Mormons
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity, initiated by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the Mormons followed Brigham Young to what would become the Utah Territory. Today, most Mormons are understood to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; some Mormons are either independent or non-practicing. The center of Mormon cultural influence is in Utah, North America has more Mormons than any other continent, though the majority of Mormons live outside the United States. Mormons have developed a strong sense of commonality that stems from their history. During the 19th century, Mormon converts tended to gather to a central geographic location, between 1852 and 1890 a minority of Mormons practiced plural marriage, a form of religious polygamy. Mormons dedicate large amounts of time and resources to serving in their church, many young Mormons choose to serve a full-time proselytizing mission.
Mormons have a health code which eschews alcoholic beverages, tobacco, “hot drinks”, addictive substances. They tend to be family-oriented and have strong connections across generations and with extended family, reflective of their belief that families can be sealed together beyond death. Mormons have a strict law of chastity, requiring abstention from sexual relations outside heterosexual marriage and fidelity within marriage. Mormons self-identify as Christian, although some non-Mormons consider Mormons non-Christian and some of their beliefs differ from mainstream Christianity. Mormons believe in the Bible, as well as other books such as the Book of Mormon, they believe that all people are spirit-children of God. Mormons believe that returning to God requires following the example of Jesus Christ, accepting his atonement through ordinances such as baptism, they believe that Christ's church was restored through Joseph Smith and is guided by living prophets and apostles. Central to Mormon faith is the belief that God answers their prayers.
The number of members in 1971 was 3,090,953 and as of 2018, there are 16,118,169 members worldwide. The word "Mormons" most refers to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of their belief in the Book of Mormon, though members refer to themselves as Latter-day Saints or sometimes just Saints; the term "Mormons" has been embraced by others, most notably Mormon fundamentalists, while other Latter Day Saint denominations, such as the Community of Christ, have rejected it. Both LDS Church members and members of fundamentalist groups use the word "Mormon" in reference to themselves. LDS Church leaders have encouraged members to use the church's full name to emphasize its focus on Jesus Christ, have discouraged the use of the shortened form "Church of the Latter Day Saints", as well as the acronym "LDS", the nickname "Mormons"; the word "Mormon" is associated with polygamy, a distinguishing practice of many early Mormons. Today, polygamy is practiced within Mormonism only by people.
The history of the Mormons has shaped them into a people with a strong sense of unity and commonality. From the start, Mormons have tried to establish what they call "Zion", a utopian society of the righteous. Mormon history can be divided into three broad time periods: the early history during the lifetime of Joseph Smith, a "pioneer era" under the leadership of Brigham Young and his successors, a modern era beginning around the turn of the 20th century. In the first period, Smith had tried to build a city called Zion, in which converts could gather. During the pioneer era, Zion became a "landscape of villages" in Utah. In modern times, Zion is still an ideal, though Mormons gather together in their individual congregations rather than a central geographic location. Mormons trace their origins to the visions that Joseph Smith reported he had in the early 1820s while living in upstate New York. In 1823, Smith said an angel directed him to a buried book written on golden plates containing the religious history of an ancient people.
Smith published what he said was a translation of these plates in March 1830 as the Book of Mormon, named after Mormon, the ancient prophet–historian who compiled the book. On April 6, 1830, Smith founded the Church of Christ; the early church grew westward. In 1831, the church moved to Kirtland, Ohio where missionaries had made a large number of converts and Smith began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, where he planned to build the city of Zion. In 1833, Missouri settlers, alarmed by the rapid influx of Mormons, expelled them from Jackson County into the nearby Clay County, where local residents were more welcoming. After Smith led a mission, known as Zion's Camp, to recover the land, he began building Kirtland Temple in Lake County, where the church flourished; when the Missouri Mormons were asked to leave Clay County in 1836, they secured land in what would become Caldwell County. The Kirtland era ended in 1838, after the failure of a church-sponsored anti-bank caused widespread defections, Smith regrouped with the remaining church in Far West, Missouri.
During the fall of 1838, tensions escalated into the Mormon War with the old Missouri settlers. On October 27, the governor of Missouri ordered that the Mormons "must be treated as enemies" and be exterminated or driven from the state
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes grow horizontally; the rhizome retains the ability to allow new shoots to grow upwards. A rhizome is the main stem of the plant. A stolon is similar to a rhizome, but a stolon sprouts from an existing stem, has long internodes, generates new shoots at the end, such as in the strawberry plant. In general, rhizomes have short internodes, send out roots from the bottom of the nodes, generate new upward-growing shoots from the top of the nodes. A stem tuber is a thickened part of a rhizome or stolon, enlarged for use as a storage organ. In general, a tuber is high in starch, e.g. the potato, a modified stolon. The term "tuber" is used imprecisely and is sometimes applied to plants with rhizomes. If a rhizome is separated each piece may be able to give rise to a new plant; the plant uses the rhizome to store starches and other nutrients.
These nutrients become useful for the plant when new shoots must be formed or when the plant dies back for the winter. This is a process known as vegetative reproduction and is used by farmers and gardeners to propagate certain plants; this allows for lateral spread of grasses like bamboo and bunch grasses. Examples of plants that are propagated this way include hops, ginger, lily of the valley and sympodial orchids; some rhizomes which are used directly in cooking include ginger, galangal and lotus. Stored rhizomes are subject to bacterial and fungal infections, making them unsuitable for replanting and diminishing stocks. However, rhizomes can be produced artificially from tissue cultures; the ability to grow rhizomes from tissue cultures leads to better stocks for replanting and greater yields. The plant hormones ethylene and jasmonic acid have been found to help induce and regulate the growth of rhizomes in rhubarb. Ethylene, applied externally was found to affect internal ethylene levels, allowing easy manipulations of ethylene concentrations.
Knowledge of how to use these hormones to induce rhizome growth could help farmers and biologists producing plants grown from rhizomes more cultivate and grow better plants. Some plants have rhizomes that grow above ground or that lie at the soil surface, including some Iris species, ferns, whose spreading stems are rhizomes. Plants with underground rhizomes include gingers, the Venus flytrap, Chinese lantern, western poison-oak and Alstroemeria, the weeds Johnson grass, Bermuda grass, purple nut sedge. Rhizomes form a single layer, but in giant horsetails, can be multi-tiered. Many rhizomes have culinary value, some, such as zhe'ergen, are consumed raw. Aspen Corm Mycorrhiza Media related to Rhizomes at Wikimedia Commons The Rhizome Collective for sustainable living
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the Western United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 32nd most populous, but the 9th least densely populated of the U. S. states. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the state's four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada's capital, however, is Carson City. Nevada is known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy, it is known as the "Battle Born State", because it achieved statehood during the Civil War. Nevada is desert and semi-arid, much of it within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada lie on the western edge. About 86% of the state's land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U. S. federal government, both civilian and military.
Before European contact, Native Americans of the Paiute and Washoe tribes inhabited the land, now Nevada. The first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish, they called the region Nevada because of the snow. The area formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, became part of Mexico when it gained independence in 1821; the United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, it was incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864, as the second of two states added to the Union during the Civil War. Nevada has a reputation for its libertarian laws. In 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populated state. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century.
Nevada is the only U. S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City. The tourism industry remains Nevada's largest employer, with mining continuing as a substantial sector of the economy: Nevada is the fourth-largest producer of gold in the world; the name "Nevada" comes from meaning "snow-covered", after the Sierra Nevada. Most Nevadans pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the TRAP vowel. Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the PALM vowel. Although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by most Nevadans. State Assemblyman Harry Mortenson proposed a bill to recognize the alternate pronunciation of Nevada, though the bill was not supported by most legislators and never received a vote; the Nevadan pronunciation is the de facto official one, since it is the one used by the state legislature. At one time, the state's official tourism organization, TravelNevada, stylized the name of the state as "Nevăda", with a breve mark over the a indicating the locally preferred pronunciation, available as a license plate design.
Nevada is entirely within the Basin and Range Province, is broken up by many north-south mountain ranges. Most of these ranges have endorheic valleys between them, which belies the image portrayed by the term Great Basin. Much of the northern part of the state is within the Great Basin, a mild desert that experiences hot temperatures in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter. Moisture from the Arizona Monsoon will cause summer thunderstorms; the state's highest recorded temperature was 125 °F in Laughlin on June 29, 1994. The coldest recorded temperature was −52 °F set in San Jacinto in 1972, in the northeastern portion of the state; the Humboldt River crosses the state from east to west across the northern part of the state, draining into the Humboldt Sink near Lovelock. Several rivers drain from the Sierra Nevada eastward, including the Walker and Carson rivers. All of these rivers are endorheic basins, ending in Walker Lake, Pyramid Lake, the Carson Sink, respectively. However, not all of Nevada is within the Great Basin.
Tributaries of the Snake River drain the far north, while the Colorado River, which forms much of the boundary with Arizona, drains much of southern Nevada. The mountain ranges, some of which have peaks above 13,000 feet, harbor lush forests high above desert plains, creating sky islands for endemic species; the valleys are no lower in elevation than 3,000 feet, while some in central Nevada are above 6,000 feet. The southern third of the state, where the Las Vegas area is situated, is within the Mojave Desert; the area is closer to the Arizona Monsoon in the summer. The terrain is lower below 4,000 feet, creating conditions for hot summer days and cool to chilly winter nights. Nevada and California have by far the longest diagonal line as a state boundary at just over 400 miles; this line begins in Lake Tahoe nearly
Cima, California
Cima is a small unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, in the United States. It lies in a mountain pass on the divide between the Ivanpah Valley and the Mojave River basin, at an elevation of 4,175 feet; the Ivanpah Mountains and Interstate 15 are to the north, the New York Mountains are to the east, the Providence Mountains are to the south. To the northwest is the Cima Dome & Volcanic Field National Natural Landmark, which contains Cima Dome at 5,745 feet above sea level, a prominent landmark along I-15. Cima is home to one of the densest Yucca brevifolia forests in California, located in the Cima Dome. Cima was founded circa 1900 when H. C. Gibson established the first store. In 1905 the first post office opened in the store. Gibson refused to pump the gas for his customers and therefore may have created the first self-service station in the country; the town served as both a commercial center for ranchers and miners. Few people now live in the area.
In fact, like the neighboring town of Kelso to the southwest, Cima is now considered a ghost town. Both towns still see considerable activity on the Union Pacific rail line that brought the towns into being. Between Kelso and Cima lies the Cima Grade, the steepest part of the line between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas; the tracks rise 2,000 feet in 20 miles. Both towns lie within the Mojave National Preserve, with the attendant tourist activity. For Cima, the average high temperature in July is 93 °F, with an average low of 67 °F. January averages are 51 °F and 29 °F; the highest temperature on record is 110 °F in 1967, the lowest is −2 °F, recorded in 1972. Cima receives less than 10 inches of rain in an average year. Cima does have a post office, with the ZIP code 92323 and the area code 760; the 92323 ZIP Code Tabulation Area had a population of 21 at the 2000 census. Allan, Stuart. California Road and Recreation Atlas. Benchmark Maps. p. 97. ISBN 0-929591-80-1. National Park Service -
Seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after fertilization by pollen and some growth within the mother plant; the embryo is developed from the seed coat from the integuments of the ovule. Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and success of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants, relative to more primitive plants such as ferns and liverworts, which do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to propagate themselves. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates; the term "seed" has a general meaning that antedates the above – anything that can be sown, e.g. "seed" potatoes, "seeds" of corn or sunflower "seeds". In the case of sunflower and corn "seeds", what is sown is the seed enclosed in a shell or husk, whereas the potato is a tuber.
Many structures referred to as "seeds" are dry fruits. Plants producing berries are called baccate. Sunflower seeds are sometimes sold commercially while still enclosed within the hard wall of the fruit, which must be split open to reach the seed. Different groups of plants have other modifications, the so-called stone fruits have a hardened fruit layer fused to and surrounding the actual seed. Nuts are the one-seeded, hard-shelled fruit of some plants with an indehiscent seed, such as an acorn or hazelnut. Seeds are produced in several related groups of plants, their manner of production distinguishes the angiosperms from the gymnosperms. Angiosperm seeds are produced in a hard or fleshy structure called a fruit that encloses the seeds for protection in order to secure healthy growth; some fruits have layers of both fleshy material. In gymnosperms, no special structure develops to enclose the seeds, which begin their development "naked" on the bracts of cones. However, the seeds do become covered by the cone scales.
Seed production in natural plant populations varies from year to year in response to weather variables and diseases, internal cycles within the plants themselves. Over a 20-year period, for example, forests composed of loblolly pine and shortleaf pine produced from 0 to nearly 5 million sound pine seeds per hectare. Over this period, there were six bumper, five poor, nine good seed crops, when evaluated for production of adequate seedlings for natural forest reproduction. Angiosperm seeds consist of three genetically distinct constituents: the embryo formed from the zygote, the endosperm, triploid, the seed coat from tissue derived from the maternal tissue of the ovule. In angiosperms, the process of seed development begins with double fertilization, which involves the fusion of two male gametes with the egg cell and the central cell to form the primary endosperm and the zygote. Right after fertilization, the zygote is inactive, but the primary endosperm divides to form the endosperm tissue.
This tissue becomes the food the young plant will consume until the roots have developed after germination. After fertilization the ovules develop into the seeds; the ovule consists of a number of components: The funicle or seed stalk which attaches the ovule to the placenta and hence ovary or fruit wall, at the pericarp. The nucellus, the remnant of the megasporangium and main region of the ovule where the megagametophyte develops; the micropyle, a small pore or opening in the apex of the integument of the ovule where the pollen tube enters during the process of fertilization. The chalaza, the base of the ovule opposite the micropyle, where integument and nucellus are joined together; the shape of the ovules as they develop affects the final shape of the seeds. Plants produce ovules of four shapes: the most common shape is called anatropous, with a curved shape. Orthotropous ovules are straight with all the parts of the ovule lined up in a long row producing an uncurved seed. Campylotropous ovules have a curved megagametophyte giving the seed a tight "C" shape.
The last ovule shape is called amphitropous, where the ovule is inverted and turned back 90 degrees on its stalk. In the majority of flowering plants, the zygote's first division is transversely oriented in regards to the long axis, this establishes the polarity of the embryo; the upper or chalazal pole becomes the main area of growth of the embryo, while the lower or micropylar pole produces the stalk-like suspensor that attaches to the micropyle. The suspensor absorbs and manufactures nutrients from the endosperm that are used during the embryo's growth; the main components of the embryo are: The cotyledons, the seed leaves, attached to the embryonic axis. There may be two; the cotyledons are the source of nutrients in the non-endospermic dicotyledons, in which case they replace the endosperm, are thick and leathery. In endospermic seeds the cotyledons are papery. Dicotyledons have the point of attachment opposite one another on the axis; the epicotyl, the embryonic axis above the point of attachment of the cotyledon.
The plumule, the tip of the epicotyl, has a feathery appearance due to the presence of young leaf primordia at the apex, will become the shoot upon germination. The hypocotyl, the embryonic axis below the point of attachment of the cotyledon, connecting the epicotyl and the radicle, being the stem-root transition zone; the radicle, the basal tip of the hy
Tepal
A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower. The term is used when these parts cannot be classified as either sepals or petals; this may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated, as in Magnolia, or because, although it is possible to distinguish an outer whorl of sepals from an inner whorl of petals, the sepals and petals have similar appearance to one another. The term was first proposed by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1827 and was constructed by analogy with the terms "petal" and "sepal". Undifferentiated tepals are believed to be the ancestral condition in flowering plants. For example, thought to have separated earliest in the evolution of flowering plants, has flowers with undifferentiated tepals. Distinct petals and sepals would therefore have arisen by differentiation in response to animal pollination. In typical modern flowers, the outer or enclosing whorl of organs forms sepals, specialised for protection of the flower bud as it develops, while the inner whorl forms petals, which attract pollinators.
Tepals formed by similar sepals and petals are common in monocotyledons the "lilioid monocots". In tulips, for example, the first and second whorls both contain structures; these are fused at the base to form one large, six-parted structure. In lilies the organs in the first whorl are separate from the second, but all look similar, thus all the showy parts are called tepals. Where sepals and petals can in principle be distinguished, usage of the term "tepal" is not always consistent – some authors will refer to "sepals and petals" where others use "tepals" in the same context. In some plants the flowers have no petals, all the tepals are sepals modified to look like petals; these organs are described for example, the sepals of hellebores. When the undifferentiated tepals resemble petals, they are referred to as "petaloid", as in petaloid monocots, orders of monocots with brightly coloured tepals. Since they include Liliales, an alternative name is lilioid monocots. Terms used in the description of tepals include pubescent and puberulous.
Tepal shape is described in similar terms to those used for leaves. Flowers with tepals Glossary of plant morphology Plant reproductive morphology Botany: A Brief Introduction To Plant Biology - 5th ed. Thomas L. Rost. Plant Systematics - Jones.
Mojave National Preserve
Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, 1994, with the passage of the California Desert Protection Act by the US Congress, it was the East Mojave National Scenic Area, under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. Mojave National Preserve is vast. At 1,600,000 acres, it is the third largest unit of the National Park System in the contiguous United States. Natural features include the Kelso Dunes, the Marl Mountains and the Cima Dome, as well as volcanic formations such as Hole-in-the-Wall and the Cinder Cone Lava Beds; the preserve encloses Providence Mountains State Recreation Area and Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve, which are both managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Impressive Joshua tree forests are found in parts of the preserve; the forest covering Cima Dome and the adjacent Shadow Valley is the largest and densest in the world.
The ghost town of Kelso is found in the preserve, with the defunct railroad depot serving as the Visitor Center. The preserve is traversed by 4 wheel drive vehicles traveling on the historic Mojave Road. Climate in the preserve varies greatly. Summer temperatures average 90 °F, with highs exceeding 105 °F. Elevations in the preserve range from 7,929 feet at Clark Mountain to 880 feet near Baker. Annual precipitation varies from 3.37 inches near Baker, to 9 inches in the mountains. At least 25% of precipitation comes from summer thunderstorms. Snow is found in the mountains during the winter; the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 designated a wilderness area within Mojave National Preserve of 695,200 acres. The National Park Service manages the wilderness in accordance with the Wilderness Act, the CDPA, other laws that protect cultural and historic sites in the wilderness; the following climate data is for a higher elevation area in the preserve. See Climate of the Mojave Desert. Mojave Memorial Cross Official website Photo tour of Mojave National Preserve - from USGS
