1.
Pinus densiflora
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This pine has become a popular ornamental and has several cultivars, but in the winter it becomes yellowish. The height of this tree is 20–35 m, the Japanese red pine prefers full sun on well-drained, slightly acidic soil. The leaves are needle-like, 8–12 cm long, with two per fascicle, the cones are 4–7 cm long. It is closely related to Scots pine, differing in the longer, slenderer leaves which are mid green without the tone of Scots pine. In Japan it is known as akamatsu and mematsu and it is widely cultivated in Japan both for timber production and as an ornamental tree, and plays an important part in the classic Japanese garden. Numerous cultivars have been selected, including the variegated semi-dwarf Oculus Draconis, the pendulous, often contorted Pendula, in Korea, simply called sonamu, it takes special status. Historically, Korean dynasties looked after it for timber and resin production banning laypeople from logging them, Korean aristocrats, or Yangban, loved it because they thought this evergreen tree represents virtues of Confucianism, fidelity and fortitude. In this strongly confucian society, it became national symbol, for Korean people, even today, it is considered to represent Korean spirit and mentioned in South Korean national anthem, Aegukga. Since it was introduced to the West by Japanese scholars during the colonial era, in Korea the KFS has changed the English name in Korea to Korean red pine. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, international Union for Conservation of Nature
2.
North Korea
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North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia, constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is both the capital as well as its largest city. To the north and northwest the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok, the country is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone separating the two. Negotiations on reunification failed, and in 1948 two separate governments were formed, the communist Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in the north, an invasion initiated by North Korea led to the Korean War. The Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire, and no peace treaty was ever signed. North Korea officially describes itself as a self-reliant socialist state and formally holds elections, critics regard it as a totalitarian dictatorship. Various outlets have called it Stalinist, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around Kim Il-sung, International organizations have assessed human rights violations in North Korea as belonging to a category of their own, with no parallel in the contemporary world. Over time, North Korea has gradually distanced itself from the world communist movement, Juche, an ideology of national self-reliance, was introduced into the constitution as a creative application of Marxism–Leninism in 1972. The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises, most services such as healthcare, education, housing and food production are subsidized or state-funded. From 1994 to 1998, North Korea suffered from a famine that resulted in the deaths of between 0.24 and 3.5 million people, and the continues to struggle with food production. North Korea follows Songun, or military-first policy and it is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world, after China, North Korea is an atheist state with no official religion and where public religion is discouraged. The name Korea derives from the name Goryeo, the name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After the division of the country into North and South Korea, the two sides used different terms to refer to Korea, Chosun or Joseon in North Korea, in 1948, North Korea adopted Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea as its new legal name. After the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Korea was occupied by Japan, Japan tried to suppress Korean traditions and culture and ran the economy primarily for its own benefit. Korean resistance groups known as Dongnipgun operated along the Sino-Korean border, some of them took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. One of the leaders was the communist Kim Il-sung, who later became the leader of North Korea
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.
Pinophyta
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The Pinophyta, also known as Coniferophyta or Coniferae, or commonly as conifers, are a division of vascular land plants containing a single class, Pinopsida. They are gymnosperms, cone-bearing seed plants, all extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs, examples include cedars, Douglas firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families,68 genera, although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, boreal conifers have many wintertime adaptations. The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing. While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity and turnover, the conifer forests of the world represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink. Conifers are of economic value for softwood lumber and paper production. The earliest conifers in the record date to the late Carboniferous period, possibly arising from Cordaites. Pinophytes, Cycadophytes, and Ginkgophytes all developed at this time, an important adaptation of these gymnosperms was allowing plants to live without being so dependent on water. Other adaptations are pollen and the seed, which allows the embryo to be transported and developed elsewhere, Conifers appear to be one of the taxa that benefited from the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and were the dominant land plants of the Mesozoic. They were overtaken by the plants, which first appeared in the Cretaceous. They were the food of herbivorous dinosaurs, and their resins and poisons would have given protection against herbivores. Reproductive features of modern conifers had evolved by the end of the Mesozoic era, Conifer is a Latin word, a compound of conus and ferre, meaning the one that bears cone. A descriptive name in use for the conifers is Coniferae. Alternatively, descriptive botanical names may also be used at any rank above family and this means that if conifers are considered a division, they may be called Pinophyta or Coniferae. As a class they may be called Pinopsida or Coniferae, as an order they may be called Pinales or Coniferae or Coniferales. Conifers are the largest and economically most important component group of the gymnosperms, the division Pinophyta consists of just one class, Pinopsida, which includes both living and fossil taxa
6.
Pinales
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The order Pinales in the division Pinophyta, class Pinopsida, comprises all the extant conifers. This order used to be known as the Coniferales, the distinguishing characteristic is the reproductive structure known as a cone produced by all Pinales. All of the extant conifers, such as cedar, celery-pine, cypress, fir, juniper, larch, pine, redwood, spruce, some fossil conifers, however, belong to other distinct orders within the division Pinophyta. The yews had been separated into an order of their own. The families included are the Araucariaceae, Cephalotaxaceae, Cupressaceae, Pinaceae, Podocarpaceae, Sciadopityaceae, and Taxaceae
7.
Pinaceae
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The Pinaceae are trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly known as Coniferales, Pinaceae are supported as monophyletic by their protein-type sieve cell plastids, pattern of proembryogeny, and lack of bioflavonoids. The family often forms the dominant component of boreal, coastal, one species, Pinus merkusii, grows just south of the equator in Southeast Asia. Major centres of diversity are found in the mountains of southwest China, Mexico, central Japan, and California. Members of the family Pinaceae are trees growing from 2 to 100 m tall, mostly evergreen, resinous, monoecious, with subopposite or whorled branches, the embryos of Pinaceae have three to 24 cotyledons. The female cones are large and usually woody, 2–60 cm long, with spirally arranged scales. The male cones are small,0. 5–6.0 cm long, seed dispersal is mostly by wind, but some species have large seeds with reduced wings, and are dispersed by birds. Analysis of Pinaceae cones reveals how selective pressure has shaped the evolution of variable cone size, variation in cone size in the family has likely resulted from the variation of seed dispersal mechanisms available in their environments over time. All Pinaceae with seeds weighing less than 90 mg are seemingly adapted for wind dispersal, pines having seeds larger than 100 mg are more likely to have benefited from adaptations that promote animal dispersal, particularly by birds. Pinaceae that persist in areas where tree squirrels are abundant do not seem to have evolved adaptations for bird dispersal, boreal conifers have many adaptions for winter. Classification of the subfamilies and genera of Pinaceae has been subject to debate in the past, Pinaceae ecology, morphology, and history have all been used as the basis for methods of analyses of the family. An 1891 publication divided the family into two subfamiles, using the number and position of resin canals in the primary region of the young taproot as the primary consideration. In a 1910 publication, the family was divided into two based on the occurrence and type of long–short shoot dimorphism. A more recent classification divided the subfamilies and genera based on the consideration of features of ovulate cone anatomy among extant, below is an example of how the morphology has been used to classify Pinaceae. Sieve element plastids of Gymnospermae, their ultrastructure and relation to systematics, D. F. Greene & E. A. Johnson. The dispersal of winged fruits and seeds differing in autorotative behavior, a. Liston, D. S. Gernandt, T. F. Vining, C. S. Campbell & D. Piñero. Molecular phylogeny of Pinaceae and Pinus, proceedings of the Fourth International Conifer Conference. Brugge, International Society for Horticultural Science, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Zsolt Debreczy, Istvan Racz
8.
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
9.
Pinus classification
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Pinus, the Pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is split into two subgenera, subgenus Pinus, and subgenus Strobus. Each of the subgenera have several sections based on chloroplast DNA sequencing. Older classifications split the genus into three subgenera – subgenus Pinus, subgenus Strobus, and subgenus Ducampopinus – based on cone, seed, DNA phylogeny has shown that species formerly in subgenus Ducampopinus are members of subgenus Strobus, so Ducampopinus is no longer used. The species of subgenus Ducampopinus were regarded as intermediate between the two subgenera. In the modern classification, they are placed into subgenus Strobus, in 1888 the Californian botanist John Gill Lemmon placed them in subgenus Pinus. In general, this classification emphasized cone, cone scale, seed, and leaf fascicle and sheath morphology, Pines with one fibrovascular bundle per leaf, were known as haploxylon pines, while pines with two fibrovascular bundles per leaf, were called diploxylon pines. Diploxylon pines tend to have harder timber and an amount of resin than the haploxylon pines. Subgenus Pinus includes the yellow and hard pines, section Pinus is mostly in Europe, Asia, except for P. resinosa in northeast North America and P. tropicalis in Cuba. Subsection Pinus P. densata - Sikang pine P. densiflora - Japanese red pine P. fragilissima P. henryi, P. hwangshanensis - Huangshan pine P. kesiya - Khasi pine P. latteri. †P. peregrinus - Pinus peregrinus - Middle Eocene, Golden Valley Formation, North Dakota, NCBI Taxonomy server files Ducampopinus species above as Strobus
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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.
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
12.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 750 staff and its chief executive is the current Director, Richard Deverell. Its board of trustees is chaired by Marcus Agius, a chairman of Barclays PLC. The Seed Bank is also the site of research projects. Seed stored at the bank fulfils two functions, it provides an ex situ conservation resource and also facilitates research around the globe by acting as a repository for seed scientists, Kew jointly with the Forestry Commission, founded Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent, specialising in growing conifers. The organisation has an average of 1 million paying visitors per year, the 326 acre site has 40 historically important buildings and collections of over 40,000 species of plants. Kew Gardens became a United Nations World Heritage Site on 3 July 2003, Kew is governed by a Board of Trustees which comprises a chairman and 11 members. Ten members and the chairman are appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and her Majesty the Queen appoints her own trustee on the recommendation of the Secretary of State. The Director of Science is University of Oxford Professor Kathy Willis and her deputy is Professor Monique Simmonds. Professor Mark Chase is Senior Research Professor, the IPNI includes information from the Index Kewensis, a project which began in the 19th century to provide an Index to the Names and Authorities of all known flowering plants and their countries. Kew also cooperates with the Missouri Botanical Garden in a project called The Plant List. The Plant List is an Internet encyclopedia project which was launched in 2010 to compile a comprehensive list of botanical nomenclature, the Plant List has 1,040,426 scientific plant names of species rank of which 298,900 are accepted species names. In addition, the list has 620 plant families and 16,167 plant genera
13.
Missouri Botanical Garden
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The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also informally as Shaws Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the United States and a National Historic Landmark. as well as the National Register of Historic Places. The Garden is a center for research and science education of international repute, as well as an oasis in the city of St. Louis. It is adjacent to Tower Grove Park, another of Shaw’s legacies, in 1983, the Botanical Garden was added as the fourth subdistrict of the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District. For part of 2006, the Missouri Botanical Garden featured Glass in the Garden, four pieces were purchased to remain at the gardens. In 2008 sculptures of the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle were placed throughout the garden, in 2009, the 150th anniversary of the Garden was celebrated, including a floral clock display. After 40 years of service to the Garden, Dr. Peter Raven retired from his presidential post on September 1,2010, Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson replaced him as President. The Garden is a place for many cultural festivals, including the Japanese Festival. During this time, there are showcases of the cultures botanics as well as arts, crafts, music. The Japanese Festival features sumo wrestling, taiko drumming, koma-mawashi top spinning, the Garden is known for its bonsai growing, which can be seen all year round, but is highlighted during the multiple Asian festivals. Major garden features include, Tower Grove House and Herb Garden - Shaws Victorian country house designed by prominent local architect George I, victory of Science Over Ignorance - Marble statue by Carlo Nicoli, a copy of the original by Vincenzo Consani in the Pitti Palace, Florence. Linnean House - Said to be the oldest continually operated greenhouse west of the Mississippi River, originally Shaws orangery, in the late 1930s it was converted to house mostly camellias. Gladney Rose Garden - Circular rose garden with arbors, climatron and Reflecting Pools - the worlds first geodesic dome greenhouse designed by architect and engineer Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc, lowland rain forest with approximately 1500 plants. English Woodland Garden - aconite, azaleas, bluebells, dogwoods, hosta, trillium, seiwa-en Japanese Garden - is a 14-acre chisen kaiyu-shiki with lawns and path set around a 4-acre central lake. It was designed by Koichi Kawana and is the largest Japanese Garden in North America, blanke Boxwood Garden - walled parterre with a fine boxwood collection. Ottoman garden with features and xeriscape. Missouri Botanical Garden also operates the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House in Chesterfield, the Butterfly House includes an 8, 000-square-foot indoor butterfly conservatory as well as an outdoor butterfly garden
14.
Vagamon
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Vagamon or Wagamon is a hill station located in Kottayam-Idukki border of Idukki district of Kerala, India. Few area is located in Kottayam district also and it has a cool climate, with the temperature between 10 and 23 °C during a summer midday. It is situated 1,100 metres above sea level, Vagamon was discovered by the British who found the place ideal for tea plantations and they were followed by Christian missionaries who built their abode of service at Kurisumala in Vagamon. National Geographic Traveler has listed Vagamon on their directory of the 50 most attractive places to visit in India, the landscape is mostly hilly bald with green meadows. Vagamon is also home to a variety of flowers and orchids. Vagamon has amenities for trekking, paragliding, mountaineering and rock climbing, however business interests are trying their best to exploit and sell and market Vagamon for tourists. How much benefit the people are receiving from tourism boom is to be seen. The efforts made by the Kurishumala Ashram have helped the farmers of vagamon to improve their earnings by ensuring better price for milk, Vagamon is at the fringe of the Western Ghats and the foot hills on its lower side reach up to Teekoy with a gradual descent. Travelling by the highway in this section is an exhilarating experience with deep valleys. Vagamon presents very spectacular views with an ethereal touch, vagamons charm is worth experiencing and is indeed one of the must see places for tourists. Reaching Vagamon itself is an extraordinary experience, the meandering road to Vagamon is cut in solid rock lined with pine forests. And as you wind your way through green capped hills, the rolling plains come into view thousands of feet below you, the road to vagamon from Erattupetta opened an easily accessible and direct route to vagamon from the plains. This road which was constructed in the 1950s was a marvel and is rated a state highway. The road was made in treacherous and dizzying terrain under the initiative, the Vagamon Airport or Mahatma Gandhi airport is a airport near Vagamon. It is built on 18 acres of land and it can fit only Megajets Turboprop or Turbo engine. Airlines that come to this airport are Air Royal, Air India Regional etc, main destination is Manianchira Fort International airport in Edamattom Palai city. D. C. Books, Kottayam has set up a management college in Pullikkanam near Vagamon, one of the leading management colleges in Kerala. Vagamon is located 15 km from kottamala 39 km from Thodupuzha,23 km from Erattupetta,33 km away from Palai,45 km from Kumily,22 km from Kuttikanam and about 65 km from Kottayam
15.
Western Ghats
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Western Ghats மேற்கு தொடர்ச்சி மலை is a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, located entirely in India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight hottest hot-spots of biological diversity in the world and it is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India. The range runs north to south along the edge of the Deccan Plateau. These hills cover 160,000 km2 and form the catchment area for complex riverine drainage systems that drain almost 40% of India, the Western Ghats block southwest monsoon winds from reaching the Deccan Plateau. The average elevation is around 1,200 m, at least 325 globally threatened species occur in the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats are the mountainous faulted and eroded edge of the Deccan Plateau, geologic evidence indicates that they were formed during the break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana some 150 million years ago. Geophysical evidence indicates that the west coast of India came into being somewhere around 100 to 80 mya after it broke away from Madagascar, after the break-up, the western coast of India would have appeared as an abrupt cliff some 1,000 m in elevation. Basalt is the predominant rock found in the reaching a thickness of 3 km. Other rock types found are charnockites, granite gneiss, khondalites, leptynites, metamorphic gneisses with detached occurrences of limestone, iron ore. Residual laterite and bauxite ores are found in the southern hills. The Western Ghats extend from the Satpura Range in the north and it traverses south past the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. Major gaps in the range are the Goa Gap, between the Maharashtra and Karnataka sections, and the Palghat Gap on the Tamil Nadu and Kerala border between the Nilgiri Hills and the Anaimalai Hills. The mountains intercept the rain-bearing westerly monsoon winds, and are consequently an area of high rainfall, particularly on their western side. The northern portion of the coastal plain between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea is known as the Konkan, the central portion is called Kanara. The foothill region east of the Ghats in Maharashtra is known as Desh, the range is known as Sahyadri in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The Western Ghats meets the Eastern Ghats at Nilgiris in northwestern Tamil Nadu, Nilgiris connects Biligiriranga Hills in southeastern Karnataka with the Shevaroys and Tirumala hills. In the southern part of the range is Anamudi, the highest peak in Western Ghats, following is a list of some of the highest peaks of the Western Ghats, The Western Ghats form one of the four watersheds of India, feeding the perennial rivers of India. The major river systems originating in the Western Ghats include Godavari, Kaveri, Krishna, Thamiraparani, majority of streams draining the Western Ghats join these rivers and carry large volume of water during the monsoon months
16.
Old Norse
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Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century, Old Norse was divided into three dialects, Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, another term used, used especially commonly with reference to West Norse, was norrœnt mál. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse, the Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Kievan Rus, eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, in Kievan Rus, it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has heavily influenced by East Norse. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots and it also influenced the development of the Norman language, and through it and to a smaller extent, that of modern French. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility. Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, the languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders
17.
Middle English
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This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English developed out of Late Old English, seeing many dramatic changes in its grammar, pronunciation and this largely forms the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by the era of Early Modern English, by that time, a variant of the Northumbrian dialect was developing into the Scots language. During the Middle English period many Old English grammatical features were simplified or disappeared, noun, adjective and verb inflections were simplified, a process that included the reduction of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw an adoption of Norman French vocabulary, especially in areas such as politics, law. Everyday English vocabulary remained mostly Germanic, with Old Norse influence becoming apparent, significant changes in pronunciation took place, especially for long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift. Little survives of early Middle English literature, most likely due to the Norman domination, poets wrote both in the vernacular and courtly English. It is popularly believed that William Shakespeare wrote in Middle English, the latter part of the 11th century was a period of transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English. The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language towards a more analytic or isolating word order and it was, after all, a salutary influence. The gain was greater than the loss, there was a gain in directness, in clarity, and in strength. The change to Old English from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive and it is most important to recognise that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to confusion, tending gradually to become obscured. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in simplifying English grammar. There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the cultures that arose in the 12th century. Sometimes, and particularly later, words were taken from Latin, giving such sets as kingly, later French borrowings came from standard rather than Norman French, this leads to such cognate pairs as warden, guardian. The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not, of course, change the language immediately, the general population would have spoken the same dialects as before the Conquest, these changed slowly until written records of them became available for study, which varies in different regions. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, Early Middle English has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, but a greatly simplified inflectional system
18.
Danish language
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There are also minor Danish-speaking communities in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their home language. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, until the 16th century, Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from Schleswig to Scania with no standard variety or spelling conventions. With the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of printing, a language was developed which was based on the educated Copenhagen dialect. It spread through use in the system and administration though German. Today, traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared, though there are variants of the standard language. The main differences in language are between generations, with youth language being particularly innovative, Danish has a very large vowel inventory comprising 27 phonemically distinctive vowels, and its prosody is characterized by the distinctive phenomenon stød, a kind of laryngeal phonation type. The grammar is moderately inflective with strong and weak conjugations and inflections, nouns and demonstrative pronouns distinguish common and neutral gender. As in English, Danish only has remnants of a case system, particularly in the pronouns. Its syntax is V2, with the verb always occupying the second slot in the sentence. Danish is a Germanic language of the North Germanic branch, other names for this group are the Nordic or Scandinavian languages. Along with Swedish, Danish descends from the Eastern dialects of the Old Norse language, Scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum, where there are no sharp dividing lines between the different vernacular languages. Like Norwegian and Swedish, Danish was significantly influenced by Low German in the Middle Ages, Danish itself can be divided into three main dialect areas, West Danish, Insular Danish, and East Danish. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish, both Swedes and Danes also understand Norwegian better than they understand each others languages. By the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language was called the Danish tongue, or Norse language. Norse was written in the alphabet, first with the elder futhark. From the 7th century the common Norse language began to undergo changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, most of the changes separating East Norse from West Norse started as innovations in Denmark, that spread through Scania into Sweden and by maritime contact to southern Norway
19.
Norwegian language
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Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as extinct languages. Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them, as established by law and governmental policy, the two official forms of written Norwegian are Bokmål and Nynorsk. The official Norwegian Language Council is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist, one and it is regulated by the unofficial Norwegian Academy, which translates the name as Standard Norwegian. Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, no standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most Norwegians speak their own dialects in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect. Outside Eastern Norway, this variation is not used. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban discourse, historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to Danish. The unofficial form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A2005 poll indicates that 86. 3% use primarily Bokmål as their written language,5. 5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7. 5% use primarily Nynorsk. Thus, 13% are frequently writing Nynorsk, though the majority speak dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in western Norway, though not in major urban areas, examples are Setesdal, the western part of Telemark county and several municipalities in Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago, it also had strongholds in rural parts of Trøndelag. Today, not only is Nynorsk the official language of four of the 19 Norwegian counties, NRK, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all publications, and Nynorsk in 8%
20.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
21.
Dutch language
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It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
22.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
23.
Fir
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Firs are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia. Firs are most closely related to the genus Cedrus, douglas firs are not true firs, being of the genus Pseudotsuga. They are large trees, reaching heights of 10–80 m tall, firs can be distinguished from other members of the pine family by the unique attachment of their needle-like leaves and by their different cones. Firs can be distinguished from members of the pine family by the unique attachment of their needle-like leaves to the twig by a base that resembles a small suction cup. The leaves are flattened, sometimes even looking like they are pressed. The leaves have two lines on the bottom, each of which is formed by wax-covered stomatal bands. In most species, the surface of the leaves is uniformly green and shiny, without stomata or with a few on the tip. Other species have the surface of leaves dull, gray-green or bluish-gray to silvery, coated by wax with variable number of stomatal bands. An example species with shiny green leaves is A. alba, the tips of leaves are usually more or less notched, but sometimes rounded or dull or sharp and prickly. The leaves of plants are usually sharper. In contrast to spruces, even large fir cones do not hang, Section Abies is found in central, south, and eastern Europe and Asia Minor. Abies alba—silver fir Abies nebrodensis—Sicilian fir Abies borisii-regis—Bulgarian fir Abies cephalonica—Greek fir Abies nordmanniana—Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir Abies nordmanniana subsp, equi-trojani—Kazdağı fir, Turkish fir Abies nordmanniana subsp. Abies grandis—grand fir or giant fir Abies grandis var. grandis—Coast grand fir Abies grandis var. idahoensis—interior grand fir Abies concolor—white fir Abies concolor subsp, concolor—Rocky Mountain white fir or Colorado white fir Abies concolor subsp. Salouenensis—Salween fir Abies pindrow—Pindrow fir Abies ziyuanensis—Ziyuan fir Section Amabilis is found in the Pacific Coast mountains in North America and Japan, Abies amabilis—Pacific silver fir Abies mariesii—Maries fir Section Pseudopicea is found in the Sino-Himalayan mountains at high altitudes. Abies delavayi—Delavays fir Abies delavayi var. nukiangensis— Abies delavayi var. motuoensis— Abies delavayi subsp, fansipanensis— Abies fabri—Fabers fir Abies fabri subsp. Abies religiosa—sacred fir Abies hickelii—Hickels fir Abies hickelii var. oaxacana—Oaxaca fir Section Nobilis Abies procera—noble fir Abies magnifica—red fir Abies magnifica var, because this genus has no insect or decay resistance qualities after logging, it is generally recommended for construction purposes as indoor use only. This wood left outside cannot be expected to last more than 12 to 18 months and it is commonly referred to by several different names, including North American timber, SPF and whitewood
24.
Douglas fir
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Pseudotsuga menziesii, commonly known as Douglas fir or Douglas-fir, is an evergreen conifer species native to western North America. The common name honors David Douglas, a Scottish botanist and collector who first reported the extraordinary nature, the common name is misleading since it is not a true fir, i. e. not a member of the genus Abies. For this reason the name is written as Douglas-fir. The specific epithet, menziesii, is after Archibald Menzies, a Scottish physician, Menzies first documented the tree on Vancouver Island in 1791. Colloquially, the species is known simply as Doug-fir or as Douglas pine. One Coast Salish name for the tree, used in the Halkomelem language, is lá, one variety, coast Douglas fir, grows in the coastal regions, from west-central British Columbia southward to central California. In Oregon and Washington, its range is continuous from the edge of the Cascades west to the Pacific Coast Ranges. In California, it is found in the Klamath and California Coast Ranges as far south as the Santa Lucia Range, in the Sierra Nevada, it ranges as far south as the Yosemite region. It occurs from sea level along the coast to 1,800 m above sea level in the mountains of California. Further inland, coast Douglas fir is replaced by another variety, mexican Douglas fir, which ranges as far south as Oaxaca, is often considered a variety of P. menziesii. Coast Douglas fir is currently the second-tallest conifer in the world. Extant coast Douglas fir trees 60–75 m or more in height and 1. 5–2 m in diameter are common in old growth stands, Douglas firs commonly live more than 500 years and occasionally more than 1,000 years. The bark on trees is thin, smooth, and gray. On mature trees, it is thick and corky, the shoots are brown to olive-green, turning gray-brown with age, smooth, though not as smooth as fir shoots, and finely pubescent with short, dark hairs. The buds are a distinctive, narrow, conic shape, 4–8 mm long. Unlike the Rocky Mountain Douglas fir, coast Douglas fir foliage has a noticeable sweet fruity-resinous scent, the mature female seed cones are pendulous, 5–8 cm long, 2–3 cm wide when closed, opening to a 4 cm width. They are produced in spring, green at first, maturing orange-brown in the autumn 6–7 months later, the seeds are 5–6 mm long and 3–4 mm wide, with a 12–15-mm wing. The male cones are 2–3 cm long, dispersing yellow pollen in spring, in forest conditions, old individuals typically have a narrow, cylindric crown beginning 20–40 m above a branch-free trunk
25.
Pinus longaeva
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Pinus longaeva is a long-living species of bristlecone pine tree found in the higher mountains of California, Nevada, and Utah. One member of species, at 5066 years old, is the oldest known living non-clonal organism on Earth. In 1987, the pine was designated one of Nevadas state trees. It is a tree, reaching 5 to 15 m tall. The bark is bright orange-yellow, thin and scaly at the base of the trunk. The needles are in fascicles of five, stout,2.5 to 4 cm long, deep green to blue-green on the outer face, the leaves show the longest persistence of any plant, with some remaining green for 45 years. These ancient trees have a gnarled and stunted appearance, especially found at high altitudes. As the tree ages, much of its vascular cambium layer may die, in very old specimens, often only a narrow strip of living tissue connects the roots to a handful of live branches. The cones open to 4 to 6 cm broad when mature, the seeds are 5 mm long, with a 12 to 22 mm wing, they are mostly dispersed by the wind, but some are also dispersed by Clarks nutcrackers. The Great Basin bristlecone pine differs from the foxtail pine because the cone bristles of the former are over 2 mm long, the green pine needles give the twisted branches a bottle-brush appearance. The name bristlecone pine refers to the dark purple female cones that bear incurved prickles on their surface, the species occurs in Utah, Nevada and eastern California. In California, it is restricted to the White Mountains, the Inyo Mountains, the tree grows in large open stands, unlike the related foxtail pine, which sometimes form dense forests. Pinus longaeva trees generally dont form closed canopies, usually covering only 15-50%, Pinus longaeva shares habitats with a number of other pine species, including the ponderosa pine, the white fir and, notably, the limber pine, a similarly long-lived high-elevation species. The tree is a primary succession species, growing quickly on new open ground. It is a competitor in good soils, however. Pinus longaeva is often the dominant species in high-elevation dolomite soils and these areas prohibit the cutting or gathering of wood. Clarks nutcrackers pluck P. longaeva seeds out of the opening cones, the nutcrackers use the seeds as a food resource, storing many for later use in the ground, and some of these stored seeds are not used and are able to grow into new plants. An introduced fungal disease known as white pine blister rust is believed to some individuals
26.
Nevada
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Nevada is a state in the Western, Mountain West, and Southwestern regions of the United States of America. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 34th most populous, nearly three-quarters of Nevadas people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the states four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada is officially known as the Silver State because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the Battle Born State, because it achieved statehood during the Civil War, as the Sage-brush State, for the plant of the same name. Nevada borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, Nevada is largely desert and semi-arid, much of it located within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are located within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe, about 86% of the states land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U. S. federal government, both civilian and military. Before European contact, Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, the first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish. They called the region Nevada because of the snow covered the mountains in winter. The area formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, and it was incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31,1864, as the second of two added to the Union during the Civil War. Nevada has a reputation for its libertarian laws, in 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populated state. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century, Nevada is the only U. S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City. The tourism industry remains Nevadas largest employer, with mining continuing as a sector of the economy. The name Nevada comes from the Spanish nevada, meaning snow-covered, most Nevadans pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the vowel of trap. Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the vowel of father, although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by most Nevadans. State Assemblyman Harry Mortenson proposed a bill to recognize the alternate pronunciation of Nevada, though the bill was not supported by most legislators, the Nevadan pronunciation is the de facto official one, since it is the one used by the state legislature. Nevada is almost entirely within the Basin and Range Province, and is broken up by many mountain ranges
27.
Evergreen
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In botany, an evergreen is a plant that has leaves throughout the year, always green. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage during the winter or dry season. There are many different kinds of plants, both trees and shrubs. Deciduous trees shed their leaves, usually as an adaptation to a cold or dry/wet season, evergreen trees do lose leaves, but each tree loses its leaves gradually and not all at once. Most warm temperate climate plants are also evergreen, in cool temperate climates, fewer plants are evergreen, with a predominance of conifers, as few evergreen broadleaf plants can tolerate severe cold below about −30 °C. In areas where there is a reason for being deciduous, being evergreen is usually an adaptation to low nutrient levels, deciduous trees lose nutrients whenever they lose their leaves. In warmer areas, species such as pines and cypresses grow on poor soils. In Rhododendron, a genus with many broadleaf evergreens, several species grow in forests but are usually found on highly acidic soil where the nutrients are less available to plants. In taiga or boreal forests, it is too cold for the matter in the soil to decay rapidly, so the nutrients in the soil are less easily available to plants. These conditions favour the growth of more evergreens and make it difficult for deciduous plants to persist. In addition, the shelter provided by existing evergreen plants can make it easier for younger evergreen plants to survive cold and/or drought
28.
Resin
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In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. They are often mixtures of compounds, principally terpenes. Many plants, particularly woody plants, produce resin in response to injury, the resin acts as a bandage protecting the plant from invading insects and pathogens. Plants secrete resins and rosins for their protective benefits, the resin produced by most plants is composed mainly of terpenes and derivatives. Some resins also contain a proportion of resin acids. The individual components of resin can be separated by fractional distillation, rosins on the other hand are less volatile and consist, inter alia, of diterpenes. Amber is fossil resin from coniferous and other tree species, copal, kauri gum, dammar and other resins may also be found as subfossil deposits. Subfossil copal can be distinguished from genuine fossil amber because it becomes tacky when a drop of a solvent such as acetone or chloroform is placed on it, african copal and the kauri gum of New Zealand are also procured in a semi-fossil condition. Solidified resin from which the volatile terpene components have been removed by distillation is known as rosin, typical rosin is a transparent or translucent mass, with a vitreous fracture and a faintly yellow or brown colour, non-odorous or having only a slight turpentine odor and taste. Rosin is insoluble in water, mostly soluble in alcohol, essential oils, ether and hot fatty oils, and softens and melts under the influence of heat, rosin consists of a complex mixture of different substances including organic acids named the resin acids. These are closely related to the terpenes, and derive from them through partial oxidation, Resin acids can be dissolved in alkalis to form resin soaps, from which the purified resin acids are regenerated by treatment with acids. Examples of resin acids are abietic acid, C20H30O2, plicatic acid contained in cedar, and pimaric acid, C20H30O2, a constituent of galipot resin. Abietic acid can also be extracted from rosin by means of hot alcohol, it crystallizes in leaflets, pimaric acid closely resembles abietic acid into which it passes when distilled in a vacuum, it has been supposed to consist of three isomers. Rosin is obtained from pines and some plants, mostly conifers. Propolis, consisting largely of resins collected from such as poplars and conifers, is used by honey bees to seal gaps in their hives. Shellac and lacquer are examples of insect-derived resins, asphaltite and Utah resin are petroleum bitumens, not a product secreted by plants, although it was ultimately derived from plants. These were highly prized substances, and required as incense in religious rites. The word resin has been applied in the world to nearly any component of a liquid that will set into a hard lacquer or enamel-like finish
29.
Tree
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In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. Trees are not a group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk. In looser senses, the palms, the tree ferns, bananas. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old, the tallest known tree, a coast redwood named Hyperion, stands 115.6 m high. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years and it is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world. A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk and this trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier, below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely, they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. Above ground, the divide into smaller branches and shoots. The shoots typically bear leaves, which light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the trees growth. Flowers and fruit may also be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones, others, such as tree ferns, trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues, trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests are one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world, trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of available for agriculture. Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always revered, with sacred groves in various cultures. Although tree is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, either botanically or in common language. In its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the form of an elongated stem, or trunk. Trees are also defined by height, with smaller plants from 0.5 to 10 m being called shrubs
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Shrub
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A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant. It is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs, generally less than 2 m tall, such as lavender, periwinkle, an area of cultivated shrubs in a park or a garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, suitable species or varieties of shrubs develop dense foliage, many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a stool results in long new stems known as canes. Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure, shrubs in common garden practice are generally considered broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as mountain pine and common juniper are also shrubby in structure. Species that grow into a shrubby habit may be deciduous or evergreen
31.
Pinus pumila
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Pinus pumila is a native of northeastern Asia, including the islands of Japan. It shares the common name creeping pine with other plants. It is an evergreen shrub ranging from 1–3 m in height, exceptionally up to 5 m. In the mountains of northern Japan, it hybridises with the related Japanese white pine. The leaves are needle-like, formed in bundles of five and are 4–6 cm long, the cones are 2. 5-4.5 cm long, with large nut-like seeds. The range covers the Far East, Eastern Siberia, north-east of Mongolia, north-east of China, northern Japan and it grows very slowly and is a perennial plant. It can live up to 300 and even 1000 years, for example, in harsh conditions of Siberia region there are trees of Siberian dwarf pine, which are 250 years-old and older. This plant is grown as a shrub in parks and gardens. The cultivar P. pumila Glauca has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, turpentine produced from resin is an anti-septic, diuretic, dermahemia-causing and anthelmintic treatment. Essential oil extracted from the pine of the Siberian dwarf pine is believed to have a sedative, pain-killing, anti-pyretic, lD50 of essential oil in mice is 0.577 mL/kg. Turpentine from resin of Siberian dwarf pine is thought to be a treatment for use and against kidney. It is taken internally and externally, also in steam bath when treating rheumatic diseases. It is used in ointments, plasters, herbal steam bath, young fertilized branches are used as all-purpose healing, anthelmintic, diuretic treatment, baths with infusions were used against neuralgia, arthritis, rheumatism, lumbago, gout, skin diseases. Young fertilized branches and needles in the form of tea were taken as an anti-scorbutic, expectorant and disinfecting treatment, since ancient times, Siberian dwarf pine, especially its young spring shoots and sapwood were considered a good anti-scorbutic treatment. Fresh bark was attached to cuts and was considered to be able to pull arrows from wounds, fertilized branches were used in Trans-Baikal and in the Far East in baths against rheumatism, lumbago and gout. In Chinese medicine roots are used against favus scab, resin was used against skin diseases as an all-purpose healing treatment. Anti-biotic and anti-scorbutic action of the pine infusions are acknowledged by clinical tests, clinical tests of the shampoo conducted on 113 men and 75 women have shown absolute harmlessness of the shampoo and its effectiveness in taking care of scalp. The use of the resulted in disappearance of dandruff, strengthening of hair roots, hair growth
32.
Pinus culminicola
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Pinus culminicola, commonly known as Potosi pinyon, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native and endemic to northeast Mexico. The range is highly localised, confined to an area of high summits in the northern Sierra Madre Oriental in Coahuila and Nuevo León. It occurs at high altitudes, from 3000–3700 m, in cool. It is a shrub, reaching 1. 5–5 m tall. The bark is grey-brown, thin and scaly at the base of the trunk, the leaves are in fascicles of five, slender, 3–5.5 cm long, and deep green to blue-green, with stomata confined to a bright white band on the inner surfaces. The cones are globose, 3–4 cm long and broad when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-brown when 16–18 months old, with only a number of thin, fragile scales. The cones open to 4–6 cm broad when mature, holding the seeds on the scales after opening. The jays, which uses the seeds as a food resource, store many of the seeds for later use. Because of its isolation on a handful of mountain summits. It differs from most other species in needle number, with 5 per fascicle, rather than 1–4. It is most closely related to Johanns pinyon and Orizaba pinyon, like them having the leaf stomata confined to the faces, it also differs from the latter in its smaller cones. Like these two, the inner surfaces of the needles make it a very attractive slow-growing shrub. Like other pinyons, the pine nut seeds are edible, photos of shrubs and foliage Photo of cones
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Pinus ponderosa
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It is the most widely distributed pine species in North America. It grows in various forms from British Columbia southward and eastward through 16 western U. S. states and has been successfully introduced in temperate regions of Europe. It was first documented into modern science in 1826 in eastern Washington near present-day Spokane, on that occasion, David Douglas misidentified it as Pinus resinosa. In 1829, Douglas concluded that he had a new pine among his specimens, in 1836, it was formally named and described by Charles Lawson, a Scottish nurseryman. It is the state tree of Montana. Pinus ponderosa is a large pine tree. The bark helps to distinguish it from other species, mature to over-mature individuals have yellow to orange-red bark in broad to very broad plates with black crevices. Younger trees have blackish-brown bark, referred to as blackjacks by early loggers, ponderosa pines five subspecies, as classified by some botanists, can be identified by their characteristically bright, green needles. The Pacific subspecies has the longest—19.8 cm or 7.8 in—and most flexible needles in fascicles of three. The Columbia ponderosa pine has long—12. 0–20.5 cm or 4. 7–8.1 in—and relatively flexible needles in fascicles of three. The Rocky Mountains subspecies has shorter—9. 2–14.4 cm or 3. 6–5.7 in—and stout needles growing in scopulate fascicles of two or three. The southwestern subspecies has 11. 2–19.8 cm or 4. 4–7.8 in, needles are widest, stoutest, and fewest for the species. Sources differ on the scent of P. ponderosa, but it is more or less of turpentine, some state that it has no distinctive scent. The National Register of Big Trees lists a ponderosa pine that is 235 ft tall and 324 in in circumference, in January 2011, a Pacific ponderosa pine in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon was measured with a laser to be 268.35 ft high. The measurement was performed by Michael Taylor and Mario Vaden, a professional arborist from Oregon, the tree was climbed on October 13,2011, by Ascending The Giants and directly measured with tape-line at 268.29 ft high. This is the second tallest known pine after the sugar pine and this species is grown as an ornamental plant in parks and large gardens. The trees were burned and blown over. Pinus ponderosa is a dominant tree in the Kuchler plant association, like most western pines, the ponderosa generally is associated with mountainous topography
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Oregon
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Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Oregon is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Washington, on the south by California, on the east by Idaho, the Columbia River delineates much of Oregons northern boundary, and the Snake River delineates much of the eastern boundary. The parallel 42° north delineates the boundary with California and Nevada. Oregon was inhabited by indigenous tribes before Western traders, explorers. An autonomous government was formed in the Oregon Country in 1843 before the Oregon Territory was created in 1848, Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14,1859. Today, at 98,000 square miles, Oregon is the ninth largest and, with a population of 4 million, the capital of Oregon is Salem, the second most populous of its cities, with 164,549 residents. Portland is Oregons most populous city, with 632,309 residents, Portlands metro population of 2,389,228 ranks the 23rd largest metro in the nation. The Willamette Valley in western Oregon is the states most densely populated area, the tall conifers, mainly Douglas fir, along Oregons rainy west coast contrast with the lighter-timbered and fire-prone pine and juniper forests covering portions to the east. Abundant alders in the west fix nitrogen for the conifers, stretching east from central Oregon are semi-arid shrublands, prairies, deserts, steppes, and meadows. At 11,249 feet, Mount Hood is the states highest point, Oregons only national park, Crater Lake National Park, comprises the caldera surrounding Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States. The state is home to the single largest organism in the world, Armillaria ostoyae. Because of its landscapes and waterways, Oregons economy is largely powered by various forms of agriculture, fishing. It is also the top timber-producer of the lower 48 states, Technology is another one of the states major economic forces, which began in the 1970s with the establishment of the Silicon Forest and the expansion of Tektronix and Intel. Sportswear company Nike, Inc. headquartered in Beaverton, is the states largest public corporation with a revenue of $30.6 billion. The earliest evidence of the name Oregon has Spanish origins and this chronicle is the first topographical and linguistic source with respect to the place name Oregon. There are also two other sources with Spanish origins such as the name Oregano which grows in the part of the region. Another early use of the name, spelled Ouragon, was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the Kingdom of Great Britain, the term referred to the then-mythical River of the West. By 1778 the spelling had shifted to Oregon, in his 1765 petition, Rogers wrote, The rout. is from the Great Lakes towards the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the River called by the Indians Ouragon
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Methuselah (tree)
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Methuselah is a 4, 848-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California. Methuselah is located between 2,900 and 3,000 m above sea level in the Methuselah Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest within the Inyo National Forest and its exact location has not been publicly disclosed. Methuselah was 4,789 years old when sampled by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan, Methuselah was for many years considered the worlds oldest living tree, until 2012 when an older bristlecone pine was discovered and later announced in 2013. Another bristlecone specimen, WPN-114, nicknamed Prometheus, was more than 4,844 years old when cut down in 1964, with an estimated germination date of 2880 BC. A dendrochronology, based on trees and other bristlecone pine samples, extends back to about 9000 BC
36.
White Mountains (California)
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The White Mountains of California and Nevada are a triangular fault-block mountain range facing the Sierra Nevada across the upper Owens Valley. They extend for approximately 60 mi as an elevated plateau about 20 mi wide on the south. The ranges broad southern end is near the community of Big Pine, the narrow northern end is at Montgomery Pass, where U. S. Route 6 crosses. The range lies within the section of the Inyo National Forest. Middle slopes from 6,500 to 8,200 ft have somewhat denser stands of piñon pine and these upper and lower conifer zones are often separated by a zone of mountain mahogany brush. Various subspecies of sagebrush extend from surrounding valleys to the alpine zone. A bristlecone pine in the part of the range is the oldest known living tree in the world. Pine nuts from piñon pine stands were harvested as a staple food by Paiute Indians whose descendants still live in adjacent valleys. The White Mountains also have small remnant groves of pine, Jeffrey pine, ponderosa pine, Sierra juniper. A number of plant species are endemic to the White Mountains, fauna include two herds of bighorn sheep, mule deer, marmots and feral horses. Permanent streams have no fish, but there are naturalized populations of trout including rare Paiute cutthroat trout which is protected from angling. Birds include Clarks nutcracker and other Corvidae which eat and cache pine nuts, cattle from ranches in surrounding valleys are still grazed under permit as high as the alpine zone. Historically sheep were grazed in large numbers, introducing diseases from which the native Bighorn Sheep populations are still slowly recovering. Before European colonization of surrounding valleys in the mid 19th century, Paiute Indians occupied summer hunting camps up to about 13,100 ft, the highest point in the range is White Mountain Peak, which at 14,252 ft is the third-highest summit in California. This peak is actually an extinct volcano rising about 1,600 ft above the plateau surface, the summit is composed of Mesozoic metavolcanic rock – lava lifted and melted by rising granite. The volcano itself is long since gone, the White Mountains are the highest range completely inside the Great Basin, although the adjacent Sierra Nevada Range along the basins western edge has two higher summits. The entire range is within the Inyo National Forest, a four-wheel drive road reaches the summit from the south to service the summit laboratory of the White Mountain Research Station. The road is normally gated seven miles from the summit at an elevation of 11,680 ft, the bench includes Mt. Hogue at 12,743 ft. and further north Mt. Dubois at 13,559 ft. the high point on the plateau
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Wheeler Peak (Nevada)
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Wheeler Peak is the tallest mountain in both the Snake Range and White Pine County, in Nevada, United States. Its summit elevation of 13,065 feet makes it the second-tallest peak in Nevada, Wheeler Peaks topographic prominence of 7,563 feet makes it the most topographically prominent peak in White Pine County and the second-most prominent peak in Nevada, just behind Mount Charleston. The mountain is located in Great Basin National Park and was named for George Wheeler, leader of the Wheeler Survey of the late 19th century, Wheeler Peak has an impressive headwall above a large glacial cirque, large moraines and an active rock glacier. The top of the mountain is covered by deep snow most of the year, a paved road runs from the Great Basin National Park visitor center to several small camping areas, the highest more than halfway up the mountain. The mountains prominence is due to a Miocene detachment fault that brought the deep Cambrian Prospect Mountain quartzite to the top of the mountain, afternoon storms are likely during the summer. The distinction of highest point in Nevada goes to the summit of Boundary Peak, so named because it is just east of the Nevada-California border, at the northern terminus of the White Mountains. Wheeler Peak is, however, the tallest independent mountain in the state since Boundary Peak is considered a subsidiary summit of Montgomery Peak, the topographic prominence of Boundary Peak is 253 feet, which falls under the often used 300-foot cutoff for an independent peak. Also, Boundary Peak is less than 1 mile away from its higher neighbor, by contrast the prominence of Wheeler Peak, at 7,563 feet, is the twelfth largest in the contiguous United States. It is also the twelfth most topographically isolated summit in the contiguous United States, the limestone Lehman Caves, at the base of the mountain, feature a large collection of shield formations. Tours of the caves are offered year round by the National Park Service, higher up on the glacial moraine is a grove of ancient Great Basin Bristlecone Pines of great age. A Bristlecone Pine named Prometheus, which was at least 4,862 years old, limber Pine, which can live for over 1,000 years, are also found in the area. List of Ultras of the United States List of highest points in Nevada by county Wheeler Peak
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Prometheus (tree)
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Prometheus was the oldest known non-clonal organism, a Great Basin bristlecone pine tree growing near the tree line on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, United States. The tree, which was at least 4862 years old and possibly more than 5000, was cut down in 1964 by a graduate student and United States Forest Service personnel for research purposes. The people involved did not know of its world-record age before the cutting, the trees name refers to the mythological figure Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. The designation WPN-114 was given by the researcher, Donald Rusk Currey. Prometheus was a member of a population of bristlecone pine trees near the tree line on the lateral moraine of a former glacier on Wheeler Peak, in Great Basin National Park. Wheeler Peak is the highest mountain in the Snake Range, the bristlecone pine population on this mountain is divided into at least two distinct sub-populations, one of which is accessible by a popular interpretive trail. Prometheus, however, grew in an area only by off-trail hiking. In either 1958 or 1961, a group of naturalists who admired Prometheuss grove gave names to a number of the largest or most distinctive trees, Currey originally estimated the tree was at least 4844 years old. A few years later, this was increased to 4862 by Donald Graybill of the University of Arizonas Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. These ring counts were done on a trunk cross-section taken about 2.5 m above the original point of the tree. Whether Prometheus should have considered the oldest organism ever known depends on the definition of oldest. Certain sprouting organisms, such as bush or aspen, may have older individuals if the entire clonal organism is considered. By that standard, the oldest living organism is a grove of quaking aspens in Utah known as Pando, in a clonal organism, however, the individual clonal stems are not nearly so old, and no part of the organism is particularly old at any given time. Until 2012, Prometheus was thus the oldest non-clonal organism yet discovered, with its innermost, bristlecone pines in Californias White Mountains and elsewhere were discovered by Edmund Schulman to be older than any species yet discovered. This spurred interest in finding very old bristlecones, possibly older than the Methuselah tree, Donald R. Currey was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying the climate dynamics of the Little Ice Age using dendrochronology techniques. In 1963 he became aware of the populations in the Snake Range in general. It is not clear whether Currey requested, or Forest Service personnel suggested, there is also some uncertainty as to why a core sample could not be obtained. In addition, there are conflicting views of Prometheuss uniqueness in the Wheeler Peak grove and it is reported that Currey and/or the Forest Service personnel who authorized the cutting believed the tree was just one of many large, very old trees in the grove
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Prometheus
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Ancient myths and legends relate at least four versions of the narratives describing Prometheus, his exploits with Zeus, and his eternal punishment as also inflicted by Zeus. There is a single somewhat comprehensive version of the birth of Prometheus, the most significant narratives of his origin appear in the Theogony of Hesiod which relates Prometheus as being the son of the Titan Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanids. Hesiod then presents Prometheus as subsequently being a challenger to Zeuss omnipotence. Each individual ancient author selectively preferred certain crucial stories depicting Prometheus over others, all three of the major Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, were affected by the myth of Prometheus. The surviving plays and fragments of Aeschylus regarding Prometheus retain a place of prominence within modern scholarship for their having survived the ravages of time. The majority of written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides have been lost to literary antiquity. The influence of the myth of Prometheus extends well into the 20th, the etymology of the theonym prometheus is debated. The classical view is that it signifies forethought, as that of his brother Epimetheus denotes afterthought. It has been theorized that it derives from the Proto-Indo-European root that also produces the Vedic pra math, to steal, hence pramathyu-s, thief, cognate with Prometheus, the Vedic myth of fires theft by Mātariśvan is an analog to the Greek account. Pramantha was the used to create fire. Prometheus, himself a Titan, managed to avoid being in the direct confrontational cosmic battle between Zeus and the other Olympians against Cronus and the other Titans. Prometheus and his struggle would be of vast merit to society as well in this mythology as he was to be credited with the creation of humans. The four most ancient historical sources for the Prometheus myth are Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, the Prometheus myth first appeared in the late 8th-century BCE Greek epic poet Hesiods Theogony. He was a son of the Titan Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanids and he was brother to Menoetius, Atlas, and Epimetheus. In the Theogony, Hesiod introduces Prometheus as a challenger to Zeuss omniscience and omnipotence. In the trick at Mekone, a sacrificial meal marking the settling of accounts between mortals and immortals, Prometheus played a trick against Zeus. He placed two sacrificial offerings before the Olympian, a selection of hidden inside an oxs stomach. Zeus chose the latter, setting a precedent for future sacrifices, henceforth, humans would keep that meat for themselves and burn the bones wrapped in fat as an offering to the gods
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Pinus taeda
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Pinus taeda, commonly known as loblolly pine, is one of several pines native to the Southeastern United States, from central Texas east to Florida, and north to Delaware and southern New Jersey. The wood industry classifies the species as a yellow pine. U. S. Forest Service surveys found that loblolly pine is the second most common species of tree in the United States, for its timber, the pine species is regarded as the most commercially important tree in Southeastern US. The common name loblolly is given because the species is found mostly in lowlands. Loblolly pine is the first among over 100 species of Pinus to have its genome sequenced. As of March 2014 it is the organism having the largest sequenced genome size and its genome, with 22 billion base pairs, is seven times larger than that of humans. Loblolly pine can reach a height of 30–35 m with a diameter of 0. 4–1.5 m, exceptional specimens may reach 50 m tall, the largest of the southern pines. The needles usually last up to two years before they fall, which gives the species its evergreen character, although some needles fall throughout the year due to severe weather, insect damage, and drought, most needles fall during the autumn and winter of their second year. The seed cones are green, ripening pale buff-brown, 7–13 cm in length, 2–3 cm broad when closed, opening to 4–6 cm wide, each scale bearing a sharp 3–6 mm spine. The tallest loblolly pine currently known, which is 51.4 m tall, and the largest, which measures 42 cubic meters in volume, are in Congaree National Park. The word loblolly is a combination of lob, referring to thick heavy bubbling of cooking porridge, and lolly, in the southern United States, the word is used to mean a mudhole, a mire, a sense derived from an allusion to the consistency of porridge. Hence the pine is named as it is found in lowlands. Loblolly pines grow well in clay soil, which is common throughout the South. For the scientific name, Pinus is the Latin name for the pines, the rate of growth is rapid, even among the generally fast-growing southern pines. The yellowish, resinous wood is prized for lumber, but is also used for wood pulp. This tree is grown in extensive plantations. Loblolly pine is the pine of the Lost Pines Forest around Bastrop, Texas and these are isolated populations on areas of acidic sandy soil, surrounded by alkaline clays that are poor for pine growth. A study using loblolly pines showed that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels may help the trees to endure ice storms better
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Bark (botany)
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Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines, and shrubs, Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the bark and the outer bark. The inner bark, which in older stems is living tissue, the outer bark in older stems includes the dead tissue on the surface of the stems, along with parts of the innermost periderm and all the tissues on the outer side of the periderm. The outer bark on trees which lies external to the last formed periderm is also called the rhytidome, Bark has been used to make cloth, canoes, and ropes and used as a surface for paintings and map making. A number of plants are grown for their attractive or interesting bark colorations. What is commonly called bark includes a number of different tissues, Cork is an external, secondary tissue that is impermeable to water and gases, and is also called the phellem. The cork is produced by the cork cambium which is a layer of active cells which serve as a lateral meristem for the periderm. The cork cambium, which is called the phellogen, is normally only one cell layer thick. The phelloderm, which is not always present in all barks, is a layer of cells formed by, together, the phellem, phellogen and phelloderm constitute the periderm. Cork cell walls contain suberin, a substance which protects the stem against water loss, the invasion of insects into the stem. The cambium tissues, i. e. Phloem is a nutrient-conducting tissue composed of sieve tubes or sieve cells mixed with parenchyma, the cortex is the primary tissue of stems and roots. In stems the cortex is between the layer and the phloem, in roots the inner layer is not phloem. From the outside to the inside of a woody stem. The bark includes through, and is composed of periderm and phloem, as the stem ages and grows, changes occur that transform the surface of the stem into the bark. The epidermis is a layer of cells that cover the plant body, including the stems, leaves, flowers and fruits, in old stems the epidermal layer, cortex, and primary phloem become separated from the inner tissues by thicker formations of cork. Due to the cork layer these cells die because they do not receive water. This dead layer is the rough corky bark that forms around tree trunks, often a secondary covering called the periderm forms on small woody stems and many non woody plants, which is composed of cork, the cork cambium, and the phelloderm
42.
Bud
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In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have the potential for general shoot development. The term bud is used in zoology, where it refers to an outgrowth from the body which can develop into a new individual. The buds of many plants, especially in temperate or cold climates, are protected by a covering of modified leaves called scales which tightly enclose the more delicate parts of the bud. Many bud scales are covered by a substance which serves as added protection. When the bud develops, the scales may enlarge somewhat but usually just drop off, leaving on the surface of the growing stem a series of horizontally-elongated scars. By means of these one can determine the age of any young branch, since each years growth ends in the formation of a bud. Continued growth of the branch causes these scars to be obliterated after a few years so that the age of older branches cannot be determined by this means. In many plants scales do not form over the bud, the minute underdeveloped leaves in such buds are often excessively hairy. Naked buds are found in shrubs, like some species of the Sumac and Viburnums. In many of the latter, buds are more reduced. A terminal bud occurs on the end of a stem and lateral buds are found on the side, a head of cabbage is an exceptionally large terminal bud, while Brussels sprouts are large lateral buds. Since buds are formed in the axils of leaves, their distribution on the stem is the same as that of leaves, there are alternate, opposite, and whorled buds, as well as the terminal bud at the tip of the stem. In many plants buds appear in unexpected places, these are known as adventitious buds, often it is possible to find a bud in a remarkable series of gradations of bud scales. Such a series suggests that the scales of the bud are in truth leaves, buds are often useful in the identification of plants, especially for woody plants in winter when leaves have fallen. Buds may be classified and described according to different criteria, location, status, morphology, buds The term bud is used by analogy within zoology as well, where it refers to an outgrowth from the body which develops into a new individual. It is a form of asexual reproduction limited to animals or plants of relatively simple structure, in this process a portion of the wall of the parent cell softens and pushes out. The protuberance thus formed enlarges rapidly while at time the nucleus of the parent cell divides
43.
Plant stem
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A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. The stem is divided into nodes and internodes, The nodes hold one or more leaves. Adventitious roots may also be produced from the nodes, the internodes distance one node from another. The term shoots is often confused with stems, shoots generally refers to new plant growth including both stems and other structures like leaves or flowers. In most plants stems are located above the surface but some plants have underground stems. Stems have four main functions which are, Support for and the elevation of leaves, flowers, the stems keep the leaves in the light and provide a place for the plant to keep its flowers and fruits. Transport of fluids between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem Storage of nutrients Production of new living tissue, the normal lifespan of plant cells is one to three years. Stems have cells called meristems that annually generate new living tissue, Stems are often specialized for storage, asexual reproduction, protection or photosynthesis, including the following, Acaulescent – used to describe stems in plants that appear to be stemless. Actually these stems are just extremely short, the leaves appearing to rise out of the ground. Arborescent – tree like with woody stems normally with a single trunk, branched – aerial stems are described as being branched or unbranched Bud – an embryonic shoot with immature stem tip. Bulb – a short underground stem with fleshy storage leaves attached, e. g. onion, daffodil. Bulbs often function in reproduction by splitting to form new bulbs or producing small new bulbs termed bulblets, bulbs are a combination of stem and leaves so may better be considered as leaves because the leaves make up the greater part. Caespitose – when stems grow in a mass or clump or in low growing mats. Cladode – a flattened stem that appears more-or-less leaf like and is specialized for photosynthesis, climbing – stems that cling or wrap around other plants or structures. Corm – a short enlarged underground, storage stem, e. g. taro, decumbent – stems that lie flat on the ground and turn upwards at the ends. Fruticose – stems that grow shrublike with woody like habit, herbaceous – non woody, they die at the end of the growing season. Pedicel – stems that serve as the stalk of a flower in an inflorescence or infrutescence. Peduncle – a stem that supports an inflorescence Prickle – a sharpened extension of the outer layers
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Fibonacci number
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The Fibonacci sequence is named after Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci. His 1202 book Liber Abaci introduced the sequence to Western European mathematics, the sequence described in Liber Abaci began with F1 =1. Fibonacci numbers are related to Lucas numbers L n in that they form a complementary pair of Lucas sequences U n = F n and V n = L n. They are intimately connected with the ratio, for example. Fibonacci numbers appear unexpectedly often in mathematics, so much so that there is a journal dedicated to their study. The Fibonacci sequence appears in Indian mathematics, in connection with Sanskrit prosody, in the Sanskrit tradition of prosody, there was interest in enumerating all patterns of long syllables that are 2 units of duration, and short syllables that are 1 unit of duration. Counting the different patterns of L and S of a given duration results in the Fibonacci numbers, susantha Goonatilake writes that the development of the Fibonacci sequence is attributed in part to Pingala, later being associated with Virahanka, Gopāla, and Hemachandra. He dates Pingala before 450 BC, however, the clearest exposition of the sequence arises in the work of Virahanka, whose own work is lost, but is available in a quotation by Gopala, Variations of two earlier meters. For example, for four, variations of meters of two three being mixed, five happens, in this way, the process should be followed in all mātrā-vṛttas. The sequence is also discussed by Gopala and by the Jain scholar Hemachandra, outside India, the Fibonacci sequence first appears in the book Liber Abaci by Fibonacci. The puzzle that Fibonacci posed was, how many pairs will there be in one year, at the end of the first month, they mate, but there is still only 1 pair. At the end of the month the female produces a new pair. At the end of the month, the original female produces a second pair. At the end of the month, the original female has produced yet another new pair. At the end of the nth month, the number of pairs of rabbits is equal to the number of new pairs plus the number of pairs alive last month and this is the nth Fibonacci number. The name Fibonacci sequence was first used by the 19th-century number theorist Édouard Lucas, the most common such problem is that of counting the number of compositions of 1s and 2s that sum to a given total n, there are Fn+1 ways to do this. For example, if n =5, then Fn+1 = F6 =8 counts the eight compositions, 1+1+1+1+1 = 1+1+1+2 = 1+1+2+1 = 1+2+1+1 = 2+1+1+1 = 2+2+1 = 2+1+2 = 1+2+2, all of which sum to 5. The Fibonacci numbers can be found in different ways among the set of strings, or equivalently
45.
Forester
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A forester is a person who practices forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a range of activities including timber harvesting, ecological restoration. Foresters manage forests to provide a variety of objectives including direct extraction of raw material, outdoor recreation, conservation, hunting, emerging management practices include managing forestlands for biodiversity, carbon sequestration and air quality. Westoby, remarked that forestry is concerned not with trees, the median salary of foresters in the United States was $53,750, in 2008. Beginning foresters without bachelors degrees make considerably less and those with masters degrees are able to command salaries closer to the average. Usually a bachelors degree is considered the education required. Some states have a requirement for foresters, and most of those require at least a four-year degree. Foresters are often employed by industry, federal and state land management agencies. Forester was also a title used widely during Medieval times, the forester usually held a position equal to a sheriff or local law enforcer, and he could act as a barrister or arbiter. He was responsible for patrolling the woodlands on a lord or nobles property and his duties included negotiating sales of lumber and timber and stopping poachers from illegally hunting. Frequently outlaws would take refuge in heavily wooded regions, when this occurred it was the duty of the forester to organize armed posses to capture or disperse the criminals. The pay and status of foresters was usually above average, reflecting the responsibility of their role in a medieval environment and economy
46.
Fertility
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Fertility is the natural capability to produce offspring. As a measure, fertility rate is the number of offspring born per mating pair, Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction. A lack of fertility is infertility while a lack of fecundity would be called sterility, Human fertility depends on factors of nutrition, sexual behavior, consanguinity, culture, instinct, endocrinology, timing, economics, way of life, and emotions. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the production of offspring. While fertility can be measured, fecundity cannot be, demographers measure the fertility rate in a variety of ways, which can be broadly broken into period measures and cohort measures. Period measures refer to a cross-section of the population in one year, cohort data on the other hand, follows the same people over a period of decades. Both period and cohort measures are widely used, crude birth rate - the number of live births in a given year per 1,000 people alive at the middle of that year. One disadvantage of this indicator is that it is influenced by the age structure of the population, general fertility rate - the number of births in a year divided by the number of women aged 15–44, times 1000. It focuses on the potential mothers only, and takes the age distribution into account, child-Woman Ratio - the ratio of the number of children under 5 to the number of women 15–49, times 1000. It is especially useful in historical data as it not require counting births. This measure is actually a hybrid, because it involves deaths as well as births, TFR equals the sum for all age groups of 5 times each ASFR rate. Gross Reproduction Rate - the number of girl babies a synthetic cohort will have and it assumes that all of the baby girls will grow up and live to at least age 50. NRR is always lower than GRR, but in countries where mortality is low, almost all the baby girls grow up to be potential mothers. In countries with high mortality, NRR can be as low as 70% of GRR, when NRR =1.0, each generation of 1000 baby girls grows up and gives birth to exactly 1000 girls. When NRR is less one, each generation is smaller than the previous one. When NRR is greater than 1 each generation is larger than the one before, NRR is a measure of the long-term future potential for growth, but it usually is different from the current population growth rate. A parents number of children strongly correlates with the number of children that each person in the generation will eventually have. Factors generally associated with increased fertility include religiosity, intention to have children, Factors generally associated with decreased fertility include wealth, education, female labor participation, urban residence, intelligence, increased female age and increased male age
47.
Scots pine
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In the north of its range, it occurs from sea level to 1,000 m, while in the south of its range it is a high altitude mountain tree, growing at 1, 200–2,600 m altitude. It is readily identified by its combination of short, blue-green leaves. The species is found on poorer, sandy soils, rocky outcrops. On fertile sites, Scots pine is out-competed by other, usually spruce or broad-leaved tree species and it is the national tree of Scotland. The bark is thick, scaly dark grey-brown on the lower trunk, the habit of the mature tree is distinctive due to its long, bare and straight trunk topped by a rounded or flat-topped mass of foliage. The lifespan is normally 150–300 years, with the oldest recorded specimens in Lapland, the shoots are light brown, with a spirally arranged scale-like pattern. On vigorous young trees the leaves can be twice as long, leaf persistence varies from two to four years in warmer climates, and up to nine years in subarctic regions. Seedlings up to one year old bear juvenile leaves, these are single, 2–3 cm long, flattened, the cone scales have a flat to pyramidal apophysis, with a small prickle on the umbo. The seeds are blackish, 3–5 mm in length with a pale brown 12–20 mm wing and are released when the open in spring 22–24 months after pollination. The pollen cones are yellow, occasionally pink, 8–12 mm long, over 100 Pinus sylvestris varieties have been described in the botanical literature, but only three or four are now accepted. They differ only minimally in morphology, but with more pronounced differences in genetic analysis, populations in westernmost Scotland are genetically distinct from those in the rest of Scotland and northern Europe, but not sufficiently to have been distinguished as a separate botanical variety. Trees in the far north of the range were formerly treated as var. lapponica. The bulk of the range, from Scotland and Spain to central Siberia, the Balkans, northern Turkey, Crimea, and the Caucasus. Foliage more consistently glaucous all year, not becoming duller in winter, mongolia and adjoining parts of southern Siberia and northwestern China. Foliage duller green, shoots grey-green, leaves occasionally up to 12 cm long, the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain and possibly other Spanish populations Kalenicz. Cones often with scales, but doubtfully distinguishable on morphology. From border regions between Russia and Ukraine, in central and southern Europe, it occurs with numerous additional species, including European black pine, mountain pine, Macedonian pine, and Swiss pine. In the eastern part of its range, it occurs with Siberian pine, the tree spread across the British Isles after the Last Glacial Maximum
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