1.
Chordate
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Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates, in the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized via segmentation. There are also additional extinct taxa, the Vertebrata are sometimes considered as a subgroup of the clade Craniata, consisting of chordates with a skull, the Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, the worlds largest and fastest animals, the blue whale and peregrine falcon respectively, are chordates, as are humans. Fossil chordates are known from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion, Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata, form the Ambulacraria, the Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. All of the earliest chordate fossils have found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial and it has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce family trees shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic. While this has been known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson, it was already in prevalent use by 1880, ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization, among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, and in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, a muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. This is a groove in the wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus and it also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland
2.
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
3.
Plant morphology
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Plant morphology or phytomorphology is the study of the physical form and external structure of plants. This is usually considered distinct from plant anatomy, which is the study of the structure of plants. Plant morphology is useful in the identification of plants. Plant morphology represents a study of the development, form, and structure of plants, and, by implication, there are four major areas of investigation in plant morphology, and each overlaps with another field of the biological sciences. When structures in different species are believed to exist and develop as a result of common, inherited genetic pathways, for example, the leaves of pine, oak, and cabbage all look very different, but share certain basic structures and arrangement of parts. The homology of leaves is a conclusion to make. This aspect of plant morphology overlaps with the study of plant evolution, secondly, plant morphology observes both the vegetative structures of plants, as well as the reproductive structures. The vegetative structures of plants includes the study of the shoot system, composed of stems and leaves. The reproductive structures are varied, and are usually specific to a particular group of plants, such as flowers and seeds, fern sori. The detailed study of structures in plants led to the discovery of the alternation of generations found in all plants. This area of plant morphology overlaps with the study of biodiversity, thirdly, plant morphology studies plant structure at a range of scales. At the smallest scales are ultrastructure, the structural features of cells visible only with the aid of an electron microscope, and cytology. At this scale, plant morphology overlaps with plant anatomy as a field of study, at the largest scale is the study of plant growth habit, the overall architecture of a plant. The pattern of branching in a tree will vary from species to species, as will the appearance of a plant as a tree, herb, fourthly, plant morphology examines the pattern of development, the process by which structures originate and mature as a plant grows. While animals produce all the parts they will ever have from early in their life. A living plant always has embryonic tissues, a morphologist studies this process, the causes, and its result. This area of plant morphology overlaps with plant physiology and ecology, a plant morphologist makes comparisons between structures in many different plants of the same or different species. Making such comparisons between structures in different plants tackles the question of why the structures are similar
4.
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
5.
Leaflet (botany)
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A leaflet in botany is a leaf-like part of a compound leaf. Though it resembles a leaf, a leaflet is not borne on a main plant stem or branch, as a leaf is. Compound leaves are common in many plant families and they differ widely in morphology, the two main classes of compound leaf morphology are palmate and pinnate. For example, a plant has palmate compound leaves, whereas some species of Acacia have pinnate leaves. The ultimate free division of a leaf, or a pinnate subdivision of a multipinnate leaf is called a pinnule or pinnula
6.
Petiole (botany)
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In botany, the petiole is the stalk that attaches the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole is the transition between the stem and the leaf blade, outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole in some species are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile or epetiolate, the petiole is a stalk that attaches a leaf to the plant stem. In petiolate leaves, the stalk may be long, as in the leaves of celery and rhubarb, short or completely absent. Subpetiolate leaves are petiolate, or have an extremely short petiole. The broomrape family Orobanchaceae is an example of a family in which the leaves are always sessile, in some other plant groups, such as the speedwell genus Veronica, petiolate and sessile leaves may occur in different species. In the grasses the leaves are apetiolate, but the blade may be narrowed at the junction with the leaf sheath to form a pseudopetiole. In plants with leaves, the leaflets are attached to a continuation of the petiole called the rachis. Each leaflet may be attached to the rachis by a stalk called the petiolule. There may be swollen regions at either end of the known as pulvina that are composed of a flexible tissue that allows leaf movement. Pulvina are common in the bean family Fabaceae and the plant family Marantaceae. A pulvinus on a petiolule is called a pulvinulus, in some plants, the petioles are flattened and widened, to become phyllodes or phyllodia, or cladophylls and the true leaves may be reduced or absent. Thus, the comes to serve the functions of the leaf. Phyllodes are common in the genus Acacia, especially the Australian species, in Acacia koa, the phyllodes are leathery and thick, allowing the tree to survive stressful environments. The petiole allows partially submerged hydrophytes to have leaves floating at different depths, in plants such as rhubarb, celery, artichokes and cardoons the petioles are cultivated as edible crops. The petiole of rhubarb grows directly from the rhizome and produces the leaf at its end, botanically it is categorized as a vegetable and culinarily used as a fruit. Petiole is pronounced /ˈpiːtᵻoʊl/ and comes from Latin petiolus, or peciolus little foot, stem, the regular diminutive pediculus is also used for foot stalk
7.
Rachis
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Rachis /ˈreɪkᵻs/ is a biological term for a main axis or shaft. In vertebrates a rachis can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, in this case the rachis usually forms the supporting axis of the body and is then called the spine or vertebral column. Rachis can also mean the central shaft of pennaceous feathers, in the gonad of the invertebrate nematode C. The rachis is filled with cytoplasm, in plants, a rachis is the main axis of a compound structure. It can be the stem of a compound leaf, such as in Acacia or ferns, or the main. A ripe head of wheat is easily shattered into dispersal units when touched or blown by the wind. A series of abscission layers forms that divides the rachis into dispersal units consisting of a group of flowers attached to a short segment of the rachis. This is significant in the history of agriculture, and referred to by archaeologists as a brittle rachis, one type of shattering in crop plants
8.
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
9.
Stipule
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In botany, stipule is a term coined by Linnaeus which refers to outgrowths borne on either side of the base of a leafstalk. A pair of stipules is considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a flowering plant. In some older botanical writing, the term stipule was used generally to refer to any small leaves or leaf-parts. The position of stipules on a plant varies widely from species to species, stipules are most common on dicotyledons, where they appear in pairs alongside each leaf. Some monocotyledon plants display stipule-like structures, but only one per leaf. A relationship exists between the anatomy of the node and the presence or absence of stipules, most plants with trilacunar nodes have stipules, species with unilacunar nodes lack stipules. Stipules are morphologically variable and might appear as glands, scales, hairs, spines, if a single stipule goes all the way around the stem, it is known as an ochrea. The three types of stipules according to duration are caducous, deciduous and persistent, caducous stipules fall off before the leaf unfolds, while deciduous stipules fall off immediately after the leaf unfolds. Persistent stipules remain attached to the plant, stipules can be considered free lateral, adnate, interpetiolar, intrapetiolar, ochreate, foliaceous, bud scales, tendrillar or spiny. A stipule can be fused to the stem, or to the other stipule from the same node, a stipule is adnate if its fused together on part of the petiole length, but the anterior is still free. A stipule is intrapetiolar if it is located in the angle thats between a stem and a petiole, in this case, the two stipules generally form together and appear to be one stipule. A stipule is ochreate if a single stipule appears to be a tube that goes all the way around the stem. A stipule is foliaceous if it is leaf-like and these are generally used to photosynthesize. A stipule is considered a bud scale if it is hard or scaly and these generally fall off as soon as the leaf unfolds. A stipule is considered tendrillar if they are long thin tendrils, a stipule is considered spiny if they are long and pointy. These are generally used to deter animals, a stipule is considered to be abaxial, counter or leaf opposed if its located on the opposite side to where the leaf meets the stem. Stipules can be used by the plants in various ways, and it is known that foliaceous stipules are used like leaves to make energy for the plants. Sometimes stipules protect the next leaf or bud as it grows in, then falls off after the leaf unfolds, stipules can be used as climbing tendrils by climbing plants
10.
Parity (mathematics)
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Parity is a mathematical term that describes the property of an integers inclusion in one of two categories, even or odd. An integer is even if it is divisible by two and odd if it is not even. For example,6 is even there is no remainder when dividing it by 2. By contrast,3,5,7,21 leave a remainder of 1 when divided by 2, examples of even numbers include −4,0,8, and 1738. In particular, zero is an even number, some examples of odd numbers are −5,3,9, and 73. Parity does not apply to non-integer numbers and this classification applies only to integers, i. e. non-integers like 1/2,4.201, or infinity are neither even nor odd. The sets of even and odd numbers can be defined as following and that is, if the last digit is 1,3,5,7, or 9, then it is odd, otherwise it is even. The same idea will work using any even base, in particular, a number expressed in the binary numeral system is odd if its last digit is 1 and even if its last digit is 0. In an odd base, the number is according to the sum of its digits – it is even if. The following laws can be verified using the properties of divisibility and they are a special case of rules in modular arithmetic, and are commonly used to check if an equality is likely to be correct by testing the parity of each side. As with ordinary arithmetic, multiplication and addition are commutative and associative in modulo 2 arithmetic, however, subtraction in modulo 2 is identical to addition, so subtraction also possesses these properties, which is not true for normal integer arithmetic. The structure is in fact a field with just two elements, the division of two whole numbers does not necessarily result in a whole number. For example,1 divided by 4 equals 1/4, which is neither even nor odd, since the concepts even, but when the quotient is an integer, it will be even if and only if the dividend has more factors of two than the divisor. The ancient Greeks considered 1, the monad, to be neither odd nor fully even. It is this, that two relatively different things or ideas there stands always a third, in a sort of balance. Thus, there is here between odd and even numbers one number which is neither of the two, similarly, in form, the right angle stands between the acute and obtuse angles, and in language, the semi-vowels or aspirants between the mutes and vowels. A thoughtful teacher and a pupil taught to think for himself can scarcely help noticing this, integer coordinates of points in Euclidean spaces of two or more dimensions also have a parity, usually defined as the parity of the sum of the coordinates. For instance, the cubic lattice and its higher-dimensional generalizations
11.
Tepal
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A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower when these parts cannot easily be divided into two kinds, sepals and petals. The term was first proposed by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1827, undifferentiated tepals are believed to be the ancestral condition in flowering plants. For example, Amborella, which is thought to have separated earliest in the evolution of flowering plants, has flowers with undifferentiated tepals, distinct petals and sepals would therefore have arisen by differentiation, probably in response to animal pollination. Tepals formed by similar sepals and petals are common in monocotyledons, in tulips, for example, the first and second whorls both contain structures that look like petals. These are fused at the base to one large, showy. In lilies the organs in the first whorl are separate from the second, where sepals and petals can in principle be distinguished, usage of the term tepal is not always consistent – some authors will refer to sepals and petals where others use tepals in the same context. In some plants the flowers have no petals, and all the tepals are sepals modified to look like petals and these organs are described as petaloid, for example, the sepals of hellebores. When the undifferentiated tepals resemble petals, they are referred to as petaloid, as in petaloid monocots. Since they include Liliales, a name is lilioid monocots. Terms used in the description of tepals include pubescent, puberulent, tepal shape is described in similar terms to those used for leaves. Plant Systematics - Jones, Samuel - McGraw-Hill 1979 ISBN 0-07-032795-5
12.
Celery
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Celery is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves, depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, leaves, or hypocotyl are eaten and used in cooking. Celery seed is used as a spice, its extracts are used in medicines. Celery leaves are pinnate to bipinnate with rhombic leaflets 3–6 cm long, the flowers are creamy-white, 2–3 mm in diameter, and are produced in dense compound umbels. The seeds are ovoid to globose,1. 5–2 mm long. Modern cultivars have been selected for solid petioles, leaf stalks, a celery stalk readily separates into strings which are bundles of angular collenchyma cells exterior to the vascular bundles. The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek se-ri-no, celery was described by Carl Linnaeus in Volume One of his Species Plantarum in 1753. Wild celery, Apium graveolens var. graveolens, grows to 1 m tall, by the 19th century, the season for celery had been extended, to last from the beginning of September to late in April. In North America, commercial production of celery is dominated by the cultivar called Pascal celery, Gardeners can grow a range of cultivars, many of which differ from the wild species, mainly in having stouter leaf stems. They are ranged under two classes, white and red, the stalks grow in tight, straight, parallel bunches, and are typically marketed fresh that way, without roots and just a little green leaf remaining. The stalks are eaten raw, or as an ingredient in salads, or as a flavoring in soups, stews, in Europe, another popular variety is celeriac, Apium graveolens var. rapaceum, grown because its hypocotyl forms a large bulb, white on the inside. The bulb could be kept for months in winter and mostly serves as an ingredient in soup. It can also be ground up and used in salads, the leaves are used as seasoning, the small, fibrous stalks find only marginal use. Leaf celery or Chinese celery, Apium graveolens var. secalinum, is a cultivar from East Asia, the wild form of celery is known as smallage. It has a stalk with wedge-shaped leaves, the whole plant having a coarse, earthy taste. The stalks are not usually eaten, but the leaves may be used in salads, with cultivation and blanching, the stalks lose their acidic qualities and assume the mild, sweetish, aromatic taste particular to celery as a salad plant. Harvesting occurs when the size of celery in a field is marketable, due to extremely uniform crop growth. The petioles and leaves are removed and harvested, celery is packed by size, under optimal conditions, celery can be stored for up to seven weeks between 0 to 2 °C
13.
Chlorosis
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In botany, chlorosis is a condition in which leaves produce insufficient chlorophyll. As chlorophyll is responsible for the color of leaves, chlorotic leaves are pale, yellow. Chlorosis is derived from the Greek khloros meaning greenish-yellow, pale green, pale, pallid, in viticulture, the most common symptom of poor nutrition in grapevines is the yellowing of grape leaves caused by chlorosis and the subsequent loss of chlorophyll. In these soils the grapevine often struggles to pull sufficient levels of iron which is a component in the production of chlorophyll. Chlorosis is typically caused when leaves do not have enough nutrients to all the chlorophyll they need. Exposure to sulphur dioxide ozone injury to sensitive plants presence of any number of bacterial pathogens, however, the exact conditions vary from plant type to plant type. For example, Azaleas grow best in soil and rice is unharmed by waterlogged soil. Like many other plants, grape vines are susceptible to chlorosis, in the wake of The Great French Wine Blight, when European Vitis vinifera were affected by Phylloxera, chlorosis became a greater problem in viticulture. To deal with the Phylloxera blight, V. vinifera was grafted onto rootstock based on American species of the Vitis genus, such as Vitis riparia, Vitis rupestris, Vitis berlandieri. However, many of these were adapted to the lime-rich soils that were common in Frances vineyards. Many grafted vines in lime-rich vineyards therefore showed signs of iron deficiency, the problem was largely overcome by the selection of lime-resistant American vines as basis for hybrid vines used for rootstock material. However, since such rootstocks may be less optimal in other respects. Specific nutrient deficiencies may be corrected by supplemental feedings of iron, in the form of a chelate or sulphate, magnesium or nitrogen compounds in various combinations
14.
Hibiscus mutabilis
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Hibiscus mutabilis, also known as the Confederate rose, Dixie rosemallow or the cotton rosemallow, is a plant noted for its flowers. Confederate roses tend to be shrubby or treelike in Zones 9 and 10, flowers can be double or single and are 4 to 6 inches in diameter, they open white or pink, and change to deep red by evening. The Rubra variety has red flowers, single blooming flowers are generally cup-shaped. Bloom season usually lasts from summer through fall, propagation by cuttings root easiest in early spring, but cuttings can be taken at almost any time. When it does not freeze, the Confederate rose can reach heights of 12 to 15 feet with a trunk, however. These plants have a very fast growth rate, the Confederate rose was at one time very common in the area of the Confederate States of America, which is how its common name was derived. It grows well in sun or partial shade, and prefers rich. Leaves and flowers of H. mutabilis are emollient and cooling, mucilage from flowers and leaves is used by midwives to facilitate delivery during labour. Flowers are white in the morning, turning pink during noon, under laboratory conditions, colour change of petals was slower than that of flowers under outdoor conditions. Temperature may be an important factor affecting the rate of change as white flowers kept in the refrigerator remain white until they are taken out to warm. The red flowers remain on plants for several days before they abort, weight of a single detached flower was 15.6 g when white,12.7 g when pink and 11.0 g when red. Anthocyanin content of red flowers was 3 times that of flowers and 8 times that of white flowers. There was a significant increase in content with colour change. Overall ranking of AOP of H. mutabilis flowers was red > pink > white, subramanian and Nair postulated that anthocyanins in pink and red flowers of H. mutabilis are synthesized independently since there is no reduction in phenolic content. However, Lowry suggested that anthocyanins are formed through direct conversion from flavonols as they have structural similarities, plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 12, Medicinal and poisonous plants 2, backhuys Publisher, Leiden, Netherlands, p. 297–303. “Floral anthocyanins of some Malesian Hibiscus species”, clearwater Publications, Kuala Lumpur,361 p. ISBN 983-42954-0-5. “A note on the change of the flowers of Hibiscus mutabilis”
15.
Heart (symbol)
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The heart shape is an ideograph used to express the idea of the heart in its metaphorical or symbolic sense as the center of emotion, including affection and love, especially romantic love. The wounded heart indicating love sickness came to be depicted as a heart pierced with an arrow. The combination of the shape and its use within the heart metaphor developed at the end of the Middle Ages. Before the 14th century, the shape was not associated with the meaning of the heart metaphor. The first known depiction of a heart as a symbol of romantic love dates to the 1250s and it occurs in a miniature decorating a capital S in a manuscript of the French Roman de la poire. In the miniature a kneeling lover offers his heart to a damsel, the heart here resembles a pine cone, in accord with medieval anatomical descriptions. However, in miniature what suggests a heart shape is only the result of a lovers finger superimposed on an object, the full shape outline of the object is partly hidden. Moreover, the French title of the manuscript that features the miniature translates into Novel Of The Pear in English, thus the heart shaped object would be a pear, the conclusion that a pear represents a heart is dubious. Opinions therefore differ over this being the first depiction of a heart as symbol of romantic love, the convention of showing the heart point upward switches in the late 14th century and becomes rare in the first half of the 15th century. A slightly later example with a pronounced dent is found in a manuscript from the Cistercian monastery in Brussels. The convention of showing a dent at the base of the heart thus spread at about the time as the convention of showing the heart with its point downward. The modern indented red heart has been used on playing cards since the late 15th century, various hypotheses attempted to connect the heart shape as it evolved in the late medieval period with instances of the geometric shape in antiquity. Such theories are modern, proposed from the 1960s onward, and they remain speculative, hearts can be seen on the bible Jesus holds in the Empress Zoe mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Hearts can also be seen on various stucco reliefs and wall panels excavated from the ruins of Ctesiphon, the Persian capital. The Luther rose was the seal that was designed for Martin Luther at the behest of Prince John Frederick, in 1530, while Luther was staying at the Coburg Fortress during the Diet of Augsburg. Luther wrote an explanation of the symbol to Lazarus Spengler, a cross in a heart. For one who believes from the heart will be justified, since the 19th century, the symbol has often been used on St. Valentines Day cards, candy boxes, and similar popular culture artifacts as a symbol of romantic love. The use of the symbol as a logograph for the English verb to love derives from the use in I ♥ NY
16.
Delta (letter)
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Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 4 and it was derived from the Phoenician letter dalet
17.
Sickle
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Falx was a synonym but was later used to mean any of a number of tools that had a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge such as a scythe. Since the beginning of the Iron Age hundreds of variants of the sickle have evolved, initially of iron. The serrated blade that originated in prehistoric sickles still dominates in the reaping of grain and is found in modern grain-harvesting machines. The development of the sickle in Mesopotamia can be traced back to times that pre-date the Neolithic Era, large quantities of sickle blades have been excavated in sites surrounding Israel that have been dated to the Epipaleolithic era. Formal digs in Wadi Ziqlab, Jordan have unearthed various forms of early sickle blades, the artifacts recovered ranged from 10 to 20 cm in length and possessed a jagged edge. This intricate ‘tooth-like’ design showed a degree of design and manufacturing credence than most of the other artifacts that were discovered. Sickle blades found during this time were made of flint, straight, flints from these sickles have been discovered near Mt. Carmel, which suggest the harvesting of grains from the area about 10,000 years ago. The sickle had a impact on the Agricultural Revolution by assisting in the transition to farming. It is now accepted that the use of sickles led directly to the domestication of Near Eastern Wild grasses, research on domestication rates of wild cereals under primitive cultivation found that the use of the sickle in harvesting was critical to the people of early Mesopotamia. The relatively narrow growing season in the area and the role of grain in the late Neolithic Era promoted a larger investment in the design. Standardization to an extent was done on the measurements of the sickle so that replacement or repair could be more immediate and it was important that the grain be harvested at the appropriate time at one elevation so that the next elevation could be collected in the proper time. The sickle provided an efficient option in collecting the grain. The sickle remained common in the Bronze Age, both in the Ancient Near East and in Europe, numerous sickles have been found deposited in hoards in the context of the European Urnfield culture, suggesting a symbolic or religious significance attached to the artifact. In archaeological terminology, Bronze Age sickles are classified by the method of attaching the handle, E. g. the knob-sickle is so called because of a protruding knob at the base of the blade which apparently served to stabilize the attachment of the blade to the handle. The sickle has been discovered in southwest North America with a unique structure and these sickles are said to possibly have originated from the Far East. There is evidence that Kodiak islanders had for cutting grass “sickles made of an animal shoulder blade”. The artifacts found in present-day Arizona and New Mexico resemble curved tools that were made from the horns of mountain sheep, a similar site discovered sickles made from other material such as the Caddo Sickle, which was made from a deer mandible. Scripture from early natives document the use of sickles in the cutting of grass
18.
Leaf window
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This is also known as fenestration. The translucent structure may include epidermal tissue, and in some succulent plants it consists of cell layers of parenchyma. It can appear as a large patch, a variegated or reticulated region. Many of the species containing leaf windows are native to South Africa. The primary function of the translucent windows on the epidermis is to increase the absorption of radiant energy. Epidermal windows are situated at the apex of leaves, allowing unobstructed sunlight to be captured and utilized even when the plant is buried below the surface of the soil. The absence of stomata in the translucent tissue of the window prevents water loss in the plant and this allows succulents to minimize the exposure of leaf surface area to the outside environment and reduce the risk of desiccation under intense heat. Experiments in the Lithops species of succulents, have shown that the size of leaf windows correlates inversely with habitat solar irradiance, epidermal windows of plants growing in regions of high irradiance and low-rainfall were smaller than of those plants which grew in cloudy, high-rainfall regions. It is presumed that the size variation evolved to allow plants to set their optimal uptake of sunlight based on its environment. Carnivorous plants can make use of by growing traps which use sunlight to lure and/or confuse insects. Genera of plants with numerous species having translucent epidermal windows include, nepenthes spp. known only from N. klossii and N. aristolochioides. Peperomia spp. notably P. columella and P. Perforate leaf, leaves have holes
19.
Lance
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The lance is a pole weapon or spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier. Lances were often equipped with a vamplate – a small circular plate to prevent the hand sliding up the shaft upon impact. The name is derived from the word lancea - the Roman auxiliaries javelin or throwing knife, although according to the OED, also compare λόγχη, a Greek term for spear or lance. A lance in the sense is a light throwing spear. The English verb to launch fling, hurl, throw is derived from the term, the term from the 17th century came to refer specifically to spears not thrown, used for thrusting by heavy cavalry, and especially in jousting. A thrusting spear which is used by infantry is referred to as a pike. The second use of the lance in this sense was made by the Assyrians, long thrusting cavalry spears were especially popular among the Hellenistic armies agema and line cavalry. One of the most effective ancient lanced cavalry units was Alexander the Greats Companion cavalry, the Roman cavalry long thrusting spear was called a contus. It was usually 3 to 4m long, and grasped with both hands and it was employed by equites contariorum and equites cataphractarii, fully armed and armoured cataphracts. The Byzantine cavalry used lances almost exclusively, often in mixed lancer, the Byzantines used lance both overarm and underarm, couched. It is commonly believed that this became the dominant European cavalry tactic in the 11th century after the development of the saddle and stirrups. Cavalry thus outfitted and deployed had a collective force in their charge. Recent evidence has suggested, however, that the charge was effective without the benefit of stirrups. Because of the stopping power of a thrusting spear, it quickly became a popular weapon of infantry in the Late Middle Ages. These eventually led to the rise of the longest type of spears and this adaptation of the cavalry lance to infantry use was largely tasked with stopping lance-armed cavalry charges. In Europe, a lance was a variation of the knights lance which was modified from its original war design. The centre of the shaft of such lances could be designed to be hollow, in order for it to break on impact and they were often at least 4m long, and had hand guards built into the lance, often tapering for a considerable portion of the weapons length. These are the versions that can most often be seen at medieval reenactment festivals, in war, lances were much more like stout spears, long and balanced for one-handed use, and with sharpened tips
20.
Lyre
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The lyre is a string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences, the word comes via Latin from the Greek, the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning lyrists and written in the Linear B script. The lyres of Ur, excavated in ancient Mesopotamia, date to 2500 BC, the earliest picture of a lyre with seven strings appears in the famous sarcophagus of Hagia Triada. The sarcophagus was used during the Mycenaean occupation of Crete, the recitations of the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, the fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord. However, later lyres were played with a bow in Europe, one example from Wales that has been resurrected recently is the crwth. In organology, lyres are defined as yoke lutes, being lutes in which the strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the plane as the sound-table. A classical lyre has a body or sound-chest, which. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke, an additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, makes the bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge, according to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which forced them to walk backwards, Apollo, following the trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all, from the entrails and a tortoise/turtle shell, he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade the herd of cattle for the lyre, hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other sources credit it to Apollo himself, locales in southern Europe, western Asia, or north Africa have been proposed as the historic birthplace of the genus. The instrument is played in north-eastern parts of Africa. Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia bordering the Lydian empire, some mythic masters like Musaeus, and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization
21.
Nelumbo
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Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy flowers. Members are commonly called lotus, though lotus is a name applied to various other plants and plant groups. Members outwardly resemble those in the family Nymphaeaceae, but Nelumbo is actually very distant to Nymphaeaceae, Nelumbo is derived from the Sinhalese word Sinhalese, නෙළුම් neḷum, the name for the lotus Nelumbo nucifera. There are only two living species of lotus, Nelumbo nucifera is native to Asia and is better-known. It is commonly cultivated, it is eaten and used in traditional Chinese medicine and this species is the floral emblem of both India and Vietnam. The other lotus is Nelumbo lutea and is native to North America, horticultural hybrids have been produced between these two allopatric species. A third, extinct species, Nelumbo aureavallis, is known from Eocene fossils from North Dakota in the United States, †N. aureavallis Hickey – Eocene, described from leaves found in the Golden Valley Formation in North Dakota, USA. – American lotus N. nucifera Gaertn, – sacred or Indian lotus, also known as the Rose of India and the sacred water lily of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is the flower of India and Vietnam. Its roots and seeds are used widely in Asian cooking. There is residual disagreement over which family the genus should be placed in, in the older classification systems it was recognized under the biological order Nymphaeales or Nelumbonales. Nelumbo is currently recognized as a taxon, Nelumbonaceae, one of several distinctive families in the eudicot order of the Proteales. Its closest living relatives, the, are shrubs or trees, the leaves of Nelumbo can be distinguished from those of genera in the Nymphaeaceae as they are peltate, that is they have fully circular leaves. Nymphaea, on the hand, has a single characteristic notch from the edge in to the center of the lily pad. The seedpod of Nelumbo is very distinctive, the APG II system of 2003, recognizes Nelumbonaceae as a distinct family and places it in the order Proteales in the eudicot clade. The Cronquist system of 1981 recognizes the family but places it in the water lily order Nymphaeales, the Dahlgren system of 1985 and Thorne system of 1992 both recognize the family and place it in its own order, Nelumbonales. The leaves of nelumbo are highly water-repellent and have given the name to what is called the lotus effect, N. nucifera regulates its temperature in order to benefit insect pollinators. When the plant flowers, it heats its blossoms to above 30 °C for as long as four days even when the air is as cool as 10 °C, the heat releases an aroma that attracts certain insects, which fly into the flower to feed on nectar and pollen
