Interesting Plants Scientifically Treated

By Daniel Zimmermann

This e-book is ideal for those who want to read solid facts about plants without evolutionary speculation. Included are general descriptions of the flowering plants of Antarctica, ferns of the Sonoran Desert, and plants and animals of the Alaskan Arctic.
Several plant families are treated, such as, Solanaceae, Araliaceae, Annonaceae, Convolvulaceae, and Asclepiadaceae.Several articles treat specific genera, such as, Vaccinium, Hydrolea, and Dipsacus.The bulk of the articles treat individual pants, such as, ragweed, yellow rocket, narra, etc.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9780359098064

Book preview

Interesting Plants Scientifically Treated

Interesting Plants, Scientifically Treated

By Daniel Zimmermann

Annonaceae, the Custard Apple Family

Nearly all members of the family Annonaceae grow in the tropics. A significant exception is the pawpaw, Asimina triloba, which grows in temperate North America.

Besides Asimina, three other genera contain species that produce edible fruit: Annona, Rollinia, and Uvaria..

Annona reticulata is commonly known as the custard apple. For this reason, the family Annonaceae is known as the custard apple family. Two contrasting fruits of this genus are the sweetsop and the soursop. The sweetsop is Annona squamosa, which means that it is an Annona that is covered with scales.The soursop is Annona muricata. In spite of its common name, it is tasty. The appearance of its mature green fruit is variable. Some specimens become fairly large.

Southern Florida has weather that is almost tropical. So it is not surprising that Annona glabra, the pond apple, grows in the warmer regions of the Sunshine State. It is also known as the alligator-apple. Visitors to the Everglades might catch sight of it, with a little luck.

The term apple may create a wrong impression. The size and general shape of some species of the genus Annona resemble an apple in a rough sort of way. However, unlike the apple, you cannot eat the skin. You have to break it open and eat the mushy pulp inside. There are many seeds embedded in the pulp, and it is a good idea to spit them out instead of swallowing them. Botanically the fruit is classified as a large number of berries joined together. However, they do not look like berries.

The biriba belongs to the genus Rollinia. I have never seen one personally; except in pictures; but since its scientific name is Rollinia deliciosa, I would not hesitate to try one if I had the opportunity to do so. The yellowish fruit is about a half a foot in diameter. It has conical protrusions all over its surface.

The bush banana has nothing to do with the banana genus Musa. The bush banana is another member of the custard apple family. In scientific parley, it goes by the name of Uvaria chamae. Besides the food value of its fruit, its root, barks, and leaves seem to have medicinal value in treating diarrhea and UTI.

There are many more genera in the custard apple family. Gutteria is the largest, with considerably more than 200 species.

A special tree of the custard apple family is Cananga odorata, popularly called Ylang-ylang. As its scientific name implies, this species has a pleasing aroma. According to Philippine legend, the first ylang-ylang was a beautiful girl that was transformed into a fragrant plant by the will of the gods.

As a general rule, members of the family Annonaceae have three sepals and six petals and a great number of stamens arranged in a sort of spiral.

References

Mga Kahibulongang Pang-ayo sa mga Tanum by Herminia de Guzman-Ladion

Wikipedia

Encarta Student Aid

The American Peoples Encyclopedia

Purdue Agriculture, Horticulture, and Landscape Architecture: Biriba

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/biriba.html

Journal of American Science: The Effects of Ethanolic and Boiling Water Extracts of Root, Barks, and Leaves off Uvaria Chamae on some Hospital Isolates

Native Antarctic Flowering Plants

Antarctica is a paradox. Its surface holds plenty of water – in the form of ice, of course. Yet the Australian government website correctly calls it the driest continent on earth. The latter statement refers to the amount of precipitation that falls rather than the amount of water present.

Dry or not, not too many flowering plants lend color to the Antarctic landscape. It is too cold. Only two hardy species are native to Antarctic soil: Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis. (At least one alien flowering plant has invaded Antarctica.)

Deschampsia antarctica does not resemble a mighty oak or even a lilac bush. It belongs to Poaceae, the grass family, also known as Gramineae. Its common name is Antarctic hairgrass; and according to available pictures, it looks like little tufts of hair-like grass.

Since Antarctica is mostly covered with ice, it does not have much room to grow. The Antarctic Peninsula, an arc-shaped region that extends into the ocean toward South America, plays host to this species. It also grows in the South Orkney Islands, which lie a few hundred miles northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula, and the South Shetland Islands, which parallel the northwest coast of the peninsula about 75 miles offshore.

Antarctic hairgrass tolerates not only the frigid climate, but also the salty spray it encounters near the ocean. It has also successfully withstood the increasing doses of ultraviolet light that the depletion of the ozone layer has brought upon Antarctica.

Other species of the genus Deschampsia occur around the world. They all tend to grow in tufts. In the western portion of the United States, we are likely to step on Deschampsia elongata on occasion while strolling in the great outdoors.

Colobanthus quitensis also grows in the same places as Deschampsia antarctica. It resembles a moss and grows only about two inches high. However, it is a genuine flowering plant and belongs to Caryophyllaceae, the pink family, though its flowers are actually white. Its common name is Antarctic pearlwort. Observers refer to its growth habit as cushion-like.

Like all grasses, Deschampsia antarctica is a monocot, but Colobanthus quitensis is a dicot. This means that it has two seed leaves instead of one.

Colobanthus contains many different species, and the genus Sagina is similar to it. Plants of both genera are called pearlworts.

Antarctica is experiencing a heat wave, but do not expect to go swimming there on a nice sunny beach. The extra heat is incremental, but it has made a difference. Both native species have extended their range southward.

References

British Antarctic Survey: Plants of Antarctica

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/wildlife/plants/index.php

Australian Government: About Antarctica—Plants

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/fact-files/plants

USDA: Deschampsia elongate (Hook.) Munro Slender Hairgrass

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=DEEL

Climate Hot Map: Argentine Islands

Duckeodendron cestroides, a Tree of Brazil

Orphans do not have much of a family. Moreover, if the orphan never marries till the day he dies, he will belong to a family of one all his life. His loneliness will never cease.

If botanical taxa had feelings, Duckeodendraceae would wail and lament in utter desolation. Quite logically, Duckeodendraceae is called the duckeodendron family in English. However, the family is not very large. Duckeodendron is its only genus, and Duckeodendron cestroides is its only species. As the only member of its family, Duckeodendron cestroides is a real orphan.

Where can we find this lonely plant? The very name gives us some helpful information. Dendron is the Greek word for tree, so we do not have to get out our microscope or strain our eyes looking for it in the grass. If it’s anywhere nearby, we should be able to spot it.

Nevertheless, it is a sad fact that orphans tend to get lost – even big ones. So the USDA has published a detailed description that will help us find it.

For novices, however, Wikipedia gives the most useful information. Wikipedia describes this tree as uma árvore grande das regiões tropicais da América do Sul (Brasil). In English, this means a big tree of the tropical regions of South America. So it is a tropical tree, and we have to go to Brazil to find it.

Unfortunately, there are many tall trees in the rainforests of Brazil. It is one of the easiest places in the world for an orphan to get lost.

So let us take a look at its fruit. USDA calls it a drupe. We know a lot of drupes: plums, peaches, and olives, just to name a few. In all these drupes, the seed wears three coats. The outer coat is called the epicarp or exocarp and generally consists of a skin. If you look at a peach or an olive, you will find this skin right on the outside of the fruit. The middle layer is called the mesocarp. It usually has a fleshy texture. It’s the part that you enjoy when you eat a plum. The inner coat is the endocarp. It is too hard to eat. Did you ever try to eat the stone of a peach?

Duckeodendron cestroides is a drupe with a single seed. The tree wanted to have twins. The ovary of its flowers had two compartments called carpels, but only one proved to be fertile, so only one seed developed.

Since this seed is doomed to become an orphan from the instant that it germinates, the Lord has endowed it with a small supply of food to help it live through infancy. This food supply is called endosperm and consists of starch.

Several kind plant families have tried to adopt this orphan. Solanaceae tried to do so as soon as it was discovered. Later Boraginaceae and Apocynaceae attempted to do the same. Perhaps Solanaceae will eventually succeed. Prestigious scientists have given their blessing to the proposed adoption.

The name Duckeodendron has nothing to do with ducks. The name honors Adolpho Ducke, on whose collection the original study of the species was based. A botanist named João Kuhlmann studied and named the species.

References

Wikipedia: Duckeodendraceae

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckeodendraceae

USDA: Duckeodendraceae J. Kuhlmann

http://nt.ars-grin.gov/sbmlweb/OnlineResources/SeedsFruits/rptSeedsFruitsFamData.cfm?thisFamily=Duckeodendraceae

The Encyclopedia of Earth: Madeira-Tapajós moist forests

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Madeira-Tapaj%C3%B3s_moist_forests

Molecular Data Support the Inclusion of Duckeodendron cestroides in Solanaceae by M.F. Fay et al (in the Kew Bulletin, 1998)

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4110460

Hydrophyllaceae, the Waterleaf Family

If you are looking for majestic trees, the waterleaf family is not for you. The members of this family are usually herbs, although a few bushes have managed to infiltrate its ranks.

The scientific name of the family is Hydrophyllaceae. This is simply waterleaf written in Greek with the suffix -aceae attached. Of course, the Greek words for water and for leaf suffered some alteration when botanists incorporated them into this agglutinated Latin name.

The type genus is Hydrophyllum. The type genus is the genus of plants on which botanists decided to focus when they were trying to figure out what name they should give to a botanical family. Evidently they focused on the little white spots on the leaves of such species as Hydrophyllum virginianum. These blemishes bear a resemblance to water stains. At any rate, since these supposed water stains occur on the leaf, waterleaf is a good name for Hydrophyllum virginianum. And even though not all members of the family exhibit water stains, the entire family is stuck with the name.

Stained with water or not, both the leaves and the flowers of Hydrophyllum virginianum are attractive. The white flowers have five sepals, five petals, and five stamens. There is only one pistil, but it divides at the top, so that the stigma and the style look something like the capital letter Y.

The waterleaf family has many other genera besides Hydrophyllum. Hydrolea ovata has lovely blue or violet flowers. You can expect to find it in Texas, Alabama, and elsewhere in the Deep South.

Some species have colorful names. Whispering bells, scorpion weed, baby blue eyes, and purple mat are good examples.

Whispering bells has the scientific name Emmenanthe penduliflora. You can see this species shortly after a chaparral fire in the southwest United States. Fire somehow promotes the germination of its seeds

Emmenanthe comes from the Greek words emmeno (to abide in or to cleave to) plus anthos (flower). So it means a flower that clings to the parent plant even after it is dead and dried up. This gives rise to its common name. The dried up bell-shaped flowers seem to whisper as the wind blows among them.

Several species of the genus Phacelia bear the name scorpion weed. Phacelia tanacetiflora is a good example. This plant is native to such areas as Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Maine. It often has bluish flowers, but the color may vary.

In learned circles, Nemophila menziesii is the proper name for baby blue eyes. As the name implies, its flowers are blue. However, some varieties are mostly white, and others have a sort of violet tinge. It has taken root in Alaska, but its native range is such western states as Oregon and California.

Purplemat is another native of the American Southwest. Its scientific name is Nama demissum. Its common name comes from the fact that it forms mats of vegetation in desert areas and puts forth a dense array of purple flowers. The Greek word nama does not mean mat, but a current, stream, or spring. Probably it looks like a refreshing spring in the middle of the desert, but I do not really know the reason for the name.

Eriodictyon is another genus in the family Hydrophyllaceae. Erion is the Greek word meaning wool, and diktyon means net. This name stems from the meshes of little hairs on the bottom side of each leaf. Some botanists want to put this genus in the family Boraginaceae. A Spanish common name of some species is yerba santa (sacred herb). It was used as a remedy for fever.

References

Texas A&M University Bioinformatics Working Group

http://botany.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/imaxxhyd.htm

Southwest Environmental Information Network: Emmenanthe Penduliflora

http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=2112

USDA: Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PHTA&mapType=nativity&photoID=phta_001_ahp.tif

Wikipedia

Narra, the National Tree of the Philippines

The narra has several alternate names. In science, it is known as Pterocarpus indicus, and belongs to the pea family. The timber industry likes to call it rosewood – a term more properly applied to trees of the genus Dalbergia. Another name for the timber is padauk wood. In the Philippines, it has many different names, such as naga or asana. The Gaia Discovery website lists 19 different Philippine names for this tree. The Philippines is a multicultural country with many different dialects, so it is natural that many different names should exist for the same tree. Besides, there are four different species of narra in the Philippines. Besides Pterocarpus indicus, there is Pterocarpus blancoi, Pterocarpus vidalianus, and Pterocarpus pubescens, which differ from one another in the morphology of their fruits, seeds, or leaves.

Narra is the National Tree of the Philippines – their Pambansang Puno in Tagalog. It is a typical rainforest canopy tree; and like many denizens of the world’s rainforests, its numbers are dwindling. However, it probably will not suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs and the trilobites because some rural Filipinos like to have at least one specimen growing in the vicinity of their house. Nevertheless, it is a sad fact that many urban Filipinos have never seen their national tree in real life.

The economic value of rosewood has contributed to the narra’s decline. Several of the Pterocarpus species have reddish wood of various shades. It is a prime raw material for cabinetwork. The Wood Magazine website claims that it is stronger than oak and easy to work with.

As you would expect, since it belongs to the pea family, the narra enriches the soil through nitrogen fixation. (Of course, legumes do not fix nitrogen by their own power. Bacteria called rhizobia attach themselves to the legume roots and convert atmospheric nitrogen into compounds that plants can use.)

Another benefit of the narra is the shade it provides. In this respect, it is comparable to the much lamented American elm. Fortunately, narras have not been decimated by similar diseases.

Pterocarpus indicus bears clusters of attractive yellow flowers that develop into indehiscent disk-shaped winged fruit. They somewhat resemble the fruit of the elm tree.

The genus name of the narra reflects the morphology of its fruit. Pterocarpus comes from the Greek words pteron (feather or wing) and karpos (fruit).

All in all, Filipinos chose wisely when they made the narra their Pambansang Puno.

(Note that Pterocarpus blancoi is not a spelling mistake for Pterocarpus blanco, believe it or not. Also note that some literature treats Pterocarpus blancoi and various other species of Pterocarpus as synonyms for Pterocarpus indicus instead of treating them as separate species. This is not surprising when you consider the fluid nature of current scientific taxonomy.)

References

Gaia Discovery: Averting Narra’s Threat of Extinction …

http://www.gaiadiscovery.com/agriculture-industry/averting-narras-threat-of-extinction-through-education-and-r.html

Wood Magazine: Padauk

http://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-species-3/padauk/

STUARTXCHANGE: Narra

http://www.stuartxchange.org/Narra.html

Wikipedia

Montinia, a Genus of Plants in Southwestern Africa

Botanists currently believe that the genus Montinia has only one species. Its accepted name is Montinia caryophyllacea Thun. You may run across the names Montinia acris and Montinia frutescens, but these refer to the same plant as Montinia caryophyllacea. In biology, such alternate names are called synonyms of the official name.

The genus was named in honor of Lars Montin, who lived during the eighteenth century. Montin originally studied medicine. However, since doctors had to know a lot about medicinal herbs at that time, they often became proficient in botany.

Thunberg, a pupil of Linnaeus, described and named Montinia caryophyllacea in 1777. He had traveled to Dutch colonies in southern Africa, which later enjoyed the hegemony of England and at present belong to the independent nation of South Africa. His collection of plants proved significant in the history of botany.

Literature regarding Montinia may be confusing. You will find it assigned to various different families. But things seem to be settling down. A current classification assigns it to Montiniaceae, so that it has become the type genus of its own family. It shares this family with: Gravea. Sometimes Kaliphora is also included in this family.

This species has such common names as peperbos in the Africaans language. In English it can be called the pepperbush or the wild clove bush. Another common name is mountain rattler because of the noise which its dried capsules emit when the wind blows upon them.

Montinia caryophyllacea grows not only in South Africa, but also in other southwestern African countries: Namibia, Angola, and even in landlocked Botswana. But its range extends no further. It is endemic.

It assumes a variety of forms. It can occur as a shrub or a small tree. The flowers have either pollen or pistil, not both. Some plants have male flowers, others female. According to the picture in PlantzAfrica, the female flowers have an unusual appearance. They look like green eggs with a little yellow flower at one end. According to another picture in the same source, the male flowers form a loose cluster. They have four white petals and four stamens.

The APG classification has united Montiniaceae with tomatoes and morning glories in the order Solanales on the basis of DNA studies, but this placement is questionable. Montinia flowers certainly do not look like tomato blossoms. Of course, the flowers of jimsonweed do not look like tomato blossoms either. Nevertheless, it would be better if less emphasis would be placed on DNA studies when classifying plants. It is better to emphasize characteristics that the average man can see.

References

PlantzAfrica: Montiniaceae

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantklm/montiniaceae.htm

Parnassius of the World: Linnaeus’ Disciples and Apostles

http://goran.waldeck.se/Ento3E.htm

Myfundi: Endemic South African Plant Families

http://myfundi.co.za/eng2/index.php/Endemic_Southern_African_plant_families#Montiniaceae

Vaccinium, the Genus of Blueberries and Cranberries

The genus Vaccinium belongs to Ericaceae, the heath family. This family contains many attractive shrubs, such as Kalmia latifolia, the mountain laurel, which has attractive flowers but poisonous leaves, because of which this photogenic plant has received such alternate popular names as lambkill and sheepkill.

Fortunately, the tasty berries of the genus Vaccinium do not have the toxic qualities of the leaves of their Kalmia cousins. In fact, some of them possess chemical compounds with