Eudicots
The eudicots, Eudicotidae or eudicotyledons are a clade of flowering plants, called tricolpates or non-magnoliid dicots by previous authors. The botanical terms were introduced in 1991 by evolutionary botanist James A. Doyle and paleobotanist Carol L. Hotton to emphasize the evolutionary divergence of tricolpate dicots from earlier, less specialized, dicots; the close relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains was seen in morphological studies of shared derived characters. These plants have a distinct trait in their pollen grains of exhibiting three colpi or grooves paralleling the polar axis. Molecular evidence confirmed the genetic basis for the evolutionary relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains and dicotyledonous traits; 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 adopted in botany to refer to one of the two largest clades of angiosperms, monocots being the other.
The remaining angiosperms include magnoliids and what are sometimes referred to as basal angiosperms or paleodicots, but these terms have not been or adopted, as they do not refer to a monophyletic group. 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; these pollens have three or more pores set in furrows called colpi. In contrast, most of the other seed plants produce monosulcate pollen, with a single pore set in a differently oriented groove called the sulcus; the name "tricolpates" is preferred by some botanists to avoid confusion with the dicots, a nonmonophyletic group. Numerous familiar plants are eudicots, including many common food plants and ornamentals; some common and familiar eudicots include members of the sunflower family such as the common dandelion, the forget-me-not and other members of its family, buttercup and macadamia. Most leafy trees of midlatitudes belong to eudicots, with notable exceptions being magnolias and tulip trees which belong to magnoliids, Ginkgo biloba, not an angiosperm.
The name "eudicots" is used in the APG system, of 1998, APG II system, of 2003, for classification of angiosperms. It is applied to a monophyletic group, which includes most of the dicots. "Tricolpate" is a synonym for the "Eudicot" monophyletic group, the "true dicotyledons". The number of pollen grain furrows or pores helps classify the flowering plants, with eudicots having three colpi, other groups having one sulcus. Pollen apertures are any modification of the wall of the pollen grain; these modifications include thinning and pores, they serve as an exit for the pollen contents and allow shrinking and swelling of the grain caused by changes in moisture content. The elongated apertures/ furrows in the pollen grain are called colpi, along with pores, are a chief criterion for identifying the pollen classes; 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. The Pentapetalae can be divided into three clades: Dilleniales superrosids consisting of Saxifragales and rosids superasterids consisting of Santalales, Berberidopsidales and asteridsThis division of the eudicots is shown in the following cladogram: The following is a more detailed breakdown according to APG IV, showing within each clade and orders: clade Eudicots order Ranunculales order Proteales order Trochodendrales order Buxales clade Core eudicots order Gunnerales order Dilleniales clade Superrosids order Saxifragales clade Rosids order Vitales clade Fabids order Fabales order Rosales order Fagales order Cucurbitales order Oxalidales order Malpighiales order Celastrales order Zygophyllales clade Malvids order Geraniales order Myrtales order Crossosomatales order Picramniales order Malvales order Brassicales order Huerteales order Sapindales clade Superasterids order Berberidopsidales order Santalales order Caryophyllales clade Asterids order Cornales order Ericales clade Campanulids order Aquifoliales order Asterales order Escalloniales order Bruniales order Apiales order Dipsacales order Paracryphiales clade Lamiids order Solanales order Lamiales order Vahliales order Gentianales order Boraginales order Garryales order Metteniusales order Icacinales Eudicots at the Encyclopedia of Life Eudicots, Tree of Life Web Project Dicots Plant Life Forms
Plant stem
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. The stem is divided into nodes and internodes: The nodes hold one or more leaves, as well as buds which can grow into branches. Adventitious roots may be produced from the nodes; the internodes distance one node from another. The term "shoots" is confused with "stems". In most plants stems are located above the soil surface but some plants have underground stems. Stems have four main functions which are: Support for and the elevation of leaves and fruits; the stems keep the leaves in the light and provide a place for the plant to keep its flowers and fruits. Transport of fluids between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem Storage of nutrients Production of new living tissue; the normal lifespan of plant cells is one to three years. Stems have cells called meristems. Stems are specialized for storage, asexual reproduction, protection or photosynthesis, including the following: Acaulescent – used to describe stems in plants that appear to be stemless.
These stems are just short, the leaves appearing to rise directly out of the ground, e.g. some Viola species. Arborescent – tree like with woody stems with a single trunk. Axillary bud – a bud which grows at the point of attachment of an older leaf with the stem, it gives rise to a shoot. Branched – aerial stems are described as being branched or unbranched Bud – an embryonic shoot with immature stem tip. Bulb – a short vertical underground stem with fleshy storage leaves attached, e.g. onion, tulip. Bulbs function in reproduction by splitting to form new bulbs or producing small new bulbs termed bulblets. Bulbs are a combination of stem and leaves so may better be considered as leaves because the leaves make up the greater part. Caespitose – when stems grow in a tangled mass or clump or in low growing mats. Cladode – a flattened stem that appears more-or-less leaf like and is specialized for photosynthesis, e.g. cactus pads. Climbing -- stems that wrap around other plants or structures. Corm – a short enlarged underground, storage stem, e.g. taro, gladiolus.
Decumbent -- stems that lie flat on the turn upwards at the ends. Fruticose -- stems. Herbaceous – non woody, they die at the end of the growing season. Internode – an interval between two successive nodes, it possesses the ability to elongate, either from its base or from its extremity depending on the species. Node – a point of attachment of a leaf or a twig on the stem in seed plants. A node is a small growth zone. Pedicel – stems that serve as the stalk of an individual flower in an inflorescence or infrutescence. Peduncle – a stem that supports an inflorescence Prickle – a sharpened extension of the stem's outer layers, e.g. roses. Pseudostem – a false stem made of the rolled bases of leaves, which may be 2 or 3 m tall as in banana Rhizome – a horizontal underground stem that functions in reproduction but in storage, e.g. most ferns, iris Runner – a type of stolon, horizontally growing on top of the ground and rooting at the nodes, aids in reproduction. E.g. garden strawberry, Chlorophytum comosum.
Scape – a stem that holds flowers that comes out of the ground and has no normal leaves. Hosta, Iris, Garlic. Stolon – a horizontal stem that produces rooted plantlets at its nodes and ends, forming near the surface of the ground. Thorn – a modified stem with a sharpened point. Tuber – a swollen, underground storage stem adapted for storage and reproduction, e.g. potato. Woody – hard textured stems with secondary xylem. Stem consist of three tissues, dermal tissue, ground tissue and vascular tissue; the dermal tissue covers the outer surface of the stem and functions to waterproof and control gas exchange. The ground tissue consists of parenchyma cells and fills in around the vascular tissue, it sometimes functions in photosynthesis. Vascular tissue provides structural support. Most or all ground tissue may be lost in woody stems; the dermal tissue of aquatic plants stems. The arrangement of the vascular tissues varies among plant species. Dicot stems with primary growth have pith in the center, with vascular bundles forming a distinct ring visible when the stem is viewed in cross section.
The outside of the stem is covered with an epidermis, covered by a waterproof cuticle. The epidermis may contain stomata for gas exchange and multicellular stem hairs called trichomes. A cortex consisting of hypodermis and endodermis is present above the pericycle and vascular bundles. Woody dicots and many nonwoody dicots have secondary growth originating from their lateral or secondary meristems: the vascular cambium and the cork cambium or phellogen; the vascular cambium forms between the xylem and phloem in the vascular bundles and connects to form a continuous cylinder. The vascular cambium cells divide to produce secondary xylem to the inside and secondary phloem to the outside; as the stem increases in diameter due to production of secondary xylem and secondary phloem, the cortex and epidermis are destroyed. Before the cortex is destroyed, a cork cambium develops there; the cork cambium divides to produce waterproof cork cells externally and sometimes phelloderm cells internally. Those three tissues form the periderm.
Areas of loosely pack
Starch
Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants as energy storage, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets and is contained in large amounts in staple foods like potatoes, maize and cassava. Pure starch is a white and odorless powder, insoluble in cold water or alcohol, it consists of two types of molecules: the branched amylopectin. Depending on the plant, starch contains 20 to 25% amylose and 75 to 80% amylopectin by weight. Glycogen, the glucose store of animals, is a more branched version of amylopectin. In industry, starch is converted into sugars, for example by malting, fermented to produce ethanol in the manufacture of beer and biofuel, it is processed to produce many of the sugars used in processed foods. Mixing most starches in warm water produces a paste, such as wheatpaste, which can be used as a thickening, stiffening or gluing agent; the biggest industrial non-food use of starch is as an adhesive in the papermaking process.
Starch can be applied to parts of some garments before ironing. The word "starch" is from a Germanic root with the meanings "strong, strengthen, stiffen". Modern German Stärke is related; the Greek term for starch, "amylon", is related. It provides the root amyl, used as a prefix for several 5-carbon compounds related to or derived from starch. Starch grains from the rhizomes of Typha as flour have been identified from grinding stones in Europe dating back to 30,000 years ago. Starch grains from sorghum were found on grind stones in caves in Ngalue, Mozambique dating up to 100,000 years ago. Pure extracted wheat starch paste was used in Ancient Egypt to glue papyrus; the extraction of starch is first described in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder around AD 77–79. Romans used it in cosmetic creams, to powder the hair and to thicken sauces. Persians and Indians used it to make dishes similar to gothumai wheat halva. Rice starch as surface treatment of paper has been used in paper production in China since 700 CE.
In addition to starchy plants consumed directly, by 2008 66 million tonnes of starch were being produced per year worldwide. In 2011 production was increased to 73 million ton. In the EU the starch industry produced about 8.5 million tonnes in 2008, with around 40% being used for industrial applications and 60% for food uses, most of the latter as glucose syrups. In 2017 EU production was 11 million ton of which 9,4 million ton was consumed in the EU and of which 54% were starch sweeteners. US produced about 27,5 million ton starch in 2017 of which about 8,2 million ton high fructose syrup and 6,2 million ton glucose syrups and 2,5 million ton starch products, the rest of the starch was used for producing ethanol. Most green plants use starch as their energy store; the extra glucose is changed into starch, more complex than glucose. An exception is the family Asteraceae. Inulin-like fructans are present in grasses such as wheat, in onions and garlic and asparagus. In photosynthesis, plants use light energy to produce glucose from carbon dioxide.
The glucose is used to generate the chemical energy required for general metabolism, to make organic compounds such as nucleic acids, lipids and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose, or is stored in the form of starch granules, in amyloplasts. Toward the end of the growing season, starch accumulates in twigs of trees near the buds. Fruit, seeds and tubers store starch to prepare for the next growing season. Glucose is soluble in water, binds with water and takes up much space and is osmotically active. Glucose molecules are bound in starch by the hydrolyzed alpha bonds; the same type of bond is found in the animal reserve polysaccharide glycogen. This is in contrast to many structural polysaccharides such as chitin and peptidoglycan, which are bound by beta bonds and are much more resistant to hydrolysis. Plants produce starch by first converting glucose 1-phosphate to ADP-glucose using the enzyme glucose-1-phosphate adenylyltransferase; this step requires energy in the form of ATP. The enzyme starch synthase adds the ADP-glucose via a 1,4-alpha glycosidic bond to a growing chain of glucose residues, liberating ADP and creating amylose.
The ADP-glucose is certainly added to the non-reducing end of the amylose polymer, as the UDP-glucose is added to the non-reducing end of glycogen during glycogen synthesis. Starch branching enzyme introduces 1,6-alpha glycosidic bonds between the amylose chains, creating the branched amylopectin; the starch debranching enzyme isoamylase removes some of these branches. Several isoforms of these enzymes exist, leading to a complex synthesis process. Glycogen and amylopectin have similar structure, but the former has about one branch point per ten 1,4-alpha bonds, compared to about one branch point per thirty 1,4-alpha bonds in amylopectin. Amylopectin is synthesized from ADP-glucose while mammals and fungi synthesize glycogen from UDP-glucose. In addition to starch synthesis in plants, starch can be synthesized from non-food starch mediated by an enzyme cocktail. In this cell-free biosystem, beta-1,4-glycosidic bond-linked cellulose is hydrolyzed to cello
Brassicales
The Brassicales are an order of flowering plants, belonging to the eurosids II group of dicotyledons under the APG II system. One character common to many members of the order is the production of glucosinolate compounds. Most systems of classification have included this order, although sometimes under the name Capparales; the order contains the following families: Akaniaceae - two species of turnipwood trees, native to Asia and eastern Australia Bataceae – salt-tolerant shrubs from America and Australasia Brassicaceae – mustard and cabbage family. The only families included were the Brassicaceae and Capparaceae, the Tovariaceae and Moringaceae. Other taxa now included; the families Capparaceae and Brassicaceae are related. One group, consisting of Cleome and related genera, was traditionally included in the Capparaceae but doing so results in a paraphyletic Capparaceae. Therefore, this group is now either included in the Brassicaceae or as its own family, Cleomaceae. Media related to Brassicales at Wikimedia Commons
Flowering plant
The flowering plants known as angiosperms, Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 64 orders, 416 families 13,164 known genera and c. 369,000 known species. Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants. However, they are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within the seeds, the production of fruits that contain the seeds. Etymologically, angiosperm means a plant; the term comes from the Greek words sperma. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, 245 to 202 million years ago, the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya, they diversified extensively during the Early Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, replaced conifers as the dominant trees from 100 to 60 mya. Angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table below; these distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants and the most commercially important group to humans.
Angiosperm stems are made up of seven layers. 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 phloem form concentric rings. In the dicotyledons, the bundles in the 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. By the formation of a layer of cambium between the bundles, a complete ring is formed, a regular periodical increase in thickness results from the development of xylem on the inside and phloem on the outside; the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Owing to differences in the character of the elements produced at the beginning and end of the season, the wood is marked out in transverse section into concentric rings, one for each season of growth, called annual rings.
Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the young stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They 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, 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 from the axil of a leaf; as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. More the flower-bearing portion of the plant is distinguished from the foliage-bearing or vegetative portion, forms a more or less elaborate branch-system called an inflorescence. There are two kinds of reproductive cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which will divide to become pollen grains, are the "male" cells and are borne in the stamens.
The "female" cells called megaspores, which will divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule and enclosed in the carpel. The flower may consist only of these parts, as in willow, where each flower comprises only a few stamens or two carpels. Other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls and to form an envelope attractive to pollinators; the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as petals. The outer series is green and leaf-like, functions to protect the rest of the flower the bud; the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract bird pollinators. Attraction is effected by color and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower; the characteristics that attract pollinators account for the popularity of flowers and flowering plants among humans. While the majority of flowers are perfect or hermaphrodite, flowering plants have developed numerous morphological and physiological mechanisms to reduce or prevent self-fertilization.
Heteromorphic flowers have short carpels and long stamens, or vice versa, so animal pollinators cannot transfer pollen to the pistil. Homomorphic flowers may employ a biochemical mechanism called self-incompatibility to discriminate between self and non-self pollen grains. In other species, the male and female parts are morphologically separated, developing on different flowers; the botanical term "Angiosperm", from the Ancient Greek αγγείον, angeíon and σπέρμα, was coined in the form Angiospermae by Paul Hermann in 1690, as the name of one of his primary divisions of the plant kingdom. This included flowering plants possessing seeds enclosed in capsules, distinguished from his Gymnospermae, or flowering plants with achenial or schizo-carpic fruits, the whole fruit or each of its pieces being here regarded as a seed and naked; the term and its antonym were maintained by Carl Linnaeus with the same sense, but with restricted application, in the names of the orders of his class Didynamia. Its use with any
Plant
Plants are multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Plants were treated as one of two kingdoms including all living things that were not animals, all algae and fungi were treated as plants. However, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes. By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae, a group that includes the flowering plants and other gymnosperms and their allies, liverworts and the green algae, but excludes the red and brown algae. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria, their chloroplasts contain b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ability to produce normal amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although asexual reproduction is common.
There are about 320 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, some 260–290 thousand, are seed plants. Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earth's ecosystems on land. Plants that produce grain and vegetables form humankind's basic foods, have been domesticated for millennia. Plants have many cultural and other uses, as ornaments, building materials, writing material and, in great variety, they have been the source of medicines and psychoactive drugs; the scientific study of plants is known as a branch of biology. All living things were traditionally placed into one of two groups and animals; this classification may date from Aristotle, who made the distincton between plants, which do not move, animals, which are mobile to catch their food. Much when Linnaeus created the basis of the modern system of scientific classification, these two groups became the kingdoms Vegetabilia and Animalia. Since it has become clear that the plant kingdom as defined included several unrelated groups, the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms.
However, these organisms are still considered plants in popular contexts. The term "plant" implies the possession of the following traits multicellularity, possession of cell walls containing cellulose and the ability to carry out photosynthesis with primary chloroplasts; when the name Plantae or plant is applied to a specific group of organisms or taxon, it refers to one of four concepts. From least to most inclusive, these four groupings are: Another way of looking at the relationships between the different groups that have been called "plants" is through a cladogram, which shows their evolutionary relationships; these are not yet settled, but one accepted relationship between the three groups described above is shown below. Those which have been called "plants" are in bold; the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce food by photosynthesis and thus have traditionally been included in the plant kingdom.
The seaweeds range from large multicellular algae to single-celled organisms and are classified into three groups, the green algae, red algae and brown algae. There is good evidence that the brown algae evolved independently from the others, from non-photosynthetic ancestors that formed endosymbiotic relationships with red algae rather than from cyanobacteria, they are no longer classified as plants as defined here; the Viridiplantae, the green plants – green algae and land plants – form a clade, a group consisting of all the descendants of a common ancestor. With a few exceptions, the green plants have the following features in common, they undergo closed mitosis without centrioles, have mitochondria with flat cristae. The chloroplasts of green plants are surrounded by two membranes, suggesting they originated directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. Two additional groups, the Rhodophyta and Glaucophyta have primary chloroplasts that appear to be derived directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, although they differ from Viridiplantae in the pigments which are used in photosynthesis and so are different in colour.
These groups differ from green plants in that the storage polysaccharide is floridean starch and is stored in the cytoplasm rather than in the plastids. They appear to have had a common origin with Viridiplantae and the three groups form the clade Archaeplastida, whose name implies that their chloroplasts were derived from a single ancient endosymbiotic event; this is the broadest modern definition of the term'plant'. In contrast, most other algae not only have different pigments but have chloroplasts with three or four surrounding membranes, they are not close relatives of the Archaeplastida having acquired chloroplasts separately from ingested or symbiotic green and red algae. They are thus not included in the broadest modern definition of the plant kingdom, although they were in the past; the green plants or Viridiplantae were traditionally divided into the green algae (including
Smelling salts
Smelling salts known as ammonia inhalants, spirit of hartshorn or sal volatile, are chemical compounds used to arouse consciousness. The usual active compound is ammonium carbonate -- a crystalline solid; because most modern solutions are mixed with water, they should properly be called "aromatic spirits of ammonia". Modern solutions may contain other products to perfume or act in conjunction with the ammonia, such as lavender oil or eucalyptus oil. Smelling salts have been used on people feeling faint, or who have fainted, they are administered by others, but may be self-administered. Smelling salts are used on athletes who have been dazed or knocked unconscious to restore consciousness and mental alertness. Smelling salts are not harmful, they are used as a form of stimulant in athletic competitions to "wake up" competitors to perform better. In 2005, Michael Strahan estimated that 70–80% of National Football League players were using smelling salts as stimulants. Smelling salts have been used since Roman times and are mentioned in the writings of Pliny as Hammoniacus sal.
Evidence exists of use in the 13th century by alchemists as sal ammoniac. In the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, a character purports to use sal armonyak. In the 17th century, the distillation of an ammonia solution from shavings of harts' horns and hooves led to the alternative name for smelling salts as spirit or salt of hartshorn, they were used in Victorian Britain to revive fainting women, in some areas constables would carry a container of them for the purpose. During this time, smelling salts were dissolved with perfume in vinegar or alcohol and soaked onto a sponge, carried on the person in a decorative container called a vinaigrette; the use of smelling salts was recommended during the Second World War, with all workplaces advised by the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance to keep smelling salts in their first aid boxes. Smelling salts release ammonia gas, which triggers an inhalation reflex by irritating the mucous membranes of the nose and lungs. Fainting can be caused by excessive parasympathetic and vagal activity that slows the heart and decreases perfusion of the brain.
The sympathetic irritant effect is exploited to counteract these vagal parasympathetic effects and thereby reverse the faint. Ammonia gas can be fatal. Since smelling salts produce only a small amount of ammonia gas, no adverse health problems from their situational use have been reported. If a high concentration of ammonia is inhaled too close to the nostril, it might burn the nasal or oral mucosa; the suggested distance is 10–15 cm. The use of ammonia smelling salts to revive people injured during sport is not recommended because it may inhibit or delay a proper and thorough neurological assessment by a healthcare professional, such as after concussions when hospitalization may be advisable, some governing bodies recommend against it; the irritant nature of smelling salts means that they can exacerbate any pre-existing cervical spine injury by causing reflex withdrawal away from them
