Scientific Names Of Flowers

Zoo pays tribute to 'the tree that walks'

Scientific names (of the four North American species): Rhizophora mangle; Avicennia germinans; Laguncularia racemosa; Conocarpus erectus.

Common names (respectively): Red mangrove, black mangrove, white mangrove and buttonwood

Description: Demonstrating convergence, 110 separate species, primarily evergreens with shiny leaves and small flowers, have found similar ways to tolerate the varying salinity, tidal inundation, oxygen-starved soils and hammering sunlight of their intertidal existence. Only a few species occur in any one mangal; tropical rainforests, on the other hand, contain thousands of tree species. . . . Red mangroves survive the greatest inundation, propped up with stilt roots, and absorbing air through lenticels, or pores in their bark. Black mangroves live on higher ground and spread out pneumatophores — straw-like "breathing tubes" that rise above the soil from underground cable roots, and are covered with lenticels; they can be only a few inches to over 9 feet tall. One tree may have more than 10,000 pneumatophores. . . . The red mangrove is the tallest, growing to more than 80 feet with waxy, 5-inch leaves, dark green above and pale green below. It has gray bark over dark red wood, "prop roots" derived from the trunk, and "drop roots" from the branches. Second largest is the black mangrove, more than 65 feet tall with elliptical green leaves that are often encrusted with exuded salt. Bark is dark and scaly and dense hairs cover the leaves' undersurface. . . . Smallest species is the white mangrove, existing as a tree or shrub; height maximum is 50 feet; 3-inch leaves are broad, flat and oval. Buttonwoods most frequently grow in the upland transitional zone. Rough barked older buttonwoods might be covered with epiphytes — plants that live on other plants.

Habitat: Tropical coastlines, usually sheltered from high-energy waves. Mangrove forests may extend 12 miles inland, characterized by progressive zones of different species, each a little less salt-tolerant than the one before. Beyond the high-water mark, they give way to tropical forest.

Reproduction: A special mechanism helps mangrove offspring to survive. The seeds are buoyant, enabling dispersal by water. While other plants' seeds germinate in soil, many mangroves are viviparous — like mammals that give live birth, the seeds germinate before dropping from the parent tree. The germinated seedling may grow within the fruit, or out through the fruit.  This forms the propagule (described as a "ready-to-go" seedling), able to photosynthesize and produce its own food. When mature, the propagule drops into the water. Able to travel long distances, propagules can remain dormant for more than a year while waiting to arrive in a suitable environment. It can even alter its density, changing to a shape that can more easily lodge in mud and take root.

The Sierra Nevada: Of the Parasitic and Fallopian « Phyteclub.org

Nevada Field Campus . Yes, there is such a thing (isn’t that cool?), and it’s only a quick ride away from the Greyhound station in Truckee. This facility/refuge is a gem; more people should know about it, and not just for the opportunity to take an outdoor shower in the midday sun at the edge of the north fork of the Yuba River — one of the simplest soul-satisfying treats around — but because the classes are kickass: everything from fungi to bats, spiders to flora, geology to photography, sketching in nature journals to conjuring the written word to gazing at the night sky. Basically, everything good save metal and beer! Concurrently with the writing retreat was a course on insect identification and another taught by John Muir Laws, who has been quoted by Phyte Club more than once , about how to draw Sierran birds. Muir’s talents as an artist and a naturalist were indispensable to my plant ID on this trip, considering he published an all-encompassing guide to the 1,700 species found in the Sierra accompanied by an astonishing 2,710 original watercolor paintings.

Because we were “writers” on a “retreat,” after three hours of stream-of-consciousness scrawling each day, we were free to explore life in the 6,500′ range, all punctuated by the warm citrus smell of pines. This allowed me to note about 49 species of plants, mainly wildflowers and not including the conifers, which were appreciated but I wasn’t inspired to count needles or get cross-eyed staring at bark on this trip. What was most significant to me up there, as an amateur botanist, was an increasing ability to encounter an unfamiliar species and at least recognize its family, if not the genus. This is what practice being a flower nerd will do for you.

Of these four dozen species, there were two that I’d been especially wanting to meet for a long time.

The World Book encyclopedia

Gardening with native wild flowers

California desert flowers, an introduction to families, genera, and species

What flower is that?

The flowers personified, being a translation of Grandville's "Les Fleurs Animées"