1.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
2.
National park
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A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns, although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea, the conservation of wild nature for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, although Yellowstone was not officially termed a national park in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. The first area to use national park in its legislation was the USs Mackinac Island. Australias Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park, as a result, Australias Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. The largest national park in the meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park. According to the IUCN,6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006, IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are almost always open to visitors, in 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877, John Muir is today referred to as the Father of the National Parks due to his work in Yosemite. He published two articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the base for the subsequent legislation. President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 1,1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley, according to this bill, private ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was designated to manage the park for use, resort. Leases were permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation, a public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there was a heated debate over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone at its establishment six years later was put under national control, in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States first national park, being also the worlds first national park. In some European countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels, Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory
3.
Kenya
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Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa and a founding member of the East African Community. Its capital and largest city is Nairobi and it is bordered by Tanzania to the south and southwest, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya covers 581,309 km2, and had a population of approximately 48 million people in January 2017, Kenya has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. The climate is cooler in the grasslands around the capital city, Nairobi, and especially closer to Mount Kenya. Further inland are highlands in Central and Rift Valley regions where tea, in the West are Nyanza and Western regions, there is an equatorial, hot and dry climate which becomes humid around Lake Victoria, the largest tropical fresh-water lake in the world. This gives way to temperate and forested areas in the neighbouring western region. The north-eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes, Kenya is known for its world class athletes in track and field and rugby. The African Great Lakes region, which Kenya is a part of, has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic period, by the first millennium AD, the Bantu expansion had reached the area from West-Central Africa. Bantu and Nilotic populations together constitute around 97% of the nations residents, European and Arab presence in coastal Mombasa dates to the Early Modern period, European exploration of the interior began in the 19th century. The British Empire established the East Africa Protectorate in 1895, which starting in 1920 gave way to the Kenya Colony, Kenya obtained independence in December 1963. Following a referendum in August 2010 and adoption of a new constitution, Kenya is now divided into 47 semi-autonomous counties, the capital, Nairobi, is a regional commercial hub. The economy of Kenya is the largest by GDP in East, agriculture is a major employer, the country traditionally exports tea and coffee and has more recently begun to export fresh flowers to Europe. The service industry is also an economic driver. Additionally, Kenya is a member of the East African Community trading bloc, the Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya. The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa, if so, then the British may not so much have mispronounced it, as misspelled it. In the 19th century, the German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf was staying with the Bantu Kamba people when he first spotted the mountain. On asking for the name of the mountain, he was told Kĩ-Nyaa or Kĩĩma- Kĩĩnyaa probably because the pattern of black rock, the Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga in Kikuyu, which is quite similar to the Kamba name. Ludwig Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia believed by most to be a corruption of the Kamba version, others say that this was—on the contrary—a very precise notation of a correct African pronunciation /ˈkɛnjə/
4.
Nairobi
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Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. It is famous for having the Nairobi National Park, the only game reserve found within a major city. The city and its surrounding area also form Nairobi County, whose current governor is Evans Kidero, the name Nairobi comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nairobi, which translates to cool water. The phrase is also the Maasai name of the Nairobi river, however, it is popularly known as the Green City in the Sun, and is surrounded by several expanding villa suburbs. Nairobi was founded in 1899 by the authorities in British East Africa. The town quickly grew to replace Machakos as the capital of Kenya in 1907, after independence in 1963, Nairobi became the capital of the Republic of Kenya. During Kenyas colonial period, the city became a centre for the coffee, tea. The city lies on the River Athi in the part of the country. With a population of 3.36 million in 2011, Nairobi is the second-largest city by population in the African Great Lakes region after Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. According to the 2009 census, in the area of Nairobi,3,138,295 inhabitants lived within 696 km2. Nairobi is the 14th-largest city in Africa, including the population of its suburbs, the Nairobi Securities Exchange is one of the largest in Africa and the second-oldest exchange on the continent. It is Africas fourth-largest exchange in terms of trading volume, capable of making 10 million trades a day, Nairobi is found within the Greater Nairobi Metropolitan region, which consists of 4 out of 47 counties in Kenya, which generates about 60% of the entire nations wealth. The city was named after a water hole known in Maasai as Enkare Nairobi and it was completely rebuilt in the early 1900s after an outbreak of plague and the burning of the original town. The location of the Nairobi railway camp was due to its central position between Mombasa and Kampala. It was also chosen because its network of rivers could supply the camp with water, however, malaria was a serious problem, leading to at least one attempt to have the town moved. In 1905, Nairobi replaced Mombasa as capital of the British protectorate, as the British occupiers started to explore the region, they started using Nairobi as their first port of call. This prompted the government to build several spectacular grand hotels in the city. The main occupants were British game hunters, Nairobi continued to grow under the British and many British subjects settled within the citys suburbs
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Herbivory
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A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding, horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material. A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter and this gut flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or bacteria living in the herbivores intestines. Herbivore is the form of a modern Latin coinage, herbivora. Richard Owen employed the term in an 1854 work on fossil teeth. Herbivora is derived from the Latin herba meaning a small plant or herb, Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms feed on autotrophs in general are known as primary consumers. Herbivory usually refers to eating plants, fungi, bacteria and protists that feed on living plants are usually termed plant pathogens. Flowering plants that obtain nutrition from other living plants are usually termed parasitic plants, there is however no single exclusive and definitive ecological classification of consumption patterns, each textbook has its own variations on the theme. Insects fed on the spores of early Devonian plants, and the Rhynie chert also provides evidence that organisms fed on plants using a pierce, during the next 75 million years, plants evolved a range of more complex organs, such as roots and seeds. There is no evidence of any organism being fed upon until the middle-late Mississippian,330.9 million years ago, further than their arthropod status, the identity of these early herbivores is uncertain. Hole feeding and skeletonisation are recorded in the early Permian, with surface fluid feeding evolving by the end of that period, Herbivory among four-limbed terrestrial vertebrates, the tetrapods developed in the Late Carboniferous. Early tetrapods were large amphibious piscivores, while amphibians continued to feed on fish and insects, some reptiles began exploring two new food types, tetrapods and plants. The entire dinosaur order ornithischia was composed with herbivores dinosaurs, carnivory was a natural transition from insectivory for medium and large tetrapods, requiring minimal adaptation. In contrast, a set of adaptations was necessary for feeding on highly fibrous plant materials. Arthropods evolved herbivory in four phases, changing their approach to it in response to changing plant communities, tetrapod herbivores made their first appearance in the fossil record of their jaws near the Permio-Carboniferous boundary, approximately 300 million years ago. The earliest evidence of their herbivory has been attributed to dental occlusion, the evolution of dental occlusion led to a drastic increase in plant food processing and provides evidence about feeding strategies based on tooth wear patterns. Examination of phylogenetic frameworks of tooth and jaw morphologes has revealed that dental occlusion developed independently in several lineages tetrapod herbivores and this suggests that evolution and spread occurred simultaneously within various lineages
7.
Rhinoceros
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A rhinoceros, often abbreviated to rhino, is one of any five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae, as well as any of the numerous extinct species. Two of these extant species are native to Africa and three to Southern Asia and they generally eat leafy material, although their ability to ferment food in their hindgut allows them to subsist on more fibrous plant matter, if necessary. Unlike other perissodactyls, the two African species of rhinoceros lack teeth at the front of their mouths, relying instead on their lips to pluck food. Rhinoceros are killed by humans for their horns, which are bought and sold on the market. East Asia, specifically Vietnam, is the largest market for rhino horns, by weight, rhino horns cost as much as gold on the black market. People grind up the horns and then consume them believing the dust has therapeutic properties, the horns are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails. Both African species and the Sumatran rhinoceros have two horns, while the Indian and Javan rhinoceros have a single horn, the IUCN Red List identifies three of the species as critically endangered. The word rhinoceros is derived through Latin from the Ancient Greek, ῥῑνόκερως, the plural in English is rhinoceros or rhinoceroses. The collective noun for a group of rhinoceroses is crash or herd, the name has been in use since the 14th century. The family Rhinocerotidae consists of four extant genera, Ceratotherium, Dicerorhinus. The living species fall into three categories, the two African species, the white rhinoceros and the black rhinoceros, belong to the tribe Dicerotini, which originated in the middle Miocene, about 14.2 million years ago. The species diverged during the early Pliocene, the main difference between black and white rhinos is the shape of their mouths – white rhinos have broad flat lips for grazing, whereas black rhinos have long pointed lips for eating foliage. There are two living Rhinocerotini species, the Indian rhinoceros and the Javan rhinoceros, which diverged from one another about 10 million years ago, the Sumatran rhinoceros is the only surviving representative of the most primitive group, the Dicerorhinini, which emerged in the Miocene. A subspecific hybrid white rhino was bred at the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic in 1977, interspecific hybridisation of black and white rhinoceros has also been confirmed. While the black rhinoceros has 84 chromosomes, all other species have 82 chromosomes. However, chromosomal polymorphism might lead to varying chromosome counts, for instance, in a study there were three northern white rhinoceroses with 81 chromosomes. There are two subspecies of rhinoceros, the southern white rhinoceros and the northern white rhinoceros. As of 2013, the subspecies has a wild population of 20,405 – making them the most abundant rhino subspecies in the world
8.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
9.
Nomad
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A nomad is a member of a community of people who live in different locations, moving from one place to another. Among the various ways nomads relate to their environment, one can distinguish the hunter-gatherer, as of 1995, there were an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world. Nomadic hunting and gathering, following seasonally available wild plants and game, is by far the oldest human subsistence method, pastoralists raise herds, driving them, or moving with them, in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover. Nomadism is also a lifestyle adapted to regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand. For example, many groups in the tundra are reindeer herders and are semi-nomadic and these nomads sometimes adapt the use of high technology such as solar photovoltaics to reduce their dependence on diesel fuel. These groups are known as peripatetic nomads, a nomad is a person with no settled home, moving from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making a living. The word Nomad comes from a Greek word that one who wanders for pasture. Most nomadic groups follow an annual or seasonal pattern of movements and settlements. Nomadic peoples traditionally travel by animal or canoe or on foot, today, some nomads travel by motor vehicle. Most nomads live in tents or other portable shelters, Nomads keep moving for different reasons. Nomadic foragers move in search of game, edible plants, the Australian Aborigines, Negritos of Southeast Asia, and San of Africa, for example, traditionally move from camp to camp to hunt and to gather wild plants. Some tribes of the Americas followed this way of life, Pastoral nomads make their living raising livestock, such as camels, cattle, goats, horses, sheep, or yaks. These nomads travel to find more camels, goats, and sheep through the deserts of Arabia, the Fulani and their cattle travel through the grasslands of Niger in western Africa. Some nomadic peoples, especially herders, may move to raid settled communities or avoid enemies. Nomadic craftworkers and merchants travel to find and serve customers and they include the Lohar blacksmiths of India, the Romani traders, and the Irish Travellers. Most nomads travel in groups of families called bands or tribes and these groups are based on kinship and marriage ties or on formal agreements of cooperation. A council of adult males makes most of the decisions, though some tribes have chiefs, in the case of Mongolian nomads, a family moves twice a year. These two movements would generally occur during the summer and winter, the winter location is usually located near mountains in a valley and most families already have their fixed winter locations
10.
Maasai people
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The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are among the best known local populations due to their residence near the game parks of the African Great Lakes. The Maasai speak the Maa language, a member of the Nilo-Saharan family that is related to Dinka and they are also educated in the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania, Swahili and English. The Maasai population has been reported as numbering 841,622 in Kenya in the 2009 census, the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have instituted programs to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, but the people have continued their age-old customs. Recently, Oxfam has claimed that the lifestyle of the Maasai should be embraced as a response to change because of their ability to produce food in deserts. Many Maasai tribes throughout Tanzania and Kenya welcome visits to their villages to experience their culture, traditions, the Maasai speak a Nilo-Saharan language. They inhabit the African Great Lakes region and arrived via the South Sudan, most Nilotic speakers in the area, including the Maasai, the Samburu and the Kalenjin, are pastoralists, and are famous for their fearsome reputations as warriors and cattle-rustlers. The Nilotic ancestors of the Kalenjin and Samburu likewise absorbed some early Cushitic populations, the Maasai territory reached its largest size in the mid-19th century, and covered almost all of the Great Rift Valley and adjacent lands from Mount Marsabit in the north to Dodoma in the south. At this time the Maasai, as well as the larger Nilotic group they were part of, raiders used spears and shields, but were most feared for throwing clubs which could be accurately thrown from up to 70 paces. In 1852, there was a report of a concentration of 800 Maasai warriors on the move in what is now Kenya, in 1857, after having depopulated the Wakuafi wilderness in what is now southeastern Kenya, Maasai warriors threatened Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. Because of this migration, the Maasai are the southernmost Nilotic speakers, the period of expansion was followed by the Maasai Emutai of 1883–1902. This period was marked by epidemics of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, rinderpest, the estimate first put forward by a German lieutenant in what was then northwest Tanganyika, was that 90 percent of cattle and half of wild animals perished from rinderpest. German doctors in the area claimed that every second African had a pock-marked face as the result of smallpox. Rains failed completely in 1897 and 1898, warriors scarcely able to crawl on all fours, and apathetic, languishing elders. Swarms of vultures followed them from high, awaiting their certain victims, by one estimate two-thirds of the Maasai died during this period. Maasai in Tanganyika were displaced from the lands between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro, and most of the fertile highlands near Ngorongoro in the 1940s. Maasai are pastoralist and have resisted the urging of the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. They have demanded grazing rights to many of the parks in both countries
11.
Kikuyu people
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The Kikuyu are the largest ethnic group in Kenya. They speak the Bantu Kikuyu language as a mother tongue, the term Kikuyu is the Swahili form of the native pronunciation Gĩkũyũ. They are also referred to as the Agĩkũyũ or Nyũmba ya Mũmbi meaning House Of The Potter or Creator, Gĩkũyũ literally means a huge sycamore tree and Agĩkũyũ thus literally refers to the children of the huge sycamore. According to the 2009 Kenya Population & Housing Census, there are an estimated 6,622,576 Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya, mythically, the nation of the Agĩkũyũ came from two original parents who were created by God, namely Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi. The word Gĩkũyũ means a huge sycomore tree, Ngai refers to the creator who happens to be a life companion to the sycomore, the sacred tree from which the nation originated. The Kikuyu are of a Bantu people and they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Kenya, and are concentrated in the vicinity of Mount Kenya. The exact place that the Kikuyus ancestors migrated from after the initial Bantu expansion from West Africa is uncertain, until the arrival of Europeans, the Agĩkũyũ preserved geographic and political power from almost all external influence for many generations, they had never been subdued. Just before the arrival of the British, Arabs were involved in slave trade, slavery as an institution did not exist amongst the Agĩkũyũ, nor did they make raids for the capture of slaves. The Arabs who tried to venture into Agĩkũyũ land met instant death, relying on a combination of land purchases, blood-brotherhood, intermarriage with other people, and their adoption and absorption, the Agĩkũyũ were in a constant state of territorial expansion. Economically, the Agĩkũyũ were great farmers and shrewd businesspeople, besides farming and business, the Agĩkũyũ were involved in small scale industries with professions such as bridge building, string making, wire drawing, and iron chain making. The Agĩkũyũ had a sense of justice. The Agĩkũyũ nation was divided into nine clans, the members of each clan had a common maternal blood tie, but were not restricted to any particular geographical area, they lived side by side. Some clans had a leader, others did not. However, in case, real political power was exercised by the ruling council of elders. The Gĩkũyũ were – and still are – monotheists believing in an omnipotent God whom they refer to as Ngai, all of the Gĩkũyũ, Embu, and Kamba use this name. Ngai was also known as Mũrungu by the Meru and Embu tribes, the title Mwathani or Mwathi comes from the word gwatha meaning to rule or reign with authority, was and is still used. All sacrifices to Ngai were performed under a tree and if one was not available. The olive tree was a tree for women
12.
Zebra
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Zebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white striped coats. Their stripes come in different patterns, unique to each individual and they are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds. Unlike their closest relatives, horses and donkeys, zebras have never truly domesticated. There are three species of zebras, the zebra, the Grévys zebra and the mountain zebra. The plains zebra and the mountain zebra belong to the subgenus Hippotigris, the latter resembles an ass, to which it is closely related, while the former two are more horse-like. All three belong to the genus Equus, along with other living equids, the unique stripes of zebras make them one of the animals most familiar to people. They occur in a variety of habitats, such as grasslands, savannas, woodlands, thorny scrublands, mountains, however, various anthropogenic factors have had a severe impact on zebra populations, in particular hunting for skins and habitat destruction. Grévys zebra and the mountain zebra are endangered, the name zebra in English dates back to c. 1600, from Italian zebra, perhaps from Portuguese, which in turn is said to be Congolese, the Encarta Dictionary says its ultimate origin is uncertain, but perhaps it may come from Latin equiferus meaning wild horse, from equus and ferus. The pronunciation with an initial vowel remains standard in the United States. Zebras evolved among the Old World horses within the last 4 million years and it has been suggested that zebras are polyphyletic and that striped equids evolved more than once. Extensive stripes are posited to have been of use to equids that live in low densities in deserts or ones that live in colder climates with shaggy coats. However, molecular evidence supports zebras as a monophyletic lineage, collectively, two of the species have eight subspecies. Zebra populations are diverse, and the relationships between, and the status of, several of the subspecies are not well known. It, or particular subspecies of it, have also known as the common zebra, the dauw, Burchells zebra, Chapmans zebra, Wahlbergs zebra, Selous zebra, Grants zebra, Boehms zebra. The mountain zebra of southwest Africa tends to have a coat with a white belly. It has two subspecies and is classified as vulnerable, Grévys zebra is the largest type, with a long, narrow head, making it appear rather mule-like. It is an inhabitant of the grasslands of Ethiopia and northern Kenya
13.
Karen Blixen
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Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke was a Danish author, also known by the pen name Isak Dinesen, who wrote works in Danish, French and English. She also at times used the pen names Tania Blixen, Osceola and she is also noted for her Seven Gothic Tales, particularly in Denmark. Blixen was considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the second oldest in a family of three sisters and two brothers, her younger brother, Thomas Dinesen, grew up to earn the Victoria Cross in the First World War. Dinesen was known to her friends not as Karen but as Tanne, Dinesens early years had been strongly influenced by her father Wilhelm Dinesen, thanks to his relaxed manner and his love of the outdoor life. He also wrote throughout his life and his memoir, Boganis Jagtbreve became a classic in Danish literature. From August 1872 to December 1873, Wilhelm had lived among the Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin, on returning to Denmark, he suffered from syphilis which resulted in bouts of deep depression. As a result, he hanged himself on 28 March 1895 when Karen was almost ten, Karen Dinesens life at Rungstedlund changed significantly after her fathers death, from then on dominated by her Westenholz family. Unlike her brothers who attended school, she was educated at home by her grandmother and by her aunt. Westenholz, who brought her up in the staunch Unitarian tradition, in 1905, these led to her Grjotgard Ålvesøn og Aud in which her literary talent began to emerge. Around this time, she published fiction in Danish periodicals under the pseudonym Osceola, the name of her fathers dog. In 1898, Dinesen and her two sisters spent a year in Switzerland where she learnt to speak French with the same ease as she had acquired English at home. In 1902, she attended Charlotte Sodes art school in Copenhagen before continuing her studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts under Viggo Johansen, in her mid-twenties, she also visited Paris, London and Rome on study trips. While still young, Dinesen spent many of her holidays with her cousins family. She first fell madly in love with the dashing equestrian Hans and she therefore decided to accept the favours of his twin brother, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, announcing their engagement on 23 December 1912 to the familys general surprise. Given the difficulties both were experiencing in settling in Denmark, the family suggested they should move abroad and their common uncle, Aage Westenholz who had made a fortune in Siam, suggested they should go to Kenya to start a coffee farm. He and his sister Ingeborg Dinesen invested 150,000 Danish crowns in the venture, early in 1913, Bror Blixen-Finecke left for Kenya, followed by his fiancée in December. Soon after Dinesen arrived in Kenya, which at the time was part of British East Africa, she, after her marriage, she was known as Baroness Blixen, and used the title until 1929, when her ex-spouse remarried. Initially, they planned to raise cattle on their farm, but were convinced that coffee would be more profitable
14.
Out of Africa
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Out of Africa is a memoir by the Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, the book is a lyrical meditation on Blixen’s life on her coffee plantation, as well as a tribute to some of the people who touched her life there. It provides a snapshot of African colonial life in the last decades of the British Empire. Blixen wrote the book in English and then rewrote it in Danish, the book has sometimes been published under the authors pen name, Isak Dinesen. I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills, the Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the mornings and evenings were limpid and restful. The Blixens had planned to raise cattle, but Bror developed their farm as a coffee plantation instead. It was managed by Europeans, including, at the start, Karen’s brother Thomas –, when the First World War drove coffee prices up, the Blixen family invested in the business, and in 1917 Karen and Bror expanded their holdings to six thousand acres. The new acquisitions included the site of the house which features so prominently in Out of Africa, the Blixens’ marriage started well – Karen and Bror went on hunting safaris which Karen later remembered as paradisiacal. But it was not ultimately successful, Bror, a hunter and a well liked companion, was an unfaithful husband. In 1921 the couple separated, and in 1925 they were divorced and she was well suited to the work – fiercely independent and capable, she loved the land and liked her native workers. But the climate and soil of her particular tract was not ideal for coffee-raising, the farm endured several unexpected dry years with low yields, the farm sank further and further into debt until, in 1931, the family corporation forced her to sell it. The buyer, Remi Martin, who planned to carve it into residential plots and she declined, and returned to Denmark. Blixen moved back to the estate of Rungstedlund and lived with her mother, there she took up again the writing career that she had begun. In 1934 she published a collection, Nine Tales, now known as Seven Gothic Tales. The book’s title was derived from the title of a poem, Ex Africa, she had written in 1915. The poem’s title is probably an abbreviation of the famous ancient Latin adage Ex Africa semper aliquid novi, the third section, called “Visitors to the Farm, ” describes some of the more colourful local characters who considered Blixen’s farm to be a safe haven. The fourth, “From an Immigrant’s Notebook, ” is a collection of short sub-chapters in which Blixen reflects on the life of a white African colonist
15.
Gazelle
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A gazelle is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella or formerly considered to belong to it. Six species are included in two genera, Eudorcas and Nanger, which were formerly considered subgenera, the genus Procapra has also been considered a subgenus of Gazella, and its members are also referred to as gazelles, though they are not dealt with in this article. Gazelles are known as swift animals, some are able to run at bursts as high as 100 km/h or run at a sustained speed of 50 km/h. Gazelles are found mostly in the deserts, grasslands, and savannas of Africa, but they are found in southwest and central Asia. They tend to live in herds, and eat coarse, easily digestible plants. Gazelles are rather small antelopes, most standing 60–110 cm high at the shoulder, the gazelle genera are Gazella, Eudorcas, and Nanger. The taxonomy of these genera is a one, and the classification of species and subspecies has been an unsettled issue. Currently, the genus Gazella is widely considered to contain about 10 species, four further species are extinct, the red gazelle, the Arabian gazelle, the Queen of Shebas gazelle, and the Saudi gazelle. Most surviving gazelle species are considered threatened to varying degrees, closely related to the true gazelles are the Tibetan and Mongolian gazelles, the blackbuck of Asia, and the African springbok. One widely familiar gazelle is the African species Thomsons gazelle, which is around 60 to 80 cm in height at the shoulder and is coloured brown, the males have long, often curved, horns. Like many other species, Tommies and springboks exhibit a distinctive behaviour of stotting when they are threatened by predators. Gazelle is derived from the Arabic name غزال ġazāl, the first Romance language to adopt it was Middle French, and the word entered the English language around 1600 from French. The Arab people traditionally hunted the gazelle, appreciated for its grace, it is a symbol most commonly associated in Arabic literature with female beauty. It is related that the Caliph Abd al-Malik freed a gazelle that he had captured because of her resemblance to his beloved, O likeness of Layla, for I am your friend, today, O wild deer. Then I say, after freeing her from her fetters, You are free for the sake of Layla, the theme is found in the ancient Hebrew Song of Songs. Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a stag on the spice-laden mountains. The gazelles are divided into three genera and numerous species, † = extinct Fossils of genus Gazella are found in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of Eurasia and Africa. The tiny Gazella borbonica is one of the earliest European gazelles, characterized by its small size, gazelles disappeared from Europe at the start of Ice Age, but they survived in Africa and Middle East
16.
Impala
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The impala is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of the genus Aepyceros, it was first described by German zoologist Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein in 1812, two subspecies are recognised—the common impala, and the larger and darker black-faced impala. The impala reaches 70–92 centimetres at the shoulder and weighs 40–76 kilograms and it features a glossy, reddish brown coat. The males slender, lyre-shaped horns are 45–92 centimetres long, active mainly during the day, the impala may be gregarious or territorial depending upon the climate and geography. Three distinct social groups can be observed, the males, bachelor herds. The impala is known for two characteristic leaps that constitute an anti-predator strategy, browsers as well as grazers, impala feed on monocots, dicots, forbs, fruits and acacia pods. An annual, three-week-long rut takes place toward the end of the wet season, rutting males fight over dominance, and the victorious male courts female in oestrus. Gestation lasts six to seven months, following which a single calf is born, calves are suckled for four to six months, young males—forced out of the all-female groups—join bachelor herds, while females may stay back. The impala occurs in woodlands and sometimes on the interface between woodlands and savannahs, it inhabits places close to water. The first attested English name, in 1802, was palla or pallah, from the Tswana phala red antelope and its Afrikaans name, rooibok red buck, is also sometimes used in English. The scientific generic name Aepyceros comes from Ancient Greek αἰπύς aipus high + κέρας keras horn, the impala is the sole member of the genus Aepyceros and belongs to the family Bovidae. It was first described by German zoologist Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein in 1812, in 1984, palaeontologist Elisabeth Vrba opined that the impala is a sister taxon to the alcelaphines given its resemblance to the hartebeest. A1999 phylogenetic study by Alexandre Hassanin and colleagues, based on mitochondrial and nuclear analyses and this clade is sister to another formed by the bay duiker and the klipspringer. An rRNA and β-spectrin nuclear sequence analysis in 2003 also supported an association between Aepyceros and Neotragus, the following cladogram is based on the 1999 study, Up to six subspecies have been described, although only two are generally recognised on the basis of mitochondrial data. Though morphologically similar, the show a significant genetic distance between them, and no hybrids between them have been reported. A. m. melampus Lichtenstein,1812, Known as the common impala, the range extends from central Kenya to South Africa and westward into southeastern Angola. A. m. petersi Bocage,1879, Known as the impala, it is restricted to southwestern Africa, occurring in northwestern Namibia. According to Vrba, the impala evolved from an alcelaphine ancestor and she noted that while this ancestor has diverged at least 18 times into various morphologically different forms, the impala has continued in its basic form for at least five million years
17.
Conservation movement
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The early conservation movement included fisheries and wildlife management, water, soil conservation and sustainable forestry. Some say the movement is part of the broader and more far-reaching environmental movement. Chiefly in the United States, conservation is seen as differing from environmentalism in that it aims to preserve natural resources expressly for their sustainable use by humans. The conservation movement can be traced back to John Evelyns work Sylva, published as a book two years later, it was one of the most highly influential texts on forestry ever published. The field developed during the 18th century, especially in Prussia and these methods were first applied rigorously in British India from the early-19th century. This early ecological idea was in order to preserve the growth of teak trees. The first forestry officer was appointed in 1806 to regulate and preserve the trees necessary for shipbuilding and this promising start received a setback in the 1820s and 30s, when laissez-faire economics and complaints from private landowners brought these early conservation attempts to an end. Conservation was revived in the century, with the first practical application of scientific conservation principles to the forests of India. Edward Percy Stebbing warned of desertification of India and this was the first case of state management of forests in the world. These local attempts gradually received more attention by the British government as the unregulated felling of trees continued unabated, in 1850, the British Association in Edinburgh formed a committee to study forest destruction at the behest of Dr. Hugh Cleghorn a pioneer in the nascent conservation movement. He had become interested in forest conservation in Mysore in 1847, in the same year, Cleghorn organised the Madras Forest Department and in 1860 the Department banned the use shifting cultivation. Cleghorns 1861 manual, The forests and gardens of South India, in 1861, the Forest Department extended its remit into the Punjab. Sir Dietrich Brandis, a German forester, joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the forests of Pegu division in eastern Burma. During that time Burmas teak forests were controlled by militant Karen tribals and he introduced the taungya system, in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. After seven years in Burma, Brandis was appointed Inspector General of Forests in India and he formulated new forest legislation and helped establish research and training institutions. The Imperial Forest School at Dehradun was founded by him, germans were prominent in the forestry administration of British India. As well as Brandis, Berthold Ribbentrop and Sir William P. D, schlich brought new methods to Indian conservation, the latter becoming the Inspector-General in 1883 after Brandis stepped down. Schlich helped to establish the journal Indian Forester in 1874, and he authored the five-volume Manual of Forestry on silviculture, forest management, forest protection, and forest utilisation, which became the standard and enduring textbook for forestry students
18.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
19.
Pastoralism
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Pastoralism is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry, the care, tending and use of such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas. Pastoralism generally has an aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture. Pastoralism is a strategy to support a population on less productive land. For example, in savannas, pastoralists and their animals gather when rain water is abundant, pastoralists often use their herds to affect their environment. Grazing herds on savannas can ensure the biodiversity of the savannas, pastoralists may also use fire to make ecosystems more suitable for their food animals. For instance, the Turkana people of northwest Kenya use fire to prevent the invasion of the savanna by woody plant species, biomass of the domesticated and wild animals was increased by a higher quality of grass. Pastoralism is found in many variations throughout the world, composition of herds, management practices, social organization and all other aspects of pastoralism vary between areas and between social groups. Many traditional practices have also had to adapt to the circumstance of the modern world. Ranches of the United States and sheep stations and cattle stations of Australia are seen by some as modern variations, one theory is that pastoralism was created from mixed farming. Bates and Lees proposed that it was the incorporation of irrigation into farming which ensued in specialization, advantages of mixed farming include reducing risk of failure, spreading labour, and re-utilizing resources. The increased productivity of agriculture led to an increase in population. Bordering areas of land remained in use for animal breeding and this meant that large distances had to be covered by herds to collect sufficient forage. Specialization occurred as a result of the importance of both intensive agriculture and pastoralism. Both agriculture and pastoralism developed alongside other, with continuous interactions. There is another theory that suggests pastoralism evolved from hunting and gathering, hunters of wild goats and sheep were knowledgeable about herd mobility and the needs of the animals. Such hunters were mobile and followed the herds on their seasonal rounds, undomesticated herds were chosen to become more controllable for the proto-pastoralist nomadic hunter and gatherer groups by taming and domesticating them. Hunter-gatherers strategies in the past have been diverse and contingent upon the local environment conditions
20.
Daniel arap Moi
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Daniel Toroitich arap Moi /ˈmoʊiː/ MOH-ee is a former Kenyan politician who served as the second President of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. Through popular agitation and external pressures, he was forced to allow multiparty elections in 1992 and successfully led his party to victory, prior to 1978, he served as the third Vice President of Kenya from 1967 to 1978. Moi is popularly known to Kenyans as Nyayo, a Swahili word for footsteps and he also earned the sobriquet Professor of Politics due to his long rule of 24 years, the longest in Kenyan history to date. Moi was born in Kuriengwo village, Sacho division, Baringo County and he is of the Kalenjin people. After completing his education at Kapsabet High School, he attended Tambach Teachers Training College in the Keiyo District. He worked as a teacher from 1946 until 1955, in 1955 Moi entered politics when he was elected Member of the Legislative Council for Rift Valley. In 1960 he founded the Kenya African Democratic Union with Ronald Ngala to challenge the Kenya African National Union led by Jomo Kenyatta, KADU pressed for a federal constitution, while KANU was in favour of centralism. The advantage lay with the numerically stronger KANU, and the British government was forced to remove all provisions of a federal nature from the constitution. In 1957 Moi was re-elected Member of the Legislative Council for Rift Valley and he became Minister of Education in the pre-independence government of 1960–1961. After Kenya gained independence on 12 December 1963, Kenyatta convinced Moi that KADU, accordingly, KADU dissolved and joined KANU in 1964. The only real challenge to KANUs dominance came from the Kenya Peoples Union and that party was banned in 1969, and from that point onward Kenya was a de facto one-party state dominated by the Kĩkũyũ-Luo alliance. As a member of a minority tribe Moi was also a compromise for the major tribes. Moi was elected to the Kenyan parliament in 1963 from Baringo North, since 1966 until his retirement in 2002 he served as the Baringo Central MP and only served as a vice-president until 1978 when he became the president. However, Moi faced opposition from the Kikuyu elite known as the Kiambu Mafia and this resulted in an attempt by the constitutional drafting group to change the constitution to prevent the vice-president automatically assuming power in the event of the presidents death. The presence of this mechanism might have led to dangerous political instability if Kenyatta died, given his advanced age. However, Kenyatta withstood the pressure and safeguarded Mois position. When Jomo Kenyatta died on 22 August 1978, Moi succeeded him and he was popular, with widespread support all over the country. He toured the country and came into contact with the people everywhere, however, political realities dictated that he would continue to be beholden to the Kenyatta system which he had inherited intact, including the nearly dictatorial powers vested in the presidency
21.
Ivory
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Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks and teeth of animals, that can be used in art or manufacturing. It consists mainly of dentine ), one of the structures of teeth. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is the same and it has been valued since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, and dominoes. Elephant ivory is the most important source, but ivory from mammoth, walrus, hippopotamus, sperm whale, killer whale, narwhal, elk also have two ivory teeth, which are believed to be the remnants of tusks from their ancestors. The national and international trade in ivory of threatened species such as African and Asian elephants is illegal, the word ivory ultimately derives from the ancient Egyptian âb, âbu, through the Latin ebor- or ebur. Both the Greek and Roman civilizations practiced ivory carving to make large quantities of high value works of art, precious religious objects, Ivory was often used to form the white of the eyes of statues. There is some evidence of either whale or walrus ivory used by the ancient Irish, solinus, a Roman writer in the 3rd century claimed that the Celtic peoples in Ireland would decorate their sword-hilts with the teeth of beasts that swim in the sea. Adomnan of Iona wrote a story about St Columba giving a sword decorated with carved ivory as a gift that a penitent would bring to his master so he could redeem himself from slavery. The Syrian and North African elephant populations were reduced to extinction, the Chinese have long valued ivory for both art and utilitarian objects. Southeast Asian kingdoms included tusks of the Indian elephant in their annual tribute caravans to China, Chinese craftsmen carved ivory to make everything from images of deities to the pipe stems and end pieces of opium pipes. The Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, Ivory was prized for containers due to its ability to keep an airtight seal. It was also carved into elaborate seals utilized by officials to sign documents. In Southeast Asian countries, where Muslim Malay peoples live, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, in the Philippines, ivory was also used to craft the faces and hands of Catholic icons and images of saints prevalent in the Santero culture. Tooth and tusk ivory can be carved into a vast variety of shapes, examples of modern carved ivory objects are okimono, netsukes, jewelry, flatware handles, furniture inlays, and piano keys. Additionally, warthog tusks, and teeth from sperm whales, orcas and hippos can also be scrimshawed or superficially carved, Ivory usage in the last thirty years has moved towards mass production of souvenirs and jewelry. In Japan, the increase in wealth sparked consumption of solid ivory hanko – name seals – which before this time had made of wood. Prior to the introduction of plastics, ivory had many ornamental and practical uses and it was formerly used to make cutlery handles, billiard balls, piano keys, Scottish bagpipes, buttons and a wide range of ornamental items. Ivory can be taken from dead animals – however, most ivory came from elephants that were killed for their tusks, for example, in 1930 to acquire 40 tons of ivory required the killing of approximately 700 elephants
22.
Ecosystem
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An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles, as ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces. Energy, water, nitrogen and soil minerals are other essential components of an ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun and it generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and they also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, other external factors include time and potential biota. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—invariably, they are subject to disturbances and are in the process of recovering from some past disturbance. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can have different characteristics simply because they contain different species. The introduction of species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function. Internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them and are often subject to feedback loops. Other internal factors include disturbance, succession and the types of species present, although humans exist and operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Biodiversity affects ecosystem function, as do the processes of disturbance, classifying ecosystems into ecologically homogeneous units is an important step towards effective ecosystem management, but there is no single, agreed-upon way to do this. The term ecosystem was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley, Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment. He later refined the term, describing it as The whole system, including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment. Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as mental isolates, Tansley later defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope. G. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas one step further to suggest that the flow of energy through a lake was the driver of the ecosystem. Most mineral nutrients, on the hand, are recycled within ecosystems. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, external factors, also called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem
23.
Ungulate
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Most terrestrial ungulates use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. The term means, roughly, being hoofed or hoofed animal, ungulates are typically herbivorous, and many employ specialized gut bacteria to allow them to digest cellulose, as in the case of ruminants. They inhabit a range of habitats, including jungles, plains. Ungulata, which used to be considered an order, has split into the following, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, Tubulidentata, Hyracoidea, Sirenia, Proboscidea. This is an example of convergent evolution. There is now some dispute as to whether this smaller Ungulata is a cladistic group, some studies have indeed found the mesaxonian ungulates and paraxonian ungulates to form a monophyletic lineage, closely related to either the Ferae in the clade Fereuungulata or to the bats. Below is a simplified taxonomy with the extant families, in order of the relationships, keep in mind that there are still some grey areas of conflict, such as the case with relationship of the pecoran families and the baleen whale families. See each family for the relationships of the species as well as the controversies in their respective article, Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla include the majority of large land mammals. These two groups first appeared during the late Paleocene, rapidly spreading to a variety of species on numerous continents. In Australia, the marsupial Chaeropus also developed hooves, convergent those of artiodactyls, perissodactyls are said to have evolved from the Phenacodontidae, small, sheep-sized animals that already shown signs of anatomical features that their descendents will inherit. By the start of the Eocene,55 million years ago, they had diversified, horses and tapirs both evolved in North America, rhinoceroses appear to have developed in Asia from tapir-like animals and then colonised the Americas during the middle Eocene. Of the approximately 15 families, only three survive and these families were very diverse in form and size, they included the enormous brontotheres and the bizarre chalicotheres. The largest perissodactyl, an Asian rhinoceros called Paraceratherium, reached 15 tonnes, the desmostylians were large amphibious quadrupeds with massive limbs and a short tail. They grew to 1.8 metres in length and are thought to have weighed more than 200 kilograms. Their fossils are known from the northern Pacific Rim, from southern Japan through Russia, the Aleutian Islands and their dental and skeletal form suggests desmostylians were aquatic herbivores dependent on littoral habitats. They are the marine mammals to have gone extinct. For a while their relationships with other ungulates was a mystery, a recent study based on bone collagen as also found that to suggest that at least litopterns and the notoungulates were closely related to the perissodactyls. The oldest known fossils assigned to Equidae date from the early Eocene,54 million years ago
24.
Grassland
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Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses, however sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica, grasslands are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. For example, there are five terrestrial ecoregion classifications of the grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. Grassland vegetation can vary in height from short, as in chalk grassland, to quite tall, as in the case of North American tallgrass prairie, South American grasslands. Woody plants, shrubs or trees, may occur on some grasslands – forming savannas, scrubby grassland or semi-wooded grassland, as flowering plants and trees, grasses grow in great concentrations in climates where annual rainfall ranges between 500 and 900 mm. The root systems of perennial grasses and forbs form complex mats that hold the soil in place, graminoids are among the most versatile life forms. Existing forest biomes declined, and grasslands became much more widespread, following the Pleistocene ice ages, grasslands expanded in range in the hotter, drier climates, and began to become the dominant land feature worldwide. Grasslands often occur in areas with annual precipitation between 600 mm and 1,500 mm and average annual temperatures ranges from −5 and 20 °C. However, some occur in colder and hotter climatic conditions. Grassland can exist in habitats that are disturbed by grazing or fire. Grasslands dominated by unsown wild-plant communities can be called natural or semi-natural habitats. The majority of grasslands in temperate climates are semi-natural and these grasslands contain many species of wild plants – grasses, sedges, rushes and herbs –25 or more species per square metre is not unusual. Chalk downlands in England can support over 40 species per square metre, in many parts of the world, few examples have escaped agricultural improvement. For example, original North American prairie grasslands or lowland wildflower meadows in the UK are now rare and their associated wild flora equally threatened. Some of the worlds largest expanses of grassland are found in African savanna, grasslands may occur naturally or as the result of human activity. Grasslands created and maintained by human activity are called anthropogenic grasslands, hunting peoples around the world often set regular fires to maintain and extend grasslands, and prevent fire-intolerant trees and shrubs from taking hold. The tallgrass prairies in the U. S. Midwest may have been extended eastward into Illinois, Indiana, much grassland in northwest Europe developed after the Neolithic Period, when people gradually cleared the forest to create areas for raising their livestock. Grassland types by Schimper, meadow steppe savannah Grassland types by Ellenberg & Mueller-Dombois, terrestrial herbaceous communities A. Savannas and related grasslands B
25.
Acacia
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Acacia, commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs, lianas and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australia, controversy erupted in the early 2000s when it became evident that the genus as it stood was not monophyletic, and that several divergent lineages needed to be placed in separate genera. It turned out that one lineage comprising over 900 species mainly native to Australia was not closely related to the mainly African lineage that contained A. nilotica—the first and this meant that the Australian lineage would need to be renamed. Botanist Les Pedley named this group Racosperma, which was inconsistently adopted and this was officially adopted, but many botanists from Africa and elsewhere disagreed that this was necessary. A number of species have been introduced to parts of the world. The heterogeneous group varies considerably in habit, from mat-like subshrubs to canopy trees in forest, the genus was first described from Africa by C. F. P. von Martius in 1829. Several hundred combinations in Acacia were published by Pedley in 2003, the genus of 981 species, Acacia s. l. in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae is monophyletic. All but 10 of its species are native to Australia, where it constitutes the largest plant genus, following a controversial decision to choose a new type for Acacia in 2005, the Australian component of Acacia s. l. now retains the name Acacia. At the 2011 International Botanical Congress held in Melbourne, the decision to use the name Acacia, other Acacia s. l. taxa continue to be called Acacia by those who choose to consider the entire group as one genus. Australian species of the genus Paraserianthes s. l. are deemed its closest relatives, the origin of wattle may be an Old Teutonic word meaning to weave. From around 700 A. D. watul was used in Old English to refer to the branches and sticks which formed fences, walls. Since about 1810 it refers to the Australian legumes that provide these branches, acacias in Australia probably evolved their fire resistance about 20 million years ago when fossilised charcoal deposits show a large increase, indicating that fire was a factor even then. With no major mountain ranges or rivers to prevent their spread and they began to form dry, open forests with species of the genera Casuarina, Eucalyptus and Callitris. The southernmost species in the genus are Acacia dealbata, Acacia longifolia, Acacia mearnsii and they are present in all terrestrial habitats, including alpine settings, rainforests, woodlands, grasslands, coastal dunes and deserts. In drier woodlands or forest they are an important component of the understory, elsewhere they may be dominant, as in the Brigalow Belt, Myall woodlands and the eremaean Mulga woodlands. Several of its species bear vertically oriented phyllodes, which are green, broadened leaf petioles that function like leaf blades, some phyllodinous species have a colourful aril on the seed. A few species have rather than leaves. Aborigines of Australia have traditionally harvested the seeds of species, to be ground into flour
26.
Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
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The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest biome, also known as tropical dry forest, vine thicket, and vine scrub is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. These seasonal droughts have great impact on all living things in the forest, deciduous trees are predominate in most of these forests, and during the drought a leafless period occurs, which varies with species type. Because trees lose moisture through their leaves, the shedding of leaves allows trees such as teak, the newly bare trees open up the canopy layer, enabling sunlight to reach ground level and facilitate the growth of thick underbrush. Trees on moister sites and those with access to ground water tend to be evergreen, infertile sites also tend to support evergreen trees. Mammalian biomass tends to be higher in dry forests than in rain forests, many of these species display extraordinary adaptations to the difficult climate. This biome is alternately known as the tropical bane forest biome or the tropical and subtropical deciduous forest biome, locally some of these forests are also called monsoon forests, and they tend to merge into savannas. The most diverse dry forests in the occur in southern Mexico. The dry forests of the Pacific Coast of northwestern South America support a wealth of species due to their dry climate. The Maputaland-Pondoland bushland and thickets along the east coast of South Africa are diverse, the dry forests of central India and Indochina are notable for their diverse large vertebrate faunas. Madagascar dry deciduous forests and New Caledonia dry forests are highly distinctive for a wide range of taxa. Trees use underground water during the dry seasons, effective conservation of dry broadleaf forests requires the preservation of large and continuous areas of forest. Large natural areas are required to maintain larger predators and other vertebrates, the persistence of riparian forests and water sources is critical for many dry forest species. Large swathes of intact forest are required to allow species to recover from occasional large events, holdridge life zones in Guatemala Seasonal tropical forest Tropical vegetation WWF - Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forest Ecoregions. Much material in this article has been reworked from Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests, the Tropical Dry Forest of Costa Rica
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Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata
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Cuspidata is a subspecies of olive previously described as Olea cuspidata and Olea africana. It has various names, including African olive, wild olive, iron tree, brown olive. This much-branched evergreen tree varies in size from 2 to 15 metres high, leaf margins are entire and recurved, the upper surface is grey-green and glossy, and the lower surface has a dense covering of silvery, golden or brown scales. Domatia are absent, venation is obvious on the surface and obscure on the lower surface. Fruit are borne in panicles or racmes 50 to 60 millimetres long, the calyx is four-lobed, about 1 millimetre long. The corolla is greenish-white or cream, the tube is 1 to 2 millimetres long, lobes are about 3 millimetres long, the two stamens are fused near the top of the corolla tube, with bilobed stigma. The globose to ellipsoid fruit is a drupe,6 millimetres in diameter and 15 to 25 millimetres long, it is fleshy, glaucous to a dull shine when ripe, the tree usually flowers in spring. The wood is much-prized and durable, with a smell similar to bay rum. An extensive native range from South Africa, through Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, subtropical dry forests of Olea europaea cuspidata are found in the Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests ecoregion. In areas where it is not native, such as Australia and it is spread mainly by birds eating the fruit. Media related to Olea europaea subsp
28.
Croton (plant)
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Croton is an extensive flowering plant genus in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The plants of this genus were described and introduced to Europeans by Georg Eberhard Rumphius, the common names for this genus are rushfoil and croton, but the latter also refers to Codiaeum variegatum. The generic name comes from the Greek κρότος, which means tick, Croton is a diverse and complex taxonomic group of plants ranging from herbs and shrubs to trees. A well-known member of this genus is Croton tiglium, a native to Southeast Asia. It was first mentioned in European literature by Cristóbal Acosta in 1578 as lignum pavanae, the oil, used in herbal medicine as a violent purgative, is extracted from its seeds. Nowadays, it is considered unsafe and it is no longer listed in the pharmacopeias of many countries, Croton tiglium oil has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat severe constipation, heal lesions, and is used as a purgative. It is a source of the organic compound phorbol and its tumor-promoting esters such as 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. In the Amazon the red latex from the species Croton lechleri, known as Sangre de Drago, is used as a bandage, as well as for other medicinal purposes. Cascarilla bark is used to flavour the liqueurs Campari and Vermouth and it has recently been shown in Kenya that Croton nuts, such as those from C. megalocarpus, are a more economical source of biofuel than Jatropha. In Kenya, Jatropha requires as much as 20,000 litres of water to make a litre of biofuel, Croton trees are planted as a windbreak in Kenya and its use as a source of biofuel may benefit rural economies there. As arable land is under pressure, people have been cutting down the windbreaks to expand farmland. This new use may save the windbreaks which should help fight desertification, Croton species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Schinia citrinellus, which feeds exclusively on the plant. The genus is pantropical, with some extending into temperate areas. It is one of the largest and most complex genera of angiosperms in Madagascar, USDA Plants Profile for Croton Croton Research Network A Modern Herbal--Croton
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Brachylaena
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Brachylaena is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. Several are endemic to Madagascar, and the others are distributed in mainland Africa and these are trees and shrubs with alternately arranged leaves. They are dioecious, with male and female flowers occurring on separate individuals, the flower heads are somewhat disc-shaped. Heads with female flowers are larger and produce larger pappi, B. huillensis is the only widespread species, growing as a dominant tree in Brachylaena woodlands and a common species in some eastern African forests. It provides critical habitat for animal species. It is also sought after for its wood and has been overexploited
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Calodendrum
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Calodendrum is a genus of medium-sized evergreen trees comprising two species from Africa. Calodendrum capense is a well known tree that is widely cultivated, the botanical name comes from Greek, kalos means beautiful and dendrum means tree. Both species are harvested for their timber in Africa, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Calodendrum eickii Lord, Tony Flora, The Gardeners Bible, More than 20,000 garden plants from around the world. ISBN 0-304-36435-5 Macoboy, Stirling What Tree is That
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Themeda
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Themeda is a genus of plants in the grass family native to Asia, Africa, Australia, and Papuasia. There are about 18 to 26 species, many of which are native to Southeast Asia, - Afghanistan, Himalayas, Tibet Themeda arguens Hack. - Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Kerala Themeda gigantea Hack, - Southeast Asia, Papuasia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu Themeda helferi Hack
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Cypress
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Cypress is the name applied to many plants in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is a conifer of northern temperate regions. Most cypress species are trees, while a few are shrubs, the word cypress is derived from Old French cipres, which was imported from Latin cypressus the latinisation of the Greek κυπάρισσος. Species that are known as cypresses include, The Cupressaceae family also contains 13–16 other genera that do not bear cypress in their common names. Species of cypress with very low potential for causing allergies include, Austrocedrus females and Widdringtonia females
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Digitaria
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Digitaria is a genus of plants in the grass family native to tropical and warm temperate regions. Common names include crabgrass, finger-grass, and fonio and they are slender monocotyledonous annual and perennial lawn, pasture, and forage plants, some are often considered lawn pests. Digitus is the Latin word for finger, and they are distinguished by the long, Digitaria species occur in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of both hemispheres. Though some Digitaria species are weeds, others have uses, especially as food, the seeds, most notably those of fonio, can be toasted and ground into a flour, which can be used to make porridge or fermented to make beer. Fonio has been used as a staple crop in parts of Africa. It also has decent nutrient qualities as a forage for cattle, the prevalent species of Digitaria in North America are large crabgrass, sometimes known as hairy crabgrass, and smooth crabgrass. These species often become problem weeds in lawns and gardens, growing well in thin lawns that are watered lightly, underfertilized. They are annual plants, and one plant is capable of producing 150,000 seeds per season, the seeds germinate in the late spring and early summer and outcompete the domesticated lawn grasses, expanding outward in a circle up to 30 cm in diameter. In the autumn when the die, they leave large voids in the lawn. The voids then become prime areas for the seeds to germinate the following season. Crabgrass is quickly outcompeted by healthy lawn grass because, as a plant, crabgrass dies off in autumn
34.
Cynodon
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Cynodon is a genus of plants in the grass family. It is native to temperate to tropical regions of the Old World, as well as being cultivated and naturalized in the New World. The genus name comes from Greek words meaning Dog-tooth, the genus as a whole as well as its species are commonly known as Bermuda Grass or Dogs Tooth Grass. Propagation is by rhizomes, stolons, or seeds, in some cases it is considered to be a weed, it spreads through lawns and flower beds, where it can be difficult to kill with herbicides without damaging other grasses or plants. It is difficult to pull out because the rhizomes and stolons break readily and it is also noted for its common use on the surface of greens on golf courses, as well as football and baseball playing fields. Recent news reports claim that a Bermuda-derived F1 hybrid called Tifton 85 suddenly started producing cyanide and killed a cattle herd in Texas, media related to Cynodon at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Cynodon at Wikispecies Genus Cynodon on ITIS Report Cynodon on USDA/Natural Resource Conservation Service Lawn Maintenance Calendar
35.
Vachellia xanthophloea
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Vachellia xanthophloea is a tree in the Fabaceae family and is commonly known in English as the fever tree. This species of Vachellia is native to eastern and southern Africa and it can be found in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It has also become a tree in other warm climates. The trees grow to a height of 15–25 m, the characteristic bark is smooth, powdery and greenish yellow, although new twigs are purple, flaking later to reveal the characteristic yellow. It is one of the few trees where photosynthesis takes place in the bark, straight, white spines grow from the branch nodes in pairs. The leaves are compound, with small leaflets. The flowers are produced in scented pale cream spherical inflorescences, clustered at the nodes, as the pods mature they change colour from green to pale greyish brown. Fever trees are fast growing and short lived and they have a tendency to occur as single-aged stands, and are subject to stand-level diebacks that have been variously attributed to elephants, water tables, and synchronous senescence. The name xanthophloea is derived from Greek and means yellow bark, the common name, fever tree, comes from its tendency to grow in swampy areas, early European settlers in the region noted that malarial fever was contracted in areas with these trees. It is now understood that malarial fever is spread by mosquitos living in the areas that often support this tree species. This tree has been used for thousands of years by African tribes as a divination tool, bark from this tree and four other herbs including Silene capensis and Synaptolepis kirkii are boiled into a brew. This is taken to induce lucid dreams, which they call white paths, before going to sleep a question is asked that will be answered in their dreams. Medicinally, the roots and a made from bark stripped from the trunk are used as an emetic. Vachellia xanthophloea is found growing near swamps, riverine forests or on lake shores, in seasonally flooded areas it often forms dense single species stands. The leaves and pods are used to food for livestock while the young branches and foliage are eaten by African elephants while giraffe and vervet monkeys eat the pods. The flowers are used for foraging by bees and provides favoured nesting sites for birds, like other acacias and Fabaceae it is a nitrogen fixer, so improves soil fertility. The gum is part of the diet of the Senegal bushbaby especially in the dry season, butterflies recorded as feeding on Vachellia xanthophloea in Kenya included the Kikuyu ciliate blue, Pitmans hairtail, common ciliate blue, African babul blue, Victorias bar and common zebra blue. In addition 30 species of moths have been recorded as feeding on this tree
36.
Riparian forest
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A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. The term riparian comes from the Latin word ripa, river bank, thus, technically it refers to areas adjacent to flowing bodies of water such as rivers, streams, sloughs. The terms riparian forest and riparian zone have come to include areas adjacent to those non-flowing water bodies such as ponds, lakes, playas, Riparian forests are subject to frequent inundation. Riparian forests help control sediment, reduce the effects of flooding. Riparian zones are transition zones between a terrestrial environment and an aquatic environment. Organisms found in this zone are adapted to periodic flooding, many not only tolerate it, but require it in order to maintain health and complete their lifestyles. Gallery forest Riparian zone Bosque Tugay Management of Pacific Northwest riparian forests Assessing the Need for a Riparian Management System, - Iowa State University Extension Bulletin
37.
Euphorbia candelabrum
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Euphorbia candelabrum is a succulent species of plant in the Euphorbiaceae family, one of several plants commonly known as candelabra tree. Its Latin name derives from its habit, often considered to resemble the branching of a candelabrum. E. candelabrum is endemic to the Horn of Africa and eastern Africa along the East African Rift system and it is known in Ethiopia by its Amharic name, qwolqwal, or its Oromo name, adaamii. Some authorities further divide this species into two varieties, Euphorbia candelabrum var. bilocularis and Euphorbia candelabrum var. candelabrum, E. candelabrum was used in traditional Ethiopian medicine. Mixed with clarified honey, its sap was used as a purgative to cure syphilis, and when mixed with other medicinal plants as a salve to treat the symptoms of leprosy
38.
Apodytes dimidiata
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Apodytes dimidiata is a bushy tree, with white fragrant flowers and small, dark red berries. It is usually about 5 m tall, and it is indigenous to Southern Africa, the taxonomical family placement for this and other Apodytes was uncertain, it is now placed in the Metteniusaceae. In the open, this species grows as a tall shrub or small tree of about 5 meters in height. However, in a shady environment, such as deep afro-montane forest. Its dense, shiny foliage is bright-green and it has smooth and it frequently produces masses of tiny, white, bisexual blossoms which have a sweet fragrance. These are followed by curved, black and scarlet berries. In South Africa this is officially a protected tree and this is a very difficult tree to identify at first. In particular, it is confused with Pterocelastrus rostratus, including at the First International Forestry Exhibition. The best identifying characteristics of Apodytes dimidiata are its petiole and young terminal branchlets which are a reddish colour. Apodytes dimidiata is a prominent and common tree in South African forests and it grows naturally from Cape Town in the south, all the way along the east coast of southern Africa as far north as Kenya and inland as far as Gauteng. It is usually found in coastal thicket, afro-montane forest and mountainous bushveld, the actual distribution has been difficult to encounter due to large synonyms used to this particular species by various countries. According to the usage, it is thought that the species has much broader distribution than it was think earlier. The white pear is best propagated by seed, though germination is extremely slow, the seed takes about half a year to germinate and the young plants are also relatively slow growing. However, these trees grow very much faster as they become larger, Apodytes dimidiata at PlantZAfrica. com Dressler, S. Schmidt, M. & Zizka, G. Apodytes dimidiata. African plants – a Photo Guide
39.
Canthium
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Canthium is a genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. They are shrubs and small trees, the leaves are deciduous and the stems are usually thorny. Canthium species are found in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand. A small number of species is found in India, Sri Lanka, only a limited number of species is found on the African continent, especially in Southern and East Africa. Canthium was named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1785 in Encyclopédie Méthodique, the name is a latinisation of kantankara, a Malayalam name from Kerala for Canthium coromandelicum. Kantan means shining and kara means a spiny shrub, the biological type for the genus consists of specimens originally described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck as Canthium parviflorum but this species is now included in Canthium coromandelicum. Canthium is a member of Vanguerieae, a tribe that is monophyletic and easily recognized morphologically, Canthium was especially problematic, and until the 1980s, it was defined broadly and known to be polyphyletic. Psydrax was separated from it in 1985, as was Keetia in 1986 and these were followed by Pyrostria and Multidentia in 1987. The subgenus Afrocanthium was raised to rank in 2004, followed by Bullockia in 2009. A few species were transferred to Canthium from Rytigynia and other genera in 2004, the genus was further reduced by the transfer of species to Peponidium and Pyrostria. In 2016, two Canthium species endemic to the Philippines were transferred to a genus of their own, Kanapia, the final circumscription of Canthium will remain in doubt until phylogenetic studies achieve greater resolution for the clade containing Canthium coromandelicum and its closest relatives
40.
Ficus
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Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig is a species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region. The fruit of most other species are edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses. Fig species are characterized by their unique inflorescence and distinctive pollination syndrome, the specific identification of many of the species can be difficult, but figs as a group are relatively easy to recognize. Many have aerial roots and a shape or habit. The fig fruit is an inflorescence, sometimes referred to as a syconium. Finally, there are three traits that together are unique to figs. There are no unambiguous older fossils of Ficus, however, current molecular clock estimates indicate that Ficus is a relatively ancient genus being at least 60 million years old, and possibly as old as 80 million years. The main radiation of extant species, however, may have taken more recently. Moreover, figs with different plant habits have undergone radiation in different biogeographic regions. In the tropics, it is common to find that Ficus is the most species-rich plant genus in a particular forest. In Asia as many as 70 or more species can co-exist, Ficus species richness declines with an increase in latitude in both hemispheres. Figs are keystone species in many rainforest ecosystems and their fruit are a key resource for some frugivores including fruit bats, capuchin monkeys, langurs and mangabeys. They are even more important for some birds, asian barbets, pigeons, hornbills, fig-parrots and bulbuls are examples of taxa that may almost entirely subsist on figs when these are in plenty. The citrus long-horned beetle, for example, has larvae that feed on wood, including that of fig trees, similarly, the sweet potato whitefly is frequently found as a pest on figs grown as potted plants and is spread through the export of these plants to other localities
41.
Sumac
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Sumac is any one of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, especially in East Asia, Africa, sumacs are shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of 1–10 m. The leaves are arranged, they are usually pinnately compound. The flowers are in panicles or spikes 5–30 cm long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red. The fruits form clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs. The dried drupes of species are ground to produce a tangy crimson spice. Sumacs propagate both by seed, and by new shoots from rhizomes, forming clonal colonies. The taxonomy of Rhus has a history, with de Candolle proposing a subgeneric classification in 1825. At its largest cicumscription Rhus, with over 250 species, has been the largest genus in the family Anacardiaceae, other authors used subgenera and placed some species in separate genera, hence the use of Rhus sensu lato and Rhus sensu stricto. One classification uses two subgenera, Rhus and Lobadium, while at the same time Cotinus, Duckera, Malosma, Metopium, Searsia, other genera that have been segregated include Actinocheita and Baronia. As defined, Rhus s. s. appears monophyletic by molecular phylogeny research, however the subgenera do not appear to be monophyletic. The larger subgenus, Lobadium, has divided further into sections, Lobadium. The word sumac traces its etymology from Old French sumac, from Mediaeval Latin sumach, from Arabic summāq, from Syriac summāq - meaning red. Species including the fragrant sumac, the littleleaf sumac, the skunkbush sumac, the smooth sumac, the fruits of the genus Rhus are ground into a reddish-purple powder used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a tart, lemony taste to salads or meat. In Arab cuisine, it is used as a garnish on dishes such as hummus and tashi. In Iranian, Afghan and Kurdish cuisines, sumac is added to rice or kebab, in Jordanian and Turkish cuisines, it is added to salad-servings of kebab and lahmajoun. Rhus coriaria is used in the spice mixture zaatar, in North America, the smooth sumac and the staghorn sumac are sometimes used to make a beverage termed sumac-ade, Indian lemonade, or rhus juice. This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth, Native Americans also use the leaves and drupes of the smooth and staghorn sumacs combined with tobacco in traditional smoking mixtures
42.
Euphorbia
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For the family commonly called euphorbias, see Euphorbiaceae Euphorbia is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the spurge family. Euphorbia is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae, some euphorbias are commercially widely available, such as poinsettias at Christmas. Some are commonly cultivated as ornamentals, or collected and highly valued for the appearance of their unique floral structures. Some are used as ornamentals in landscaping, because of beautiful or striking overall forms, euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees. The genus has over or about 2,000 members, making it one of the largest genera of flowering plants and it also has one of the largest ranges of chromosome counts, along with Rumex and Senecio. Euphorbia antiquorum is the species for the genus Euphorbia. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum, the plants share the feature of having a poisonous, milky, white, latex-like sap, and unusual and unique floral structures. The genus may be described by properties of its members gene sequences, or by the shape, when viewed as a whole, the head of flowers looks like a single flower. It has a kind of pseudanthium, called a cyathium. The individual flowers are male or female, with the male flowers reduced to only the stamen. These flowers have no sepals, petals, or other parts that are typical of flowers in other kinds of plants and it is the only genus of plants that has all three kinds of photosynthesis, CAM, C3, and C4. The genus can be all over the world. The forms range from annual plants laying on the ground, to well-developed tall trees, in deserts in Madagascar and southern Africa, convergent evolution has led to cactus-like forms where the plants occupy the same ecological niche as cacti do in deserts of North and South America. The genus is found in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and the Americas. Succulent species originate mostly from Africa, the Americas, and Madagascar, a wide range of insular species can be found. Among laypersons, Euphorbia species are among the most commonly confused plant taxa with cacti, euphorbias secrete a sticky, milky-white fluid with latex, but cacti do not. Individual flowers of euphorbias are usually tiny and nondescript, without petals and sepals, unlike cacti, euphorbias from desert habitats with growth forms similar to cacti have thorns, which are different from the spines of cacti. The common name derives from the Middle English/Old French espurge
43.
Drimia
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Drimia is a genus of flowering plants. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the family Asparagaceae, one of the best-known species is the sea squill, Drimia maritima. As of July 2013, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepts 101 species
44.
Murdannia
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Murdannia is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the dayflower family. The genus is one of the largest in the family and they are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed or spear-shaped antherodes. Also, along with the related genus Anthericopsis, it is the only genus with staminodes opposite the petals. Murdannia are found in regions across the globe with extensions into warm temperate areas. Typically, Murdannia species are found in areas in mesic soils. However, some are semi-aquatic, and a few are found in closed forest situations. Three species are naturalized in the, - southern India Murdannia dimorphoides Faden - Sri Lanka Murdannia divergens G. Brückn. - New Guinea Murdannia gardneri G. Brückn, - Madagascar, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales Murdannia glauca G. Brückn. - India, Sri Lanka Murdannia graminea G. Brückn, - Vietnam, Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales, Western Australia Murdannia hookeri G. Brückn. - Japan, Korea, Ryukyu Islands, Russia, Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, naturalized in parts of United States Murdannia lanceolata Kammathy - India, - Paraguay, Brazil Murdannia pauciflora G. Brückn. - southern India Murdannia sahyadrica Ancy & Nampy - Maharashtra Murdannia satheeshiana Joby, - Guyana, Brazil Murdannia semifoliata G. Brückn. Brückn. - southern China, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Java, Philippines, - Sichuan, Yunnan Murdannia striatipetala Faden - Sri Lanka Murdannia stricta Brenan - Zaire, Rwanda Murdannia tenuissima Brenan - tropical Africa Murdannia triquetra G. Brückn. - southern China, Indochina, Himalayas Murdannia undulata D. Y. Hong - Yunnan Murdannia vaginata G. Brückn, - southern China, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Java, Philippines, Queensland, Northern Territory Murdannia versicolor G. Brückn. - India, Vietnam, Philippines Murdannia yunnanensis D. Y. Hong - Yunnan Murdannia zeylanica G. Brückn, - India, Sri Lanka Mayur Nandikar and R. V. Gurav. A New Species of Murdannia Royle from Northern Western Ghats of India
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