Seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after fertilization by pollen and some growth within the mother plant; the embryo is developed from the seed coat from the integuments of the ovule. Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and success of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants, relative to more primitive plants such as ferns and liverworts, which do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to propagate themselves. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates; the term "seed" has a general meaning that antedates the above – anything that can be sown, e.g. "seed" potatoes, "seeds" of corn or sunflower "seeds". In the case of sunflower and corn "seeds", what is sown is the seed enclosed in a shell or husk, whereas the potato is a tuber.
Many structures referred to as "seeds" are dry fruits. Plants producing berries are called baccate. Sunflower seeds are sometimes sold commercially while still enclosed within the hard wall of the fruit, which must be split open to reach the seed. Different groups of plants have other modifications, the so-called stone fruits have a hardened fruit layer fused to and surrounding the actual seed. Nuts are the one-seeded, hard-shelled fruit of some plants with an indehiscent seed, such as an acorn or hazelnut. Seeds are produced in several related groups of plants, their manner of production distinguishes the angiosperms from the gymnosperms. Angiosperm seeds are produced in a hard or fleshy structure called a fruit that encloses the seeds for protection in order to secure healthy growth; some fruits have layers of both fleshy material. In gymnosperms, no special structure develops to enclose the seeds, which begin their development "naked" on the bracts of cones. However, the seeds do become covered by the cone scales.
Seed production in natural plant populations varies from year to year in response to weather variables and diseases, internal cycles within the plants themselves. Over a 20-year period, for example, forests composed of loblolly pine and shortleaf pine produced from 0 to nearly 5 million sound pine seeds per hectare. Over this period, there were six bumper, five poor, nine good seed crops, when evaluated for production of adequate seedlings for natural forest reproduction. Angiosperm seeds consist of three genetically distinct constituents: the embryo formed from the zygote, the endosperm, triploid, the seed coat from tissue derived from the maternal tissue of the ovule. In angiosperms, the process of seed development begins with double fertilization, which involves the fusion of two male gametes with the egg cell and the central cell to form the primary endosperm and the zygote. Right after fertilization, the zygote is inactive, but the primary endosperm divides to form the endosperm tissue.
This tissue becomes the food the young plant will consume until the roots have developed after germination. After fertilization the ovules develop into the seeds; the ovule consists of a number of components: The funicle or seed stalk which attaches the ovule to the placenta and hence ovary or fruit wall, at the pericarp. The nucellus, the remnant of the megasporangium and main region of the ovule where the megagametophyte develops; the micropyle, a small pore or opening in the apex of the integument of the ovule where the pollen tube enters during the process of fertilization. The chalaza, the base of the ovule opposite the micropyle, where integument and nucellus are joined together; the shape of the ovules as they develop affects the final shape of the seeds. Plants produce ovules of four shapes: the most common shape is called anatropous, with a curved shape. Orthotropous ovules are straight with all the parts of the ovule lined up in a long row producing an uncurved seed. Campylotropous ovules have a curved megagametophyte giving the seed a tight "C" shape.
The last ovule shape is called amphitropous, where the ovule is inverted and turned back 90 degrees on its stalk. In the majority of flowering plants, the zygote's first division is transversely oriented in regards to the long axis, this establishes the polarity of the embryo; the upper or chalazal pole becomes the main area of growth of the embryo, while the lower or micropylar pole produces the stalk-like suspensor that attaches to the micropyle. The suspensor absorbs and manufactures nutrients from the endosperm that are used during the embryo's growth; the main components of the embryo are: The cotyledons, the seed leaves, attached to the embryonic axis. There may be two; the cotyledons are the source of nutrients in the non-endospermic dicotyledons, in which case they replace the endosperm, are thick and leathery. In endospermic seeds the cotyledons are papery. Dicotyledons have the point of attachment opposite one another on the axis; the epicotyl, the embryonic axis above the point of attachment of the cotyledon.
The plumule, the tip of the epicotyl, has a feathery appearance due to the presence of young leaf primordia at the apex, will become the shoot upon germination. The hypocotyl, the embryonic axis below the point of attachment of the cotyledon, connecting the epicotyl and the radicle, being the stem-root transition zone; the radicle, the basal tip of the hy
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a class of occurring organic compounds that contain basic nitrogen atoms. This group includes some related compounds with neutral and weakly acidic properties; some synthetic compounds of similar structure may be termed alkaloids. In addition to carbon and nitrogen, alkaloids may contain oxygen, sulfur and, more other elements such as chlorine and phosphorus. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms including bacteria, fungi and animals, they can be purified from crude extracts of these organisms by acid-base extraction. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimalarial, anticancer, vasodilatory, analgesic and antihyperglycemic activities. Many have found use as starting points for drug discovery. Other alkaloids possess psychotropic and stimulant activities, have been used in entheogenic rituals or as recreational drugs. Alkaloids can be toxic too. Although alkaloids act on a diversity of metabolic systems in humans and other animals, they uniformly evoke a bitter taste.
The boundary between alkaloids and other nitrogen-containing natural compounds is not clear-cut. Compounds like amino acid peptides, nucleotides, nucleic acid and antibiotics are not called alkaloids. Natural compounds containing nitrogen in the exocyclic position are classified as amines rather than as alkaloids; some authors, consider alkaloids a special case of amines. The name "alkaloids" was introduced in 1819 by the German chemist Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meißner, is derived from late Latin root alkali and the suffix -οειδής – "like". However, the term came into wide use only after the publication of a review article by Oscar Jacobsen in the chemical dictionary of Albert Ladenburg in the 1880s. There is no unique method of naming alkaloids. Many individual names are formed by adding the suffix "ine" to the genus name. For example, atropine is isolated from the plant Atropa belladonna. Where several alkaloids are extracted from one plant their names are distinguished by variations in the suffix: "idine", "anine", "aline", "inine" etc.
There are at least 86 alkaloids whose names contain the root "vin" because they are extracted from vinca plants such as Vinca rosea. Alkaloid-containing plants have been used by humans since ancient times for therapeutic and recreational purposes. For example, medicinal plants have been known in the Mesopotamia at least around 2000 BC; the Odyssey of Homer referred to a gift given to Helen by the Egyptian queen, a drug bringing oblivion. It is believed. A Chinese book on houseplants written in 1st–3rd centuries BC mentioned a medical use of Ephedra and opium poppies. Coca leaves have been used by South American Indians since ancient times. Extracts from plants containing toxic alkaloids, such as aconitine and tubocurarine, were used since antiquity for poisoning arrows. Studies of alkaloids began in the 19th century. In 1804, the German chemist Friedrich Sertürner isolated from opium a "soporific principle", which he called "morphium" in honor of Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams; the term "morphine", used in English and French, was given by the French physicist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac.
A significant contribution to the chemistry of alkaloids in the early years of its development was made by the French researchers Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, who discovered quinine and strychnine. Several other alkaloids were discovered around that time, including xanthine, caffeine, nicotine, colchicine and cocaine; the development of the chemistry of alkaloids was accelerated by the emergence of spectroscopic and chromatographic methods in the 20th century, so that by 2008 more than 12,000 alkaloids had been identified. The first complete synthesis of an alkaloid was achieved in 1886 by the German chemist Albert Ladenburg, he produced coniine by reacting 2-methylpyridine with acetaldehyde and reducing the resulting 2-propenyl pyridine with sodium. Compared with most other classes of natural compounds, alkaloids are characterized by a great structural diversity. There is no uniform classification; when knowledge of chemical structures was lacking, botanical classification of the source plants was relied on.
This classification is now considered obsolete. More recent classifications are based on similarity of the carbon biochemical precursor. However, they require compromises in borderline cases. Alkaloids are divided into the following major groups: "True alkaloids" contain nitrogen in the heterocycle and originate from amino acids, their characteristic examples are atropine and morphine. This group a
Phaseolus coccineus
Phaseolus coccineus, known as runner bean, scarlet runner bean, or multiflora bean, is a plant in the legume or Fabaceae family. Another common name is butter bean, however, can refer to the lima bean, a different species, it is grown both as an ornamental plant. This species originated from the mountains of Central America. Most varieties have red flowers and multicolored seeds, they are grown as ornamental plants; the vine can grow to 3 m or more in length. It differs from the common bean in several respects: the cotyledons stay in the ground during germination, the plant is a perennial vine with tuberous roots; the knife-shaped pods are green. An example of such a purple-podded runner bean is'Aeron Purple Star'. Runner beans have been called "Oregon lima bean", in Nahuatl ayocotl or in Spanish ayocote. Runner beans, like all beans, contain the toxic protein phytohaemagglutinin and thus should be cooked well before eating. In the US, in 1978, the scarlet runner was grown for its attractive flowers as an ornamental.
Since that time, many US gardeners have adopted the bean as a regular member of the vegetable garden. The flower is known as a favourite of hummingbirds. In the UK – where the vegetable is a popular choice for kitchen gardens and allotments – the flowers are ignored, or treated as an attractive bonus to cultivating the plant for the beans; the seeds of the plant can be used as dried beans. The pods are edible whole while they are not yet fibrous; the starchy roots are still eaten by Central American Natives. The beans are used in many cuisines, it is a popular side vegetable in British cuisine. A variety named'Judión de la Granja' producing large, edible beans is cultivated in San Ildefonso, Spain, it is the basis of a Segovian regional dish named Judiones de la Granja, in which the beans are mixed with pig's ears, pig's trotters, chorizo, amongst other ingredients. In Greece, cultivars of the runner bean with white blossom and white beans are known as fasolia gigantes, they are grown under protective law in the north of Greece within the regions of Kato Nevrokopi and Kastoria.
The beans have an important role in Greek cuisine. In English, they are sometimes colloquially referred to as elephant beans. In Austria the coloured versions are cultivated and served as "Käferbohnen", a dish made of the dry beans with pumpkin seed oil, it is considered a typical dish of regional Austrian cuisine, but dried runner beans are consumed to a small extent in Germany. Greece and northern Africa are the sources of pods of the runner beans sold as "green beans" in European markets during the cold period; the pods can be identified by the rougher surface. Cultivars include:'Aeron Purple Star"Black Runner"Butler"Case Knife"Hammond's Dwarf"Painted Lady"Pickwick Dwarf"Polestar"Scarlet Runner"White Dutch Runner'P. coccineus subsp. Darwinianus is a cultivated subspecies referred to as the botil bean in Mexico; the related species considered most useful for interbreeding with P. coccineus to increase its genetic diversity are P. dumosus and P. vulgaris. Media related to Phaseolus coccineus at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Phaseolus coccineus at Wikispecies
Plant
Plants are multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Plants were treated as one of two kingdoms including all living things that were not animals, all algae and fungi were treated as plants. However, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes. By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae, a group that includes the flowering plants and other gymnosperms and their allies, liverworts and the green algae, but excludes the red and brown algae. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria, their chloroplasts contain b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ability to produce normal amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although asexual reproduction is common.
There are about 320 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, some 260–290 thousand, are seed plants. Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earth's ecosystems on land. Plants that produce grain and vegetables form humankind's basic foods, have been domesticated for millennia. Plants have many cultural and other uses, as ornaments, building materials, writing material and, in great variety, they have been the source of medicines and psychoactive drugs; the scientific study of plants is known as a branch of biology. All living things were traditionally placed into one of two groups and animals; this classification may date from Aristotle, who made the distincton between plants, which do not move, animals, which are mobile to catch their food. Much when Linnaeus created the basis of the modern system of scientific classification, these two groups became the kingdoms Vegetabilia and Animalia. Since it has become clear that the plant kingdom as defined included several unrelated groups, the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms.
However, these organisms are still considered plants in popular contexts. The term "plant" implies the possession of the following traits multicellularity, possession of cell walls containing cellulose and the ability to carry out photosynthesis with primary chloroplasts; when the name Plantae or plant is applied to a specific group of organisms or taxon, it refers to one of four concepts. From least to most inclusive, these four groupings are: Another way of looking at the relationships between the different groups that have been called "plants" is through a cladogram, which shows their evolutionary relationships; these are not yet settled, but one accepted relationship between the three groups described above is shown below. Those which have been called "plants" are in bold; the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce food by photosynthesis and thus have traditionally been included in the plant kingdom.
The seaweeds range from large multicellular algae to single-celled organisms and are classified into three groups, the green algae, red algae and brown algae. There is good evidence that the brown algae evolved independently from the others, from non-photosynthetic ancestors that formed endosymbiotic relationships with red algae rather than from cyanobacteria, they are no longer classified as plants as defined here; the Viridiplantae, the green plants – green algae and land plants – form a clade, a group consisting of all the descendants of a common ancestor. With a few exceptions, the green plants have the following features in common, they undergo closed mitosis without centrioles, have mitochondria with flat cristae. The chloroplasts of green plants are surrounded by two membranes, suggesting they originated directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. Two additional groups, the Rhodophyta and Glaucophyta have primary chloroplasts that appear to be derived directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, although they differ from Viridiplantae in the pigments which are used in photosynthesis and so are different in colour.
These groups differ from green plants in that the storage polysaccharide is floridean starch and is stored in the cytoplasm rather than in the plastids. They appear to have had a common origin with Viridiplantae and the three groups form the clade Archaeplastida, whose name implies that their chloroplasts were derived from a single ancient endosymbiotic event; this is the broadest modern definition of the term'plant'. In contrast, most other algae not only have different pigments but have chloroplasts with three or four surrounding membranes, they are not close relatives of the Archaeplastida having acquired chloroplasts separately from ingested or symbiotic green and red algae. They are thus not included in the broadest modern definition of the plant kingdom, although they were in the past; the green plants or Viridiplantae were traditionally divided into the green algae (including
Witchcraft
Witchcraft or witchery broadly means the practice of and belief in magical skills and abilities exercised by solitary practitioners and groups. Witchcraft is a broad term that varies culturally and societally, thus can be difficult to define with precision, cross-cultural assumptions about the meaning or significance of the term should be applied with caution. Witchcraft occupies a religious divinatory or medicinal role, is present within societies and groups whose cultural framework includes a magical world view; the concept of witchcraft and the belief in its existence have persisted throughout recorded history. They have been present or central at various times and in many diverse forms among cultures and religions worldwide, including both "primitive" and "highly advanced" cultures, continue to have an important role in many cultures today; the predominant concept of witchcraft in the Western world derives from Old Testament laws against witchcraft, entered the mainstream when belief in witchcraft gained Church approval in the Early Modern Period.
It posits a theosophical conflict between good and evil, where witchcraft was evil and associated with the Devil and Devil worship. This culminated in deaths and scapegoating, many years of large scale witch-trials and witch hunts in Protestant Europe, before ceasing during the European Age of Enlightenment. Christian views in the modern day are diverse and cover the gamut of views from intense belief and opposition to non-belief, in some churches approval. From the mid-20th century, witchcraft – sometimes called contemporary witchcraft to distinguish it from older beliefs – became the name of a branch of modern paganism, it is most notably practiced in the Wiccan and modern witchcraft traditions, no longer practices in secrecy. The Western mainstream Christian view is far from the only societal perspective about witchcraft. Many cultures worldwide continue to have widespread practices and cultural beliefs that are loosely translated into English as "witchcraft", although the English translation masks a great diversity in their forms, magical beliefs and place in their societies.
During the Age of Colonialism, many cultures across the globe were exposed to the modern Western world via colonialism accompanied and preceded by intensive Christian missionary activity. Beliefs related to witchcraft and magic in these cultures were at times influenced by the prevailing Western concepts. Witch hunts and killing or shunning of suspected witches still occurs in the modern era, with killings both of victims for their magical body parts, of suspected witchcraft practitioners. Suspicion of modern medicine due to beliefs about illness being due to witchcraft continues in many countries to this day, with tragic healthcare consequences. HIV/AIDS and Ebola virus disease are two examples of often-lethal infectious disease epidemics whose medical care and containment has been hampered by regional beliefs in witchcraft. Other severe medical conditions whose treatment is hampered in this way include tuberculosis, leprosy and the common severe bacterial Buruli ulcer. Public healthcare requires considerable education work related to epidemology and modern health knowledge in many parts of the world where belief in witchcraft prevails, to encourage effective preventive health measures and treatments, to reduce victim blaming and stigmatization, to prevent the killing of people and endangering of animal species for body parts believed to convey magical abilities.
The word witch is of uncertain origin. There are numerous etymologies. One popular belief is that it is "related to the English words wit, wisdom," so "craft of the wise." Another is from the Old English wiccecræft, a compound of "wicce" and "cræft". In anthropological terminology, witches differ from sorcerers in that they don't use physical tools or actions to curse; this definition was pioneered in a study of central African magical beliefs by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, who cautioned that it might not correspond with normal English usage. Historians of European witchcraft have found the anthropological definition difficult to apply to European witchcraft, where witches could use physical techniques, as well as some who had attempted to cause harm by thought alone. European witchcraft is seen by historians and anthropologists as an ideology for explaining misfortune; the witchcraft label has been applied to practices people believe influence the mind, body, or property of others against their will—or practices that the person doing the labeling believes undermine social or religious order.
Some modern commentators believe. The concept of a magic-worker influencing another person's body or property against their will was present in many cultures, as traditions in both folk magic and religious magic have the purpose of countering malicious magic or identifying malicious magic users. Many examples appear in early texts, such as those from ancient Babylonia. Malicious magic users can become a credible cause for disease, sickness in animals, bad luck, sudden death, impo
Vicia faba
Vicia faba known in the culinary sense as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is of uncertain origin and cultivated as a crop for human consumption, it is used as a cover crop, the bell bean, which has smaller beans. Varieties with smaller, harder seeds that are fed to horses or other animals are called field bean, tic bean or tick bean. Horse bean, Vicia faba var. equina Pers. is a variety recognized as an accepted name. Some people suffer from favism, a hemolytic response to the consumption of broad beans, a condition linked to G6PDD. Otherwise the beans, with the outer seed coat removed, can be cooked. In young plants, the outer seed coat can be eaten, in young plants, the seed pod can be eaten. Vicia faba is a stiffly erect plant 0.5 to 1.8 metres tall, with stems that are square in cross-section. The leaves are 10 to 25 centimetres long, pinnate with 2–7 leaflets, colored a distinct glaucous grey-green color. Unlike most other vetches, the leaves do not have tendrils for climbing over other vegetation.
The flowers are 1 to 2.5 centimetres long with five petals. Crimson-flowered broad beans exist, which were saved from extinction; the flowers have a strong sweet scent, attractive to bees and other pollinators. The fruit is a broad, leathery pod, green, but matures to a dark blackish-brown, with a densely downy surface; each bean pod contains 3–8 seeds that are round to oval and have a 5–10 mm diameter in the wild plant, but are flattened and up to 20–25 mm long, 15 mm broad and 5–10 mm thick in food cultivars. V. faba has a diploid chromosome number of 12. Five pairs are acrocentric chromosomes and one pair is metacentric. Broad beans have a long tradition of cultivation in Old World agriculture, being among the most ancient plants in cultivation and among the easiest to grow. Along with lentils and chickpeas, they are believed to have become part of the eastern Mediterranean diet around 6000 BCE or earlier, they are still grown as a cover crop to prevent erosion because they can overwinter and, as a legume, they fix nitrogen in the soil.
The broad bean has high plant hardiness. Unlike most legumes, the broad bean can be grown in soils with high salinity, as well as in clay soil. However, it prefers rich loams. In much of the English-speaking world, the name "broad bean" is used for the large-seeded cultivars grown for human food, while "horse bean" and "field bean" refer to cultivars with smaller, harder seeds that are more like the wild species and used for animal feed, though their stronger flavour is preferred in some human food recipes, such as falafel; the term "fava bean" is used in some English-speaking countries such as the US, but "broad bean" is the most common name in the UK and Australia and New Zealand. Raw mature fava beans are 11% water, 58% carbohydrates, 26% protein, 2% fat. A 100 gram reference amount supplies numerous essential nutrients in high content. Folate and dietary minerals, such as manganese, phosphorus and iron, have considerable content. B vitamins have moderate to rich content. Broad bean plants are susceptible to early summer infestations of the black bean aphid, which can cover large sections of growing plants with infestations starting at the tip of the plant.
Severe infestations can reduce yields, can cause discolouration of pods and reduction in their saleable values. Faba bean rust is a fungal pathogen affecting broad bean plants at maturity, causing small orange dots with yellow halos on the leaves, which may merge to form an orange lawn on both leaf surfaces. Beans are attacked by chocolate spot fungus, which can have a severe impact on yield. In mainland Europe and North Africa, the plant parasite Orobanche crenata can cause severe impacts on fields of broad beans, devastating their yields. Broad beans are eaten while still young and tender, enabling harvesting to begin as early as the middle of spring for plants started under glass or overwintered in a protected location, but the main crop sown in early spring will be ready from mid to late summer. Horse beans, left to mature are harvested in the late autumn, are eaten as a pulse; the immature pods are cooked and eaten, the young leaves of the plant can be eaten, either raw or cooked as a pot herb.
Broad beans were a major food of old Mediterranean civilizations for the Romans and Greeks. Preparing broad beans involves first removing the beans from their pods steaming or boiling the beans, either whole or after parboiling them to loosen their exterior coating, removed; the beans can be fried, causing the skin to split open, salted and/or spiced to produce a savory, crunchy snack. These are popular in China, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Thailand. In some Arab countries, the fava bean is used for a breakfast dish called ful
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. Some sources cite perennial plants being plants; the term is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs, which are technically perennials. Perennials small flowering plants, that grow and bloom over the spring and summer, die back every autumn and winter, return in the spring from their rootstock, are known as herbaceous perennials. However, depending on the rigors of local climate, a plant, a perennial in its native habitat, or in a milder garden, may be treated by a gardener as an annual and planted out every year, from seed, from cuttings or from divisions. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural tropical/subtropical habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions because they don't survive the winter. There is a class of evergreen, or non-herbaceous, including plants like Bergenia which retain a mantle of leaves throughout the year.
An intermediate class of plants is known as subshrubs, which retain a vestigial woody structure in winter, e.g. Penstemon; the local climate may dictate whether plants are treated as perennials. For instance, many varieties of Fuchsia are shrubs in warm regions, but in colder temperate climates may be cut to the ground every year as a result of winter frosts; the symbol for a perennial plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, is, the astronomical symbol for the planet Jupiter. Perennial plants can be short-lived or they can be long-lived, as are some woody plants like trees, they include a wide assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the diverse flowering plants like orchids and grasses. Plants that flower and fruit only once and die are termed monocarpic or semelparous. However, most perennials are polycarpic. Perennials grow structures that allow them to adapt to living from one year to the next through a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seeding; these structures include bulbs, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others.
They might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Annuals produce seeds to continue the species as a new generation while the growing season is suitable, the seeds survive over the cold or dry period to begin growth when the conditions are again suitable. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to survive extreme climatic and environmental conditions; some have adapted to survive cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and do not flower and set seed until after a few years of growth. Many perennials produce large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants; some annuals produce many more seeds per plant in one season, while some perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds but can produce seeds over many years. Dividing perennial plants is something that gardeners do around the months of October.
The point of doing the division at this time is to allow 6 weeks for adequate root growth prior to the ground reaching a freezing temperature. Due to the leaves falling from trees, as well as the excessive amount of rain received in most places during the fall weeks, the ground has adequate moisture for rapid growth; each type of plant must be separated differently. However, plants such as Irises have a root system known as a Rhizomes, these root systems should be planted with the bulb of the plant just above ground level, with leaves from the following year showing; the point of dividing perennials is to increase the amount of a single breed of plant in your garden. The more you divide your perennial plants every year, the more vast your garden will grow. In warmer and more favorable climates, perennials grow continuously. In seasonal climates, their growth is limited to the growing season. In some species, perennials retain their foliage all year round. Other plants are deciduous perennials, for example, in temperate regions a perennial plant may grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, with the foliage dying back in the winter.
In many parts of the world, seasonality is expressed as wet and dry periods rather than warm and cold periods, deciduous perennials lose their leaves in the dry season. With their roots protected below ground in the soil layer, perennial plants are notably tolerant of wildfire. Herbaceous perennials are able to tolerate the extremes of cold in temperate and Arctic winters, with less sensitivity than trees or shrubs. Perennial plants can be differentiated from annuals and biennials in that perennials have the ability to remain dormant over long periods of time and continue growth and reproduction; the meristem of perennial plants communicates with the hormones produced due to environmental situations and stage of development to begin and halt the ability to grow or flower. There is a distinction between the ability to grow and actual task of growth. For example, most trees regain the ability to grow in the midst of winter but do not initiate physical growth until the spring and summer months.
The start of dormancy can be seen in perennials pla
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Calabar Bean". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the