1.
Leaf
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A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant and is the principal lateral appendage of the stem. The leaves and stem together form the shoot, Leaves are collectively referred to as foliage, as in autumn foliage. Although leaves can be seen in different shapes, sizes and textures, typically a leaf is a thin, dorsiventrally flattened organ, borne above ground. Most leaves have distinctive upper surface and lower surface that differ in colour, hairiness, broad, flat leaves with complex venation are known as megaphylls and the species that bear them, the majority, as broad-leaved or megaphyllous plants. In others, such as the clubmosses, with different evolutionary origins, some leaves, such as bulb scales are not above ground, and in many aquatic species the leaves are submerged in water. Succulent plants often have thick juicy leaves, but some leaves are without major photosynthetic function and may be dead at maturity, as in some cataphylls, furthermore, several kinds of leaf-like structures found in vascular plants are not totally homologous with them. Examples include flattened plant stems called phylloclades and cladodes, and flattened leaf stems called phyllodes which differ from both in their structure and origin. Many structures of plants, such as the phyllids of mosses and liverworts and even of some foliose lichens. Leaves are the most important organs of most vascular plants and these are then further processed by chemical synthesis into more complex organic molecules such as cellulose, the basic structural material in plant cell walls. The plant must therefore bring these three together in the leaf for photosynthesis to take place. Once sugar has been synthesized, it needs to be transported to areas of growth such as the plant shoots and roots. Vascular plants transport sucrose in a tissue called the phloem. The phloem and xylem are parallel to each other but the transport of materials is usually in opposite directions. Within the leaf these vascular systems branch to form veins which supply as much as the leaf as possible and they are arranged on the plant so as to expose their surfaces to light as efficiently as possible without shading each other, but there are many exceptions and complications. For instance plants adapted to windy conditions may have pendent leaves, such as in many willows, the flat, or laminar, shape also maximises thermal contact with the surrounding air, promoting cooling. Functionally, in addition to photosynthesis the leaf is the site of transpiration and guttation. Many gymnosperms have thin needle-like or scale-like leaves that can be advantageous in cold climates with frequent snow and these are interpreted as reduced from megaphyllous leaves of their Devonian ancestors. For xerophytes the major constraint is not light flux or intensity, some window plants such as Fenestraria species and some Haworthia species such as Haworthia tesselata and Haworthia truncata are examples of xerophytes. and Bulbine mesembryanthemoides
2.
Flower
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A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in plants that are floral. The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs, Flowers may facilitate outcrossing or allow selfing. Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization, Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen. After fertilization, the ovary of the flower develops into fruit containing seeds, the essential parts of a flower can be considered in two parts, the vegetative part, consisting of petals and associated structures in the perianth, and the reproductive or sexual parts. A stereotypical flower consists of four kinds of structures attached to the tip of a short stalk, each of these kinds of parts is arranged in a whorl on the receptacle. The four main whorls are as follows, Collectively the calyx, corolla, the next whorl toward the apex, composed of units called petals, which are typically thin, soft and colored to attract animals that help the process of pollination. Androecium, the whorl, consisting of units called stamens. Stamens consist of two parts, a called a filament, topped by an anther where pollen is produced by meiosis. Gynoecium, the innermost whorl of a flower, consisting of one or more units called carpels, the carpel or multiple fused carpels form a hollow structure called an ovary, which produces ovules internally. Ovules are megasporangia and they in turn produce megaspores by meiosis which develop into female gametophytes and these give rise to egg cells. The gynoecium of a flower is described using an alternative terminology wherein the structure one sees in the innermost whorl is called a pistil. A pistil may consist of a carpel or a number of carpels fused together. The sticky tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen, the supportive stalk, the style, becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma. The relationship to the gynoecium on the receptacle is described as hypogynous, perigynous, although the arrangement described above is considered typical, plant species show a wide variation in floral structure. These modifications have significance in the evolution of flowering plants and are used extensively by botanists to establish relationships among plant species, the four main parts of a flower are generally defined by their positions on the receptacle and not by their function. Many flowers lack some parts or parts may be modified into other functions and/or look like what is typically another part, in some families, like Ranunculaceae, the petals are greatly reduced and in many species the sepals are colorful and petal-like. Other flowers have modified stamens that are petal-like, the flowers of Peonies and Roses are mostly petaloid stamens
3.
Advertising in biology
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Advertising in biology means the use of displays by organisms such as animals and plants to signal their presence for some evolutionary reason. Such honest advertising benefits both the sender and the receiver, other animals may advertise dishonestly, in Batesian mimicry, edible animals more or less accurately mimic distasteful animals to reduce their own risk of being attacked by predators. Insect-pollinated flowers use bright colours, patterns, rewards of nectar and pollen, some also use drugs such as caffeine to encourage bees to return more often. Advertising is influenced by selection, in dioecious plants like sallow. Honey bees are attracted by the brighter male flowers. Many flowers that are adapted for pollination by birds produce copious quantities of nectar, insects see red less well than other colours, and the plant needs to devote its energy to attracting birds that can act as pollinators rather than insects that cannot. Advertising takes a variety of forms in animals, breeding adults often display to attract a mate. Breeding males of sexually dimorphic birds, such as peacocks, birds of paradise and bower birds, have elaborate plumage, song and these evolved through sexual selection by females. The males use these features alone or in combination to advertise their presence, in a lek, the presence of multiple males advertises and potentially benefits all the males present, so they are both collaborating and competing. Breeding males may also advertise honestly to warn rival males of their strength, an example being the red deer. The honest advertisement benefits both sender and receiver, as neither need become involved in a fight to assess their relative strength. In the breeding season, frogs congregate at breeding sites and call to advertise their presence. Females can distinguish between the fitness of males based on the characteristics of their voices, desert toads emerge from their underground burrows in response to heavy rain. Males emerge first and when one finds a suitable pool, its call attracts others. Males may call in unison in noisy choruses, and breeding is explosive, colour can be used in advertising. Some butterflies have eyespots on their wings and these make no effort at concealment, but may startle a potential predator into trying elsewhere. The western skink has a blue tail. If the skink cannot escape from a predator by concealment or flight, similarly, some species of grasshopper are well-camouflaged when at rest but flash vivid colouration when flying
4.
Pollinator
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A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the gametes from the pollen grains. Insect pollinators include bees, pollen wasps, ants, flies including bee flies and hoverflies, lepidopterans, vertebrates, mainly bats and birds, but also some non-bat mammals and some lizards pollinate certain plants. Among the pollinating birds are hummingbirds, honeyeaters and sunbirds with long beaks, cycads, which are not flowering plants, are also pollinated by insects. A pollinator is different from a pollenizer, a plant that is a source of pollen for the pollination process, plants fall into pollination syndromes that reflect the type of pollinator being attracted. These are characteristics such as, overall size, the depth and width of the corolla, the color. When these characteristics are experimentally modified, pollinator visitation may decline and it has recently been discovered that cycads, which are not flowering plants, are also pollinated by insects. The most recognized pollinators are the species of bees, which are plainly adapted to pollination. Bees typically are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge, Honey bees, bumblebees, and their relatives do not have a scopa, but the hind leg is modified into a structure called the corbicula. Most bees gather nectar, an energy source, and pollen, which is high protein food, to nurture their young. Euglossine bees pollinate orchids, but these are male bees collecting floral scents rather than females gathering nectar or pollen, female orchid bees act as pollinators, but of flowers other than orchids. Eusocial bees such as honey bees need an abundant and steady pollen source to multiply, Honey bees travel from flower to flower, collecting nectar, and pollen grains. The bee collects the pollen by rubbing against the anthers, the pollen collects on the hind legs, in a structure referred to as a pollen basket. As the bee flies from flower to flower, some of the grains are transferred onto the stigma of other flowers. Nectar provides the energy for bee nutrition, pollen provides the protein, when bees are rearing large quantities of brood, bees deliberately gather pollen to meet the nutritional needs of the brood. Good pollination management seeks to have bees in a state during the bloom period of the crop, thus requiring them to gather pollen. Thus, the management techniques of a beekeeper providing pollination services are different from, and to some extent in tension with, many insects other than bees accomplish pollination by visiting flowers for nectar or pollen, or commonly both. Many do so adventitiously, but the most important pollinators are specialists for at least parts of their lifecycles for at least certain functions
5.
Tepal
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A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower when these parts cannot easily be divided into two kinds, sepals and petals. The term was first proposed by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1827, undifferentiated tepals are believed to be the ancestral condition in flowering plants. For example, Amborella, which is thought to have separated earliest in the evolution of flowering plants, has flowers with undifferentiated tepals, distinct petals and sepals would therefore have arisen by differentiation, probably in response to animal pollination. Tepals formed by similar sepals and petals are common in monocotyledons, in tulips, for example, the first and second whorls both contain structures that look like petals. These are fused at the base to one large, showy. In lilies the organs in the first whorl are separate from the second, where sepals and petals can in principle be distinguished, usage of the term tepal is not always consistent – some authors will refer to sepals and petals where others use tepals in the same context. In some plants the flowers have no petals, and all the tepals are sepals modified to look like petals and these organs are described as petaloid, for example, the sepals of hellebores. When the undifferentiated tepals resemble petals, they are referred to as petaloid, as in petaloid monocots. Since they include Liliales, a name is lilioid monocots. Terms used in the description of tepals include pubescent, puberulent, tepal shape is described in similar terms to those used for leaves. Plant Systematics - Jones, Samuel - McGraw-Hill 1979 ISBN 0-07-032795-5
6.
Aloe
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Aloe, also written Aloë, is a genus containing over 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most widely known species is Aloe vera, or true aloe, other species, such as Aloe ferox, also are cultivated or harvested from the wild for similar applications. The APG IV system places the genus in the family Asphodelaceae, in the past, it has been assigned to the family Aloaceae or to a broadly circumscribed family Liliaceae. The plant Agave americana, which is sometimes called American aloe, belongs to the Asparagaceae, the genus is native to tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula, and various islands in the Indian Ocean. A few species have become naturalized in other regions. Most Aloe species have a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves, Aloe flowers are tubular, frequently yellow, orange, pink, or red, and are borne, densely clustered and pendant, at the apex of simple or branched, leafless stems. Many species of Aloe appear to be stemless, with the rosette growing directly at ground level and they vary in color from grey to bright-green and are sometimes striped or mottled. Some aloes native to South Africa are tree-like, the APG IV system places the genus in the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae. In the past it has also assigned to the families Liliaceae and Aloeaceae, as well as the family Asphodelaceae sensu stricto. The circumscription of the genus has varied widely, many genera, such as Lomatophyllum, have been brought into synonymy. Species at one time placed in Aloe, such as Agave americana, have moved to other genera. Over 500 species are accepted in the genus Aloe, plus even more synonyms and unresolved species, subspecies, varieties, Aloe species are frequently cultivated as ornamental plants both in gardens and in pots. Many aloe species are highly decorative and are valued by collectors of succulents, Aloe vera is used both internally and externally on humans, and is claimed to have some medicinal effects, which have been supported by scientific and medical research. They can also be made into types of special soaps, historical use of various aloe species is well documented. Documentation of the effectiveness is available, although relatively limited. Of the 500+ species, only a few were used traditionally as herbal medicines, also included are A. perryi and A. ferox. The Ancient Greeks and Romans used Aloe vera to treat wounds, in the Middle Ages, the yellowish liquid found inside the leaves was favored as a purgative. Unprocessed aloe that contains aloin is generally used as a laxative, some species, particularly Aloe vera, are used in alternative medicine and first aid
7.
Tulip
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The tulip is a Eurasian and North African genus of perennial, bulbous plants in the lily family. It is a herb with showy flowers, of which around 75 wild species are currently accepted. The tulips centre of diversity is in the Pamir, Hindu Kush and it is a common element of steppe and winter-rain Mediterranean vegetation. A number of species and many cultivars are grown in gardens or as potted plants. Tulips are spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs, depending on the species, tulip plants can be between 4 inches and 28 inches high. The tulips large flowers usually bloom on scapes with leaves in a rosette at ground level, larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12, the tulips leaf is strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the leaves are alternately arranged on the stem, these fleshy blades are often bluish green in color. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes, the generally cup or star-shaped tulip flower has three petals and three sepals, which are often termed tepals because they are nearly identical. These six tepals are often marked on the surface near the bases with darker colorings. Tulip flowers come in a variety of colors, except pure blue. The flowers have six distinct, basifixed stamens with filaments shorter than the tepals, each stigma has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers. The tulips seed is a capsule with a covering and an ellipsoid to globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows per chamber and these light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed. Tulipanin is a found in tulips. It is the 3-rutinoside of delphinidin, the chemical compounds named tuliposides and tulipalins can also be found in tulips and are responsible for allergies. Tulipalin A, or α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone, is an allergen, generated by hydrolysis of the glucoside tuliposide A. It induces a dermatitis that is mostly occupational and affects tulip bulb sorters and florists who cut the stems, tulipanin A and B are toxic to horses, cats and dogs. The genus Tulipa was traditionally divided into two sections, Eriostemones and Tulipa, and comprises ca.76 species
8.
Rose
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A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears. There are over a species and thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies, Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has used in the development of the wide range of garden roses. The leaves are borne alternately on the stem, most roses are deciduous but a few are evergreen or nearly so. The flowers of most species have five petals, with the exception of Rosa sericea, each petal is divided into two distinct lobes and is usually white or pink, though in a few species yellow or red. Beneath the petals are five sepals and these may be long enough to be visible when viewed from above and appear as green points alternating with the rounded petals. There are multiple superior ovaries that develop into achenes, the aggregate fruit of the rose is a berry-like structure called a rose hip. Many of the domestic cultivars do not produce hips, as the flowers are so tightly petalled that they do not provide access for pollination, the hips of most species are red, but a few have dark purple to black hips. Each hip comprises an outer layer, the hypanthium, which contains 5–160 seeds embedded in a matrix of fine. Rose hips of some species, especially the dog rose and rugosa rose, are rich in vitamin C. The hips are eaten by fruit-eating birds such as thrushes and waxwings, some birds, particularly finches, also eat the seeds. While the sharp objects along a stem are commonly called thorns. Rose prickles are typically sickle-shaped hooks, which aid the rose in hanging onto other vegetation growing over it. Despite the presence of prickles, roses are frequently browsed by deer, a few species of roses have only vestigial prickles that have no points. Hesperrhodos contains Rosa minutifolia and Rosa stellata, from North America, platyrhodon with one species from east Asia, Rosa roxburghii
9.
Lilioid monocots
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Lilioid monocots is an informal name used for a grade of five monocot orders in which the majority of species have flowers with relatively large, coloured tepals. This characteristic is similar to found in lilies. Petaloid monocots refers to the flowers having tepals which all resemble petals, the taxonomic terms Lilianae or Liliiflorae have also been applied to this assemblage at various times. From the early nineteenth century many of the species in group of plants were put into a very broadly defined family. These classification systems are found in many books and other sources. Within the monocots the Liliaceae s. l. were distinguished from the Glumaceae and this has resulted in treating monocots as three informal groups, alismatid, lilioid and commelinid monocots. The lilioids are paraphyletic in the sense that commelinids form a group to Asparagales. The descriptive term petaloid lilioid monocot relates to the conspicuous petal-like tepals which superficially resemble true lilies, morphologically, the petaloid or lilioid monocots can be considered to possess five groups of three-fold whorls. Lilioid monocots all have flowers which can be considered to have derived from a lily-like flower with six relatively similar tepals. However, floral synapomorphy is rare since most conform to the general monocot pattern and this pattern is ancestral for the lilioid monocots. Structural monosymmetry is rare, except for Orchidaceae, various trends are apparent among the lilioids, notably a change to an inferior ovary and a reduction of the number of stamens to three. In some groups, the tepals have become clearly differentiated, so that the flower has three coloured petals and three green sepals. Almost all lilioid monocots retain at least three petal-like tepals, the morphological concept of petaloid monocots has been equated with animal-attracting as opposed to wind-pollinating plants that have evolved very different floral structures. Pollen structure shows that of the two main types, secretory and plasmodial, the lilioid monocots are nearly all secretory. In the orders that branched off before the lilioid monocots, the Acorales and Alismatales, in some cases, like Acorus, they have become insignificant. In others, like Butomus, they have six coloured tepals, and so could be called petaloid, the later evolved commelinids have various kinds of flower, few of which are lily-like. In the order Poales, comprising grasses, rushes and sedges, flowers are either petal-less or have small, many Zingiberales species have brightly coloured and showy flowers. However, their apparent structure is misleading, for example, the six tepals of cannas are small and hidden under expanded and brightly coloured stamens or staminodes which resemble petals and may be mistaken for them
10.
Poaceae
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Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses. Poaceae includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and cultivated lawns, Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath, with ca 780 genera and around 12,000 species, Poaceae are the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40. 5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland. Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many habitats, including wetlands, forests. Though commonly called grasses, seagrasses, rushes, and sedges fall outside this family, the rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales. The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown, the term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα. Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms, a cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets, Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Recent findings of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites have pushed this back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, revised dating of the origins of the rice tribe Oryzeae suggested a date as early as 107 to 129 Mya, a multituberculate mammal with grass-eating adaptations seems to suggest that grasses were already around at 120 mya. This separation occurred within the short time span of about 4 million years. Grass leaves are always alternate and distichous, and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem, the leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals, some, such as sword grass, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath, flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes, the part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or more florets, a floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and anemophilous or wind-pollinated, the perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules, that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea, these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. This complex structure can be seen in the image on the right, the fruit of grasses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall
11.
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
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Flower". Encyclopædia Britannica. 10: Evangelical Church – Francis Joseph I. (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 
