1.
Nolina bigelovii
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Nolina bigelovii is a flowering plant native to the Southwestern United States, California, and Northwest Mexico. It grows in the driest desert areas and at elevations up to 1,500 metres, the species ranges in the Peninsular Ranges of Baja California-, as well as Isla Ángel de la Guarda in the northern Gulf of California. Its northeast range extent is in the Grand Canyon of Arizona, the Nolina bigelovii plant is not a grass. The trunklike stem may exceed 2 metres in height, part of which may be underground, the stiff, shreddy leaves are arranged in rosettes about the stem, with up to 150 per rosette. The bases are thick and fleshy and much wider than the rest of the blade, the treelike inflorescence may approach 4 metres in height. The tiny flowers each have six whitish tepals a few millimeters in length, atlas of United States Trees, Volume 3, Minor Western Hardwoods, Little, Elbert L,1976, US Government Printing Office
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
3.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
4.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
5.
Monocotyledon
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Monocotyledons, commonly referred to as monocots, are flowering plants whose seeds typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. However, molecular research has shown that while the monocots form a monophyletic group or clade. Monocots have almost always recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks. The APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called monocots, the monocots include about 60,000 species. The largest family in this group by number of species are the orchids, about half as many species belong to the true grasses, which are economically the most important family of monocots. In agriculture the majority of the biomass produced comes from monocots and these include not only major grains, but also forage grasses, sugar cane, and the bamboos. Other economically important monocot crops include various palms, bananas, gingers and their relatives, turmeric and cardamom, asparagus and the onions and garlic family. Additionally most of the bulbs, plants cultivated for their blooms, such as lilies, daffodils, irises, amaryllis, cannas, bluebells. The monocots or monocotyledons have, as the name implies, a single cotyledon, or embryonic leaf, from a diagnostic point of view the number of cotyledons is neither a particularly useful characteristic, nor is it completely reliable. Nevertheless, monocots are sufficiently distinctive that there has rarely been disagreement as to membership of this group, however, morphological features that reliably characterise major clades are rare. Thus monocots are distinguishable from other angiosperms both in terms of their uniformity and diversity, although largely herbaceous, some arboraceous monocots reach great height, length and mass. The latter include agaves, palms, pandans, and bamboos and this creates challenges in water transport that monocots deal with in various ways. Some such as species of Yucca develop anomalous secondary growth, while palm trees, the axis undergoes primary thickening, that progresses from internode to internode, resulting in a typical inverted conical shape of the basal primary axis. The limited conductivity also contributes to limited branching of the stems, despite these limitations a wide variety of adaptive growth forms has resulted from epiphytic orchids and bromeliads to submarine Alismatales and mycotrophic Burmanniaceae and Triuridaceae. Other monocots, particularly Poales have adopted a life form. Leaves The cotyledon, the primordial Angiosperm leaf consists of a proximal leaf base or hypophyll, in moncots the hypophyll tends to be the dominant part in contrast to other angiosperms. Mature monocot leaves are narrow and linear, forming a sheathing around the stem at its base. There is usually only one leaf per node because the leaf base encompasses more than half the circumference, the evolution of this monocot characteristic has been attributed to developmental differences in early zonal differentiation rather than meristem activity
6.
Asparagales
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Asparagales is an order of plants in modern classification systems such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. The order takes its name from the type family Asparagaceae and is placed in the monocots amongst the lilioid monocots, the order has only recently been recognized in classification systems. It was first put forward by Huber in 1977 and later taken up in the Dahlgren system of 1985 and then the APG in 1998,2003 and 2009. Before this, many of its families were assigned to the old order Liliales, DNA sequence analysis indicated that many of the taxa previously included in Liliales should actually be redistributed over three orders, Liliales, Asparagales and Dioscoreales. The boundaries of the Asparagales and of its families have undergone a series of changes in recent years, future research may lead to further changes and ultimately greater stability. In the APG circumscription, Asparagales is the largest order of monocots with 14 families,1,122 genera, the order is clearly circumscribed on the basis of molecular phylogenetics, but is difficult to define morphologically, since its members are structurally diverse. Most species of Asparagales are herbaceous perennials, although some are climbers, the order also contains many geophytes. According to telomere sequence, at least two evolutionary switch-points happened within the order, basal sequence is formed by TTTAGGG like in majority of higher plants. Basal motif was changed to vertebrate-like TTAGGG and finally the most divergent motif CTCGGTTATGGG appears in Allium, one of the defining characteristics of the order is the presence of phytomelanin, a black pigment present in the seed coat, creating a dark crust. Phytomelanin is found in most families of the Asparagales, the leaves of almost all species form a tight rosette, either at the base of the plant or at the end of the stem, but occasionally along the stem. The flowers are not particularly distinctive, being lily type, with six tepals, from an economic point of view, the order Asparagales is second in importance within the monocots to the order Poales. Species are used as food and flavourings, as cut flowers, and as garden ornamentals. Thus although most species in the order are herbaceous, some no more than 15 cm high, there are a number of climbers, as well as several genera forming trees, succulent genera occur in several families. Almost all species have a cluster of leaves, either at the base of the plant or at the end of a more-or-less woody stem as with Yucca. In some cases the leaves are produced along the stem, the flowers are in the main not particularly distinctive, being of a general lily type, with six tepals, either free or fused from the base and up to six stamina. They are frequently clustered at the end of the plant stem and they are generally geophytes, but with linear leaves, and a lack of fine reticular venation. The seeds characteristically have the external epidermis either obliterated, or if present, have a layer of black carbonaceous phytomelanin in species with dry fruits. The inner part of the coat is generally collapsed, in contrast to Liliales whose seeds have a well developed outer epidermis, lack phytomelanin
7.
Asparagaceae
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Asparagaceae is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. In earlier classification systems, the species involved were often treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae, the revised APG III system of 2009 allows only the broader sense. A paper published at the time proposed seven subfamilies to correspond to the originally separate families. Unless otherwise noted, the alphabetical list below is based on genera accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families as in the family Asparagaceae, the reference against the subfamily name is to the source which places the genus in that subfamily. Asparagaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz, the families of flowering plants, descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Https, //web. archive. org/web/20070103200438/http, //delta-intkey. com, 80/ Liliaceae in Flora of North America NCBI Taxonomy Browser links at CSDL, Texas
8.
Nolinoideae
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Nolinoideae is a monocot subfamily of the family Asparagaceae in the APG III system of 2009. It used to be treated as a family, Ruscaceae s. l. The family name is derived from the name of the type genus. The subfamily includes genera that had placed in a range of different families. Like many groups of monocots, the genera included here were once included in a wide interpretation of the family Liliaceae. A possibly incomplete list of the genera included in the Nolinoideae is given below, the reference is to the source which places the genus in this subfamily. The genera included here have varied widely in their limits and assignment to families and subfamilies, convallariaceae, Dracaenaceae, Eriospermaceae, Nolinaceae, Ruscaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz. The families of flowering plants, descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval, http, //delta-intkey. com Liliaceae in Flora of North America NCBI Taxonomy Browser links, links, links, linkslinks at CSDL, Texas
9.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
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Genus
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A genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of classification, genus comes above species. In binomial nomenclature, the name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. Felis catus and Felis silvestris are two species within the genus Felis, Felis is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist, the standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. Moreover, genera should be composed of units of the same kind as other genera. The term comes from the Latin genus, a noun form cognate with gignere, linnaeus popularized its use in his 1753 Species Plantarum, but the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort is considered the founder of the modern concept of genera. The scientific name of a genus may be called the name or generic epithet. It plays a role in binomial nomenclature, the system of naming organisms. The rules for the names of organisms are laid down in the Nomenclature Codes. The standard way of scientifically describing species and other lower-ranked taxa is by binomial nomenclature, the generic name forms its first half. For example, the gray wolfs binomial name is Canis lupus, with Canis being the name shared by the wolfs close relatives. The specific name is written in lower-case and may be followed by names in zoology or a variety of infraspecific names in botany. Especially with these names, when the generic name is known from context. Because animals are typically only grouped within subspecies, it is written as a trinomen with a third name. Dog breeds, meanwhile, are not scientifically distinguished, there are several divisions of plant species and therefore their infraspecific names generally include contractions explaining the relation. For example, the genus Hibiscus includes hundreds of other species apart from the Rose of Sharon or common garden hibiscus, Rose of Sharon doesnt have subspecies but has cultivars that carry desired traits, such as the bright white H. syriaca Diana. Hawaiian hibiscus, meanwhile, includes several separate species, since not all botanists agree on the divisions or names between species, it is common to specify the source of the name using author abbreviations
11.
Xerophyte
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A xerophyte is a species of plant that has adapted to survive in an environment with little liquid water, such as a desert or an ice- or snow-covered region in the Alps or the Arctic. The morphology and physiology of xerophytes are variously adapted to conserve water, other species may be adapted to survive long periods of desiccation of their tissues, during which their metabolic activity may effectively shut down. Plants with such morphological and physiological adaptations are xeromorphic, Plants absorb water from the soil, which then evaporates from their outer surfaces, this process is known as transpiration. In dry environments, a plant would evaporate water faster than the rate at which water was replaced in the soil. To reduce this effect, xerophytic plants exhibit a variety of specialized adaptations to survive in such conditions, cacti and other succulents are commonly found in deserts, where there is little rainfall. Likewise, chaparral plants are adapted to Mediterranean climates, which have wet winters, Plants that live under arctic conditions also have a need for xerophytic adaptations, since water is unavailable for uptake when the ground is frozen. Succulent plants store water in their stems or leaves and they include the Cactaceae family, which has round stems and can store a lot of water. The leaves are vestigial, as in the case of cacti, wherein the leaves are reduced to spines. Xerophytes are commonly found in environments, where plants such as pineapples. Water is stored in the bulbs of plants, at or below ground level. They may be dormant during drought conditions and are, therefore, if the water potential inside a leaf is higher than outside, the water vapour will diffuse out of the leaf down this gradient. This loss of water vapour from the leaves is called transpiration, transpiration is natural and inevitable for plants, and much water is lost through this process. However, it is vital that plants living in dry conditions are adapted so as to reduce water loss and decrease the size of the open stomata. It is important for a plant living in conditions to conserve water because, without enough water. If the plant loses too much water, it will pass its permanent wilting point and it is important to note, that whilst it is vital to keep stomata closed, they have to be opened for gaseous exchange in photosynthesis. Xerophytic plants may have similar shapes, forms, and structures and look similar, even if the plants are not very closely related. For example, some species of cacti, which evolved only in the Americas, may similar to Euphorbias. An unrelated species of caudiciforms, plants with swollen bases that are used to store water, xerophytic plants can have less overall surface area than other plants, so reducing the area that is exposed to the air and reducing water loss by evaporation
12.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
13.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
14.
Beaucarnea
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Beaucarnea is a genus of flowering plants native to Mexico and Central America. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the family Asparagaceae, Beaucarnea is sometimes treated as a synonym of the genus Nolina, with the species being then transferred to that genus. The species are small tropical xerophytic trees growing to 6-10 m tall, with a trunk 20-40 cm diameter with a base, young plants are single-stemmed. The leaves are evergreen, linear, strap-shaped,0. 5-1.8 m long and 1. 5-2 cm broad, leathery in texture, with a finely serrated margin. The flowers are produced only on old trees, forming on large panicles 75-110 cm long, & Zamudio - Guanajuato Beaucarnea goldmanii Rose - Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador Beaucarnea gracilis Lem. - Puebla, Oaxaca Beaucarnea guatemalensis Rose - Guatemala, Nicaragua Beaucarnea hiriartiae L. Hern, - México State, Guerrero Beaucarnea pliabilis Rose - Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize Beaucarnea recurvata Lem. - Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Veracruz Beaucarnea sanctomariana L. Hern
15.
Family (biology)
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In biological classification, family is one of the eight major taxonomic ranks, it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks above the rank of genus. In vernacular usage, a family may be named one of its common members, for example, walnuts and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae. What does or does not belong to a family—or whether a family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no rules for describing or recognizing a family. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions of taxa, and there may be no broad consensus across the community for some time. Some described taxa are accepted broadly and quickly, but others only rarely, if at all, the naming of families is codified by various international codes. In zoological nomenclature, the names of animals end with the suffix -idae. The concept of rank at time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera. Carolus Linnaeus used the word familia in his Philosophia botanica to denote groups of plants, trees, herbs, ferns, palms. He used this term only in the section of the book. In zoology, the family as an intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes. He used families in some but not in all his orders of insects, families can be used for evolutionary, palaeontological and generic studies because they are more stable than lower taxonomic levels such as genera and species
16.
Ornamental plant
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Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as houseplants, for cut flowers and specimen display. The cultivation of these, called floriculture, forms a branch of horticulture. Commonly, ornamental plants are grown for the display of aesthetic features including, leaves, scent, overall foliage texture, fruit, stem and bark, and aesthetic form. In some cases, unusual features may be considered to be of interest, such as the prominent thorns of Rosa sericea, in all cases, their purpose is for the enjoyment of gardeners, visitors, and the public institutions. Similarly certain trees may be called ornamental trees and this term is used when they are used as part of a garden, park, or landscape setting, for instance for their flowers, their texture, form, size and shape, and other aesthetic characteristics. In some countries trees in utilitarian landscape use such as screening, for plants to be considered to be ornamental, they may require specific work and activity by a gardener. Ornamental plants and trees are distinguished from utilitarian and crop plants, such as used for agriculture and vegetable crops. This does not preclude any type of plant being grown both for ornamental qualities in the garden, and for utilitarian purposes in other settings. Thus lavender is typically grown as a plant in gardens. The term ornamental plant is used here in the sense that it is generally used in the horticultural trades. The term largely corresponds to garden plant, though the latter is less precise. Ornamental plants are plants which are grown for display purposes, rather than functional ones, Ornamental plants are the keystone of ornamental gardening, and they come in a range of shapes, sizes and colors suitable to a broad array of climates, landscapes, and gardening needs. Some ornamental plants are grown for showy foliage and their foliage may be deciduous, turning bright orange, red, and yellow before dropping off in the fall, or evergreen, in which case it stays green year-round. Other ornamental plants are cultivated for their blooms, flowering ornamentals are a key aspect of many gardens, with many flower gardeners preferring to plant a variety of flowers so that the garden is continuously in flower through the spring and summer. Media related to Ornamental plants at Wikimedia Commons
17.
Nolina brittoniana
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Nolina brittoniana is a rare species of flowering plant in the asparagus family known by the common name Brittons beargrass. It is endemic to Florida, where there are 72 known populations and it is federally listed as an endangered species of the United States. This plant has no aboveground stem and it is a rosette of leaves attached at a bulblike base which arises from an underground caudex, a modified stem. The grasslike leaves are up to a long and rarely more than a centimeter wide. The edges are serrated with cartilaginous teeth, the inflorescence is a large, erect panicle up to a meter tall. It has small bracts and reduced leaves, the many small flowers have tepals measuring only 1 or 2 millimeters long. While the flowers are bisexual, they are functionally unisexual, with either the male or female part reduced, most plants have either functionally male or female flowers, but some have both. Blooming occurs in March through May, the flowers give rise to winged capsules roughly a centimeter long by a centimeter wide. The plant reproduces sexually via seed and vegetatively by cloning, the plant is limited to seven counties in Central Florida, where it grows in a number of habitat types. It is known from various kinds of Florida scrub habitat, hammocks, the habitat types are different in many ways but they all have dry, well-drained, low-nutrient sandy soils and they are all maintained by wildfire. The plant is present on Lake Wales Ridge, home to many rare Central Florida endemic plants, the plant is relatively widespread when compared with other rare local plants, but most of the populations are small and some are made up of only female individuals. The beargrass is a member of plant communities that are maintained by a fire regime. Periodic wildfire halts the encroachment of large and woody vegetation, preventing ecological succession and these fire-maintained habitat types in Florida are largely degraded now because of a long-standing policy of fire suppression. They are overgrown, with canopies and a large amount of flammable organic buildup. Without fire, the beargrass does not grow well, its reproduction is inefficient, the beargrass flowers most profusely in the year following a fire. Many populations are located on privately owned land, and it is up to the landowner to decide whether or not to initiate controlled burns, habitat is also being lost to development and to agricultural operations, particularly citrus groves. Prescribed burns should be part of this conservation plan, while it is rare in the wild, the beargrass is cultivated in plant nurseries
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Nolina cismontana
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It is endemic to only four counties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura Counties. There are perhaps 15 to 17 occurrences in existence, with a population estimated between 10,000 and 20,000. This species, previously classified as a subspecies of Nolina parryi, was elevated to status in 1995. The type specimen is from Trabuco Canyon, the two species differ in morphology as well as habitat and ecology. Nolina cismontana occurs in mountain ranges in dry chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitat on rocky sandstone. By contrast, N. parryi is more often found in woodlands on granite soils, the plant is in decline throughout most of its range. Threats include destruction and fragmentation of habitat for development, construction of roads, and agriculture, changes in the regime, recreational activity. This species is a fire-follower, experiencing reproduction and prolific blooming after wildfire, Nolina cismontana grows to 30 centimetres in height but can be much taller, reaching well over 1 metre. At ground level is a rosette of 30 to 90 long and they are stiff, whiplike, or limp, sometimes waxy in texture, and serrated on the edges. The inflorescence is a panicle of whitish flowers interspersed with pointed bracts. The plant is dioecious, with male and female flowers occurring on separate plants, Jepson Manual Treatment - Nolina cismontana Bioregional/County Distribution Map Jepson bioregional range with elevation limits Map Flora of North America Nolina cismontana - U. C
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Nolina greenei
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Nolina greenei, woodland beargrass, is a plant species native to the United States. It is widespread in New Mexico and also reported from Colorado, Texas, nolina greenei grows in rocky locations such as limestone outcrops and old lava flows, often in grasslands or in pine-oak woodlands at elevations of 1200-2000 m. It is a rosette forming plant with an underground caudex. Leaves are long and narrow, sometimes over 100 cm long and they sometimes have sharp teeth along the margins. Flowering stalk is up to 20 cm high, with a panicle of white flowers with purple midveins. Fruit is a dry, inflated capsule up to 5 mm across
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Nolina interrata
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Nolina interrata is a rare species of flowering plant known by the common names Dehesa nolina and Dehesa beargrass. It is known from about ten occurrences in central San Diego County, California, the plant was first described in 1946 when found at the type locality near El Cajon, California, and all the individuals known in California are located within a six-square-mile area there. Although rare, numbering about 9,000 plants total in existence, the species is well protected in its habitat. This plant produces a stem, part of which grows underground, lined with rosettes of stiff, waxy, blue-green leaves. The leaves are thick and somewhat fleshy at the bases, and shreddy, the erect inflorescence may be up to 1.6 meters tall, bearing branches lined with tiny flowers each with six whitish tepals a few millimeters long. The fruit is a capsule containing reddish brown seeds about half a centimeter wide. Jepson Manual Treatment USDA Plants Profile Flora of North America Photo gallery
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Nolina microcarpa
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Nolina microcarpa is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family known by the common names sacahuista and palmilla. Like other species of Nolina, it may be called beargrass and it is native to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States in Arizona and New Mexico. It does occur in the corner of Utah, where it has a limited distribution on Navajo Sandstone. In general it is a plant that grows in clumps up to two meters wide. It produces a rosette of narrow leaves each up to 130 centimetres long. The grasslike leaf blades are thick, rough, and serrated, there is no aboveground stem, the leaves grow from a woody underground caudex. When the plant flowers it produces a scape up to 1.5 to 1.8 m tall, the inflorescence is a panicle of flowers with tiny white tepals. The species is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, the fruit is a papery, three-sided capsule about half a centimeter long and wide. This plant grows in dry habitat types, such as grasslands, pinyon-juniper woodlands. It is a dominant plant species in a number of ecosystems and it may grow alongside oaks, pines, and manzanitas. The region experiences a bimodal pattern of precipitation, with rainy seasons occurring in November through April, the plant resprouts from its caudex after its aboveground parts burn. Sacahuista herbage is flammable, increasing the intensity of fires when it ignites. Sacahuista provides food for such as white-tailed deer. However, it is poisonous to sheep and goats, and less so to cattle, sheep fed parts of the plant have been noted to experience impaction of the rumen and liver toxicity. In an experimental setting the plant also appears to be toxic to rats and chukar partridges, resulting in such as loss of coordination. Native American groups have eaten the fruit, used the stalks as a vegetable, the plant has also been used for thatching, mats, basketry, brushes, rope, and cooking tools. Today it is used for landscaping in appropriate climates, USDA Plants Profile The Nature Conservancy
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Nolina nelsonii
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Nolina nelsonii, often misspelled Nolina nelsoni, is a flowering plant in the genus Nolina. The species was first described in 1906, in its genus and this extremely drought-tolerant plant is native to the deserts and montane regions in the State of Tamaulipas in northern/northeastern Mexico. It is known to be cold-hardy to at least -12 °C and it develops a trunk mesuring from one to several meters high, making it an arborescent member of its genus. The bluish-green leaves, with toothed margins, are borne in dense rosettes. It is dioecious, upon reaching maturity, its white-flowered inflorescence appears in Spring. The fruit capsules are around 80 mm in length, containing light-brown, after blooming, the plants main trunk dies and multiple lateral trunks emerge to take its place
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Joseph Nelson Rose
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Joseph Nelson Rose was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana and his father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated high school in Liberty, Indiana. He received his Ph. D. in Biology from Wabash College in 1889, having received his B. A. in Biology and M. A. Paleobotany earlier at the same institute. He married Lou Beatrice Sims in 1888 and produced with her three sons and three daughters, Rose worked for the U. S. Department of Agriculture and became an assistant curator at the Smithsonian in 1896. While Rose was employed by the museum, he was an authority on several plants families. He made several trips to Mexico, and presented specimens to the Smithsonian. With Nathaniel Lord Britton, Rose published many articles on the Crassulaceae and he took a leave of absence from the Smithsonian to do further fieldwork in South America and publish with Britton, the four-volume work, The Cactaceae, illustrated by Mary Emily Eaton. Rose returned to work afterwards at the Smithsonian, making contributions to Botany. Biographical material and related botany Joseph Nelson Rose letters to Walter Deane
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Nolina parryi
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Nolina parryi is a flowering plant that is native to Baja California, southern California and Arizona. It can be found in deserts and mountains at elevations up to 2100 meters and it can exceed two meters in height, its inflorescence reaching 4 meters. The trunk is up to 60 centimeters in diameter, leaves are borne in dense rosettes, each with up to 220 stiff linear leaves up to 140 centimeters long and 4 broad. It is dioecious, with male and female plants, the flowers are white. Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Jon Mark Stewart,1998, pg.7, calflora Database, Nolina parryi USDA Plants Profile for Nolina parryi UC CalPhotos gallery
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Beaucarnea gracilis
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Beaucarnea gracilis is an attractive member of the subfamily Nolinaceae of the family Asparagaceae native to partial-desert areas in Mexico. Its name gracilis, meaning slender, is misleading, as its trunk is especially bulbous and it was formerly known as Nolina gracilis. As a seedling, B. gracilis grows as a tiny, bark-covered ball of succulent trunk, growing tufts of long, in habitat, this forms a ground rosette of over 3 feet in diameter. The trunk becomes extremely large and grows a sparse coverage of short, thick tufts of leaves of up to 3.3 feet long and 0. 4-0.8 inches long grow along the tops of these branches. The flowers are tiny, yellow and white and grow in vast numbers and it prefers sandy soil, sunny position and infrequent watering, and does well in a cool wintering. The Complete Encyclopedia of Succulents by Zdenek Jezek and Libor Kunte
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Beaucarnea recurvata
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Beaucarnea recurvata is a species of plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz and San Luis Potosí in eastern Mexico. Despite its common name, it is not closely related to the true palms and it has become popular in Europe and worldwide as an ornamental plant. There are 350-year-old Beaucarneas registered in Mexico and it is an evergreen perennial growing to 15 feet 6 inches with a noticeable expanded caudex, for storing water. B. recurvata is often grown as a houseplant or outdoor plant in temperate climate gardens and it is hardy to −5 °C, and grows in full sun to light shade. It needs a proper soil mix to drain when watered, and must never be over-watered or mudded, as this will foster pests like the mealybug and it cannot resist cold temperatures so it must be an indoor plant in countries with strong winters. When repotted it must keep all its roots, to maintain its original shape, the ends of its leaves should not be snipped. It is very slow-growing and drought-tolerant and it has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit. Germplasm Resources Information Network, Beaucarnea recurvata
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Integrated Taxonomic Information System
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The Integrated Taxonomic Information System is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. The database draws from a community of taxonomic experts. Primary content staff are housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the primary focus of ITIS is North American species, but many groups are worldwide and ITIS continues to collaborate with other international agencies to increase its global coverage. ITIS provides a reference database of scientific and common names for species. As of May 2016, it contains over 839,000 scientific names, synonyms, and common names for terrestrial, marine, data presented in ITIS are considered public information, and may be freely distributed and copied, though appropriate citation is requested. ITIS is frequently used as the de facto source of data in biodiversity informatics projects. It presents the names in a classification that contains author, date, distributional. In addition, common names are available through ITIS in the official languages of the Americas. ITIS and its partner, Species 2000, cooperate to annually produce the Catalogue of Life. The Catalogue of Lifes goal was to complete the global checklist of 1.9 million species by 2011. As of May 2012, the Catalogue of Life has reached 1.4 million species—a major milestone in its quest to complete the first up-to-date comprehensive catalogue of all living organisms, ITIS and the Catalogue of Life are core to the Encyclopedia of Life initiative announced May 2007. EOL will be largely on various Creative Commons licenses. The newer material has been checked to higher standards of taxonomic credibility, biological taxonomy is not fixed, and opinions about the correct status of taxa at all levels, and their correct placement, are constantly revised as a result of new research. Many aspects of classification remain a matter of scientific judgment, the ITIS database is updated to take account of new research as it becomes available, and the information it yields is likely to represent a fair consensus of modern taxonomic opinion. Records within ITIS include information about how far it has been possible to check and its information should be checked against other sources where these are available, and against the primary research scientific literature where possible
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Wikispecies
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Wikispecies is a wiki-based online project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aim is to create a free content catalogue of all species. Jimmy Wales stated that editors are not required to fax in their degrees, Wikispecies is available under the GNU Free Documentation License and CC BY-SA3.0. Benedikt Mandl co-ordinated the efforts of people who are interested in getting involved with the project. Databases were evaluated and the administrators contacted, some of them have agreed on providing their data for Wikispecies, the board of directors of the Wikimedia Foundation voted by 4 to 0 in favor of the establishment of a Wikispecies. The project was launched in August 2004 and is hosted at species. wikimedia. org and it was officially merged to a sister project of Wikimedia Foundation on September 14,2004. On October 10,2006, the project exceeded 75,000 articles, on May 20,2007, the project exceeded 100,000 articles with a total of 5,495 registered users. On September 8,2008, the project exceeded 150,000 articles with a total of 9,224 registered users, on October 23,2011, the project reached 300,000 articles. On June 16,2014, the project reached 400,000 articles, on January 7,2017, the project reached 500,000 articles. Wikispecies has disabled local upload and asks users to use images from Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies does not allow the use of content that does not conform to a free license
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Wikidata
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Wikidata is a collaboratively edited knowledge base operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It is intended to provide a source of data which can be used by Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia. This is similar to the way Wikimedia Commons provides storage for files and access to those files for all Wikimedia projects. Wikidata is powered by the software Wikibase, Wikidata is a document-oriented database, focused on items. Each item represents a topic and is identified by a number, prefixed with the letter Q—for example. This enables the basic information required to identify the topic the item covers to be translated without favouring any language, information is added to items by creating statements. Statements take the form of pairs, with each statement consisting of a property. The creation of the project was funded by donations from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, at this time, only the first phase was available. Historically, a Wikipedia article would include a list of links, being links to articles on the same topic in other editions of Wikipedia. Initially, Wikidata was a repository of interlanguage links. No Wikipedia language editions were able to access Wikidata, so they needed to continue to maintain their own lists of interlanguage links, on 14 January 2013, the Hungarian Wikipedia became the first to enable the provision of interlanguage links via Wikidata. This functionality was extended to the Hebrew and Italian Wikipedias on 30 January, to the English Wikipedia on 13 February, on 23 September 2013, phase 1 went live on Wikimedia Commons. The first aspects of the second phase were deployed on 4 February 2013, the values were initially limited to two data types, with more data types to follow later. The first new type, string, was deployed on 6 March, the ability of the various language editions of Wikipedia to access data added to Wikidata as part of phase two was rolled out progressively between 27 March and 25 April 2013. On 16 September 2015, Wikidata began allowing so-called arbitrary access, for example, in the past the article about Berlin you could not access data about Germany, but with arbitrary access it could. On 27 April 2016 arbitrary access was activated on Wikimedia Commons, phase 3 will involve database querying and the creation of lists based on data stored on Wikidata. As of October 2016 two tools for querying Wikidata were available, AutoList and PetScan, additionally to a public SPARQL endpoint, there is concern that the project is being influenced by lobbying companies, PR professionals and search engine optimizers. As of December 2015, according to Wikimedia statistics, half of the information in Wikidata is unsourced, another 30% is labeled as having come from Wikipedia, but with no indication as to which article
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Encyclopedia of Life
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The Encyclopedia of Life is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world and it aims to build one infinitely expandable page for each species, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text. In addition, the Encyclopedia incorporates content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the project was initially backed by a US$50 million funding commitment, led by the MacArthur Foundation and the Sloan Foundation, who provided US$20 million and US$5 million, respectively. The project was led by Jim Edwards and the development team by David Patterson. Today, participating institutions and individual donors continue to support EOL through financial contributions, EOL went live on 26 February 2008 with 30,000 entries. The site immediately proved to be popular, and temporarily had to revert to demonstration pages for two days when it was overrun by traffic from over 11 million views it received. The site relaunched on 5 September 2011 with a redesigned interface, eOLv2 is redesigned to enhance usability and encourage contributions and interactions among users. The product is also internationalized with interfaces provided for English, German, Spanish, French, Galician, Serbian, Macedonian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Ukrainian language speakers. On 16 January 2014, EOL launched TraitBank, a searchable, open digital repository for organism traits, measurements, interactions, information about many species is already available from a variety of sources, in particular about the megafauna. Gathering currently available data on all 1.9 million species will take about 10 years, as of September 2011, EOL had information on more than 700,000 species available, along with more than 600,000 photos and millions of pages of scanned literature. The initial focus has been on living species but will later include extinct species, as the discovery of new species is expected to continue, the encyclopedia will grow continuously. The goal of EOL is to serve as a resource for the public, enthusiastic amateurs, educators, students. The Encyclopedia of Life has content partners around the world who share information through the EOL platform, including Wikipedia and its interface is translated at translatewiki. net. The Encyclopedia of Life – Introductory video on YouTube from May 2007
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Global Biodiversity Information Facility
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The Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by institutions from around the world. Data available through the GBIF portal are primarily distribution data on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes for the world, the mission of the Global Biodiversity information Facility is to facilitate free and open access to biodiversity data worldwide to underpin sustainable development. ABCD Schema Atlas of Living Australia Darwin Core Global biodiversity Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum GBIF website Short description of GBIF
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International Plant Names Index
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The International Plant Names Index describes itself as a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes. Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species, the IPNI also maintains a list of standardized author abbreviations. These were initially based on Brummitt & Powell, but new names, IPNI is the product of a collaboration between The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Harvard University Herbaria, and the Australian National Herbarium. The IPNI database is a collection of the names registered by the three cooperating institutions and they work towards standardizing the information, the standard of author abbreviations recommended by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants is Brummitt and Powell’s Authors of Plant Names. A digital and continually updated list of authors and abbreviations can be consulted online at IPNI, the IPNI provides names that have appeared in scholarly publications, with the objective of providing an index of published names rather than prescribing the accepted botanical nomenclature. The Plant List, a project which was unveiled in 2010. The use of IPNI is free of charge, a similar project, which lists names of fungi, is the Index Fungorum. The Plant List Official website of the IPNI Plant Name search – IPNI search for plant names Author search – IPNI search for author names and standard abbreviations
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National Center for Biotechnology Information
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The National Center for Biotechnology Information is part of the United States National Library of Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The NCBI is located in Bethesda, Maryland and was founded in 1988 through legislation sponsored by Senator Claude Pepper, the NCBI houses a series of databases relevant to biotechnology and biomedicine and is an important resource for bioinformatics tools and services. Major databases include GenBank for DNA sequences and PubMed, a database for the biomedical literature. Other databases include the NCBI Epigenomics database, all these databases are available online through the Entrez search engine. NCBI is directed by David Lipman, one of the authors of the BLAST sequence alignment program. He also leads a research program, including groups led by Stephen Altschul, David Landsman, Eugene Koonin, John Wilbur, Teresa Przytycka. NCBI is listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data. org, NCBI has had responsibility for making available the GenBank DNA sequence database since 1992. GenBank coordinates with individual laboratories and other databases such as those of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Since 1992, NCBI has grown to other databases in addition to GenBank. The NCBI assigns a unique identifier to each species of organism, the NCBI has software tools that are available by WWW browsing or by FTP. For example, BLAST is a sequence similarity searching program, BLAST can do sequence comparisons against the GenBank DNA database in less than 15 seconds. RAG2/IL2RG The NCBI Bookshelf is a collection of freely accessible, downloadable, some of the books are online versions of previously published books, while others, such as Coffee Break, are written and edited by NCBI staff. BLAST is a used for calculating sequence similarity between biological sequences such as nucleotide sequences of DNA and amino acid sequences of proteins. BLAST is a tool for finding sequences similar to the query sequence within the same organism or in different organisms. It searches the query sequence on NCBI databases and servers and post the results back to the browser in chosen format. Input sequences to the BLAST are mostly in FASTA or Genbank format while output could be delivered in variety of such as HTML, XML formatting. HTML is the output format for NCBIs web-page. Entrez is both indexing and retrieval system having data from sources for biomedical research
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Natural Resources Conservation Service
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Its name was changed in 1994 during the presidency of Bill Clinton to reflect its broader mission. It is a small agency, currently comprising about 11,000 employees. Its mission is to improve, protect, and conserve resources on private lands through a cooperative partnership with state. While its primary focus has been agricultural lands, it has many technical contributions to soil surveying, classification. NRCS is the agency in this project. The agency was founded largely through the efforts of Hugh Hammond Bennett, bennetts motivation was based on his knowledge of the detrimental effects of soil erosion and the impacts on U. S lands that led to the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. On September 13,1933, the Soil Erosion Service was formed in the Department of the Interior, the Soil Conservation Service was in charge of 500 Civilian Conservation Corps camps between 1933 and 1942. The primary purpose of these camps was erosion control, Hugh Bennett continued as chief, a position he held until his retirement in 1952. On October 20,1994, the agency was renamed to the Natural Resources Conservation Service as part of the Federal Crop Insurance Reform, NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers. The financial assistance is authorized by the Farm Bill, a law that is renewed every five years, the 2014 Farm Bill consolidated 23 programs into 15. NRCS offers these services to land owners, conservation districts, tribes. NRCS also collects and shares information on the soil, water, air. The Conservation Title of the Farm Bill provides the funding to agricultural producers, all of these programs are voluntary. Conservation Stewardship Program CSP is targeted to ag producers who maintain a level of environmental stewardship. Regional Conservation Partnership Program RCPP consolidated four programs from the prior 2008 Farm Bill and it aims at more regional or watershed scale projects, rather than individual farms and ranches. ACEP includes technical and financial help to maintain or improve land for agriculture or environmental benefits, landowners volunteer to restore and protect forests in 30 or 10 year contracts. This program hands assisting funds to participants, the project began in 2010 and initially focused on the Mississippi Basin area. The main goal of the project is to implement better methods of managing water drainage from agricultural uses, in October 2011, The National Managing Water, Harvesting Results Summit was held to promote the drainage techniques used in hopes of people adopting them nationwide
