1.
Snow
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Snowstorms organize and develop by feeding on sources of atmospheric moisture and cold air. Snowflakes nucleate around particles in the atmosphere by attracting supercooled water droplets, snowflakes take on a variety of shapes, basic among these are platelets, needles, columns and rime. As snow accumulates into a snowpack, it may blow into drifts, over time, accumulated snow metamorphoses, by sintering, sublimation and freeze-thaw. Where the climate is cold enough for year-to-year accumulation, a glacier may form, otherwise, snow typically melts seasonally, causing runoff into streams and rivers and recharging groundwater. Major snow-prone areas include the regions, the upper half of the Northern Hemisphere and mountainous regions worldwide with sufficient moisture. In the Southern Hemisphere, snow is confined primarily to mountainous areas, Snow affects ecosystems, as well, by providing an insulating layer during winter under which plants and animals are able to survive the cold. Snow develops in clouds that themselves are part of a weather system. The physics of snow crystal development in clouds results from a set of variables that include moisture content. The resulting shapes of the falling and fallen crystals can be classified into a number of shapes and combinations. Occasionally, some plate-like, dendritic and stellar-shaped snowflakes can form under clear sky with a cold temperature inversion present. Two additional and locally productive sources of snow are lake-effect storms and elevation effects, miid-latitude cyclones are low pressure areas which are capable of producing anything from cloudiness and mild snow storms to heavy blizzards. During a hemispheres fall, winter, and spring, the atmosphere over continents can be cold enough through the depth of the troposphere to cause snowfall, in the Northern Hemisphere, the northern side of the low pressure area produces the most snow. For the southern mid-latitudes, the side of a cyclone that produces the most snow is the southern side, a cold front, the leading edge of a cooler mass of air, can produce frontal snowsqualls—an intense frontal convective line, when temperature is near freezing at the surface. The strong convection that develops has enough moisture to produce whiteout conditions at places which line passes over as the wind causes intense blowing snow. This type of snowsquall generally lasts less than 30 minutes at any point along its path, in cases where there is a large amount of vertical growth and mixing the squall may develop embedded cumulonimbus clouds resulting in lightning and thunder which is dubbed thundersnow. A warm front can produce snow for a period, as warm, moist air overrides below-freezing air, often, snow transitions to rain in the warm sector behind the front. The same effect occurs over bodies of salt water, when it is termed ocean-effect or bay-effect snow. The effect is enhanced when the air mass is uplifted by the orographic influence of higher elevations on the downwind shores
2.
Oenothera biennis
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Evening primrose oil is produced from the plant. Oenothera biennis has a span of two years growing to 30–150 cm tall. The leaves are lanceolate, 5–20 cm long and 1–2.5 cm broad, produced in a tight rosette the first year, blooming lasts from late spring to late summer. The flowers are hermaphrodite, produced on a spike and only last until the following noon. They open visibly fast every evening producing an interesting spectacle, hence the name evening primrose, the blooms are yellow,2. 5–5 cm diameter, with four bilobed petals. The flower structure has an invisible to the eye bright nectar guide pattern. This pattern is apparent under ultraviolet light and visible to its pollinators, moths, butterflies, the fruit is a capsule 2–4 cm long and 4–6 mm broad, containing numerous 1–2 mm long seeds, released when the capsule splits into four sections at maturity. The seeds of the plant are important food for birds, the evening primrose was introduced to Europe in the early 17th century as an ornamental plant in botanical gardens. Its possible applications in the kitchen and as medicinal plant were discovered more than 100 years later. However, indigenous tribes in North America were using the plant as food, today, the evening primrose is mainly known as garden plant and as medicinal plant in specialized sectors. However, almost all parts of the evening primrose are edible and this includes the roots, leaves, blossoms, flower buds and seeds. The fact that all plant parts are edible makes the evening primrose an interesting food crop. In general, the taste of the plant is mild and reminds of mangold, sometimes there can be a rough aftertaste. The roots can be eaten raw or cooked like potatoes and they can be used from the young plant, from September until the first flowering stem is developed. If soaked in water and boiled the taste is similar to black salsify root, the leaves of the evening primrose can be used from April to June when the plant is not flowering yet. They can be eaten raw in salads or cooked like spinach or in soups, several Native American tribes made tea from the evening primrose leaves and used it as a dietary aid. Evening primrose leaves contain flavonoids, mucilages, tannins, sugar, resin, the flowering stems are preferably used when they are still young in June. They have to be peeled and can then be eaten raw or fried, the flower buds are denoted as delicacy and can be harvested from June to September
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
Onagraceae
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The Onagraceae are a family, known as the willowherb family or evening primrose family, of flowering plants. They include about 650 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees in 17 genera, the family is widespread, occurring on every continent from boreal to tropical regions. The family includes a number of garden plants, including evening primroses. Some, particularly the willowherbs are common weeds in gardens and in the wild, the family is characterised by flowers with usually four sepals and petals, in some genera, such as Fuchsia, the sepals are as brightly coloured as the petals. The seeds are very small. In some genera, such as Epilobium, they have tufts of hairs and are dispersed on the wind, in others, such as Fuchsia, the seeds develop in juicy berries dispersed by animals. The leaves are commonly opposite or whorled, but are arranged in some species, in most, they are simple. The pollen grains in many genera are loosely held together by viscin threads, the family is named after the genus Onagra in 1836 by John Lindley in the second edition of A Natural System of Botany. Ludwigia L. Smithsonian Institution, Onagraceae classification
7.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
8.
Oenothera elata
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Oenothera elata is a species of Oenothera known by the common name Hookers evening primrose or tall evening primrose. Subspecies include hookeri, hirsutissima, longisima, jamesii, villosa and it is native to much of western and central North America. The plants are tall, especially the hookeri subspecies, native to California. The plants are found along roadsides, in moist meadows, or woodland, the stout, usually reddish stem has many long, narrow leaves, above a basal rosette. At its top is a large, open cluster of 2- to 4-inch wide yellow flowers with 4 large petals and protruding stamens and 4-branched pistil. The fragrant flowers open at dusk and wilt the next morning, turning orange or red, the Zuni people apply a poultice of the powdered flower of the hookeri subspecies and saliva at night to swellings. Raven, Peter, Dietrich, Werner, Stubbe, Wilfried, an Outline of the Systematics of Oenothera Subsect. A New Combination and New Subspecies in Oenothera Elata Kunth, jepson Manual Treatment USDA Plants Profile Photo gallery
9.
Oenothera speciosa
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Oenothera speciosa is a species of evening primrose known by several common names, including pinkladies, pink evening primrose, showy evening primrose, Mexican primrose, and amapola. It is a perennial wildflower native to 28 of the lower 48 U. S. states as well as Chihuahua. The specific name, speciosa, means showy, the plants wild habitat includes rocky prairies, open woodlands, slopes, roadsides, meadows and disturbed areas. While it makes an attractive plant, care should be taken with it as it can become invasive, spreading by runners. This drought-resistant plant prefers loose, fast-draining soil and full sun, the pink primrose has glaborous to pubescent stems that grow to 50 cm in height. The pubescent leaves are alternate with short or no petiole. They are variable in shape, from linear to obovate, and are toothed or wavy-edged and it produces single, four-petaled, cup-shaped flowers on the upper leaf axils. These fragrant shell-pink flowers bloom throughout the summer into early autumn, the 1. 5–2 in flowers start out white and grow pink as they age. The flower throats, as well as the stigmas and stamens, have a yellow color. It blooms both day and night, but typically in the hours, closing when the full sun hits them. They bloom from March to July, and occasionally in the fall, the flowers are frequented by several species of insect, but moths are the most common as the flowers are mostly open at night. This plant is frequently referred to as a buttercup, though it is not a true buttercup. Varieties Oenothera speciosa var. berlandieri Munz Oenothera speciosa var. childsii Munz Oenothera speciosa var. speciosa Tveten, Gloria and Tveten, wildflowers of Houston & Southeast Texas. University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, ISBN 0-292-78151-2 Missouri plants, Oenothera speciosa Jepson Manual Treatment Oenothera speciosa photos, Vanderbilt University Oenothera speciosa Calphotos photos gallery, University of California
10.
Primula
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Primula /ˈprɪmjʊlə/ is a genus of mainly herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. They include the familiar wildflower of banks and verges, the primrose, other common species are P. auricula, P. veris and P. elatior. These species and many others are valued for their ornamental flowers and they have been extensively cultivated and hybridised - in the case of the primrose, for many hundreds of years. Primula are native to the northern hemisphere, south into tropical mountains in Ethiopia, Indonesia and New Guinea. Almost half of the species are from the Himalayas. Primula has about 500 species in traditional treatments, and more if certain related genera are included within its circumscription, Primula is a complex and varied genus, with a range of habitats from alpine slopes to boggy meadows. Some species show a white mealy bloom on various parts of the plant, many species are adapted to alpine climates. The word primula is the Latin feminine diminutive of primus, meaning first, Primula species have been extensively cultivated and hybridised, mainly derived from P. elatior, P. juliae, P. veris and P. vulgaris. Polyanthus is one group of plants, which has produced a large variety of strains in all colours, usually grown as annuals. The classification of the genus Primula has been investigated by botanists for over a century, as the genus is both large and diverse, botanists have organized the species in various sub-generic groups. The most common is division into a series of thirty sections, some of these sections contain many species, others contain only one
11.
Alpine plant
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Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. Alpine plants grow together as a plant community in alpine tundra, alpine plants are not a single taxon. Rather, many different plant species live in the alpine environment and these include perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, cushion plants, mosses, and lichens. Alpine plants must adapt to the conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation. Some alpine plants serve as medicinal plants, alpine plants occur in a tundra, a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees. Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide and it transitions to subalpine forests below the tree line, stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as Krummholz. With increasing elevation it ends at the line where snow. Alpine plants are not limited to higher latitudes and these areas have different ecology than those located at higher latitudes. One of the biggest distinctions is that the bound of a tropical alpine area is difficult to define due to a mixture of human disturbances, dry climates. The other major difference between tropical and arctic alpine ecology is the temperature differences, the tropics have a summer/winter cycle every day, where as the higher latitudes stay cold both day and night. In the northern latitudes, the factor to overcome is the cold. Intense frost action processes have an effect on what little soil there is. Tropical alpine regions are subject to conditions as well. Because northern alpine areas cover an area it can be difficult to generalize the characteristics that define the ecology. One factor in alpine ecology is wind in an area, wind pruning is a common sight within northern alpine regions. Along with wind pruning, wind erosion of vegetation mats is a common sight throughout Alaska, alpine plants can exist at very high altitudes. For example, there is a moss that grows at 6,480 m on Mount Everest, arenaria bryophylla is the highest flowering plant in the world, occurring as high as 6,180 m. In order to survive, alpine plants are adapted to the conditions at altitudes, including cold, dryness, high levels of ultraviolet radiation
12.
Chile
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Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres of Antarctica, the arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes, the southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. Spain conquered and colonized Chile in the century, replacing Inca rule in northern and central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic, in the 1960s and 1970s the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. The regime, headed by Augusto Pinochet, ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010. Chile is today one of South Americas most stable and prosperous nations and it leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile, another theory points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named Chili. Another origin attributed to chilli is the onomatopoeic cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of the warble of a locally known as trile. The Spanish conquistadors heard about this name from the Incas, ultimately, Almagro is credited with the universalization of the name Chile, after naming the Mapocho valley as such. The older spelling Chili was in use in English until at least 1900 before switching over to Chile, stone tool evidence indicates humans sporadically frequented the Monte Verde valley area as long as 18,500 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys, settlement sites from very early human habitation include Monte Verde, Cueva del Milodon and the Pali Aike Craters lava tube. They fought against the Sapa Inca Tupac Yupanqui and his army, the result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, the Spanish encountered various cultures that supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarros lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on 12 February 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chiles central valley
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