Bracken
Bracken is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells. Brackens are noted for their large divided leaves, they are found on all continents except Antarctica and in all environments except deserts, though their typical habitat is moorland. The genus has the widest distribution of any fern in the world. In the past, the genus was treated as having only one species, Pteridium aquilinum, but the recent trend is to subdivide it into about ten species. Like other ferns, brackens do not have seeds or fruits, but the immature fronds, known as fiddleheads, are sometimes eaten, although some are thought to be carcinogenic; the word bracken is of Old Norse origin, related to Swedish bräken and Danish bregne, both meaning fern. Evolutionarily, bracken may be considered one of the most successful ferns. Bracken, like heather, is found in moorland environments, is referred to by local populations in the north of England as'Moorland Scrub'.
It is one of the oldest ferns, with fossil records over 55 million years old having been found. The plant sends up large, triangular fronds from a wide-creeping underground rootstock, may form dense thickets; this rootstock may travel a metre or more underground between fronds. The fronds may grow up to 2.5 m long or longer with support, but are in the range of 0.6–2 m high. In cold environments, bracken is deciduous and, as it requires well-drained soil, is found growing on the sides of hills. Fern spores are contained in structures found on the underside of the leaf called sori; the linear, leaf-edge pattern of these in bracken is different from that in most other ferns, where the sori are circular and occur towards the centre of the leaf. Pteridium aquilinum is the most common species with a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring in temperate and subtropical regions throughout much of the world, it is a prolific and abundant plant in the moorlands of Great Britain, where it is limited to altitudes of below 600 metres.
It does not like poorly drained fen. It has been observed growing in soils from pH 2.8 to 8.6. Exposure to cold or high pH inhibits its growth, it causes such a problem of invading pastureland that at one time the British government had an eradication programme. Special filters have been used on some British water supplies to filter out the bracken spores. NBN distribution map for the United Kingdom Bracken is a characteristic moorland plant in the UK which over the last decades has out-competed characteristic ground-cover plants such as moor grasses, cowberry and heathers and now covers a considerable part of upland moorland. Once valued and gathered for use in animal bedding, tanning and glass making and as a fertiliser, bracken is now seen as a pernicious and opportunistic plant, taking over from the plants traditionally associated with open moorland and reducing easy access by humans, it is toxic to cattle, sheep and horses and is linked to cancers in humans. It can harbour high levels of sheep ticks.
Grazing provided some control by stock trampling, but this has ceased since the 2007 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak reduced commercial livestock production. Global climatic changes have suited bracken well and contributed to its rapid increase in land coverage. Bracken is a well-adapted pioneer plant which can colonise land with the potential to extend its area by as much as 1–3% per year; this ability to expand is at the expense of other plants and wildlife, can cause major problems for land users and managers. It colonises ground with an open vegetation structure but is slow to colonise healthy, well managed heather stands. Bracken presents a threat to biodiversity. Many species occur only on upland moorland, tied to features unique to the habitat; the loss and degradation of such areas due to the dominance of bracken has caused many species to become rare and isolated. Species Woodland fungi such as Mycena epipterygia can be found growing under the bracken canopy. Both Camarographium stephensii and Typhula quisquiliaris grow from dead bracken stems.
Bracken fern is known to produce and release allelopathic chemicals, an important factor in its ability to dominate other vegetation in regrowth after fire. Its chemical emissions, shady canopy and thick litter inhibit other plant species from establishing themselves – with the occasional exception of plants which support rare butterflies. Herb and tree seedling growth may be inhibited after bracken fern is removed because active plant toxins remain in the soil. Brackens substitute the characteristics of a woodland canopy, are important for giving shade to European plants such as common bluebell and wood anemone where the woodland does not exist; these plants are intolerant to stock trampling. Dead bracken provides a warm microclimate for development of the immature stages. Climbing corydalis, wild gladiolus and chickweed wintergreen seem to benefit from the conditions found under bracken stands; the high humidity helps mosses survive underneath, including Campylopus flexuosus, Hypnum cupressiforme, Polytrichum commune, Pseudoscelopodium purum and Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus.
Brackens of the Northern Hemisphere are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including dark green fritillary, dot moth, high brown fritillary, gold swift, map-winged swift, pearl-bordered fritillary, orange swift, small angle shades, small pearl-bordered fritillary. They form an i
Fireplace
A fireplace is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary depending on the design, they were used for heating a dwelling and heating water for laundry and domestic uses. A fire is contained in a firepit. A fireplace may have the following: a hearth, a firebox, a mantelpiece. On the exterior there is a corbeled brick crown, in which the projecting courses of brick act as a drip course to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A cap, hood, or shroud serves to keep rainwater out of the exterior of the chimney; some chimneys have a spark arrestor incorporated into the cap. Organizations like the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology warn that, according to various studies, fireplaces can pose a significant health risk; the EPA writes "Smoke may smell good, but it's not good for you." Manufactured fireplaces are made with sheet glass fire boxes. Electric fireplaces can be built-in replacements for wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes.
A few types are, wall mounted electric fireplaces, electric fireplace stoves, electric mantel fireplaces and fixed or free standing electric fireplaces. Masonry and prefabricated fireplaces can be fueled by wood, natural gas and propane fuel sources. Ventless Fireplaces are fueled by liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the United States, some states and local counties have laws restricting these types of fireplaces, they must be properly sized to the area to be heated. There are air quality control issues due to the amount of moisture they release into the room air, oxygen sensor and carbon monoxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by natural gas, they are sealed from the area, heated, vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure. Chimney and flue types: Masonry with or without tile-lined flue. Reinforced concrete chimneys. Fundamental design flaws made the design obsolete; these chimneys show vertical cracks on the exterior. Metal-lined flue: Double or triple walled metal pipe running up inside a new or existing wood-framed or masonry chase.
Newly constructed flues may feature a chase cover, a cap, a spark arrestor at the top to keep small animals out and to prevent sparks from being broadcast into the atmosphere. All fireplaces require trained gas service members to carry out installations. A wide range of accessories are used with fireplaces, which range between countries and historical periods. For the interior, common in recent Western cultures include grates, log boxes, pellet baskets, fire dogs, all of which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate is a frame of iron bars, to retain fuel for a fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate heat, to protect the back of the fireplace, as decoration. Fenders are low metal frames set in front of the fireplace to contain embers and ash. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, tongs, shovels and tool stands. Other wider accessories can include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and more. Ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the ground, within caves, or in the center of a hut or dwelling.
Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires exists on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of early indoor fire pits was that they produced toxic and/or irritating smoke inside the dwelling. Fire pits developed into raised hearths in buildings, but venting smoke depended on open windows or holes in roofs; the medieval great hall had a centrally located hearth, where an open fire burned with the smoke rising to the vent in the roof. Louvers were developed during the Middle Ages to allow the roof vents to be covered so rain and snow would not enter. During the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to prevent smoke from spreading through a room and vent it out through a wall or roof; these could be placed against stone walls, instead of taking up the middle of the room, this allowed smaller rooms to be heated. Chimneys were invented in northern Europe in the 11th or 12th centuries and fixed the problem of fumes, more reliably venting smoke outside, they made it possible to give the fireplace a draft, made it possible to put fireplaces in multiple rooms in buildings conveniently.
They did not come into general use however, as they were expensive to build and maintain. In 1678 Prince Rupert, nephew of Charles I, raised the grate of the fireplace, improving the airflow and venting system; the 18th century saw two important developments in the history of fireplaces. Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace that improved the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves, he improved the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting out a longer area at the top. In the 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox, better at drawing the smoke up and out o
Tree
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 taxonomic group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old. In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns and bamboos are trees. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years, it is estimated. A tree has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk; this trunk contains woody tissue for strength, vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark. Below the ground, the roots spread out widely. Above ground, the branches divide into smaller shoots.
The shoots bear leaves, which capture light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the tree's growth and development. Trees reproduce using seeds. Flowers and fruit may be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones. Palms and bamboos produce seeds, but tree ferns produce spores instead. Trees play a significant role in 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 plants. Tropical rainforests are among the most biodiverse habitats in the world. Trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, 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 land available for agriculture; because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always been revered, with sacred groves in various cultures, they play a role in many of the world's mythologies.
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 general form of an elongated stem, or trunk, which supports the photosynthetic leaves or branches at some distance above the ground. Trees are typically defined by height, with smaller plants from 0.5 to 10 m being called shrubs, so the minimum height of a tree is only loosely defined. Large herbaceous plants such as papaya and bananas are trees in this broad sense. A applied narrower definition is that a tree has a woody trunk formed by secondary growth, meaning that the trunk thickens each year by growing outwards, in addition to the primary upwards growth from the growing tip. Under such a definition, herbaceous plants such as palms and papayas are not considered trees regardless of their height, growth form or stem girth. Certain monocots may be considered trees under a looser definition.
Aside from structural definitions, trees are defined by use. The tree growth habit is an evolutionary adaptation found in different groups of plants: by growing taller, trees are able to compete better for sunlight. Trees tend some reaching several thousand years old. Several trees are among the oldest organisms now living. Trees have modified structures such as thicker stems composed of specialised cells that add structural strength and durability, allowing them to grow taller than many other plants and to spread out their foliage, they differ from shrubs, which have a similar growth form, by growing larger and having a single main stem. The tree form has evolved separately in unrelated classes of plants in response to similar environmental challenges, making it a classic example of parallel evolution. With an estimated 60,000-100,000 species, the number of trees worldwide might total twenty-five per cent of all living plant species; the greatest number of these grow in tropical regions and many of these areas have not yet been surveyed by botanists, making tree diversity and ranges poorly known.
The majority of tree species are angiosperms. There are about 1000 species of gymnosperm trees, including conifers, cycads and gnetales. Most angiosperm trees are eudicots, the "true dicotyledons", so named because the seeds contain two cotyledons or seed leaves. There are some trees among the old lineages of flowering plants called basal angiosperms or paleodicots. Wood gives structural strength to the trunk of most types of tree; the vascular system of trees allows water and other chemicals to be di
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque is a cooking method, a style of food, a name for a meal or gathering at which this style of food is cooked and served. Barbecue can refer to the cooking method itself, the meat cooked this way, the cooking apparatus/machine used, or to a type of social event featuring this type of cooking. Barbecuing is done outdoors by smoking the meat over wood or charcoal. Restaurant barbecue may be cooked in specially-designed brick or metal ovens. Barbecue is practiced in many areas of the world and there are numerous regional variations. Barbecuing techniques include smoking, roasting or baking and grilling; the technique for which it is named involves cooking using smoke at low temperatures and long cooking times. Baking uses an oven to convection cook with moderate temperatures for an average cooking time of about an hour. Braising combines direct, dry heat charbroiling on a ribbed surface with a broth-filled pot for moist heat. Grilling is done over direct, dry heat over a hot fire for a few minutes.
The English word "barbecue" and its cognates in other languages come from the Spanish word barbacoa. Etymologists believe this to be derived from barabicu found in the language of the Arawak people of the Caribbean and the Timucua people of Florida; the Oxford English Dictionary traces the word to La Hispaniola and translates it as a "framework of sticks set upon posts". Gonzalo Fernández De Oviedo y Valdés, a Spanish explorer, was the first to use the word "barbecoa" in print in Spain in 1526 in the Diccionario de la Lengua Española of the Real Academia Española. After Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, the Spaniards found Tainos roasting meat over a grill consisting of a wooden framework resting on sticks above a fire; the flames and smoke enveloped the meat, giving it a certain flavor. Traditional barbacoa involves digging a hole in the ground and placing some meat—usually a whole lamb—above a pot so the juices can be used to make a broth, it is covered with maguey leaves and coal, set alight.
The cooking process takes a few hours. Olaudah Equiano, an African abolitionist, described this method of roasting alligators among the Mosquito People on his journeys to Cabo Gracias a Dios in his narrative The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Linguists have suggested the word barbacoa migrated from the Caribbean and into other languages and cultures. In the form barbacado, the term was used in English in 1648 by the supposed Beauchamp Plantagenet in the tract A description of the province of New Albion: "the Indians in stead of salt doe barbecado or dry and smoak fish". According to the OED, the first recorded use of the word barbecue in English was a verb in 1661, in Edmund Hickeringill's Jamaica Viewed: "Some are slain, And their flesh forthwith Barbacu'd and eat"; the word barbecue was published in English in 1672 as a verb from the writings of John Lederer, following his travels in the North American southeast in 1669-70. The first known use of the word as a noun was in 1697 by the British buccaneer William Dampier.
In his New Voyage Round the World, Dampier wrote, "... and lay there all night, upon our Borbecu's, or frames of Sticks, raised about 3 foot from the Ground". Samuel Johnson's 1756 dictionary gave the following definitions: "To Barbecue – a term for dressing a whole hog" "Barbecue – a hog dressed whole"While the standard modern English spelling of the word is barbecue, variations including barbeque and truncations such as bar-b-q or BBQ may be found; the spelling barbeque is given in the Oxford Dictionaries as a variant. In the southeastern United States, the word barbecue is used predominantly as a noun referring to roast pork, while in the southwestern states cuts of beef are cooked; because the word barbecue came from native groups, Europeans gave it "savage connotations." This association with barbarians and "savages" is strengthened by Edmund Hickeringill's work Jamaica Viewed: with All the Ports and their Several Soundings and Settlements through its descriptions of cannibalism. However, according to Andrew Warnes, there is little proof that Hickeringill's tale of cannibalism in the Caribbean is remotely true.
Another notable false depiction of cannibalistic barbecues appears in Theodor de Bry's Great Voyages, which in Warnes's eyes, "present smoke cookery as a custom quintessential to an underlying savagery... that everywhere contains within it a potential for cannibalistic violence." Today, those in the U. S. associate barbecue with "classic Americana." In American English usage, grilling refers to a fast process over high heat while barbecuing refers to a slow process using indirect heat or hot smoke, similar to some forms of roasting. In a typical U. S. home grill, food is cooked on a grate directly over hot charcoal, while in a U. S. barbecue the coals are dispersed at a significant distance from the grate. In British usage, barbecuing refers to a fast cooking process done directly over high heat, while grilling refers to cooking under a source of direct, moderate-to-high heat—known in the United States as broiling, its South American versions are the Argentine asado. In the Southern United States, barbecues involved the cooking of pork.
During the 19th century, pigs were a low-maintenance food source that could be released to forage in woodlands. When food or meat supplies were low, these semi-wild pigs could be caught and eaten. Accor
Deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves in the autumn. The term deciduous means "the dropping of a part, no longer needed" and the "falling away after its purpose is finished". In plants, it is the result of natural processes. "Deciduous" has a similar meaning when referring to animal parts, such as deciduous antlers in deer, deciduous teeth in some mammals. Wood from deciduous trees is used in a variety of ways in several industries including lumber for furniture and flooring, bowling pins and baseball bats and furniture, cabinets and paneling. In botany and horticulture, deciduous plants, including trees and herbaceous perennials, are those that lose all of their leaves for part of the year; this process is called abscission. In some cases leaf loss coincides with winter -- namely in polar climates. In other parts of the world, including tropical and arid regions, plants lose their leaves during the dry season or other seasons, depending on variations in rainfall.
The converse of deciduous is evergreen, where foliage is shed on a different schedule from deciduous trees, therefore appearing to remain green year round. Plants that are intermediate may be called semi-deciduous. Other plants are semi-evergreen and lose their leaves before the next growing season, retaining some during winter or dry periods; some trees, including a few species of oak, have desiccated leaves that remain on the tree through winter. Many deciduous plants flower during the period when they are leafless, as this increases the effectiveness of pollination; the absence of leaves improves wind transmission of pollen for wind-pollinated plants and increases the visibility of the flowers to insects in insect-pollinated plants. This strategy is not without risks, as the flowers can be damaged by frost or, in dry season regions, result in water stress on the plant. There is much less branch and trunk breakage from glaze ice storms when leafless, plants can reduce water loss due to the reduction in availability of liquid water during cold winter days.
Leaf drop or abscission involves complex physiological changes within plants. The process of photosynthesis degrades the supply of chlorophylls in foliage; when autumn arrives and the days are shorter or when plants are drought-stressed, deciduous trees decrease chlorophyll pigment production, allowing other pigments present in the leaf to become apparent, resulting in non-green colored foliage. The brightest leaf colors are produced when days grow short and nights are cool, but remain above freezing; these other pigments include carotenoids that are yellow and orange. Anthocyanin pigments produce red and purple colors, though they are not always present in the leaves. Rather, they are produced in the foliage in late summer, when sugars are trapped in the leaves after the process of abscission begins. Parts of the world that have showy displays of bright autumn colors are limited to locations where days become short and nights are cool. In other parts of the world, the leaves of deciduous trees fall off without turning the bright colors produced from the accumulation of anthocyanin pigments.
The beginnings of leaf drop starts when an abscission layer is formed between the leaf petiole and the stem. This layer is formed in the spring during active new growth of the leaf; the cells are sensitive to a plant hormone called auxin, produced by the leaf and other parts of the plant. When auxin coming from the leaf is produced at a rate consistent with that from the body of the plant, the cells of the abscission layer remain connected; the elongation of these cells break the connection between the different cell layers, allowing the leaf to break away from the plant. It forms a layer that seals the break, so the plant does not lose sap. A number of deciduous plants remove nitrogen and carbon from the foliage before they are shed and store them in the form of proteins in the vacuoles of parenchyma cells in the roots and the inner bark. In the spring, these proteins are used as a nitrogen source during the growth of new leaves or flowers. Plants with deciduous foliage have advantages and disadvantages compared to plants with evergreen foliage.
Since deciduous plants lose their leaves to conserve water or to better survive winter weather conditions, they must regrow new foliage during the next suitable growing season. Evergreens suffer greater water loss during the winter and they can experience greater predation pressure when small. Losing leaves in winter may reduce damage from insects. Removing leaves reduces cavitation which can damage xylem vessels in plants; this allows deciduous plants to have xylem vessels with larger diameters and therefore a greater rate of transpiration during the summer growth period
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island off the East Coast of the United States, beginning at New York Harbor 0.35 miles from Manhattan Island and extending eastward into the Atlantic Ocean. The island comprises four counties in the U. S. state of New York. Kings and Queens Counties and Nassau County share the western third of the island, while Suffolk County occupies the eastern two-thirds. More than half of New York City's residents now live in Brooklyn and Queens. However, many people in the New York metropolitan area colloquially use the term Long Island to refer to Nassau and Suffolk Counties, which are suburban in character, conversely employing the term the City to mean Manhattan alone. Broadly speaking, "Long Island" may refer both to the main island and the surrounding outer barrier islands. North of the island is Long Island Sound, across which lie Westchester County, New York, the state of Connecticut. Across the Block Island Sound to the northeast is the state of Rhode Island. To the west, Long Island is separated from the island of Manhattan by the East River.
To the extreme southwest, it is separated from Staten Island and the state of New Jersey by Upper New York Bay, the Narrows, Lower New York Bay. To the east lie Block Island—which belongs to the State of Rhode Island—and numerous smaller islands. Both the longest and the largest island in the contiguous United States, Long Island extends 118 miles eastward from New York Harbor to Montauk Point, with a maximum north-to-south distance of 23 miles between Long Island Sound and the Atlantic coast. With a land area of 1,401 square miles, Long Island is the 11th-largest island in the United States and the 149th-largest island in the world—larger than the 1,214 square miles of the smallest U. S. state, Rhode Island. With a Census-estimated population of 7,869,820 in 2017, constituting nearly 40% of New York State's population, Long Island is the most populated island in any U. S. state or territory, the 18th-most populous island in the world. Its population density is 5,595.1 inhabitants per square mile.
If Long Island geographically constituted an independent metropolitan statistical area, it would rank fourth most populous in the United States. S. state, Long Island would rank 13th in population and first in population density. Long Island is culturally and ethnically diverse, featuring some of the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods in the Western Hemisphere near the shorelines as well as working-class areas in all four counties; as a hub of commercial aviation, Long Island contains two of the New York City metropolitan area's three busiest airports, JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, in addition to Islip MacArthur Airport. Nine bridges and 13 tunnels connect Brooklyn and Queens to the three other boroughs of New York City. Ferries connect Suffolk County northward across Long Island Sound to the state of Connecticut; the Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter railroad in North America and operates 24/7. Nassau County high school students feature prominently as winners of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and similar STEM-based academic awards.
Biotechnology companies and scientific research play a significant role in Long Island's economy, including research facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Plum Island Animal Disease Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, the City University of New York, Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. Prior to European contact, the Lenape people inhabited the western end of Long Island, spoke the Munsee dialect of Lenape, one of the Algonquian language family. Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with the Lenapes, after entering what is now New York Bay in 1524; the eastern portion of the island was inhabited by speakers of the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language group of Algonquian languages. In 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson explored the harbor and purportedly landed at Coney Island. Adriaen Block followed in 1615, is credited as the first European to determine that both Manhattan and Long Island are islands.
Native American land deeds recorded by the Dutch from 1636 state that the Indians referred to Long Island as Sewanhaka. Sewan was one of the terms for wampum, is translated as "loose" or "scattered", which may refer either to the wampum or to Long Island; the name "'t Lange Eylandt alias Matouwacs" appears in Dutch maps from the 1650s. The English referred to the land as "Nassau Island", after the Dutch Prince William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, it is unclear. Another indigenous name from colonial time, comes from the Native American name for Long Island and means "the island that pays tribute." The first settlements on Long Island were by settlers from England and its colonies in present-day New England. Lion Gardiner settled nearby Gardiners Island. T
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, Texas on the south, New Mexico on the west, Colorado on the northwest. It is the 28th-most populous of the fifty United States; the state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people". It is known informally by its nickname, "The Sooner State", in reference to the non-Native settlers who staked their claims on land before the official opening date of lands in the western Oklahoma Territory or before the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which increased European-American settlement in the eastern Indian Territory. Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged into the State of Oklahoma when it became the 46th state to enter the union on November 16, 1907, its residents are known as Oklahomans, its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City. A major producer of natural gas and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, telecommunications, biotechnology.
Both Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's primary economic anchors, with nearly two thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas. With ancient mountain ranges, prairie and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, the U. S. Interior Highlands, a region prone to severe weather. More than 25 Native American languages are spoken in Oklahoma, ranking third behind Alaska and California. Oklahoma is on a confluence of three major American cultural regions and served as a route for cattle drives, a destination for Southern settlers, a government-sanctioned territory for Native Americans; the name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase okla humma meaning red people. Choctaw Nation Chief Allen Wright suggested the name in 1866 during treaty negotiations with the federal government on the use of Indian Territory, in which he envisioned an all-Indian state controlled by the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Equivalent to the English word Indian, okla humma was a phrase in the Choctaw language that described Native American people as a whole.
Oklahoma became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, it was approved in 1890, two years after the area was opened to white settlers. The name of the state is Pawnee: Uukuhuúwa, Cayuga: Gahnawiyoˀgeh. In the Chickasaw language, the state is known as Oklahomma', in Arapaho as bo'oobe'. Oklahoma is the 20th-largest state in the United States, covering an area of 69,899 square miles, with 68,595 square miles of land and 1,304 square miles of water, it lies in the Great Plains near the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. It is bounded on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas, on the northwest by Colorado, on the far west by New Mexico, on the south and near-west by Texas. Much of its border with Texas lies along a failed continental rift; the geologic figure defines the placement of the Red River. The Oklahoma panhandle's Western edge is out of alignment with its Texas border; the Oklahoma/New Mexico border is 2.1 miles to 2.2 miles east of the Texas line. The border between Texas and New Mexico was set first as a result of a survey by Spain in 1819.
It was set along the 103rd meridian. In the 1890s, when Oklahoma was formally surveyed using more accurate surveying equipment and techniques, it was discovered the Texas line was not set along the 103rd meridian. Surveying techniques were not as accurate in 1819, the actual 103rd meridian was 2.2 miles to the east. It was much easier to leave the mistake than for Texas to cede land to New Mexico to correct the surveying error; the placement of the Oklahoma/New Mexico border represents the true 103rd meridian. Cimarron County in Oklahoma's panhandle is the only county in the United States that touches four other states: New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. Oklahoma is between the Great Plains and the Ozark Plateau in the Gulf of Mexico watershed sloping from the high plains of its western boundary to the low wetlands of its southeastern boundary, its highest and lowest points follow this trend, with its highest peak, Black Mesa, at 4,973 feet above sea level, situated near its far northwest corner in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
The state's lowest point is on the Little River near its far southeastern boundary near the town of Idabel, which dips to 289 feet above sea level. Among the most geographically diverse states, Oklahoma is one of four to harbor more than 10 distinct ecological regions, with 11 in its borders—more per square mile than in any other state, its western and eastern halves, are marked by extreme differences in geographical diversity: Eastern Oklahoma touches eight ecological regions and its western half contains three. Although having fewer ecological regions Western Oklahoma contains many relic species. Oklahoma has four primary mountain ranges: the Ouachita Mountains, the Arbuckle Mountains, the Wichita Mountains, the Ozark Mountains. Contained within the U. S. Interior Highlands region, the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains are the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians. A portion of the Flint Hills stretches into north-central Oklahoma, near the state's eastern border, The Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department regards Cavanal Hill as the world's tallest hill.
The semi-arid high
