Sequoia (genus)
Sequoia is a genus of redwood coniferous trees in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. The only extant species of the genus is Sequoia sempervirens in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion of Northern California and Southwestern Oregon in the United States; the two other genera and Metasequoia, in the subfamily Sequoioideae are related to Sequoia. It includes the tallest trees in the world. Several extinct species have been named from fossils, including Sequoia affinis, Sequoia chinensis of China, Sequoia langsdorfii, Sequoia dakotensis of South Dakota, Sequoia magnifica; the name Sequoia was first published as a genus name by the Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher in 1847. However, he left no specific reasons for choosing that name, there is no record of anyone else speaking to him about its origin; the most common modern guess is that Endlicher, a published linguist, philologist, as well as a systematic botanist, named the genus in honor of Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee writing system, now known as Sequoyan.
Beginning in the 1860s, it was suggested that the name is instead a derivation from the Latin word for "sequence", since the species was thought to be a follower or remnant of massive ancient, extinct species, thus the next in a sequence. However, in a 2012 article, author Gary Lowe argues that Endlicher would not have had the knowledge to conceive of Sequoia sempervirens as the successor to a fossil sequence, that he more saw it, within the framework of his taxonomic arrangements, as completing a morphological sequence of species in regards to the number of seeds per cone scale. In 2017, Dr. Nancy Muleady-Mecham of Northern Arizona University, after extensive research with original documents in Austria, claimed to find a positive link to the person Sequoyah and Endlicher as well as information that the use of the Latin sequor would not have been correct. There are debilitating limitations to the arguments presented in the 2017 article; the alleged positive link is based on a similarity in pronunciation of the words “Sequoyah” and “Sequoia”.
Endlicher could not have known how Sequoyah’s name was pronounced in Cherokee since he never had the opportunity to hear spoken Cherokee. The claimed use of Latin ignores Endlicher’s philological background and familiarity with the Latin of the ancient manuscripts in the royal library on which he extensively published. Endlicher’s Botanical Latin prefix in the genus name Sequoia was derived from the Latin verb “sequor”, was not a conjugation of the verb. For a detailed and documented discussion of the etymology see the Stanford Digital Library edition of Debunking the Sequoia honoring Sequoyah Myth. By the late Cretaceous the ancestral sequoias were established in Europe, parts of China, western North America. Comparisons among fossils and modern organisms suggest that by this period Sequoia ancestors had evolved a greater tracheid diameter that allowed it to reach the great heights characteristic of the modern Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron giganteum. Sequoia ancestors were not dominant in the tropical high northern latitudes, like Metasequoia, a redwood whose deciduous habit gave it a significant adaptive advantage in an environment with 3 months of continuous darkness.
However, there still was prolonged range overlap between Sequoia and Metasequoia which could have led to hybridization events that created the modern hexaploid Sequoia sempervirens. See the metastudy of the geologic history of the giant sequoia and the coast redwood. A general cooling trend by the late Eocene and Oligocene reduced the northern ranges of ancestral Sequoia. By the end of the Miocene and beginning of the Pliocene, Sequoia fossils were morphologically identical to the modern Sequoia sempervirens. Continued cooling in the Pliocene meant that Sequoia, intolerant to frost due to the high water content of its tissues became locally extinct in response to the extreme cooling of Europe and Asia In western North America it continued to move south through coastal Oregon and California, surviving due to the abundant rainfall and mild seasons; the Sierra Nevada orogeny further isolated Sequoia because the snowy mountain peaks prevented eastward expansion. The Pleistocene and Holocene distributions are nearly identical to the modern S. sempervirens distributions.
Muir Woods National Monument Pacific temperate rain forests Redwood National and State Parks Muleady-Mecham, Nancy E. Ph. D. "Endlicher and Sequoia: Determination of the Entymological Origin of the Taxon Sequoia," Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences: Vol. 116: Iss. 2. Available at: http://scholar.oxy.edu/scas/vol116/iss2/6
Tsuga
Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the subfamily Abietoideae. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock. Unlike the latter, Tsuga species are not poisonous. Eight to ten species are within the genus, with four species occurring in North America and four to six in eastern Asia, they are medium-sized to large evergreen trees, ranging from 10–60 m tall, with a conical to irregular crown, the latter occurring in some of the Asian species. The leading shoots droop; the bark is scaly and deeply furrowed, with the colour ranging from grey to brown. The branches stem horizontally from the trunk and are arranged in flattened sprays that bend downward towards their tips. Short spur shoots, which are present in many gymnosperms, are weakly to moderately developed; the young twigs, as well as the distal portions of stem, are flexible and pendent. The stems are rough due to pulvini; the winter buds are ovoid or globose rounded at the apex and not resinous.
The leaves are flattened to angular and range from 5–35 mm long and 1–3 mm broad. They are arranged spirally on the stem. Towards the base, the leaves narrow abruptly to a petiole set on a forward-angled pulvinus; the petiole is twisted at the base so it is parallel with the stem. The leaf apex is either rounded, or acute; the undersides have two white stomatal bands separated by an elevated midvein. The upper surface of the leaves lack stomata, they have one resin canal, present beneath the single vascular bundle. The pollen cones grow solitary from lateral buds, they are 3–5 mm long, globose, or ellipsoid, yellowish-white to pale purple, borne on a short peduncle. The pollen itself has a saccate, ring-like structure at its distal pole, this structure can be more or less doubly saccate; the seed cones are borne on year-old twigs and are small ovoid-globose or oblong-cylindric, ranging from 15–40 mm long, except in T. mertensiana, where they are cylindrical and longer, 35–80 mm in length. Maturation occurs in 5–8 months, the seeds are shed shortly thereafter.
The seed scales are thin and persistent. They lack an apophysis and an umbo; the bracts are small. The seeds are small, from 2 to 4 mm long, winged, with the wing being 8 to 12 mm in length, they contain small adaxial resin vesicles. Seed germination is epigeal. Mountain hemlock, T. mertensiana, is unusual in the genus in several respects. The leaves are less flattened and arranged all round the shoot, have stomata above as well as below, giving the foliage a glaucous colour; some botanists treat it in a distinct genus as Hesperopeuce mertensiana Rydb. Though it is more only considered distinct at the rank of subgenus. Another species, bristlecone hemlock, first described as Tsuga longibracteata, is now treated in a distinct genus Nothotsuga; the species are all adapted to moist, cool temperate areas with high rainfall, cool summers, little or no water stress. Hemlock trees are more tolerant of heavy shade than other conifers; the two eastern North American species, T. canadensis and T. caroliniana, are under serious threat by the sap-sucking insect Adelges tsugae.
This adelgid, related to the aphids, was introduced accidentally from eastern Asia, where it is only a minor pest. Extensive mortality has occurred east of the Appalachian Mountains; the Asian species are resistant to this pest, the two western American hemlocks are moderately resistant. In North America, hemlocks are attacked by hemlock looper. Larger infected hemlocks have large high root systems that can bring other trees down if one falls; the foliage of young trees is browsed by deer, the seeds are eaten by finches and small rodents. Old trees are attacked by various fungal disease and decay species, notably Heterobasidion annosum and Armillaria species, which rot the heartwood and leave the tree liable to windthrow, Rhizina undulata, which may kill groups of trees following minor grass fires that activate growth of the Rhizina spores; the wood obtained from hemlocks is important in the timber industry for use as wood pulp. Many species are used in horticulture, numerous cultivars have been selected for use in gardens.
The bark of the hemlock is used in tanning leather. The needles of the hemlock tree are sometimes used to make a perfume. Accepted speciesTsuga canadensis eastern hemlock – Eastern Canada, Eastern United States Tsuga caroliniana Carolina hemlock – Southern Appalachians Tsuga chinensis Taiwan hemlock – much of China incl Tibet + Taiwan Tsuga diversifolia northern Japanese hemlock – Honshu
Pinaceae
The Pinaceae are trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, hemlocks, larches and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales known as Coniferales. Pinaceae are supported as monophyletic by their protein-type sieve cell plastids, pattern of proembryogeny, lack of bioflavonoids, they are the largest extant conifer family in species diversity, with between 220 and 250 species in 11 genera, the second-largest in geographical range, found in most of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority of the species in temperate climates, but ranging from subarctic to tropical. The family forms the dominant component of boreal and montane forests. 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, central Japan, California. Members of the family Pinaceae are trees growing from 2 to 100 m tall evergreen, monoecious, with subopposite or whorled branches, spirally arranged, linear leaves.
The embryos of Pinaceae have three to 24 cotyledons. The female cones are large and woody, 2–60 cm long, with numerous spirally arranged scales, two winged seeds on each scale; the male cones are small, 0.5–6.0 cm long, fall soon after pollination. Seed dispersal is by wind, but some species have large seeds with reduced wings, are dispersed by birds. Analysis of Pinaceae cones reveals how selective pressure has shaped the evolution of variable cone size and function throughout the family. Variation in cone size in the family has resulted from the variation of seed dispersal mechanisms available in their environments over time. All Pinaceae with seeds weighing less than 90 mg are adapted for wind dispersal. Pines having seeds larger than 100 mg are more to have benefited from adaptations that promote animal dispersal 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.
The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, their downward-drooping limbs help them shed snow, many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing, called "hardening". Classification of the subfamilies and genera of Pinaceae has been subject to debate in the past. Pinaceae ecology and history have all been used as the basis for methods of analyses of the family. An 1891 publication divided the family into two subfamilies, using the number and position of resin canals in the primary vascular region of the young taproot as the primary consideration. In a 1910 publication, the family was divided into two tribes 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 and fossil members of the family. Below is an example of; the 11 genera are grouped into four subfamilies, based on the microscopical anatomy and the morphology of the cones, wood and leaves: Subfamily Pinoideae: cones are biennial triennial, with each year's scale-growth distinct, forming an umbo on each scale, the cone scale base is broad, concealing the seeds from abaxial view, the seed is without resin vesicles, the seed wing holds the seed in a pair of claws, leaves have primary stomatal bands adaxial or on both surfaces.
Subfamily Piceoideae: cones are annual, without a distinct umbo, the cone scale base is broad, concealing the seeds from abaxial view, seed is without resin vesicles, the seed wing holds the seed loosely in a cup, leaves have primary stomatal bands adaxial or on both surfaces. Subfamily Laricoideae: cones are annual, without a distinct umbo, the cone scale base is broad, concealing the seeds from abaxial view, the seed is without resin vesicles, the seed wing holds the seed in a cup, leaves have primary stomatal bands abaxial only. Subfamily Abietoideae: cones are annual, without a distinct umbo, the cone scale base is narrow, with the seeds visible in abaxial view, the seed has resin vesicles, the seed wing holds the seed in a cup, leaves have primary stomatal bands abaxial only. External stresses on plants have the ability to change the structure and composition of forest ecosystems. Common external stress that Pinaceae experience are herbivore and pathogen attack which leads to tree death.
In order to combat these stresses, trees need to evolve defenses against these stresses. Pinaceae have evolved a myriad of mechanical and chemical defenses, or a combination of the two, in order to protect themselves against antagonists. Pinaceae have the ability to up-regulate a combination of constitutive mechanical and chemical strategies to further their defenses. Pinaceae defenses are prevalent in the bark of the trees; this part of the tree contributes a complex defensive boundary against external antagonists. Constitutive and induced defenses are both found in the bark. Constitutive defenses are the first line of defenses used against antagonists and can include sclerified cells, lignified periderm cells, secondary compounds such as phenolics and resins
Scone Palace
Scone Palace is a Category A listed historic house and 5 star tourism attraction near the village of Scone and the city of Perth, Scotland. Built of red sandstone with a castellated roof, it is one of the finest examples of late Georgian Gothic style in the United Kingdom. A place steeped in history, Scone was the site of an early Christian church, an Augustinian priory. In the 12th century, Scone Priory was granted abbey status and as a result an Abbot's residence – an Abbot's Palace – was constructed, it is for this reason that the current structure retains the name "Palace". Scone Abbey was damaged in 1559 during the Scottish Reformation after a mob whipped up by the famous reformer, John Knox, came to Scone from Dundee. Having survived the Reformation, the Abbey in 1600 became a secular Lordship within the parish of Scone, Scotland; the Palace has thus been home to the Earls of Mansfield for over 400 years. During the early 19th century the Palace was enlarged by the architect William Atkinson.
In 1802, David William Murray, 3rd Earl of Mansfield, commissioned Atkinson to extend the Palace, recasting the late 16th-century Palace of Scone. The 3rd Earl tasked Atkinson with updating the old Palace whilst maintaining characteristics of the medieval Gothic abbey buildings it was built upon, with the majority of work finished by 1808. Landscaping work around the Palace was undertaken by John Claudius Loudon. Loudon was to Atkinson, tasked with designing a landscape to remain in keeping with, as well as highlighting, the historic significance of Scone. Scone was for nearly 1000 years the crowning-place of Scottish kings and the home of the Stone of Scone, it is a site of immense historic significance. Further work was undertaken in 1842 to make Scone Palace ready for the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; the vast majority of this work was to the interior decor although did include the provision of running water a huge cost to the Earl. Many of the original early 19th-century interior designs survive, including several ornately carved and vaulted ceilings.
Scone Palace is a 5-star tourism attraction. The State Rooms are open each year from April till the end of October, it is possible for groups to organize visits during the winter months. The Palace grounds are open to the public; the gardens include the famous David Douglas Pinetum plus a star-shaped maze. The Palace hosts multiple outdoor events including the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust's Scottish Game Fair, Rewind Festival, the Farming of Yesteryear among many others; the history of Scone is shrouded in legend. Scotland, sitting on the edge of Europe, was one of the last kingdoms to adopt and benefit from the written word and the legal system it upheld. In fact it was only at the end of the 11th century that Scotland saw a growth of record keeping, with property rights logged via legal charter and royal government practice noted in writing, it is that there were a few documents written before the 11th century, Scotland's turbulent history is to have been witness to the loss or destruction of many documents.
The first piece of hard evidence that relates to Scone is a charter dating to 906. This date could represent the period in which Scone first came to prominence as a center of power and government, or it could be the first concrete date we have in what is a much longer history. Many historians writing to the 20th century have suggested without any decent evidence that Scone's history was not just "post" but in some cases "pre-Roman". Modern historians for this reason are non-committal regarding the early history of Scone as there is too much doubt and little evidence, it is not known why the area is called "Scone". The search for a meaning to the word has not been helped by the fact that throughout the last 10 centuries, Scone has been written as Scon, Scoan, Schone, Skune, Skuyne, Sgoin, Sgàin and Sgoinde, it is difficult thus to know. It is known that Scone was at the heart of the ancient Pictish kingdom and thus one would think that the name would derive from the Pictish language; the existence of a distinct Pictish language during the Early Middle Ages is attested in Blessed Bede's early 8th century Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, which names Pictish as a language distinct from that spoken by the Britons, the Irish, the English.
Bede states that a Gael, used an interpreter during his mission to the Picts. The problem is that no record of written Pictish has been found. Given Bede's description of Columba's encounter with the Picts. Contemporary historians, believe that the Pictish language in fact had Celtic origins; the inhabitants of Britain that the Romans fought, in part subjugated, spoke various dialects of Celtic: P-Celtic Brittonic and Q-Celtic Goidelic. Scottish Gaelic, a language still spoken by thousands of people in the west of Scotland, stems from the Q-Celtic language, it is easy to mistakenly conclude that Scottish Gaelic and Pictish must have both derived singularly from the ancient Q-Celtic language and thus that the place name "Scone" has Gaelic origins. This theory was popularized through persistent folklore. Many contemporary historians, now believe that Pictish was a northerly dialect of the P-Celtic Brittonic languages and thus related to the Cumbric and Welsh languages, less so to the Irish Q-Celtic language.
The mistaken 19th-century his
Fascicle (botany)
In botany, a fascicle is a bundle of leaves or flowers growing crowded together. However, vascular tissues may occur in fascicles when the organs they supply are not fascicled. In zoology and animal anatomy the term fascicle refers to a small bundle of fibres, nerves, or vessels; the term fascicle and its derived terms such as fasciculation are from the Latin fasciculus, the diminutive of fascis, a bundle. Accordingly, such words occur in many forms and contexts wherever they are convenient for descriptive purposes. A fascicle may be leaves or flowers on a short shoot where the nodes of a shoot are crowded without clear internodes, such as in species of Pinus or Rhigozum. However, bundled fibres, nerves or bristles as in tissues or the glochid fascicles of Opuntia may have little or nothing to do with branch morphology. Leaf fascicles are present in all pines, the number of adult leaves per fascicle is an important character for identification of pine species and genera. Most species have fascicles of 2 to 5 needles.
Variation is high between species, low within them. For example, Pinus has fascicles of 5 needles; this pine is a member of Pinus subgenus Strobus, section Strobus. In all members of the group the fascicles nearly all have five needles and the sheath at the base of the fascicle is deciduous; the fascicle sheath is another character, important for identification. Among North American pines the sheath is persistent in all so-called hard pines and deciduous in all so-called soft pines. Thus, the fascicle sheath and number of needles can be used to identify valuable timber pines in all seasons and many years before they are mature enough to produce cones; these two characters distinguish the major groups of pines. Pinus durangensis has fascicles of 6 needles 7, is the only species in Pinus with so many needles per fascicle. At the other extreme, Pinus monophylla has fascicles of one needle two; this is the only species of pine with just one needle per fascicle, this rare and observed character is reflected in the specific epithet monophylla and in the common name single-leaf pinyon.
Although it might strike non-botanists as illogical to apply the term "fascicle" to a stem bearing a single leaf, the justification is that the structure of the stem is consistent with other pine fascicles, which justifies generalising the term to embrace single-needle fascicles as well. Fascicles do occur in some flowering plants, though not as as in many conifers; when fascicles are present the specific epithet refers to them. Examples include Adenostoma fasciculatum. Species with flowers in fascicles include Aechmea biflora and Melicytus ramiflorus, several species of Malva, the entire genus Flueggea; some species of the family Alseuosmiaceae have flowers in fascicles. In the Bignoniaceae in the genus Rhigozum flowers are borne in fascicles from cushion-like, dwarf branchlets in the axils of leaves, several species bear leaves in fascicles on similar or shared branchlets. Both leaf and flower fascicles occur among Angiospermae as adaptations facilitating pollination, such as in many Lamiaceae, of which some Lavandula are typical.
Other plant fascicles are adaptations to achieve greater compactness for defensive reasons. For example, in Opuntia cacti, spines are produced in fascicles bearing a few long spines and many short spiny bristles. Sphagnum species bear branches in fascicles. Spur Fascicle
Pseudotsuga macrocarpa
Pseudotsuga macrocarpa called the bigcone spruce or bigcone Douglas-fir, is an evergreen conifer native to the mountains of southern California, It is notable for having the largest cones in the genus Pseudotsuga, hence the name. The tree occurs from the San Rafael Mountains in central Santa Barbara County and the Tehachapi Mountains of southwestern Kern County, south through the Transverse Ranges, to the Cuyamaca Mountains in San Diego County; the tree prefers to grow on slopes. Pseudotsuga macrocarpa is a Douglas-fir; the name "bigcone spruce", though confusing as it is not a spruce species, is still used, occurs in place names. Pseudotsuga macrocarpa grows from 15–30 m in height and 56–155 cm in trunk diameter; the growth form is straight, with a conical crown from 12–30 m broad, a strong and spreading root system. The bark is ridged, composed of thin, woodlike plates separating heavy layers of cork; the main branches are long and spreading with pendulous side shoots. The leaves are needle-like, 2.5 -- 4.5 cm long, are shed.
The female cones are from 11–17 cm long and with thicker scales than those of other douglas-firs, with exserted tridentine bracts. The seeds are 10 mm long and 8 mm broad, with a short rounded wing 13 mm long. Trees start producing seeds at about 20 years of age; the largest known individual of this species is 53 m tall, 231 cm in diameter, is estimated to be from 600 to 700 years of age. Pseudotsuga macrocarpa is restricted to the California montane chaparral and woodlands and California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregions of California, it prefers a Mediterranean climate, characterized by wet, mild winters. Annual rainfall during a 30-year period on a bigcone Douglas-fir site in the San Gabriel Mountains averaged 75 cm and ranged from 25–125 cm. Bigcone Douglas-fir occurs between 300–2,700 m. At low elevation, it occurs near streams in moist, shaded canyons and draws where aspects are north and east. At elevations from 1,350–1,700 m, aspects include south- and east-facing slopes. At these elevations, it grows on sloping hillsides and benches.
At higher elevations, it occurs on west aspects on all types of terrain. The average angle of slope on which it grows is 35 degrees, ranging from level to 90 degrees, although these extremes are uncommon. Ranges the tree is found in, south to north, include: Peninsular Ranges Cuyamaca Mountains Palomar Mountains Santa Ana Mountains San Jacinto Mountains Transverse Ranges San Bernardino Mountains San Gabriel Mountains Santa Susana Mountains San Emigdio Mountains Topatopa Mountains Santa Ynez Mountains San Rafael Mountains Sierra Madre Mountains Pseudotsuga macrocarpa, has several features to tolerate and survive wildfire, notably the thick bark, the presence of numerous adventitious buds on the upper side of the branches. Wildfire frequencies in the chaparral habitats in which it grows range from 15-50 year intervals. Bigcone Douglas-fir is associated with canyon live oak and establishes itself in its shade; the number of plant associates in bigcone Douglas-fir communities is small. Common overstory associates include: bigleaf maple, California bay laurel, gray pine, white alder.
Shrub associates include bigpod ceanothus, red shank, eastwood manzanita, several species of sage, coastal sage scrub oak. Ground cover associates are sparse, may include California buckwheat, wild onion, scarlet beardtongue, giant chain fern, western bracken. Pseudotsuga macrocarpa populations are suspected to be declining due to larger and more extreme wildland fires with greater frequencies. Major wildfires within its range, since 2003, have proven a reduced extent when compared to early 1930s extents derived from historical aerial photos. Although historical information has provided the opportunity to detect stand level patch changes, post-fire resprouting of older more mature trees and natural regeneration and recruitment of the species into higher canopy has yet to be adequately quantified. One tree species in direct competition with bigcone is Calocedrus decurrens, with preliminary post-fire regeneration of this species exponentially greater than bigcone. After 1 or 2 years after the Station fire in 2009 on the Angeles National Forest, there was an estimated 20:1 cedar:bigcone seedling density in fixed radius plots on Mount Wilson.
It may be more appropriate to perform population stability estimates up to 5 yrs or much after a large conflagration due to the potential for immediate and delayed post-fire sprouting and regeneration and interplant competition, as well as the well-noted strategy of seed germination in shrub understories, to escape detection by surveyors until much in its life. Research related to the role of mycorrhizae and its relationship to se
