The Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis)
Introduction:
The Drosera capensis, or more commonly known as the cape sundew is one of the most unusual and spectacular plants found in our world. This eudicodic angiosperm is a small-rosette forming, carnivorous species, meaning that it eats insects or anything else small and unlucky enough to land on it. The cape sundew is one of the most common sundews in cultivation due to its small size, durability and gratuitous amounts of seed production, making it a frequent sight in almost all parts of the world.
Description:
The cape sundew is a small-rosette carnivorous plant. It is a free-flowering evergreen, perennial, of differing heights. It forms a scrape that grows up to 1 foot tall and can bear up to 20 flowers. It has short woody rhizomatous stems, which accumulate and retain dead foliage of each previous season. It has many long, deep, and very well-developed roots. Its leaves are bright green and radiate from the stem. The lamina are linear ligulate, with a petiole that is about the same length as the lamina, being ~3 cm long (Brunner, 2012). The leaf apex is truncate to obtuse. The lamina has knob-shaped tentacles on its adaxial side, which are stalked with mucus covered glands covering the leaves surface. The mucus like fluid on the tentacles is an acidic enzyme that assists in the digestion of the plants prey. This species is considered pubescent with many trichomes covering the majority of the plant. The flowers found on the cape sundew are simple, and generally come in colors of red, pink or white with each flower borne on a single stem. Each flower generally has 5 petals that are from 12-14 mm across. Stamen are short with a rhomboid connective, with the locules diverging below. St...
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T. californicus is found from Alaska to Baja in small, shallow tidepools and tidal flats in the upper spray zone where they cannot avoid the full effect of visible and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Individuals assemble in areas of lower radiation at midday, yet have no preference to the intensity of light at dawn and dusk (Hartline and Macmillan 1995). These tiny arthropods inhabit all types of marine sediments from sand to fine mud and ooze. Along with plankton, T. californicus eats microscopic algae, protists, bacteria, diatoms, algae and microbes (McGroarty 1958). When the concentrations of the species in their habitats are high, T. californicus will turn to cannibalism for a food source. The nautilus eye present in the species is rich with fatty acids and provides a good food source for the animal.
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Dandelions, known to the botanist as Taraxacum officinale, are classified in the Composite (Compositae) family of flowering plants. The genus name, Taraxacum is derived from the Persian word for "bitter herb," (Myer, 1994). Accompanying the golden ruse of the dandelion are the daisies, aster, sunflowers, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed and many other wildflowers.
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Plants of the genus Strychnos have opposite leaves and bear cymes of white or yellowish flowers that have a four-lobed or five-lobed calyx, a four-parted or five-parted corolla, five stamens, a solitary pistil and bears fruit in the form of a berry. The seeds and bark of many plants in this genus contain the powerful poison (4 p.2). Strychnine is obtained commercially from the seeds of the Saint-ignatius's-bean and from the nux-vomica tree.
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Cotton is an annual, biennial or perennial plant, but in cultivation it is generally treated as an annual; herbaceous to short shrub or small tree - two to six feet tall. It consist of a primary axis, erect and branched with a vegetative lower zone having monopodial branches, and a fruiting upper zone with sympodial branches. The leaves of the cotton plant alternate, cordate petiolate, three to nine lobed and palmately veined, with varying size, texture, shape and hairiness. The large, showy, cream yellow, red or purple flowers are extra axillary, terminal, solitary, and borne on sympodial branches. The calyx (= collectively the sepals) consists of a very short cup-shaped structure at the base of the corolla. The five petals of the corolla are either free or slightly united at the base of the convoluted bud (Sundararaj, 1974).
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