Botanical Gardens - Fagales WCSP, World checklist of selected plant families
7.
Fagaceae
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Fagaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes beeches and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. Their leaves are lobed and both petioles and stipules are generally present. Leaf characteristics of Fagaceae can be similar to those of Rosaceae. Their fruits lack endosperm and lie in a scaly or spiny husk that may or may not enclose the entire nut, in the oaks, genus Quercus, the fruit is a non-valved nut called an acorn. The husk of the acorn in most oaks only forms a cup in which the nut sits, a characteristic of Fagaceae is their tendency to easily cross-pollinate with members of their same genus/section. In particular, oaks of the same section cross so easily that it is unclear how they manage to stay morphologically distinct, several members of the Fagaceae have important economic uses. Many species of oak, chestnut, and beech are used as timber for floors, furniture, cabinets. Cork for stopping wine bottles and a myriad other uses is made from the bark of cork oak, chestnuts are the fruits from species of the genus Castanea. Numerous species from several genera are prominent ornamentals, and wood chips from the genus Fagus are often used in flavoring beers, the Fagaceae are often divided into five or six subfamilies and are generally accepted to include 8 genera. Monophyly of the Fagaceae is strongly supported by morphological and molecular data. The Southern Hemisphere genus Nothofagus, commonly the southern beeches, was placed in the Fagaceae sister to the genus Fagus. The currently accepted view by systematic botanists is to place Nothofagus in its own family, fagoideae K. Koch Fagus L. —beeches, about 10 to 13 species, north temperate east Asia, southwest Asia, Europe, eastern North America Quercoideae Õrsted Castanea Mill. 1948—golden chinkapins, two species, western United States Lithocarpus Blume 1826—stone oaks, about 330-340 species, warm temperate to tropical Asia Notholithocarpus P. S. Manos, the genus Nothofagus, formerly included in the Fagaceae, is now treated in the separate family Nothofagaceae. The Fagaceae are widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, genus-level diversity is concentrated in Southeast Asia, where most of the extant genera are thought to have evolved before migrating to Europe and North America. Members of the Fagaceae are often dominant in northern temperate forests
8.
Beech
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Beech is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America. Recent classification systems of the genus recognize ten to thirteen species in two subgenera, Engleriana and Fagus. Further differentiating characteristics include the whitish bloom on the underside of the leaves, the visible tertiary leaf veins, Fagus japonica, Fagus engleriana, and the species F. okamotoi, proposed by the botanist Chung-Fu Shen in 1992, comprise this subgenus. The better known Fagus subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and this group includes Fagus sylvatica, Fagus grandifolia, Fagus crenata, Fagus lucida, Fagus longipetiolata, and Fagus hayatae. The classification of the European beech, Fagus sylvatica is complex, research suggests that beeches in Eurasia differentiated fairly late in evolutionary history, during the Miocene. The populations in this area represent a range of often overlapping morphotypes, within its family, the Fagaceae, recent research has suggested that Fagus is the evolutionarily most basal group. The southern beeches previously thought closely related to beeches, are now treated as members of a separate family and they are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Argentina and Chile. The European beech is the most commonly cultivated, although there are few important differences between species aside from detail elements such as leaf shape, the leaves of beech trees are entire or sparsely toothed, from 5–15 cm long and 4–10 cm broad. Beeches are monoecious, bearing male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the flowers borne in pairs. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear, the bark is smooth and light grey. The fruit is a small, sharply three–angled nut 10–15 mm long, borne singly or in pairs in soft-spined husks 1. 5–2.5 cm long, known as cupules. The husk can have a variety of spine- to scale-like appendages, the nuts are edible, though bitter with a high tannin content, and are called beechnuts or beechmast. The name of the tree is of Indo-European origin, and played an important role in debates on the geographical origins of the Indo-European people. Greek φηγός is from the root, but the word was transferred to the oak tree as a result of the absence of beech trees in Greece. Beech grows on a range of soil types, acidic or basic. The tree canopy casts dense shade, and carpets the ground thickly with leaf litter, in North America, they often form beech-maple climax forests by partnering with the sugar maple. The beech blight aphid is a common pest of American beech trees, Beeches are also used as food plants by some species of Lepidoptera
9.
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
10.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
11.
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
12.
Deciduous
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In a more general sense, deciduous means the dropping of a part that is no longer needed or falling away after its purpose is finished. In plants it is the result of natural processes, in botany and horticulture, deciduous plants, including trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials, are those that lose all of their leaves for part of the year. In some cases leaf loss coincides with winter—namely in temperate or polar climates, in other parts of the world, including tropical, subtropical, and arid regions, plants lose their leaves during the dry season or other seasons, depending on variations in rainfall. The converse of deciduous is coniferous, where foliage is shed on a different schedule from deciduous trees, plants that are intermediate may be called semi-deciduous, they lose old foliage as new growth begins. Other plants are semi-evergreen and lose their leaves before the growing season. Many deciduous plants flower during the period when they are leafless, the absence of leaves improves wind transmission of pollen for wind-pollinated plants and increases the visibility of the flowers to insects in insect-pollinated plants. This strategy is not without risks, as the flowers can be damaged by frost or, in dry season regions, leaf drop or abscission involves complex physiological signals and changes within plants. The process of photosynthesis steadily degrades the supply of chlorophylls in foliage, the brightest leaf colors are produced when days grow short and nights are cool, but remain above freezing. These other pigments include carotenoids that are yellow, brown, anthocyanin pigments produce red and purple colors, though they are not always present in the leaves. Rather, they are produced in the foliage in late summer, parts of the world that have showy displays of bright autumn colors are limited to locations where days become short and nights are cool. In other parts of the world, the leaves of deciduous trees simply fall off without turning the bright colors produced from the accumulation of anthocyanin pigments, the beginnings of leaf drop starts when an abscission layer is formed between the leaf petiole and the stem. This layer is formed in the spring during active new growth of the leaf, the cells are sensitive to a plant hormone called auxin that is produced by the leaf and other parts of the plant. The elongation of cells break the connection between the different cell layers, allowing the leaf to break away from the plant. It also forms a layer that seals the break, so the plant does not lose sap, in the spring, these proteins are used as a nitrogen source during the growth of new leaves or flowers. Plants with deciduous foliage have advantages and disadvantages compared to plants with evergreen foliage, evergreens suffer greater water loss during the winter and they also can experience greater predation pressure, especially when small. Losing leaves in winter may reduce damage from insects, repairing leaves, removing leaves also reduces cavitation which can damage xylem vessels in plants. This then allows deciduous plants to have xylem vessels with larger diameters, the deciduous characteristic has developed repeatedly among woody plants. Trees include maple, many oaks and nothofagus, elm, aspen, Deciduous shrubs include honeysuckle, viburnum, and many others
13.
Tree
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In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. Trees are not a group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk. In looser senses, the palms, the tree ferns, bananas. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old, the tallest known tree, a coast redwood named Hyperion, stands 115.6 m high. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years and it is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world. A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk and this trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier, below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely, they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. Above ground, the divide into smaller branches and shoots. The shoots typically bear leaves, which light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the trees growth. Flowers and fruit may also be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones, others, such as tree ferns, trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues, trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests are one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world, trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of available for agriculture. Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always revered, with sacred groves in various cultures. Although tree is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, either botanically or in common language. In its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the form of an elongated stem, or trunk. Trees are also defined by height, with smaller plants from 0.5 to 10 m being called shrubs
14.
Fagus grandifolia
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Fagus grandifolia is the species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and extreme southeast Canada. The genus name Fagus is Latin for beech, and the species name comes from grandis large. Trees in the half of the range are sometimes distinguished as a variety, F. grandifolia var. caroliniana. The Mexican beech, native to the mountains of central Mexico, is related, and is sometimes treated as a subspecies of American beech. The only Fagus species found in the Western Hemisphere, F. grandifolia is believed to have spanned the width of the North American continent all the way to the Pacific coast before the last ice age. It is a tree growing to 20–35 m tall, with smooth. The leaves are green, simple and sparsely-toothed with small teeth that terminate each vein, 6–12 cm long. The winter twigs are distinctive among North American trees, being long, beech buds are distinctly thin and long, resembling cigars, this characteristic makes beech trees relatively easy to identify. The tree is monoecious, with flowers of both sexes on the same tree, the fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in pairs in a soft-spined, four-lobed husk. It has two means of reproduction, one is through the dispersal of seedlings, and the other is through root sprouts. The American beech is a shade-tolerant species, favoring shade more than other trees, ecological succession is essentially the process of forests changing their composition through time, it is a pattern of events often observed on disturbed sites. Although sometimes found in stands, it is more often associated with sugar maple, yellow birch. Near its southern limit, it often shares canopy dominance with Southern Magnolia, although it has a reputation for slow growth, rich soil and ample moisture will greatly speed the process up. American beech favors a well-watered, but also well-drained spot and is intolerant of pollution, salt. It also casts dense shade and has an network of shallow. Because American beech needs plenty of moisture and rich soil to thrive, early settlers often looked for beeches as a sign of a good potential place to clear the forest for farming. Beech bark disease has become a killer of beech trees in the Northeastern United States. This disease occurs when the scale insect, Cryptococcus fagisuga, attacks the bark
15.
Leaf
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A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant and is the principal lateral appendage of the stem. The leaves and stem together form the shoot, Leaves are collectively referred to as foliage, as in autumn foliage. Although leaves can be seen in different shapes, sizes and textures, typically a leaf is a thin, dorsiventrally flattened organ, borne above ground. Most leaves have distinctive upper surface and lower surface that differ in colour, hairiness, broad, flat leaves with complex venation are known as megaphylls and the species that bear them, the majority, as broad-leaved or megaphyllous plants. In others, such as the clubmosses, with different evolutionary origins, some leaves, such as bulb scales are not above ground, and in many aquatic species the leaves are submerged in water. Succulent plants often have thick juicy leaves, but some leaves are without major photosynthetic function and may be dead at maturity, as in some cataphylls, furthermore, several kinds of leaf-like structures found in vascular plants are not totally homologous with them. Examples include flattened plant stems called phylloclades and cladodes, and flattened leaf stems called phyllodes which differ from both in their structure and origin. Many structures of plants, such as the phyllids of mosses and liverworts and even of some foliose lichens. Leaves are the most important organs of most vascular plants and these are then further processed by chemical synthesis into more complex organic molecules such as cellulose, the basic structural material in plant cell walls. The plant must therefore bring these three together in the leaf for photosynthesis to take place. Once sugar has been synthesized, it needs to be transported to areas of growth such as the plant shoots and roots. Vascular plants transport sucrose in a tissue called the phloem. The phloem and xylem are parallel to each other but the transport of materials is usually in opposite directions. Within the leaf these vascular systems branch to form veins which supply as much as the leaf as possible and they are arranged on the plant so as to expose their surfaces to light as efficiently as possible without shading each other, but there are many exceptions and complications. For instance plants adapted to windy conditions may have pendent leaves, such as in many willows, the flat, or laminar, shape also maximises thermal contact with the surrounding air, promoting cooling. Functionally, in addition to photosynthesis the leaf is the site of transpiration and guttation. Many gymnosperms have thin needle-like or scale-like leaves that can be advantageous in cold climates with frequent snow and these are interpreted as reduced from megaphyllous leaves of their Devonian ancestors. For xerophytes the major constraint is not light flux or intensity, some window plants such as Fenestraria species and some Haworthia species such as Haworthia tesselata and Haworthia truncata are examples of xerophytes. and Bulbine mesembryanthemoides
16.
Bud
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In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have the potential for general shoot development. The term bud is used in zoology, where it refers to an outgrowth from the body which can develop into a new individual. The buds of many plants, especially in temperate or cold climates, are protected by a covering of modified leaves called scales which tightly enclose the more delicate parts of the bud. Many bud scales are covered by a substance which serves as added protection. When the bud develops, the scales may enlarge somewhat but usually just drop off, leaving on the surface of the growing stem a series of horizontally-elongated scars. By means of these one can determine the age of any young branch, since each years growth ends in the formation of a bud. Continued growth of the branch causes these scars to be obliterated after a few years so that the age of older branches cannot be determined by this means. In many plants scales do not form over the bud, the minute underdeveloped leaves in such buds are often excessively hairy. Naked buds are found in shrubs, like some species of the Sumac and Viburnums. In many of the latter, buds are more reduced. A terminal bud occurs on the end of a stem and lateral buds are found on the side, a head of cabbage is an exceptionally large terminal bud, while Brussels sprouts are large lateral buds. Since buds are formed in the axils of leaves, their distribution on the stem is the same as that of leaves, there are alternate, opposite, and whorled buds, as well as the terminal bud at the tip of the stem. In many plants buds appear in unexpected places, these are known as adventitious buds, often it is possible to find a bud in a remarkable series of gradations of bud scales. Such a series suggests that the scales of the bud are in truth leaves, buds are often useful in the identification of plants, especially for woody plants in winter when leaves have fallen. Buds may be classified and described according to different criteria, location, status, morphology, buds The term bud is used by analogy within zoology as well, where it refers to an outgrowth from the body which develops into a new individual. It is a form of asexual reproduction limited to animals or plants of relatively simple structure, in this process a portion of the wall of the parent cell softens and pushes out. The protuberance thus formed enlarges rapidly while at time the nucleus of the parent cell divides
17.
Abscission
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Abscission is the shedding of various parts of an organism, such as a plant dropping a leaf, fruit, flower, or seed. In zoology, abscission is the shedding of a body part, such as the shedding of a claw, husk. In mycology, it is the liberation of a fungal spore, in cell biology, abscission refers to the separation of two daughter cells at the completion of cytokinesis. A plant will abscise a part either to discard a member that is no longer necessary, such as a leaf during autumn, or a flower following fertilisation, most deciduous plants drop their leaves by abscission before winter, whereas evergreen plants continuously abscise their leaves. Another form of abscission is fruit drop, when a plant abscises fruit while still immature, if a leaf is damaged, a plant may also abscise it to conserve water or photosynthetic efficiency, depending on the costs to the plant as a whole. The abscission layer is a greenish-grayish color, abscission can also occur in premature leaves as a means of plant defense. Premature leaf abscission has been shown to occur in response to infestation by gall aphids, by abscising leaves that have been made host to aphid galls, plants have been shown to massively diminish the pest population, as 98% of aphids in abscised galls died. The abscission is selective, and the chance of dropping leaves increases as the number of galls increase. A leaf with three or more galls was four times more likely to abscise than a leaf with one, abscission occurs in a series of three events, 1) remobilization, 2) protective layer formation, and 3) detachment. Steps 2 and 3 may occur in either order depending on the species, remobilization involves degrading chlorophyll to extract the majority of its nutrients. Nitrogen is found in chlorophyll and is often a limiting nutrient for plants because plants need large quantities of N to form acids, nucleic acids, proteins. Once nitrogen and other nutrients have been extracted from chlorophyll, the nutrients will travel to other tissues of the plant, remobilization is what causes leaves in the fall to change colors. Carotenoids in the leaves are slower to degrade than chlorophyll, so autumn leaves appear yellow, cells under the abscission zone divide and form a layer of cork cells. Situated on both sides of the zone are layers of parenchyma cells, which produce and inject suberin and lignin under the abscission zone into the new layer of cork cells. Suberin and lignin create a durable and waterproof layer for the plant once the organ is detached and this step can occur in a variety of ways depending on the species but always occurs at the abscission zone. Detachment can occur when layers of parenchyma cells secrete cell wall enzymes to self-digest the middle lamella and this causes the cells of the abscission zone to break apart and the leaf or other plant part to fall off. Another way detachment occurs is through imbibition of water, the plant cells at the abscission zone will take in a large amount of water, swell, and eventually burst, making the organ fall off. Once detached, the layer of cork will be exposed
18.
Marcescence
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Marcescence is the retention of dead plant organs that normally are shed. It is most obvious in deciduous trees that retain leaves through the winter, several trees normally have marcescent leaves such as oak, beech and hornbeam, or marcescent stipules as in some but not all species of willows. Marcescent leaves of pin oak complete development of their abscission layer in the spring, the base of the petiole remains alive over the winter. Many other trees may have marcescent leaves in seasons where an early freeze kills the leaves before the abscission layer develops or completes development, diseases or pests can also kill leaves before they can develop an abscission layer. Marcescent leaves may be retained indefinitely and do not break off until mechanical forces cause the dry, many palms form a skirt-like or shuttlecock-like crown of marcescent leaves under new growth that may persist for years before being shed. In some species only juveniles retain dead leaves and marcescence in palms is considered a primitive trait, the term marcescent is also used in mycology to describe a mushroom which can dry out, but later revive and continue to disperse spores. Genus Marasmius is well known for feature, which was considered taxonomically important by Elias Magnus Fries in his 1838 classification of the fungi. One possible advantage of marcescent leaves is that they may deter feeding of large herbivores, such as deer and moose, dead, dry leaves make the twigs less nutritious and less palatable. Marcescent leaves may protect some species from water stress or temperature stress, the litter-trapping marcescent leaf crown of Dypsis palms accumulate detritus to enhance their nutrient supply. By the same token, palms with marcescent leaf bases are more susceptible to epiphytic parasites like figs that may completely engulf. Semi-deciduous Evergreen Youtube. com, Marcescence — video with narration
19.
Catkin
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A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated but sometimes insect-pollinated. They contain many, usually flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping. They are found in plant families, including Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Moraceae. For some time, they were believed to be a key synapomorphy among the proposed Hamamelididae, based on molecular phylogeny work, it is now believed that Hamamelididae is a polyphyletic group. This suggests that the flower arrangement has arisen at least twice independently by convergent evolution, in Fagales. Such a convergent evolution raises questions about what the ancestral inflorescence characters might be, in many of these plants, only the male flowers form catkins, and the female flowers are single, a cone or other types. In other plants both male and female flowers are borne in catkins, catkin-bearing plants include many other trees or shrubs such as birch, willow, hickory, sweet chestnut and sweetfern. The word catkin is a loanword from the old Dutch katteken, meaning kitten, ament is from the Latin amentum, meaning thong or strap. Catkins in Fagales Catkins in Salicaceae
20.
Nut (fruit)
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A nut is a fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, which is generally edible. In a general context, however, a variety of dried seeds are called nuts. The translation of nut in certain languages frequently requires paraphrases, as the word is ambiguous. Most seeds come from fruits that naturally free themselves from the shell, unlike nuts such as hazelnuts, chestnuts, and acorns, which have hard shell walls and originate from a compound ovary. The general and original usage of the term is less restrictive, and many nuts, such as almonds, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, common usage of the term often refers to any hard-walled, edible kernel as a nut. A nut in botany is a dry fruit with one seed in which the ovary wall becomes increasingly hard as it matures. Most nuts come from the pistils with inferior ovaries and all are indehiscent, true nuts are produced, for example, by some plant families of the order Fagales. Order Fagales Family Fagaceae Beech Chestnut Oak Stone-oak Tanoak Family Betulaceae Hazel, in botany, this term specifically refers to a pyrena or pyrene, which is a seed covered by a stony layer, such as the kernel of a drupe. Walnuts and hickories have fruits that are difficult to classify and they are considered to be nuts under some definitions, but are also referred to as drupaceous nuts. Tryma is a term for hickory fruits. In common use, a nut is, as the name implies. This most often comes up regarding allergies, where people are allergic specifically to peanuts. A nut in cuisine is a less restrictive category than a nut in botany. Any large, oily kernels found within a shell and used in food are called nuts. Nuts are an important source of nutrients for humans and wildlife. Because nuts generally have an oil content, they are a highly prized food. A large number of seeds are edible by humans and used in cooking, eaten raw, sprouted, or roasted as a food, or pressed for oil that is used in cookery. Nuts are also a significant source of nutrition for wildlife, Nuts used for food, whether true nut or not, are among the most common food allergens
21.
Sicily
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Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
22.
Fagus orientalis
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Fagus orientalis, commonly known as the Oriental beech, is a deciduous tree in the beech family Fagaceae. It is native to Eurasia, in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, Fagus orientalis is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to 45 m tall and 3 m trunk diameter, though more typically 25–35 m tall and up to 1.5 m trunk diameter. The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a crenate margin, 7–15 cm long and 5–9 cm broad. The buds are long and slender, 15–30 millimetres long and 2–3 mm thick, but thicker, till 4–5 mm, the flowers are small catkins which appear shortly after the leaves in spring. The seeds are small triangular nuts 15–20 mm long and 7–10 mm wide at the base, the cupule differs from that of European Beech in having flattened, slightly leaf-like appendages at the base. Fagus orientalis is closely related to the Fagus sylvatica, and intergrades with it in the Balkans and these hybrids with European Beech are named Fagus × taurica. The trees natural range extends from southeastern Bulgarias Strandja mountain, through northwest Turkey and its habitat is restricted to mountain forests, at 500–2,100 m of altitude. The wood of Fagus orientalis is heavy, hard, strong and these features makes it suitable for steam bending. The wood is also a source to fuelwood and can be used for constructions particleboard, furniture, flooring veneer, mining poles, railway tiles and paper
23.
Hybrid (biology)
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In biology, a hybrid, also known as a cross breed, is the result of combining, through sexual reproduction, the qualities of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera. Hybrids are not always intermediate between their parents, but can show heterosis or hybrid vigour, often growing larger or taller than either parent, some act before fertilization, others after it. A few animal species and many plant species, however, are the result of hybrid speciation, doubling the number of chromosomes to create polyploids is important in hybrid speciation, because homoploid hybrids are rarely fertile, the polyploid hybrids are allopolyploids. Human impact on the environment has greatly increased the mixing of species, with introduced species worldwide, the genetic mixing may threaten many species with extinction, while genetic erosion in crop plants may be damaging the gene pools of many species for future breeding. Many commercially useful fruits, flowers, garden herbs and trees have been produced by hybridization, one flower, Oenothera lamarckiana, was central to early genetics research into polyploidy. The term hybrid is derived from Latin hybrida, used for such as of a tame sow and a wild boar, or the child of a freeman. The term came into use in English in the 19th century. Conspicuous hybrids are named with portmanteau words, starting in the 1920s with the breeding of tiger-lion hybrids. The cross between two different homozygous lines produces an F1 hybrid that is heterozygous, having two alleles, one contributed by each parent and typically one is dominant and the other recessive. Typically, the F1 generation is also phenotypically homogeneous, producing offspring that are all similar to each other, double cross hybrids result from the cross between two different F1 hybrids. Three-way cross hybrids result from the cross between an F1 hybrid and an inbred line, triple cross hybrids result from the crossing of two different three-way cross hybrids. Top cross hybrids result from the crossing of a top quality or pure-bred male, population hybrids result from the crossing of plants or animals in a population with those of another population. These include interspecific hybrids or crosses between different breeds. e, from the point of view of genetics, different kinds of hybrid can be distinguished as follows, A genetic hybrid carries two different alleles of the same gene. A structural hybrid results from the fusion of gametes that have differing structure in at least one chromosome, a numerical hybrid results from the fusion of gametes having different haploid numbers of chromosomes. A permanent hybrid results when only the heterozygous genotype occurs, as in Oenothera lamarckiana, from the point of view of taxonomy, hybrids differ according to their parentage, Hybrids between different subspecies are called intra-specific hybrids. Offspring resulting from interspecies mating, are called interspecific hybrids, these result in hybrid speciation. Intergeneric hybrids result from matings between different genera, such as sheep and goats. Interfamilial hybrids such as chickens and guineafowl or pheasants are reliably described but extremely rare
24.
Viking Age
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The Viking Age is the period from the late 8th century to the mid-11th century in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, following the Germanic Iron Age. It is the period of history when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonisation and conquest. Three Viking ships had beached in Weymouth Bay four years earlier, the Viking devastation of Northumbrias Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York, who wrote, Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared. Vikings were portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. The chronicles of medieval England portrayed them as rapacious wolves among sheep, the first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached a readership in Britain. Archaeologists began to dig up Britains Viking past, linguistics traced the Viking-Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled more Victorians to read the Icelandic Sagas, the Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were chiefly pagans from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They also settled in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, peripheral Scotland, Greenland and their North Germanic language, Old Norse, became the mother-tongue of present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a central authority appears to have been established in Jutland. In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries, communities there remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in Denmark which is lowland. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway, the sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. It was in the 8th century that Scandinavians began to build ships of war, the North Sea rovers were traders, colonisers and explorers as well as plunderers. There are various theories concerning the causes of the Viking invasions, for people living along the coast, it would seem natural to seek new land by the sea. Another reason was that during this period England, Wales and Ireland, the Franks, however, had well-defended coasts and heavily fortified ports and harbours. Pure thirst for adventure may also have been a factor, a reason for the raids is believed by some to be over-population caused by technological advances, such as the use of iron, or a shortage of women due to selective female infanticide. Although another cause could well have been caused by the Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia. Consequently, these Vikings became raiders, in search of subsistence, There is ongoing debate among scholars as to why the Scandinavians began to expand during the 8th through 11th centuries
25.
Native plant
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Native plants are plants indigenous to a given area in geologic time. This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for years in an area. Some native plants have adapted to limited, unusual environments or very harsh climates or exceptional soil conditions. Although some types of plants for these reasons exist only within a limited range. Research has found that insects depend on native plants, an ecosystem consists of interactions of plants, animals, and microorganisms with their physical and climatic conditions. Native plants form a part of an environment, or plant community. That could be a case if a plant exists because a certain animal pollinates the plant, some native plants rely on natural conditions, such as occasional wildfires, to release their seeds or to provide a fertile environment in which their seedlings can become established. As societies move plants or introduce them to new locations for cultivation as crops or ornamentals, some of them may become invasive species, besides ecological damage, these species can also damage agriculture, infrastructure, and cultural assets. Government agencies and environmental groups are directing increasing resources to addressing these species, non-native species can have profound effects on ecosystems by changing ecosystem structure, function, species abundance, and community composition. To prevent erosion of the sand dunes at the western edge of the Los Angeles International Airport in 1975. Unfortunately, the mix was representative of coastal sage scrub. As a result, the El Segundo blue butterfly became an endangered species, the rich diversity of unique species across many parts of the world exists only because bioregions are separated by barriers, particularly large rivers, seas, oceans, mountains and deserts. Humans, migratory birds, ocean currents, etc. can introduce species that have never met in their evolutionary history, humans are moving species across the globe at an unprecedented rate. Those working to address invasive species view this as a risk to indigenous species. The term nativar is becoming accepted as cultivars of native plants. The use of nativars is a widely disputed practice among native plant activists, the identification of local plant communities provides a basis for their work. Returning Essential Wildflowers to America’s Landscapes, Project Milkweed, Xerces Society Milkweeds are the required host plants for caterpillars of the monarch butterfly, mary M. Walker, Native Plant Societies of the United States and Canada. Introduced birds of the world, The worldwide history, distribution, New York, Universe Books, New York City, Sydney, Reed ISBN 0-589-50260-3 Vermeij, Geerat J.1991
26.
Oak
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An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks, the common name oak also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, the second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobate margins in many species, also, the acorns contain tannic acid, as do the leaves, which helps to guard from fungi and insects. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring, in spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers and small female flowers. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a structure known as a cupule, each acorn contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group, the oak tree is a flowering plant. Oaks may be divided into two genera and a number of sections, The genus Quercus is divided into the following sections, Quercus, the white oaks of Europe, Asia and North America. Styles are short, acorns mature in 6 months and taste sweet or slightly bitter, the leaves mostly lack a bristle on their lobe tips, which are usually rounded. The type species is Quercus robur, Mesobalanus, Hungarian oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long, acorns mature in about 6 months and taste bitter, the section Mesobalanus is closely related to section Quercus and sometimes included in it. Cerris, the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia, styles long, acorn mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Protobalanus, the live oak and its relatives, in southwest United States. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter, the inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. Leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Lobatae, the red oaks of North America, Central America, styles long, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter
27.
Ectomycorrhiza
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An ectomycorrhiza is a form of symbiotic relationship that occurs between a fungal symbiont and the roots of various plant species. The mycobiont tends to be predominantly from the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, Ectomycorrhizas form between fungi and the roots of around 2% of plant species. These tend to be composed of plants, including species from the birch, dipterocarp, myrtle, beech, willow, pine. Unlike other mycorrhizal relationships, such as arbuscular mycorrhiza and ericoid mycorrhiza, instead, they form an entirely intercellular interface, consisting of highly branched hyphae forming a latticework between epidermal and cortical root cells, known as the Hartig net. Ectomycorrhizas are further differentiated from other mycorrhizas by the formation of a hyphal sheath, known as the mantle. This sheathing mantle can be up to 40 µm thick, with hyphae extending up to several centimeters into the surrounding soil. This hyphal network aids in water and nutrient uptake often helping the host plant to survive adverse conditions, and in exchange, many EcM fungal fruiting bodies are well known. These include the important and edible truffle and the deadly death caps. They also form on many common temperate forest trees, such as pines, oaks, willows, Douglas firs, eucalypts, there have been tremendous advances in research concerning ectomycorrhizal identification and ecological importance over the past few years. This has led to a complete understanding of the intricate. These advances in knowledge have led to increased applicability in areas such as management and restoration, forestry. Mycorrhizal symbioses, in general, are ubiquitous in terrestrial ecosystems, paleobiological and molecular evidence suggest that arbuscular mycorrhizas, in particular, originated at least 460 million years ago. EcM plants and fungi exhibit a wide distribution and are similarly present across all continents, suggesting the EcM symbiosis has ancient evolutionary roots. Pinaceae represents the oldest extant plant family in which symbiosis with EcM fungi occurs, a popular theory proposed by Read postulates that habitat type and the distinct functions of different mycorrhizas help determine the particular symbiosis that will become predominant. In this theory, EcM symbioses evolved in relatively productive ecosystems, such as boreal forests, in this scenario, ectomycorrhizas are a somewhat intermediate form, having greater mineralization capacities than arbuscular mycorrhizas and less so than types such as ericoid mycorrhizas. This is supported by studies, some of which also purport arbuscular mycorrhizas to be the ancestral trait. According to this data, many non-mycorrhizal and other mycorrhizal forms represent evolutionary specializations, Fungi tend to be composed of soft tissues, making fossilization difficult and the discovery of fungal fossils incredibly rare. This is compounded by the size and ephemeral nature of ectomycorrhizas
28.
Amanita
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The genus Amanita contains about 600 species of agarics including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide, as well as some well-regarded edible species. This genus is responsible for approximately 95% of the fatalities resulting from mushroom poisoning, the most potent toxin present in these mushrooms is α-amanitin. The genus also contains many edible mushrooms, but mycologists discourage mushroom hunters, other than knowledgeable experts, nonetheless, in some cultures, the larger local edible species of Amanita are mainstays of the markets in the local growing season. Other species are used for colouring sauces, such as the red A. jacksonii with a range from eastern Canada to eastern Mexico, many species are of unknown edibility, especially in countries such as Australia, where many fungi are little-known. The name is derived from Amanon, a mountain in Cilicia. The genus Amanita was first published with its current meaning by Christian Hendrik Persoon in 1797, several members of the section Phalloidieae are notable for their toxicity, containing toxins known as amatoxins, which can cause liver failure and death. These include the death cap A. phalloides, species known as destroying angels, including A. virosa, A. bisporigera and A. ocreata, and the fools mushroom A. verna. Although some species of Amanita are edible, many experts advise against eating a member of Amanita unless the species is known with absolute certainty. Because so many species within this genus are so deadly toxic, if a specimen is identified incorrectly, consumption may cause extreme sickness and possibly death. Edible species of Amanita include Amanita fulva, Amanita vaginata, Amanita calyptrata, Amanita crocea, the genus Amanita by Michael Kuo, MushroomExpert. Com, March 2005
29.
Boletus
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Boletus is a genus of mushroom-producing fungi, comprising over 100 species. The genus Boletus was originally defined and described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Since then, other genera have been defined gradually, such as Tylopilus by Petter Adolf Karsten in 1881, some mushrooms listed in older books as members of the genus have now been placed in separate genera. These include such as Boletus scaber, now Leccinum scabrum, Tylopilus felleus, Chalciporus piperatus and Suillus luteus, the name is derived from the Latin term bōlētus mushroom from the Ancient Greek βωλίτης, bōlitēs, ultimately from βῶλος, bōlos lump or clod. However, the βωλίτης, of Galen is thought to have been the much prized Amanita caesarea, in Lithuania and Poland Boletus is called the king of mushrooms. The genus Boletus contains many members which are edible and tasty such as Boletus edulis, bolete eater, a fungal parasite of various Boletus species List of Boletus species Media related to Boletus at Wikimedia Commons
30.
Cantharellus
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Cantharellus is a genus of popular edible mushrooms, commonly known as chanterelles/ˌʃæntəˈrɛl/. They are mycorrhizal fungi, meaning they form symbiotic associations with plants, caution must be used when identifying chanterelles for consumption due to lookalikes, such as the Jack-O-Lantern species, which can make a person very ill. Despite this, chanterelles are one of the most recognized and harvested groups of edible mushrooms, many species of chanterelles contain antioxidant carotenoids, such as beta-carotene in C. cibarius and C. minor, and canthaxanthin in C. cinnabarinus and C. friesii. They also contain significant amounts of vitamin D, the name comes from the Greek kantharos meaning tankard or cup. The genus Cantharellus is large and has a complex taxonomic history, Index Fungorum lists over 500 scientific names that have been applied to the genus, although the number of currently valid names is less than 100. In addition to synonymy, many species have moved into other genera such as Afrocantharellus, Arrhenia, Craterellus, Gomphus, Hygrophoropsis. Molecular phylogenetic analyses are providing new information about relationships between chanterelle populations, the following are just a few examples of chanterelle species, C. afrocibarius – Africa C. altipes — southeastern U. S. A. On the lower surface, underneath the cap, it has gill-like ridges that run almost all the way down its stipe. It has a fruity smell and a peppery taste, and is considered an excellent food mushroom. The European girolle, a variant of C. cibarius, has a thicker stalk, C. floridulus C. formosus — The Pacific golden chanterelle has recently been recognized as a separate species from the golden chanterelle. It forms an association with the Douglas-fir and Sitka spruce forests of California. This chanterelle has been designated Oregons state mushroom, due to its economic value, C. pleurotoides — Guyana C. pseudocibarius C. pseudoformosus — found with deodar cedar in India C. protectus – South America C. quercophilus — southeastern U. S. A. C. rhodophyllus C. roseocanus C. ruber C. spectaculus - the spectacular chanterelle, C. subalbidus — The white chanterelle is also found in western North America, and looks like the golden chanterelle except for its off-white color and more robust stalk. It is found in numbers than the golden chanterelle, but can otherwise be treated like its yellow cousins. C. sublaevis – Africa C. subpruinosus – Europe C. tanzanicus – Africa C. tenuithrix — southeastern U. S. A, chanterelles are associated with either conifers or hardwood trees, depending on species. They are often found with oaks in California and Texas, in Scotland, chanterelles grow in mixed forests of silver birch and Scots pine, especially when the forest has plenty of moist, mossy undergrowth. In Fife they are common under beech and they are usually found in the same places as wild blueberries. In Spain they associate with sweet chestnut, a walk in the woods after rain should prove fruitful from late July through the Autumn
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Hebeloma
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Hebeloma is a genus of fungi in the family Hymenogastraceae. Found worldwide, it contains the poison pie or fairy cakes and the fungus, from Western Australia. The generic name is a compound Ancient Greek word of Hebe, youth, or puberty, and the suffix -loma, thus, Hebeloma translates as youthful fringe/veil, in reference to how the fungal veil is only seen in immature specimens. List of Hebeloma species The veiled species of Hebeloma in the western United States by Alexander H. Smith, Vera Stucky Evenson, and Duane H. Mitchel,1983
32.
Lactarius
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Lactarius is a genus of mushroom-producing, ectomycorrhizal fungi, containing several edible species. The species of the genus, commonly known as milk-caps, are characterized by the fluid they exude when cut or damaged. Like the closely related genus Russula, their flesh has a distinctive brittle consistency and it is a large genus with roughly 450 known species, mainly distributed in the Northern hemisphere. Recently, the genus Lactifluus has been separated from Lactarius based on phylogenetic evidence. The genus Lactarius was described by Christian Hendrik Persoon in 1797 with L. piperatus as the type species. In 2011, L. torminosus was accepted as the new type of the genus after the splitting-off of Lactifluus as separate genus, the name Lactarius is derived from the Latin lac, milk. Furcatus was moved to the new genus Multifurca, together with some former Russula species, Multifurca also represents the likely sister group of Lactarius. Phylogenetic analyses have revealed that Lactarius, in the strict sense, contains some species with closed fruitbodies. The angiocarpous genera Arcangeliella and Zelleromyces are phylogenetically part of Lactarius, systematics within Lactarius is a subject of ongoing research. Three subgenera are accepted and supported by molecular phylogenetics, Piperites, Northern temperate region. Russularia, Northern temperate region and tropical Asia, plinthogalus, Northern temperate region, tropical Africa, and tropical Asia. Some more species, all tropical, do not seem to fall into these subgenera and this includes for example L. chromospermus from tropical Africa with an odd brown spore color. It is estimated that a significant number of Lactarius species remain to be described, the eponymous milk and the brittle consistency of the flesh are the most prominent field characters of milk-cap fruitbodies. The milk or latex emerging from bruised flesh is white or cream. Fruitbodies are small to large, gilled, rather fleshy, without veil. Cap surface can be glabrous, velvety or pilose, dry, several species have pits on the cap or pileus surface. Dull colors prevail, but some more colorful species exist, e. g. the blue Lactarius indigo or the species of section Deliciosi. Spore print color is white to ocher or, in some cases, some species have angiocarpous, i. e. closed fruitbodies
33.
Sonian Forest
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The Sonian Forest or Sonian Wood is a 4, 421-hectare forest that lies at the south-eastern edge of Brussels, Belgium. Thus, it out over the three Belgian Regions. It is maintained by Flanders, the Brussels-Capital Region, and Wallonia, there are some contiguous tracts of privately held forest and the Kapucijnenbos, the Capuchin Wood, which belongs to the Royal Trust. The forest is part of the remains of the ancient Silva Carbonaria or Charcoal Forest. The first mention of the Sonian Forest dates from the early Middle Ages, then the forest south of Brussels was crossed by the river Zenne/Senne and extended as far as Hainaut, covering most of the high ground between the Zenne and the Dijle. The ninth-century vita of Saint Foillan mentions the forest, next to the abbey of Saint Gertrude, called the Sonesian In the sixteenth century it was still seven leagues in circumference. At the start of the 19th century the area of the wood was still about 100 square kilometres, but due to wood cutting its area diminished to its current area of 44.21 km². The Forest extended in the Middle Ages over the part of Brabant up to the walls of Brussels and is mentioned, under the name of Ardennes. Originally it was part of the Forest of Ardennes, the Romans Arduenna Silva, king William I of the Netherlands continued to harvest the woods, and from 29,000 acres in 1820 the forest was reduced to 11,200 in 1830. This portion of the forest was converted into farms in the time of the second duke. The Bois de la Cambre on the outskirts of Brussels was formed out of the forest in 1861, in 1911 the forest still stretched to Tervuren, Groenendaal, and Argenteuil close to Mont-Saint-Jean and Waterloo. Formerly the forest held the Abbey of Saint Foillan not far from Nivelles, the forest served for a long period as an exclusive hunting ground for the nobility, but today is open to the general public. Today the forest consists mainly of European beeches and oaks, several trees are more than 200 years old. The forest contains a somewhat reduced fauna and flora, due to human influence and impoverishment of the ecosystem, various plants and animals have become extinct. The forest was home to 46 different mammal species, of these, seven have disappeared altogether, the brown bear, the wolf, the hazel dormouse, the Red Deer, the badger, and the hare. The boar was thought to have been extinct since 1957, but in 2007, according to the Flemish Agency for Nature and Forest, this is unlikely to be a natural spread, but probably two to four animals that most likely were either released or escaped from captivity. The many species of bat in the forest led to it being classified as a Natura 2000 protected site, in 2016, the Sonian Forest joined the European Rewilding Network, an initiative of the Rewilding Europe organisation. The project aims to enable the growth in numbers of natural fauna such as roe deer, various types of wildlife crossings have been or are due to be constructed to reconnect the areas of the forest that are currently divided by large roads
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Old-growth forest
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Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. The concept of tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters. Old-growth forests are valuable, and logging of these forests has been a point of contention between the logging industry and environmentalists. Old-growth forests tend to have trees and standing dead trees, multi-layered canopies with gaps that result from the deaths of individual trees. Depending on the forest, this may take anywhere from a century to several millennia, hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in one or two generations of trees, or 150–500 years. In British Columbia, Canada, old growth is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia’s coastal rainforests, old growth is defined as more than 250 years. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance, Forest types have very different development patterns, natural disturbances and appearances. Levels of biodiversity may be higher or lower in old-growth forests compared to that in second-growth forests, depending on circumstances, environmental variables. Logging in old-growth forests is an issue in many parts of the world. Excessive logging reduces biodiversity, affecting not only the old-growth forest itself, a forest in old-growth stage has a mix of tree ages, due to a distinct regeneration pattern for this stage. New trees regenerate at different times from other, because each one of them has different spatial location relative to the main canopy. The mixed age of the forest is an important criterion in ensuring that the forest is a stable ecosystem in the long term. A climax stand that is uniformly aged becomes senescent and degrades within a relatively short time-period to result in a new cycle of forest succession, thus, uniformly aged stands are a less stable ecosystem. Forest canopy gaps are essential in creating and maintaining mixed-age stands, also, some herbaceous plants only become established in canopy openings, but persist beneath an understory. Openings are a result of death due to small impact disturbances such as wind, low-intensity fires. Because old-growth forest is structurally diverse it provides higher-diversity habitat than forests in other stages, thus, sometimes higher biological diversity can be sustained in old-growth forest, or at least a biodiversity that is different from other forest stages. The characteristic topography of much old-growth forest consists of pits and mounds, mounds are caused by decaying fallen trees, and pits by the roots pulled out of the ground when trees fall due to natural causes, including being pushed over by animals
35.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
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Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
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Sea level
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Mean sea level is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earths oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured. A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a low and mean high tide at a particular location. Sea levels can be affected by factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales. The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change, the term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level. Precise determination of a sea level is a difficult problem because of the many factors that affect sea level. Sea level varies quite a lot on several scales of time and this is because the sea is in constant motion, affected by the tides, wind, atmospheric pressure, local gravitational differences, temperature, salinity and so forth. The easiest way this may be calculated is by selecting a location and calculating the mean sea level at that point, for example, a period of 19 years of hourly level observations may be averaged and used to determine the mean sea level at some measurement point. One measures the values of MSL in respect to the land, hence a change in MSL can result from a real change in sea level, or from a change in the height of the land on which the tide gauge operates. In the UK, the Ordnance Datum is the sea level measured at Newlyn in Cornwall between 1915 and 1921. Prior to 1921, the datum was MSL at the Victoria Dock, in Hong Kong, mPD is a surveying term meaning metres above Principal Datum and refers to height of 1. 230m below the average sea level. In France, the Marégraphe in Marseilles measures continuously the sea level since 1883 and it is used for a part of continental Europe and main part of Africa as official sea level. Elsewhere in Europe vertical elevation references are made to the Amsterdam Peil elevation, satellite altimeters have been making precise measurements of sea level since the launch of TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992. A joint mission of NASA and CNES, TOPEX/Poseidon was followed by Jason-1 in 2001, height above mean sea level is the elevation or altitude of an object, relative to the average sea level datum. It is also used in aviation, where some heights are recorded and reported with respect to sea level, and in the atmospheric sciences. An alternative is to base height measurements on an ellipsoid of the entire Earth, in aviation, the ellipsoid known as World Geodetic System 84 is increasingly used to define heights, however, differences up to 100 metres exist between this ellipsoid height and mean tidal height. The alternative is to use a vertical datum such as NAVD88. When referring to geographic features such as mountains on a topographic map, the elevation of a mountain denotes the highest point or summit and is typically illustrated as a small circle on a topographic map with the AMSL height shown in metres, feet or both. In the rare case that a location is below sea level, for one such case, see Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
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Temperate climate
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In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of Earth lie between the tropics and the polar regions. The temperatures in these regions are relatively moderate, rather than extremely hot or cold. The north temperate zone extends from the Tropic of Cancer to the Arctic Circle, the south temperate zone extends from the Tropic of Capricorn to the Antarctic Circle. In some climate classifications, the zone is often divided into several smaller climate zones. These include Humid subtropical climate, Mediterranean climate, oceanic, subtropical climates are located between 23. 5° and 35. 0° north or south latitude on the eastern or leeward sides of landmasses. This climate has long, generally hot, summers and short, mild winters and these climates may occur in southern Asia, the southeastern United States, parts of eastern Australia, and in eastern coastal South America. Mediterranean climates, occur between 30° and 42° north and south latitude, on the sides of landmasses. This climate has hot summers and short mild winters, however, seasonal rainfall is the opposite of that of the subtropical humid type. These climates occur near the rimlands of the Mediterranean Sea, in western Australia, in California, the oceanic climates occur in the higher middle latitudes, between 45° and 60° north and south latitude. They are created by the flow from the cool high latitude oceans to their west. This causes the climate to have cool summers and cool winters, annual rainfall is spread throughout the entire year. Regions with this climate include Western Europe, northwestern North America, the Continental climates occur in middle latitudes, between 35° or 40° to 55°. These climates are normally inland or on sides of landmasses. They feature warm to hot summers and cold winters, with a large temperature variation. Regions with this climate include northern temperate Asia, the northern United States, southern Canada, the vast majority of the worlds human population resides in temperate zones, especially in the northern hemisphere, due to its greater mass of land. The richest temperate flora in the world is found in southern Africa, geographical zone Habitat Köppen climate classification Middle latitudes Polar circle Subtropics
39.
Brookline, Massachusetts
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Brookline /ˈbrʊkˌlaɪn/ is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and is a part of Greater Boston. Brookline borders six of Bostons neighborhoods, Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, the city of Newton lies to the west of Brookline. At the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732, Brookline was first settled in 1638 as a hamlet in Boston, but was incorporated as a separate town in 1705. Brookline is especially notable as the birthplace and hometown of John F. Kennedy, Brookline was known as the hamlet of Muddy River and was considered part of Boston until the Town of Brookline was independently incorporated in 1705. It is said that the name derives from a farm once owned by Judge Samuel Sewall. According to the United States Census Bureau, Brookline has an area of 6.8 sq mi. The northern part of Brookline, roughly north of the D-line tracks, is urban in character, as highly walkable, Brookline borders Newton to the west and Boston in all other directions, it is therefore non-contiguous with any other part of Norfolk County. Brookline separates the bulk of the city of Boston from its westernmost neighborhoods of Allston–Brighton, Brookline falls under the USDA 6b Plant Hardiness zone. As of the census of 2010, there were 58,732 people,24,891 households, the population density was 8,701.0 people per square mile. There were 26,448 housing units at a density of 3,889.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 73. 3% White,3. 4% Black or African American,0. 12% Native American,15. 6% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,1. 01% from other races, and 3. 0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5. 0% of the population,36. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the family size was 2.86. In the town, the population was out with 16. 6% under the age of 18,11. 7%, from 18 to 24,37. 3% from 25 to 44,21. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 82.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.1 males, the median income for a household in the town was $66,711, and the median income for a family was $92,993. Males had an income of $56,861 versus $43,436 for females. The per capita income for the town was $44,327
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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
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Dwarf Beech
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The Dwarf Beech, Fagus sylvatica Tortuosa Group, is a rare Cultivar Group of the European Beech with less than 1500 older specimens in Europe. It is also known as Twisted Beech or Parasol Beech and it is a wide-spreading tree with distinctive twisted and contorted branches that are quite pendulous at their ends. With its short and twisted trunk the Dwarf Beech grows more in width than height and it sometimes grows from seed and has formed colonies in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and Italy. A similar form is the Weeping Beech, which has more pendulous branching, Dwarf Beeches in France Dwarf Beeches in Germany Dwarf Beeches in Sweden
42.
Weeping beech
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The weeping beech, Fagus sylvatica Pendula, is a cultivar of the deciduous European beech. The weeping beech is characterized by its shape with sweeping, pendulous branches, the stem of the tree may not be visible from a distance due to the presence of the covering weeping branches. Branches may reach the ground and start new roots again, smaller than the common beech, the tree can reach a height of up to 25 m and tends to be wider than high. Leaves of the weeping beech are broad, flat, simple and they have smooth margins and alternate. They typically measure 5 –10 cm in length, flowers appear in the spring and are inconspicuous. The beechnuts sit in a thin spiny husk and are less than 5 cm in diameter, young trees need to be staked to make them grow upward, growth tends to be slow. Weeping beeches may live for 150 to 200 years, the tree is not native to North America but grows in USDA hardiness zones 4-7. It needs moisture and well drained soil and prefers sunny to semi-shaded zones, the tree does not tolerate industrial pollution or street salt. This is a tree that needs room to be fully appreciated. The green leaves become copper-toned in the fall, in winter the skeleton of the silvery stem with its branches remains attractive. The tree can be pruned for walkways, pest that can attack the tree includes aphids, borers, certain caterpillars, and fungal disease. A fine example of Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendula’ can be found in the garden at Malahide Castle. The purple pigment in the leaves acts like a sunscreen to protect its new leaves, the triangular beech nuts are popular in autumn with birds, mice and squirrels
43.
Dawyck Botanic Garden
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Dawyck Botanic Garden is a botanic garden and arboretum covering 25 ha at Stobo on the B712,8 miles south of Peebles in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland, OS ref. The garden is situated in the Upper Tweed Valley, a National Scenic Area, Dawyck, with Logan Botanic Garden and Benmore Botanic Garden, is an outpost or Regional Garden of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The name is given as Dawic, and Dauwic in circa 1200. It may derive from the Gaelic for an ox and the Old English wic for a camp or dwelling, the Veitch family planted the garden at Dawyck House in the 17th century until the Naesmith family took over in 1691. Sir John Murray Naesmith supported plant-hunting expeditions, especially those undertaken by the explorer, in 1897 the Balfour family acquired the Dawyck Estate, and in 1978 they gave the Garden to the Royal Botanic Garden, with the exception of Dawyck House and chapel which remain in private use. The private Dawyck Chapel, built in 1837, sits on the site of the ancient Dalwick Chapel within the gardens, of the eleven Heritage Trees of Scotland in the Scottish Borders, three are at Dawyck. The Dawyck Silver Fir is 35 m in height, the trunk measures 172 cm, there are also the Dawyck Larch, planted 1725, girth 4.46 m height 33 m, and the Dawyck Beech, planted 1860, has an unusual form with upswept branches. See link below to Forestry commission, Dawyck Chapel List of places in the Scottish Borders Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Dawyck Gateway Visitor Centre was nominated for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Award for Architecture in 2008. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Dawyck Botanic Garden webpage PDF Map of Dawyck Botanic Garden ArchitectureScotland
44.
Royal Horticultural Society
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The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England, as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UKs leading gardening charity and claims to be the world’s largest gardening charity, the RHS quotes its charitable purpose as The encouragement and improvement of the science, art and practice of horticulture in all its branches. The current Director General is Sue Biggs, the charity promotes horticulture through flower shows such as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, RHS Tatton Park Flower Show and RHS Cardiff Flower Show. It also supports training for professional and amateur gardeners, the creation of a British horticultural society was suggested by John Wedgwood in 1800. The society would also award prizes for gardening achievements, Wedgwood discussed the idea with his friends, but it was four years before the first meeting, of seven men, took place, on 7 March 1804 at Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly, London. Banks proposed his friend Thomas Andrew Knight for membership, the proposal was accepted, despite Knights ongoing feud with Forsyth over a plaster for healing tree wounds which Forsyth was developing. Knight was President of the society from 1811–1838, and developed the societys aims, in 2009, more than 363,000 people were members of the society, and the number increased to more than 414,000 in 2013. Membership and fellowship of the society were previously decided by election, Fellowship may be secured through a suggested £5,000 donation each year. Members and Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Society are entitled to use the post-nominal letters MRHS and FRHS, respectively. The Royal Horticultural Societys four major gardens in England are, Wisley Garden, near Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor Garden in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex and Harlow Carr in Harrogate, the Societys first garden was in Kensington, from 1818–1822. In 1821 the society leased part of the Duke of Devonshires estate at Chiswick to set up an experimental garden, from 1827 the society held fêtes at the Chiswick garden, and from 1833, shows with competitive classes for flowers and vegetables. In 1861 the RHS developed a new garden at South Kensington on land leased from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, the Chiswick garden was maintained until 1903–1904, by which time Sir Thomas Hanbury had bought the garden at Wisley and presented it to the RHS. RHS Garden Wisley is thus the societys oldest garden, Rosemoor came next, presented by Lady Anne Berry in 1988. Hyde Hall was given to the RHS in 1993 by its owners Dick, Dick Robinson was also the owner of the Harry Smith Collection which was based at Hyde Hall. The most recent addition is Harlow Carr, acquired by the merger of the Northern Horticultural Society with the RHS in 2001 and it had been the Northern Horticultural Societys trial ground and display garden since they bought it in 1949. In 2013, more than 1.63 million people visited the four gardens, in 2015, the RHS announced plans for a fifth garden at Worsley New Hall, Greater Manchester, under the name RHS Garden Bridgewater. The RHS is well known for its flower shows which take place across the UK. The most famous of these shows being the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and this is followed by the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and RHS Tatton Park Flower Show in Cheshire
45.
Award of Garden Merit
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The Award of Garden Merit is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society. It is based on assessment of the performance under UK growing conditions. The Award of Garden Merit is a mark of quality awarded, since 1922, awards are made annually after plant trials intended to judge the plants performance under UK growing conditions. Trial reports are available as booklets and on the RHS website. Awards are reviewed annually in case plants have become unavailable horticulturally, the AGM should not be confused with the RHS Award of Merit, given to plants deemed of great merit for exhibition i. e. for show, not garden, plants. The AGM was reviewed in 1992, to increase its usefulness, field trial results gained weight in the assessments and existing AGM plants were reviewed in the light of more recent experience. The AGMs were to be reviewed at 10 year intervals from 1992, the 2012/13 review, with advice from experts such as RHS plant committees, specialist societies, Plant Heritage National Collection holders and others, resulted in many changes. Nearly 1,900 plants lost their AGMs and more than 1,400 plants gained awards, the AGM symbol represents a cup-shaped trophy with handles
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RHS Garden Harlow Carr
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RHS Garden Harlow Carr is one of four public gardens run by the Royal Horticultural Society. It is located on the edge of Harrogate in the English county of North Yorkshire. The garden is the most recent addition to the RHS, acquired by the merger of the Northern Horticultural Society with the RHS in 2001 and it had been the Northern Horticultural Societys trial ground and display garden since they bought it in 1946. In the year ended 31 January 2010 the garden received 217,820 visitors, the Garden is situated on Crag Lane, off Otley Road about a mile and a half from the centre of Harrogate. Springs of sulphur water were discovered on the site in the 18th century, in 1840, the owner of the estate, Henry Wright, cleaned out and protected one of the wells and four years later built a hotel and a bath house. People were charged 2s 6d to bathe in the warm waters, the gardens were laid out around the bath house and in 1861 the site at Harlow Carr springs was described as, a sweet secluded spot. The grounds neatly laid out, adorned with a selection of trees, shrubs, flowers, walks, easy seats, the hotel later became the Harrogate Arms but closed in 2013. The bath house now houses the study centre. The building was converted in 1958 and contains a meeting room, the six well heads in front of the bath house have been capped off but remain beneath the present Limestone Rock Garden. At times there is a smell of sulphur in this area, the Society leased 10.5 hectares of mixed woodland, pasture and arable land at Harlow Hill from the Harrogate Corporation and it opened the Harlow Carr Botanical Gardens in 1950. The chief aim of the venture was to set up a ground where the suitability of plants for growing in northern climates could be assessed. The original 10.5 hectares has been extended to 27.5, geoffrey Smith, writer and broadcaster, was Superintendent of Harlow Carr from 1954 to 1974. Official website Harlow Carr Tourism Leaflet
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