1.
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
2.
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
3.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
4.
Eudicots
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The eudicots, Eudicotidae or eudicotyledons are a monophyletic clade of flowering plants that had been called tricolpates or non-magnoliid dicots by previous authors. The close relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains was initially seen in studies of shared derived characters. These plants have a trait in their pollen grains of exhibiting three colpi or grooves paralleling the polar axis. Later molecular evidence confirmed the basis for the evolutionary relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains. The term means true dicotyledons, as it contains the majority of plants that have been considered dicots and have characteristics of the dicots, the term eudicots has subsequently been widely adopted in botany to refer to one of the two largest clades of angiosperms, monocots being the other. The remaining angiosperms are sometimes referred to as basal angiosperms or paleodicots, the other name for the eudicots is tricolpates, a name which refers to the grooved structure of the pollen. Members of the group have tricolpate pollen, or forms derived from it and these pollens have three or more pores set in furrows called colpi. In contrast, most of the seed plants produce monosulcate pollen. The name tricolpates is preferred by some botanists to avoid confusion with the dicots, numerous familiar plants are eudicots, including many common food plants, trees, and ornamentals. Most leafy trees of midlatitudes also belong to eudicots, with exceptions being magnolias and tulip trees which belong to magnoliids, and Ginkgo biloba. The name eudicots is used in the APG system, of 1998 and it is applied to a clade, a monophyletic group, which includes most of the dicots. The eudicots can be divided into two groups, the basal eudicots and the core eudicots, basal eudicot is an informal name for a paraphyletic group. The core eudicots are a monophyletic group, a 2010 study suggested the core eudicots can be divided into two clades, Gunnerales and a clade called Pentapetalae, comprising all the remaining core eudicots
5.
Rosids
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The rosids are members of a large clade of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classification and these orders, in turn, together comprise about 140 families. Fossil rosids are known from the Cretaceous period, molecular clock estimates indicate that the rosids originated in the Aptian or Albian stages of the Cretaceous, between 125 and 99.6 million years ago. The name is based upon the name Rosidae, which had usually been understood to be a subclass, in 1967, Armen Takhtajan showed that the correct basis for the name Rosidae is a description of a group of plants published in 1830 by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling. The clade was later renamed Rosidae and has been variously delimited by different authors, the name rosids is informal and not assumed to have any particular taxonomic rank like the names authorized by the ICBN. The rosids are monophyletic based upon evidence found by molecular phylogenetic analysis, three different definitions of the rosids were used. Some authors included the orders Saxifragales and Vitales in the rosids, others excluded both of these orders. The circumscription used in this article is that of the APG IV classification, which includes Vitales, the rosids and Saxifragales form the superrosids clade. This is one of three groups compose the Pentapetalae, the others being Dilleniales and the superasterids. The rosids consist of two groups, the order Vitales and the eurosids, the eurosids, in turn, are divided into two groups, fabids and malvids. The rosids consist of 17 orders, in addition to Vitales, there are 8 orders in fabids and 8 orders in malvids. Some of the orders have only recently been recognized and these are Vitales, Zygophyllales, Crossosomatales, Picramniales, and Huerteales. The phylogeny of Rosids shown below is adapted from the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group website, the nitrogen-fixing clade contains a high number of actinorhizal plants. Not all plants in this clade are actinorhizal, however, media related to Rosids at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Fagales
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The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches and they belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The other families were split into three different orders, placed among the Hamamelidae, the Casuarinales comprised the single family Casuarinaceae, the Juglandales comprised the Juglandaceae and Rhoipteleaceae, and the Myricales comprised the remaining forms. The change is due to studies suggesting the Myricales, so defined, are paraphyletic to the two groups. Modern molecular phylogenetics suggest the following relationships, Missouri Botanical Gardens - Fagales WCSP, World checklist of selected plant families
7.
Fagaceae
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Fagaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes beeches and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. Their leaves are lobed and both petioles and stipules are generally present. Leaf characteristics of Fagaceae can be similar to those of Rosaceae. Their fruits lack endosperm and lie in a scaly or spiny husk that may or may not enclose the entire nut, in the oaks, genus Quercus, the fruit is a non-valved nut called an acorn. The husk of the acorn in most oaks only forms a cup in which the nut sits, a characteristic of Fagaceae is their tendency to easily cross-pollinate with members of their same genus/section. In particular, oaks of the same section cross so easily that it is unclear how they manage to stay morphologically distinct, several members of the Fagaceae have important economic uses. Many species of oak, chestnut, and beech are used as timber for floors, furniture, cabinets. Cork for stopping wine bottles and a myriad other uses is made from the bark of cork oak, chestnuts are the fruits from species of the genus Castanea. Numerous species from several genera are prominent ornamentals, and wood chips from the genus Fagus are often used in flavoring beers, the Fagaceae are often divided into five or six subfamilies and are generally accepted to include 8 genera. Monophyly of the Fagaceae is strongly supported by morphological and molecular data. The Southern Hemisphere genus Nothofagus, commonly the southern beeches, was placed in the Fagaceae sister to the genus Fagus. The currently accepted view by systematic botanists is to place Nothofagus in its own family, fagoideae K. Koch Fagus L. —beeches, about 10 to 13 species, north temperate east Asia, southwest Asia, Europe, eastern North America Quercoideae Õrsted Castanea Mill. 1948—golden chinkapins, two species, western United States Lithocarpus Blume 1826—stone oaks, about 330-340 species, warm temperate to tropical Asia Notholithocarpus P. S. Manos, the genus Nothofagus, formerly included in the Fagaceae, is now treated in the separate family Nothofagaceae. The Fagaceae are widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, genus-level diversity is concentrated in Southeast Asia, where most of the extant genera are thought to have evolved before migrating to Europe and North America. Members of the Fagaceae are often dominant in northern temperate forests
8.
Oak
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An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks, the common name oak also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, the second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobate margins in many species, also, the acorns contain tannic acid, as do the leaves, which helps to guard from fungi and insects. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring, in spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers and small female flowers. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a structure known as a cupule, each acorn contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group, the oak tree is a flowering plant. Oaks may be divided into two genera and a number of sections, The genus Quercus is divided into the following sections, Quercus, the white oaks of Europe, Asia and North America. Styles are short, acorns mature in 6 months and taste sweet or slightly bitter, the leaves mostly lack a bristle on their lobe tips, which are usually rounded. The type species is Quercus robur, Mesobalanus, Hungarian oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long, acorns mature in about 6 months and taste bitter, the section Mesobalanus is closely related to section Quercus and sometimes included in it. Cerris, the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia, styles long, acorn mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Protobalanus, the live oak and its relatives, in southwest United States. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter, the inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. Leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Lobatae, the red oaks of North America, Central America, styles long, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter
9.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
10.
George Engelmann
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George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, was a German-American botanist. George Engelmann was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the oldest of thirteen children and his father, Julius Bernhardt Engelmann, was a member of a family from which for several successive generations were chosen ministers for the Reformed Church at Bacharach-on-the-Rhine. Julius was a graduate of the University of Halle, and was educated for the ministry. He established a school for women in Frankfurt, which were rare at the time. George Engelmanns mother, Julie Antoinette, was the daughter of Antoinette André. The latter, in his years, was an artist of note at the Court of Weimar. Julie Antoinette was Julius Engelmanns coadjutor in the school for young women and his uncle, Friedrich Theodor, a German pioneer of Illinois, was an early American viticulturist. George Engelmann received his education at the gymnasium in Frankfurt. According to himself, he first became interested in plants around age 15, with the latter especially an intimate friendship and correspondence were preserved unbroken until the death of Braun in 1877. In 1828 young Engelmanns studies at Heidelberg were interrupted by his having joined the students in a political demonstration and he thereupon left Heidelberg and entered the University of Berlin, where he stayed for two years. In 1831, he received the degree of MD from the University of Würzburg and his dissertation for the medical degree, more related to botany than to medicine, was published at Frankfort in 1832 under the title of De Antholysi Prodromus. So strong was his confidence in Engelmanns ability that he offered to him his whole store of unpublished notes and sketches. In 1832 Engelmann went to Paris, where he became associated with Braun. Wishing to visit America, he accepted a proposition from his uncles to become their agent for the purchase of lands in the United States, in September 1832, he sailed from Bremen for Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to his duties assessing land investment opportunities, he spent time on botanical travels. He then went to St. Louis, Missouri, and from there around to the adjacent states and he settled with his relatives and the lawyer Gustav Koerner on a farm in St. Clair County, Illinois near Belleville for three years. He often suffered sickness and hardship upon those journeys, but he persevered until he finished all the business he had planned to do, having completed his business engagement, in the autumn of 1835 Engelmann moved to St. Louis and established a medical practice. During the three years that had passed since he left his land the slender means he brought with him became exhausted
11.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
12.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
13.
Vermont
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Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders the other U. S. states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermonts western border with the state of New York, Vermont is the 2nd-least populous of the U. S. states, with nearly 50,000 more residents than Wyoming. The capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the U. S, the most populous municipality, Burlington, is the least populous city in the U. S. to be the most populous within a state. As of 2015, Vermont continued to be the producer of maple syrup in the U. S. It was ranked as the safest state in the country in January 2016, for thousands of years inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and Mohawk, much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by Frances colony of New France. France ceded the territory to Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years War, for many years, the nearby colonies, especially the provinces of New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area. Settlers who held land titles granted by New York were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, ultimately, those settlers prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for 14 years, aside from the original 13 states that were formerly colonies, Vermont is one of only four U. S. states that were previously sovereign states. Vermont was also the first state to join the U. S. as its 14th member state after the original 13, while still an independent republic, Vermont was the first of any future U. S. state to partially abolish slavery. It played an important geographic role in the Underground Railroad, sights in Vermont Vermont is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States and comprises 9,614 square miles, making it the 45th-largest state. It is the state that does not have any buildings taller than 124 feet. Land comprises 9,250 square miles and water comprises 365 square miles, making it the 43rd-largest in land area, in total area, it is larger than El Salvador and smaller than Haiti. The west bank of the Connecticut River marks the eastern border with New Hampshire. 41% of Vermonts land area is part of the Connecticut Rivers watershed, Lake Champlain, the major lake in Vermont, is the sixth-largest body of fresh water in the United States and separates Vermont from New York in the northwest portion of the state. From north to south, Vermont is 159 miles long and its greatest width, from east to west, is 89 miles at the Canada–U. S. Border, the narrowest width is 37 miles at the Massachusetts line, the states geographic center is approximately three miles east of Roxbury, in Washington County. There are fifteen U. S. federal border crossings between Vermont and Canada, the origin of the name Vermont is uncertain, but likely comes from the French les Verts Monts, meaning the Green Mountains
14.
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, the state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline, Wisconsin is known as Americas Dairyland because it is one of the nations leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology, and tourism are major contributors to the states economy. The word Wisconsin originates from the given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673, subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, and over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in numbers during the early 19th century. The legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845, the Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure. Interpretations vary, but most implicate the river and the red sandstone that lines its banks, other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning red stone place, where the waters gather, or great rock. Wisconsin has been home to a variety of cultures over the past 12,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation and these early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the Effigy Mound culture. Later, between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact, the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was probably the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien
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South Carolina
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South Carolina /ˌsaʊθ kærəˈlaɪnə/ is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the south and west by Georgia across the Savannah River, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U. S. Constitution, doing so on May 23,1788. South Carolina became the first state to vote to secede from the Union on December 20,1860, after the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25,1868. South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and the 23rd most populous U. S. state and its GDP as of 2013 was $183.6 billion, with an annual growth rate of 3. 13%. The capital and largest city is Columbia with a 2013 population of 133,358, South Carolina is named in honor of King Charles I of England, under whose reign the English colony was first formed, with Carolus being Latin for Charles. There is evidence of activity in the area about 12000 years ago. Along the Savannah River were the Apalachee, Yuchi, and the Yamasee, further west were the Cherokee, and along the Catawba River, the Catawba. These tribes were village-dwellers, relying on agriculture as their food source. The Cherokee lived in wattle and daub houses made with wood and clay, about a dozen separate small tribes summered on the coast harvesting oysters and fish, and cultivating corn, peas and beans. Travelling inland as much as 50 miles mostly by canoe, they wintered on the plain, hunting deer and gathering nuts. The names of these survive in place names like Edisto Island, Kiawah Island. The Spanish were the first Europeans in the area, in 1521, founding San Miguel de Gualdape, established with 500 settlers, it was abandoned within a year by 150 survivors. In 1562 French settlers established a settlement at what is now the Charlesfort-Santa Elena archaeological site on Parris Island, three years later the Spanish built a fort on the same site, but withdrew following hostilities with the English navy. In 1629, King Charles I of England established the Province of Carolina an area covering what is now South and North Carolina, Georgia, in the 1670s, English planters from the Barbados established themselves near what is now Charleston. Settlers built rice plantations in the South Carolina Lowcountry, east of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, settlers came from all over Europe. Plantation labor was done by African slaves who formed the majority of the population by 1720, another cash crop was the Indigo plant, a plant source of blue dye, developed by Eliza Lucas. Meanwhile, in Upstate South Carolina, west of the Fall Line, was settled by farmers and traders. Colonists overthrew the rule, seeing more direct representation
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Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
17.
New Mexico
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New Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. It was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6,1912 and it is usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is fifth by area, the 36th-most populous, inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years before European exploration, New Mexico was colonized by the Spanish in 1598 Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. Later, it was part of independent Mexico before becoming a U. S. territory and eventually a U. S. state as a result of the Mexican–American War. Among U. S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, the major Native American nations in the state are Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache peoples. The demography and culture of the state are shaped by these strong Hispanic and Native American influences and its scarlet and gold colors are taken from the royal standards of Spain, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Pueblo-related tribe. New Mexico, or Nuevo México in Spanish, is incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the nation of Mexico. The name simply stuck, even though the area had no connection to Mexico or the Mexica Indian tribes, Mexico, formerly a part of New Spain, adopted its name centuries later in 1821, after winning independence from Spanish rule. New Mexico was a part of the independent Mexican Empire and Federal Republic of Mexico for 27 years,1821 through 1848, New Mexico and Mexico developed as neighboring Spanish-speaking communities under Spanish rule, with relatively independent histories. The states total area is 121,412 square miles, the eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and 2.2 miles west of 103° W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, the western border with Arizona runs along the 109°03 W longitude. The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel, the 37° N latitude parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at the Four Corners in the corner of New Mexico. New Mexico, although a state, has very little water. Its surface water area is about 250 square miles, the New Mexican landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexicos arid image, heavily forested mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost part of the Rocky Mountains, run roughly north-south along the east side of the Rio Grande in the rugged, pastoral north. The most important of New Mexicos rivers are the Rio Grande, Pecos, Canadian, San Juan, the Rio Grande is tied for the fourth-longest river in the United States. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant money to the state, other areas of geographical and scenic interest include Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the Gila Wilderness in the southwest of the state
18.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
19.
Coahuila
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The state is located in Northeastern Mexico on the US border. Coahuila borders the Mexican states of Nuevo León to the east, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí to the south, and Durango and Chihuahua to the west. To the north, Coahuila accounts for a 512 kilometres stretch of the Mexico–United States border, with an area of 151,563 square kilometres, it is the nations third-largest state. In 2010, Coahuilas population is 2,748,391 inhabitants, the Spanish explored the north of Mexico some decades after their victory in Tenochtiitlán the capital of the Aztecs. Such exploration was delayed because the climate was harsher and there was no gold. The first Spanish settlement in the now called Coahuila was at Minas de la Trinidad in 1577. Saltillo was settled in 1586, to part of the province of Nueva Vizcaya of the Vice-royalty of New Spain. Later it became one of the first provinces of Nueva Extremadura to be explored by Europeans, Coahuila and Texas was one of the constituent states of the newly independent United Mexican States under their 1824 Constitution, and included Texas, Coahuila and Nuevo León. Later in the same year Nuevo León was detached, but Texas remained a part of the state until 1836, Monclova was the capital of the state from 1833 to 1835. In 1840 Coahuila briefly became a member of the short lived Republic of the Rio Grande, on February 19,1856, Santiago Vidaurri annexed Coahuila to his state, Nuevo León, but it regained its separate status in 1868. During the Mexican Revolution, Francisco Villa attacked the city of Torreón, on April 4,2004, the border city of Piedras Negras was flooded. More than 30 people died and more than 4,000 lost their homes, in 2007 Coahuila became the first state in Mexico to offer civil unions to same-sex couples. The Sierra Madre Oriental runs northwest to southeast through the State, the northernmost fingers of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra del Burro and the Sierra del Carmen, reach to the border with the United States at the Rio Grande. East of the range, the land slopes gently toward the Rio Grande, and is drained by rivers, including the Salado and its tributary. The Tamaulipan mezquital, a dry shrubland ecoregion, occupies the portion of the State. The portion of the State west of the Sierra Madre Oriental lies on the Mexican Plateau, the Bolsón de Mapimí is a large endorheic basin which covers much of the western portion of the State and extends into adjacent portions of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. The Nazas River, which flows east from Durango, and the Aguanaval River, Torreón, the most populous city in the State, lies on the Nazas in the irrigated Laguna Region, the, which straddles the border of Coahuila and Durango. Maderas del Carmen lies on the border of the State
20.
Hidalgo (state)
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Hidalgo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Hidalgo, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 84 municipalities and its capital city is Pachuca de Soto, in 1869, Benito Juárez created the State of Hidalgo. The state was named after Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the initiator of the Mexican War of Independence and it is located in Eastern Mexico. Hidalgo is bordered by San Luis Potosí and Veracruz on the north, Puebla on the east, Tlaxcala and México on the south, the state has a number of relatively intact native cultures such as the Otomi. The state contains a number of ecotourism, cultural and archeological attractions including the Huasteca area, Hidalgo is known for its mountainous terrain but part of the state is on a coastal plain. With a population of 2.665 million and an area of roughly 20,813 square km, the modern day state of Hidalgo is located within the pre-Hispanic region of Mesoamerica. Numerous migrations of people took place through here, mostly arriving or passing through from the north, with many eventually settling in the Valley of Mexico. The Toltecs initially settled in Xochicoatlán, now the municipality of Molango at the beginning of the 7th century, from here they dispersed to locales such as Huejutla and Tollatzingo where they eventually had their capital of Tollan, today known as Tula. The Toltecs were eventually overrun by Chichimecas, who established their capital in Metztitlán, the Aztecs arrived in the 12th century, initially establishing themselves in Mixquiahuala, then founding Tizayuca later. Eventually, the Aztecs took over most of what is now the portion of the state. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the carved out territories for themselves from Aztec lands. Hernán Cortés took possession of lands to the northeast of Mexico City extending into modern Hidalgo state and it also led to a massive decrease in the native population, especially during the governorship of the area by Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán. By the 18th century, the economy of the Hidalgo area was dominated by mining, much of the agricultural production during the colonial period was centered on livestock such as sheep and pigs as well as the making of pulque from the native maguey plant. Mining’s fortunes would rise and fall during the period with one of the most productive eras coming under the control of Pedro Romero de Terreros in the 18th century. These groups and others manage a significant amount of success in maintaining cultural, political, much of the state still maintains a number of strong indigenous identities. However, no battles of the Mexican War of Independence were fought in the state. Instead, a number of operations against local Spaniards were conducted. When the war ended in 1821, the country was divided into a number of states, the modern state of Hidalgo was initially part of the very large territory called “Mexico”, which eventually was split with the remaining portion becoming the modern State of Mexico
21.
Charles Willson Peale
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Charles Willson Peale was an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution. Peale was born in 1741 in Chester, Queen Annes County, Maryland and he had a younger brother, James Peale. Charles became an apprentice to a saddle maker when he was thirteen years old, upon reaching maturity, he opened his own saddle shop, however, when his Loyalist creditors discovered he had joined the Sons of Liberty, they conspired to bankrupt his business. He was also, not very good at saddle making and he then tried fixing clocks and working with metals, but both of these endeavors failed as well. Finding that he had a talent for painting, especially portraiture, Peale studied for a time under John Hesselius, John Beale Bordley and friends eventually raised enough money for him to travel to England to take instruction from Benjamin West. Peale studied with West for three years beginning in 1767, afterward returning to America and settling in Annapolis, Maryland, there, he taught painting to his younger brother, James Peale, who in time also became a noted artist. Peales enthusiasm for the nascent national government brought him to the capital, Philadelphia, in 1776 and his estate, which is on the campus of La Salle University in Philadelphia, can still be visited. He also raised troops for the War of Independence and eventually gained the rank of captain in the Pennsylvania militia by 1776, while in the field, he continued to paint, doing miniature portraits of various officers in the Continental Army. He produced enlarged versions of these in later years and he served in the Pennsylvania state assembly in 1779–1780, after which he returned to painting full-time. Peale was quite prolific as an artist, while he did portraits of scores of historic figures, he is probably best known for his portraits of George Washington. The first time Washington sat for a portrait was with Peale in 1772, in January 2005, a full-length portrait of Washington at Princeton from 1779 sold for $21.3 million, setting a record for the highest price paid for an American portrait. One of his most celebrated paintings is The Staircase Group, a portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian. It is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Peale had a great interest in natural history, and organized the first U. S. scientific expedition in 1801. These two major interests combined in his founding of what became the Philadelphia Museum, later known as Peales American Museum and it housed a diverse collection of botanical, biological, and archaeological specimens. Most notably, the museum contained a variety of birds which Peale himself acquired. In 1792, Peale initiated a correspondence with Thomas Hall, of the Finsbury Museum, City Road, Finsbury, eventually, an exchange system was established between the two, whereby Peale sent American birds to Hall in exchange for an equal number of British birds. This arrangement continued until the end of the century, the Peale Museum was the first to display a mastodon skeleton that Peale found in New York State
22.
Quercus montana
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Quercus montana, the chestnut oak, is a species of oak in the white oak group, Quercus sect. It is also called rock oak because of its presence in montane. They tend to have a spread of 18–22 m. A 10-year-old sapling grown in full sun will stand about 5 m tall and this species is often an important canopy species in an oak-heath forest. Extensive confusion between the oak and the swamp chestnut oak has occurred, and some botanists have considered them to be the same species in the past. The application of the name Q. montana to the oak is now accepted, since Q. prinus is of uncertain position. The chestnut oak is readily identified by its massively-ridged dark gray-brown bark, the chinkapin oak also has much smaller acorns than the chestnut oak. The chestnut oak is distinguished from the swamp white oak because that tree has whitened undersides on the leaves. Characteristics of the chestnut oak include, Bark, Dark, fissured into broad ridges, branchlets stout, at first bronze green, later they become reddish brown, finally dark gray or brown. Wood, Dark brown, sapwood lighter, heavy, hard, strong, tough, close-grained, used for fencing, fuel, and railway ties. 0.7499, weight of cu. ft.46.73 lbs, winter buds, Light chestnut brown, ovate, acute, one-fourth to one-half of an inch long. Leaves, Alternate,5 to 9 in long,3 to 4 1⁄2 in wide, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, coarsely toothed, teeth rounded or acute. They come out of the bud convolute, yellow green or bronze, shining above, when full grown are thick, firm, dark yellow green, somewhat shining above, pale green and pubescent below, midribs stout, yellow, primary veins conspicuous. In autumn they turn a dull yellow soon changing to a yellow brown, flowers, May, when leaves are one-third grown. Staminate flowers are borne in hairy catkins two to three long, calyx pale yellow, hairy, deeply seven to nine-lobed, stamens 7 to 9. Pistillate flowers in spikes, peduncles green, stout, hairy, involucral scales hairy, stigmas short. Scales small, much crowded toward the rim sometimes making a fringe, the acorns of the chestnut oak are 1. 5–3 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, among the largest of native American oaks, surpassed in size only by the bur oak and possibly swamp chestnut oak. This species is a predominant ridge-top tree in eastern North American hardwood forests and it often grows with multiple trunks, often as a result of logging or prior injury to the main stem
23.
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg
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Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg was a German American clergyman and botanist. The son of Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, he was born in Trappe and he was educated at Franckesche Stiftungen in Halle starting in 1763 and in 1769 at the University of Halle. He returned to Pennsylvania in September 1770 and was ordained as a Lutheran minister and he served first in Pennsylvania and then as a pastor in New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Princeton University and he served as the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania from 1780 through 1815. In 1787, he was made the first president of Franklin College. 1779 he retired and devoted himself to the study of botany and he is best known as a botanist. Muhlenbergia, a genus of grasses, was named in his honor. His chief works are Catalogus Plantarum Americae Septentrionalis and Descriptio Uberior Graminum et Plantarum Calamariarum Americae Septentrionalis Indiginarum et Cicurum, Muhlenberg discovered and identified the bog turtle while conducting a survey of plants in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1801 the turtle was named Clemmys muhlenbergii in his honor, however, the species common name was changed to bog turtle in 1956, as the practice of naming an organisms common name after individuals became less popular. Muhlenberg is buried in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, chisholm, Hugh, ed. Muhlenberg, John Peter Gabriel. This work in turn cites, John M. Maisch, G. H. E. Muhlenberg als Botaniker Solomon Erb Ochsenford, Muhlenberg College, A quarter-centennial memorial p. 172-173. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Gilman. Thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds, the Henry Ernest Muhlenberg papers, which contains scientific letters written to Muhlenberg, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
24.
Lutheranism
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. Luthers efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone and this is in contrast to the belief of the Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, concerning authority coming from both the Scriptures and Tradition. In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Christian Church, unlike Calvinism, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lords Supper. Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, the purpose of Gods Law, the grace, the concept of perseverance of the saints. Today, Lutheranism is one of the largest denominations of Protestantism, with approximately 80 million adherents, it constitutes the third most common Protestant denomination after historically Pentecostal denominations and Anglicanism. The Lutheran World Federation, the largest communion of Lutheran churches, Other Lutheran organizations include the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as independent churches. The name Lutheran originated as a term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Dr. Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. Eck and other Catholics followed the practice of naming a heresy after its leader. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term Evangelical, which was derived from euangelion, the followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also began to use that term. To distinguish the two groups, others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed. As time passed by, the word Evangelical was dropped, Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century, in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Philippists and Calvinists. In 1597, theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church, Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation. Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century, as the monarch of Denmark–Norway, through Baltic-German and Swedish rule, Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia. Since 1520, regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen, under the reign of Frederick I, Denmark-Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers. During Fredericks reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark, at an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by the king in 1536, the people shouted, We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops anymore. Fredericks son Christian was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his fathers death, however, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1537 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark-Norway
25.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
26.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
27.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
28.
Botany
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Botany, also called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field, the term botany comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning pasture, grass, or fodder, βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, to feed or to graze. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance and they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden and these gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, in the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science, dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botany originated as herbalism, the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties, many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago. This early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, the early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings. His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to science until the Middle Ages. De Materia Medica was widely read for more than 1,500 years, important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyyas Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarīs the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassals The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner and these gardens continued the practical value of earlier physic gardens, often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject, lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much later to northern Europe, the first in England was the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, throughout this period, botany remained firmly subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of the three German fathers of botany, along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock, Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification, physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546. Naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants, naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was considered the father of natural history, which included the study of plants
29.
Umlaut (diacritic)
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The diaeresis, also spelled diæresis or dieresis and also known as the tréma or the umlaut, is a diacritical mark that consists of two dots placed over a letter, usually a vowel. When that letter is an i or a j, the diacritic replaces the tittle, the diaeresis and the umlaut are diacritics marking two distinct phonological phenomena. The diaeresis represents the phenomenon known as diaeresis or hiatus in which a vowel letter is not pronounced as part of a digraph or diphthong. The umlaut, in contrast, indicates a sound shift and these two diacritics originated separately, the diaeresis is considerably older. Nevertheless, in computer systems using Unicode, the umlaut and diaeresis diacritics are identical. The same symbol is used as a diacritic in other cases. For example, in Albanian and Tagalog ë represents a schwa, the word diaeresis is from Greek diaíresis, meaning division, separation, or distinction. Umlaut is the German name of both the Germanic umlaut, a sound-law also known as i-mutation, and the corresponding diacritic. The diaeresis indicates that two adjoining letters that would form a digraph and be pronounced as one are instead to be read as separate vowels in two syllables. The diaeresis indicates that a vowel should be pronounced apart from the letter that precedes it, for example, in the spelling coöperate, the diaeresis reminds the reader that the word has four syllables co-op-er-ate, not three, *coop-er-ate. In British English this usage has been considered obsolete for many years, nevertheless, it is still used by the US magazine The New Yorker. In English language texts it is perhaps most familiar in the spellings naïve, Noël, and Chloë, languages such as Dutch, Catalan, French, Galician and Spanish make regular use of the diaeresis. However, it was used to indicate that a vowel formed its own syllable, as in ηϋ. In Modern Greek, αϊ and οϊ represent the diphthongs /ai̯/ and /oi̯/, and εϊ the disyllabic sequence /e. i/, whereas αι, οι, and ει transcribe the simple vowels /e/, /i/, and /i/. The diacritic can be the one on a vowel, as in ακαδημαϊκός akadēmaïkos academic, or in combination with an acute accent. The diaeresis was borrowed for this purpose in several languages of western and southern Europe, among them Occitan, Catalan, French, Dutch, Welsh, when a vowel in Greek was stressed, it did not assimilate to a preceding vowel but remained as a separate syllable. Such vowels were marked with an accent such as the acute, for example, the Portuguese words saia skirt and the imperfect saía I used to leave differ in that the sequence /ai/ forms a diphthong in the former, but is a hiatus in the latter. In Catalan, the digraphs ai, ei, oi, au, eu, to indicate exceptions to this rule, a diaeresis mark is placed on the second vowel, without this the words raïm and diürn would be read * and *, respectively
30.
Cloning
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In biology, cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments, cells, the term also refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such as digital media or software. The term clone, invented by J. B. S. Haldane, is derived from the Ancient Greek word κλών klōn, twig, referring to the process whereby a new plant can be created from a twig. In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth century, since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spelling clone has been used exclusively. In botany, the term lusus was traditionally used, Cloning is a natural form of reproduction that has allowed life forms to spread for more than 50 thousand years. It is the method used by plants, fungi, and bacteria. Examples of these organisms include blueberry plants, hazel trees, the Pando trees, the Kentucky coffeetree, Myricas, molecular cloning refers to the process of making multiple molecules. Cloning is commonly used to amplify DNA fragments containing whole genes and it is used in a wide array of biological experiments and practical applications ranging from genetic fingerprinting to large scale protein production. In practice, localization of the gene to a chromosome or genomic region does not necessarily enable one to isolate or amplify the relevant genomic sequence, initially, the DNA of interest needs to be isolated to provide a DNA segment of suitable size. Subsequently, a procedure is used where the amplified fragment is inserted into a vector. The vector is linearised using restriction enzymes, and incubated with the fragment of interest under appropriate conditions with an enzyme called DNA ligase, following ligation the vector with the insert of interest is transfected into cells. A number of techniques are available, such as chemical sensitivation of cells, electroporation, optical injection. Finally, the cells are cultured. Modern cloning vectors include selectable antibiotic resistance markers, which allow only cells in which the vector has been transfected, additionally, the cloning vectors may contain colour selection markers, which provide blue/white screening on X-gal medium. Nevertheless, these selection steps do not absolutely guarantee that the DNA insert is present in the cells obtained, further investigation of the resulting colonies must be required to confirm that cloning was successful. This may be accomplished by means of PCR, restriction fragment analysis and/or DNA sequencing, Cloning a cell means to derive a population of cells from a single cell. In the case of organisms such as bacteria and yeast. However, in the case of cell cultures from multi-cellular organisms, a useful tissue culture technique used to clone distinct lineages of cell lines involves the use of cloning rings
31.
Quercus prinoides
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It has a virtually disjunct distribution, fairly common in New England and in the Appalachian Mountains, and also in the eastern Great Plains but rare in the Ohio Valley in between. The epithet prinoides refers to its resemblance to Quercus prinus, the chestnut oak, however, this shrubby oak, now generally accepted as a distinct species, is more closely related to chinkapin oak than to chestnut oak. The dwarf chinkapin oak is a shrub or small tree that only grows to 13–20 feet tall. It sometimes spreads vegetatively by means of underground rhizomes, the leaves of dwarf chinkapin oak closely resemble those of chinkapin oak, although they are smaller, 2-6 inches long, compared to 4-7 inches long for chinkapin oak. The acorns are 1/2 to 1 inches long, with the cup enclosing about half of the acorn, while similar in foliage and fruits, but with smaller leaves, the dwarf chinkapin oak may also be distinguished from the chinkapin oak by differences in growth habit and habitat. The acorns of dwarf chinkapin oak are sweet tasting and relished by humans, the wood has little commercial value because of the shrubs small size. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
32.
Carl Ludwig Willdenow
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Carl Ludwig Willdenow was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the distribution of plants. Willdenow was also a mentor of Alexander von Humboldt, one of the earliest and best known phytogeographers and he also influenced Christian Konrad Sprengel, who pioneered the study of plant pollination and floral biology. Willdenow was born in Berlin and studied medicine and botany at the University of Halle, after studying pharmaceutics at Wieglieb College, Langensalza and in medicine at Halle, he returned to Berlin to work at his fathers pharmacy, Unter den Linden. His early interest in botany was kindled by his uncle J. G. Gleditsch, in 1794 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He was a director of the Botanical garden of Berlin from 1801 until his death, in 1807 Alexander von Humboldt helped to expand the garden. There he studied many South American plants, brought back by Humboldt and he was interested in the adaptation of plants to climate, showing that the same climate had plants having common characteristics. His herbarium, containing more than 20,000 species, is preserved in the Botanical Garden in Berlin. Some of the specimens include those collected by Humboldt, Humboldt notes that as a young man he was unable to identify plants with Willdenows Flora Berolinensis. He then visited Willdenow without an appointment and found him to be a soul only four years older. He notes that in three weeks he became an enthusiastic botanist, in his 1792 book, Grundriss der Kräuterkunde or Geschichte der Pflanzen Willdenow came up with an idea to to explain restricted plant distributions. This would fit with the Biblical notion of floods and this was contrary to earlier assertions by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann that plants were distributed as they had been in the past and that there had been no changes
33.
Plant reproductive morphology
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Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction. Among all living organisms, flowers, which are the structures of angiosperms, are the most varied physically. Plants that are not flowering plants also have complex interplays between morphological adaptation and environmental factors in their sexual reproduction, christian Konrad Sprengel studied the reproduction of flowering plants and for the first time it was understood that the pollination process involved both biotic and abiotic interactions. Charles Darwins theories of natural selection utilized this work to build his theory of evolution, Plants have complex lifecycles involving alternation of generations. One generation, the sporophyte, gives rise to the next generation asexually via spores, spores may be identical isospores or come in different sizes, but strictly speaking, spores and sporophytes are neither male nor female because they do not produce gametes. The alternate generation, the gametophyte, produces gametes, eggs and/or sperm, a gametophyte can be be monoicous, producing both eggs and sperm or dioicous, either female or male. In the bryophytes, the gametophyte is the dominant generation. In ferns and seed plants the sporophyte is the dominant generation, the obvious visible plant, whether a small herb or a large tree, is the sporophyte, and the gametophyte is very small. In seed plants, each female gametophyte, and the spore that gives rise to it, is hidden within the sporophyte and is dependent on it for nutrition. Each male gametophyte consists of from two to four cells enclosed within the protective wall of a pollen grain. The sporophyte of a plant is often described using sexual terms based on the sexuality of the gametophyte it gives rise to. For example, a sporophyte that produces spores that give rise only to male gametophytes may be described as male, even though the sporophyte itself is asexual, producing only spores. Similarly, flowers produced by the sporophyte may be described as unisexual or bisexual, the flower is the characteristic structure concerned with sexual reproduction in flowering plants. Flowers vary enormously in their construction, a complete flower, like that of Ranunculus glaberrimus shown in the figure, has a calyx of outer sepals and a corolla of inner petals. The sepals and petals form the perianth. Next inwards there are numerous stamens, which produce pollen grains, stamens may be called the male parts of a flower and collectively form the androecium. Finally in the middle there are carpels, which at maturity one or more ovules. Carpels may be called the parts of a flower and collectively form the gynoecium
34.
Calcareous
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Calcareous is an adjective meaning mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate, in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a variety of scientific disciplines. The term also applies to the calcium carbonate tests of often more or less microscopic Foraminifera, note that not all tests are calcareous, diatoms and radiolaria have siliceous tests. The molluscs are calcareous, as are calcareous sponges, that have spicules which are made of calcium carbonate, calcareous grassland is a form of grassland characteristic of soils containing much calcium carbonate from underlying chalk or limestone rock. Species of algae such as the green-segmented genus Halimeda are calcareous, the term is used in pathology, for example in calcareous conjunctivitis, and when referring to calcareous metastasis or calcareous deposits, which may both be removed surgically. The term calcareous can be applied to a sediment, sedimentary rock, or soil type which is formed from, or contains a proportion of. Calcareous sediments are deposited in shallow water near land, since the carbonate is precipitated by marine organisms that need land-derived nutrients. Generally speaking, the farther from land sediments fall, the less calcareous they are, some areas can have interbedded calcareous sediments due to storms, or changes in ocean currents. Calcareous ooze is a form of calcium derived from planktonic organisms that accumulates on the sea floor. This can only occur if the ocean is shallower than the carbonate compensation depth, below this depth, calcium carbonate begins to dissolve in the ocean, and only non-calcareous sediments are stable, such as siliceous ooze or pelagic red clay. Calcareous soils are alkaline, in other words they have a high pH. This is because of the very weak acidity of carbonic acid, note that this is not the only reason for a high soil pH
35.
Soil pH
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The soil pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity in soils. PH is defined as the logarithm of the activity of hydronium ions in a solution. In water, it ranges from -1 to 14, with 7 being neutral. A pH below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline, Soil pH is considered a master variable in soils as it controls many chemical processes that take place. It specifically affects plant nutrient availability by controlling the chemical forms of the nutrient, the optimum pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.0, however many plants have adapted to thrive at pH values outside this range. While pH is the measure of H+ in solution, Al3+ is important in acid soils because between pH4 and 6, Al3+ reacts with water forming AlOH2+, and Al2+, releasing extra H+ ions, every Al3+ ion can create 3 H+ ions. Many other processes contribute to the formation of soils including rainfall, fertilizer use, plant root activity. Acid soils can also be caused by such as acid rain. Rainfall, Acid soils are most often found in areas of high rainfall, excess rainfall leaches base cation from the soil, increasing the percentage of Al3+ and H+ relative to other cations. Additionally, rainwater has a slightly acidic pH of 5.7 due to a reaction with CO2 in the atmosphere that forms carbonic acid, Fertilizer use, Ammonium fertilizers react in the soil in a process called nitrification to form nitrate, and in the process release H+ ions. Plant root activity, Plants take up nutrients in the form of ions, however plants must maintain a neutral charge in their roots. In order to compensate for the positive charge, they will release H+ ions from the root. Some plants will also exude organic acids into the soil to acidify the zone around their roots to help solubilize metal nutrients that are insoluble at neutral pH, weathering of minerals, Both primary and secondary minerals that compose soil contain Al. Highly weathered soils are characterized by having high concentrations of Fe. Acid rain, When atmospheric water reacts with sulfur and nitrogen compounds that result from industrial processes, however the amount of acidity that is deposited in rainwater is much less, on average, than that created through agricultural activities. Mine spoil, Severely acidic conditions can form in soils near mine spoils due to the oxidation of pyrite, Potential acid sulfate soils naturally formed in waterlogged coastal and estuarine environments can become highly acidic when drained or excavated. Decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms releases CO2 which when mixed with water can form carbonic acid. Alkaline soils have a high saturation of base cations and this is due to an accumulation of soluble salts which are classified as either saline soil, sodic soil, saline-sodic soil or alkaline soil
36.
Quercus alba
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Quercus alba, the white oak, is one of the preeminent hardwoods of eastern and central North America. It is an oak, native to eastern and central North America and found from Minnesota, Ontario, Quebec. Specimens have been documented to be over 450 years old, although called a white oak, it is very unusual to find an individual specimen with white bark, the usual color is a light gray. In the forest it can reach a magnificent height and in the open it develops into a massive broad-topped tree with large branches striking out at wide angles. Q. alba typically reaches heights of 80 to 100 feet at maturity, trees growing in a forest will become much taller than ones in an open area which develop to be short and massive. The tallest known white oak is 144 feet tall and it is not unusual for a white oak tree to be as wide as it is tall, but specimens growing at high altitudes may only become small shrubs. White oak may live 200 to 300 years, with even older specimens known. The Wye Oak in Wye Mills, Maryland was estimated to be over 450 years old when it fell in a thunderstorm in 2002. Another noted white oak is the Great White Oak in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, the tree measures 25 feet in circumference at the base and 16 feet in circumference four feet above the ground. The tree is 75 feet tall, and its branches spread over 125 feet from tip to tip, the oak, claimed to be the oldest in the United States, began showing signs of poor health in the mid-2010s. The tree was declared dead in 2016 and was planned to be taken down in 2017, sexual maturity begins at around 20 years, but the tree does not produce large crops of acorns until its 50th year and the amount varies from year to year. Acorns deteriorate quickly after ripening, the rate being only 10% for six-month-old seeds. As the acorns are prime food for animals and insects, all may be lost in years of small crops, the bark is a light ash-gray and peels somewhat from the top, bottom and/or sides. In spring the young leaves are of a delicate, silvery pink and covered with a soft, blanket-like down. The petioles are short, and the leaves which cluster close to the ends of the shoots are pale green and this condition continues for several days, passing through the opalescent changes of soft pink, silvery white and finally yellow green. The leaves grow to be 5 to 8.5 inches long and 2.75 to 4.5 inches wide and have a glossy green upper surface. They usually turn red or brown in autumn, but depending on climate, site, some brown, dead leaves may remain on the tree throughout winter until very early spring. The lobes can be shallow, extending less than halfway to the midrib, or deep, the acorns are usually sessile, and grow to 0.5 to 1 inch in length, falling in early October
37.
Quercus michauxii
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Quercus michauxii, the swamp chestnut oak, is a species of oak in the white oak section Quercus section Quercus in the beech family. The swamp chestnut oak closely resembles the chestnut oak Quercus prinus and it typically grows to around 65 feet tall, though the tallest specimen currently known is over 150 feet tall. The fruit is an acorn 1-1½ in long and ¾-1 in cm broad, borne on a ¾-1¼ nin peduncle, maturing in the fall, the wood of the swamp chestnut oak is similar to, and usually marketed mixed with, that of other white oaks. Swamp chestnut oak is also called basket oak, since the wood is split into long, thin. The swamp chestnut oaks acorns are large and relatively sweet and they are readily eaten by livestock, and the species is sometimes called the cow oak for this reason. However, swamp chestnut oaks bear heavy crops of acorns only at intervals of several years, acorns in general are potentially fatal if eaten by horses. The swamp chestnut oak is cultivated as a large garden tree or street tree. Quercus michauxii images from Vanderbilt University
38.
Quercus velutina
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Quercus velutina, the eastern black oak or more commonly known as simply black oak, is a species in the red oak group of oaks. It is widespread in eastern and central North America, found in all the states from Maine to Texas, inland as far as Ontario, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma. Quercus velutina was previously known as yellow oak due to the pigment in its inner bark. It is a relative of the western black oak found in western North America. Black oak is well known to hybridize with other members of the red oak group of oaks being one parent in at least a dozen different named hybrids. The leaves of the black oak are alternately arranged on the twig and are 10–20 cm long with 5–7 bristle tipped lobes separated by deep U-shaped notches, the upper surface of the leaf is a shiny deep green, the lower is yellowish-brown. There are also stellate hairs on the underside of the leaf that grow in clumps, the inner bark of the black oak contains a yellow pigment called quercitron, which was sold commercially in Europe until the 1940s. Key Characteristics, Sun leaves have very deep u-shaped sinuses, the buds are velvety and covered in white hair. The fruits or acorns of the black oak are medium-sized and broadly rounded, the cap is large and covers almost half of the nut. In southern New England, black oak grows on cool, moist soils, elsewhere it occurs on warm, moist soils. The most widespread soils on which black oak grows are the Udalfs and these soils are derived from glacial materials, sandstones, shales, and limestone and range from heavy clays to loamy sands with some having a high content of rock or chert fragments. Black oak grows best on well drained, silty clay to loam soils, black oak grows on all aspects and slope positions. It grows best in coves and on middle and lower slopes with northerly and easterly aspects and it is found at elevations up to 1,200 m in the southern Appalachians. The most important factors determining site quality for black oak are the thickness and texture of the A horizon, texture of the B horizon, aspect, other factors may be important in localized areas. For example, in northwestern West Virginia increasing precipitation to 1,120 mm resulted in increased site quality, in southern Indiana, decreasing site quality was associated with increasing slope steepness. Near the limits of black oaks range, topographic factors may restrict its distribution, at the western limits black oak is often found only on north and east aspects where moisture conditions are most favorable. In southern Minnesota and Wisconsin it is found only on ridge tops. Black oak is often a predominant species in the canopy of an oak–heath forest, black Oak is the forest cover type that designates pure stands of the species or those in which it makes up more than 50 percent of the stand basal area
39.
Quercus rubra
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Quercus rubra, commonly called northern red oak, or champion oak, is an oak in the red oak group. It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. It grows from the end of the Great Lakes, east to Nova Scotia, south as far as Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, and west to Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska. It has been introduced to areas in Western Europe, where it can frequently be seen cultivated in gardens. It prefers good soil that is slightly acidic, often simply called red oak, northern red oak is so named to distinguish it from southern red oak, also known as the Spanish oak. It is also the tree of New Jersey and the provincial tree of Prince Edward Island. In many forests, this tree grows straight and tall, to 28 m, exceptionally to 43 m tall. Open-grown trees do not get as tall, but can develop a stouter trunk and it has stout branches growing at right angles to the stem, forming a narrow round-topped head. It grows rapidly and is tolerant of soils and varied situations, although it prefers the glacial drift. It is frequently a part of the canopy in an oak-heath forest, under optimal conditions and full sun, northern red oak is fast growing and a 10-year-old tree can be 5–6 m tall. Trees may live up to 500 years according to the USDA, Northern red oak is easy to recognize by its bark, which feature bark ridges that appear to have shiny stripes down the center. A few other oaks have bark with this kind of appearance in the upper tree, bark, Dark reddish grey brown, with broad, thin, rounded ridges, scaly. On young trees and large stems, smooth and light gray, branchlets slender, at first bright green, shining, then dark red, finally dark brown. Bark is brownish gray, becoming brown on old trees. Wood, Pale reddish brown, sapwood darker, heavy, hard, strong, cracks in drying, but when carefully treated could be successfully used for furniture. Also used in construction and for interior finish of houses,0.6621, weight of cu. ft.41.25 lbs. Lobes are less deeply cut than most other oaks of the red oak group, leaves emerge from the bud convolute, pink, covered with soft silky down above, coated with thick white tomentum below. When full grown are dark green and smooth, sometimes shining above, yellow green, in autumn they turn a rich red, sometimes brown
40.
Quercus coccinea
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Quercus coccinea, the scarlet oak, is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. The scarlet oak can be mistaken for the pin oak, the black oak, on scarlet oak the sinuses between lobes are C-shaped in comparison to pin oak, which has U-shaped sinuses and the acorns are half covered by a deep cap. Scarlet oak is native to the central and eastern United States, from southern Maine west to Wisconsin and Missouri, and south as far as Louisiana, Alabama. It occurs on dry, sandy, usually acidic soils and it is often an important canopy species in an oak-heath forest. Quercus coccinea is a deciduous tree growing to 20–30 m tall with an open. The leaves are green, 7–17 cm long and 8–13 cm broad, lobed, with seven lobes. Each lobe has 3-7 bristle-tipped teeth, the common English name is derived from the autumn coloration of the foliage, which generally becomes bright scarlet, in contrast, pin oak foliage generally turns bronze in autumn. The acorns are ovoid, 7–13 mm broad and 17–31 mm long, a third to a half covered in a cup, green maturing pale brown about 18 months after pollination. Scarlet oak is planted as an ornamental tree, popular for its bright red fall color, although the tree is less commonly seen in cultivation than Q. rubra. The cultivar Splendens has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, the wood is generally marketed as red oak, but is of inferior quality, being somewhat weaker and not forming as large a tree. In Burns, Russell M. Honkala, Barbara H. Hardwoods, United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture. 2 – via Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. Quercus coccinea images from Vanderbilt Unitersity Interactive Distribution Map of Quercus coccinea photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Missouri in 1932
41.
Acer saccharum
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Sugar maple is best known for its bright fall foliage and for being the primary source of maple syrup. Acer saccharum is a tree normally reaching heights of 25–35 m. A 10-year-old tree is typically about 5 m tall, when healthy, the sugar maple can live for over 400 years. The leaves are deciduous, up to 20 cm long and equally wide, the basal lobes are relatively small, while the upper lobes are larger and deeply notched. In contrast with the angular notching of the maple, however. The fall color is often spectacular, ranging from yellow through orange to fluorescent red-orange. Sugar maples also have a tendency to color unevenly in fall, in some trees, all colors above can be seen at the same time. They also share a tendency with red maples for certain parts of a tree to change color weeks ahead of or behind the remainder of the tree. The leaf buds are pointy and brown-colored, the recent years growth twigs are green, and turn dark brown. The flowers are in panicles of five to 10 together, yellow-green and without petals, the sugar maple will generally begin flowering when it is between 10 and 15 years old. The fruit is a pair of samaras, the seeds are globose, 7–10 mm in diameter, the wing 2–3 cm long. The seeds fall from the tree in autumn, where they must be exposed to 90 days of temperatures below −18 °C to break their coating down. Germination of A. saccharum is slow, not taking place until the spring when the soil has warmed. It is closely related to the maple, which is sometimes included in this species. The western American bigtooth maple is also treated as a variety or subspecies of sugar maple by some botanists, the sugar maple is also often confused with the Norway maple, though they are not closely related within the genus. The sugar maple is most easily identified by clear sap in the petiole, brown, sharp-tipped buds. Also, the lobes of the sugar maple have a more triangular shape. The sugar maple is an important species to the ecology of many forests in the northern United States
42.
Acer rubrum
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Acer rubrum is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U. S. Forest service recognizes it as the most abundant native tree in eastern North America. The red maple ranges from southeastern Manitoba around the Lake of the Woods on the border with Ontario and Minnesota, east to Newfoundland, south to Florida, many of its features, especially its leaves, are quite variable in form. At maturity it often attains a height of around 15 m and its flowers, petioles, twigs and seeds are all red to varying degrees. Among these features, however, it is best known for its brilliant deep scarlet foliage in autumn, over most of its range, red maple is adaptable to a very wide range of site conditions, perhaps more so than any other tree in eastern North America. It can be found growing in swamps, on dry soils. It grows well from sea level to about 900 m, due to its attractive fall foliage and pleasing form, it is often used as a shade tree for landscapes. It is used commercially on a scale for maple syrup production as well as for its medium to high quality lumber. It is also the State Tree of Rhode Island, the red maple can be considered weedy or invasive. It is taking over forests in the eastern US, replacing traditional mainstays like oaks, though A. rubrum is usually easy to identify, it is highly changeable in morphological characteristics. It is a medium to large sized tree, reaching heights of 18 to 27 metres, the leaves are usually 9 to 11 centimetres long on a full grown tree. The trunk diameter can range from 46 to 76 cm, depending on the growing conditions and its spread is about 12 m. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 6 m tall, in forests, the bark will remain free of branches until some distance up the tree. Individuals grown in the open are shorter and thicker with a rounded crown. Generally speaking, however, the crown is irregularly ovoid with ascending whip-like curved shoots, the bark is a pale grey and smooth when the individual is young. As the tree grows the bark becomes darker and cracks into slightly raised long plates, the largest known living red maple is located near Armada, Michigan, at a height of 38.1 m and a bole circumference, at breast height, of 4.95 m. The leaves of the red maple offer the easiest way to distinguish it from its relatives, as with nearly all North American maple trees, they are deciduous and arranged oppositely on the twig. They are typically 5–10 cm long and wide with 3-5 palmate lobes with a serrated margin, the sinuses are typically narrow, but the leaves can exhibit considerable variation
43.
Hickory
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Hickory is a type of tree, comprising the genus Carya. The genus includes 17–19 species of trees with pinnately compound leaves. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India, as many as 12 are native to the United States, four are found in Mexico, Hickory flowers are small, yellow-green catkins produced in spring. The fruit is a globose or oval nut, 2–5 cm long and 1. 5–3 cm diameter, enclosed in a four-valved husk, which splits open at maturity. The nut shell is thick and bony in most species, and thin in a few, notably the pecan, beaked hickory is a species formerly classified as Carya sinensis, but now adjudged in the monotypic genus Annamocarya. In the APG system, genus Carya has been moved to the Fagales order. Sinocarya – Asian hickories Carya dabieshanensis M. C, liu – Dabie Shan hickory Carya cathayensis Sarg. Carya – typical hickories Carya floridana Sarg, – Scrub hickory Carya glabra Sweet – Pignut hickory, pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark hickory, swamp hickory, broom hickory Carya myristiciformis Nutt. – Nutmeg hickory, swamp hickory, bitter water hickory Carya ovalis Sarg, – Sand hickory Carya texana Buckley – Black hickory Carya tomentosa Nutt. – Mockernut hickory †Carya washingtonensis - Manchester Extinct Miocene Carya sect, apocarya – pecans Carya aquatica Nutt. – Bitter pecan or water hickory Carya cordiformis K. Koch – Bitternut hickory Carya illinoinensis K. Koch – Pecan Carya palmeri W. E, manning – Mexican hickory Hickory is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. Phylloxeridae are related to aphids and have a complex life cycle. Eggs hatch in spring and the galls quickly form around the developing insects. Phylloxera galls may damage weakened or stressed hickories, but are generally harmless, the pecan gall curculio is a true weevil species also found feeding on galls of the hickory leaf stem gall phylloxera. The banded hickory borer is also found on hickories, some fruits are borderline and difficult to categorize. Hickory nuts and walnuts in the Juglandaceae family grow within an outer husk, tryma is a specialized term for such nut-like drupes. Hickory wood is hard, stiff, dense and shock resistant. Paddles are often made from hickory, Hickory is replacing ash as the wood of choice for Scottish shinty sticks
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Prunus serotina
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Prunus serotina, commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous woody plant species belonging to the genus Prunus. The species is widespread and common in North America and South America, Black cherry is closely related to the chokecherry, chokecherry, however, is classified as a shrub or small tree and has smaller, less glossy leaves. Subspecies and varieties Prunus serotina var. alabamensis Little -southeastern United States Prunus serotina subsp, capuli McVaugh – central + southern Mexico, Central America, South America as far south as Argentina Prunus serotina subsp. Eximia McVaugh – Texas Prunus serotina subsp, hirsuta McVaugh – Georgia Prunus serotina var. rufula McVaugh – southwestern United States, northern + central Mexico Prunus serotina subsp. Serotina – Canada, United States, Mexico, Guatemala Prunus serotina var. serotina – Canada, United States, Mexico, virens McVaugh Black cherry is a medium-sized, fast-growing forest tree growing to a height of 50-80 feet. Leaves are 2 to 5 in length, ovate-lanceolate in shape, fall leaf color is yellow to red. Flowers are small, white and 5-petalled, in racemes 4 to 6 long which contain several dozen flowers, the flowers give rise to edible reddish-black berries. A mature black cherry tree can easily be identified in a forest by its broken, dark grey to black bark. However, for about the first decade or so of its life, the bark is thin, smooth, and banded, resembling that of a birch. It can also quickly be identified by its long, shiny leaves resembling those of a sourwood, Prunus serotina is a pioneer species. In the Midwest, it is growing mostly in old fields with other sunlight-loving species, such as black walnut, black locust. Gleason and Cronquist describe P. serotina as ormerly a forest tree, now abundant as a weed-tree of roadsides, waste land, and forest-margins. It is a moderately long-lived tree, with ages of up to 258 years known, though it is prone to damage, with branches breaking easily, any decay resulting, however. Seed production begins around 10 years of age, but does not become heavy until 30 years, germination rates are high, and the seeds are widely dispersed by birds who eat the fruit and then excrete them. Some seeds however may remain in the bank and not germinate for as long as three years. All Prunus species have seeds that benefit from scarification to germinate. P. serotina is also a host of caterpillars of various Lepidoptera, the eastern tent caterpillar defoliates entire groves some springs. Prunus serotina was widely introduced into Western and Central Europe as a tree in the mid 20th century
45.
Magnolia acuminata
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Magnolia acuminata, commonly called the cucumber tree, cucumber magnolia or blue magnolia, is one of the largest magnolias, and one of the cold-hardiest. It is a large forest tree of the Eastern United States and Southern Ontario and it is a tree that tends to occur singly as scattered specimens, rather than in groves. The cucumber tree is primarily within the Appalachian belt, including the Allegheny Plateau and Cumberland Plateau, up to western Pennsylvania. There are also numerous disconnected outlying populations through much of the southeastern U. S. in Canada, the cucumber tree is listed as an endangered species and is protected under the Canadian Species at Risk Act. In 1993 The North American Native Plant Society purchased Shining Tree Woods to preserve a stand of Magnolia acuminata, the leaves are deciduous simple and alternate, oval to oblong, 12–25 cm long and 6–12 cm wide, with smooth margins and downy on the underside. They come in two forms, acuminate at both ends, or moderately cordate at the base, unlike most magnolias, the flowers are not showy. They are typically small, yellow-green, and borne high in the tree in April through June, the leaves of Magnolia acuminata are pointed at the tip and provide it with its name - acuminate means tapering to a fine point. The ripe fruit is a reddish orange color. Cucumber trees are excellent shade trees for parks and gardens, though they are not recommended for use as street trees, in cultivation, they typically only grow 15–20 m tall, although they reach over 30 m in ideal forest situations. They can become massive, the United States national champion in Stark County. They grow best in deep, moist, well-drained soils that are slightly acidic although they are tolerant of alkaline soils and they are tricky to transplant due to their coarse, fleshy root system and should be planted shallow and moved in early spring with a good soil ball. In the timber trade, the wood of tree is interchangeable with that of the related tuliptree
46.
Fraxinus americana
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Fraxinus americana is a species of ash tree native to eastern and central North America. It is found in hardwood forests from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota, south to northern Florida. Isolated populations have also found in western Texas, Wyoming and Colorado. The name White Ash derives from the undersides of the leaves. It is similar in appearance to the Green Ash, making identification difficult, the lower sides of the leaves of White Ash are lighter in color than their upper sides, and the outer surface of the twigs of White Ash may be flaky or peeling. Green Ash leaves are similar in color on upper and lower sides, White ash is one of the most used trees for everyday purposes and, to keep up with high demand, is cultivated almost everywhere it can be. The wood is white and quite dense, strong, and straight-grained and it is the timber of choice for production of baseball bats and tool handles. The wood is also favorable for furniture and flooring, woodworkers use the timber mainly for interior uses due to high perishability in contact with ground soil. It is also used to make lobster traps, since the 1950s, it has also become a popular choice for solid electric guitar bodies. It makes a very servicable longbow if properly worked, the wood was used in ceiling fan blades from the 1970s through the mid-1980s, though cane was sometimes simulated with plastic then. It is no used for ceiling fan blades in most countries. The tree has a mast crop every 11 years and is easy to plant. A related species, Biltmore Ash, is treated as a variety of White Ash. However, other taxonomists argue that Biltmore Ash is its own species, the emerald ash borer, also commonly known by the acronym EAB, is a green beetle native to Asia. In North America the emerald ash borer is an invasive species, the damage of this insect rivals that of Chestnut blight and Dutch Elm Disease. To put its damage in perspective, the number of killed by the Chestnut blight was around 3.5 billion chestnut trees while there are 3.5 billion ash trees in Ohio alone. Dutch Elm Disease killed only 200 million elm trees while EAB threatens 7.5 billion ash trees in the United States, the insect threatens the entire North American genus Fraxinus, while past invasive tree pests have only threatened a single species within a genus. Since its accidental introduction into the United States and Canada in the 1990s and it has killed at least 50 million ash trees so far and threatens to kill most of the ash trees throughout North America
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