Japanese Knotweed is a bamboo-like plant. It tends to grow in large clusters and can spread rather quickly. This plant is not native to the United States, and sadly, it is beginning to take over. These simple leaves are arrowhead or spade-like in shape. They grow in an alternate pattern. The edges contain no teeth, meaning they are entire. Compared to other plants in the area, the leaves are quite large, usually growing 6 inches long and and 5 inches wide (“Japanese Knotweed”). There is a red ring along the stem where the leaf attaches. The stem itself is hard and has a woody feel to it. It is green in color and looks botched with a white coating. This coating tends to rub off rather easily. When broken, you may notice that this plant’s stem …show more content…
They grow in clustered spikes near the tip of the plants’ stems. The flowers contain 5 petals. These flowers are pollinated by insects. The seeds have 3 wings and are less than an inch in length. They are usually dark and glossy in appearance (“Japanese Knotweed”). Japanese Knotweed can grow seemingly anywhere. It can tolerate a wide variety of moisture conditions and soil. However, the plant prefers to grow in full sun, rather than growing in a shady area. Possible habitats for this plant include roadsides, along riverbanks, wetlands, and forest edges. It is able to spread so rapidly because if a shoot is broken off, it can move down a stream and root in a new location. This could be a reason why this plant grows popularly along our Chadakoin River (“Stone”). Japanese Knotweed was not always here. It was introduced to the United States in the late 1800’s from Asia. It was introduced as an ornamental plant. This plant causes a loss of local biodiversity in the areas where it grows. It crowds out many local plants growing along the ground by taking their needed nutrients and water. Because of their tallness and the size of their leaves, there is little sun penetrating the ground where they grow. This further creates problems for understory plants, as well as newly germinating plants, such as saplings. One study sectioned in south-central New York found that there were not any native plants 33 feet inside the Knotweed
The inflorescence also varies between the three. Kentucky blue grass has an open pyramid shaped panicle. Rough blue grass has an open panicle. Annual blue grass has a small open panicle and seeds are present through most of the season and are most abundant during early to
Mother Nature has provided her tools since the beginning of time. One particular herb I want to discuss with you is Torilis Nodosa, also known as Knotted Hedge Parsley. Knotted Hedge Parsley is a plant that branches out at the base, low and spreading. They have five small white flowers, each that are in compact, compound umbels that come from the leaf axes. It is native to parts of Europe, especially the Mediterranean Basin and it is known elsewhere, such as North America, as an introduced species and a common weed. They spread out in all areas of the world, including residential lawns that grow in the Spring and Summer, which is May through August. They will also grow all year in colder climates.
Rabbit tobacco is also known as lasting, everlasting, sweet balsam, white balsam, feather-weed, and sweet cudweed. Its scientific name is Gaphalium obtusifolium. These annual herbs reach a height of 1 to 3 feet and have erect stems with brown, shriveled leaves persisting into winter and stems covered with felt-like hairs in summer. The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, and alternate. The flowers, minute in whitish heads, appear in late summer to fall. Fields, pastures, and disturbed areas are the sites of this common native plant of the eastern United States. The Cherokee named it rabbit tobacco because they believe it was the rabbit who took attended the plant.
The first to use native dye plants in the United States were the Native Americans. Their culture was totally dependent on what the land produced. This is reflected in the wealth of information Native Americans possessed about useful plants, from medicinal to ceremonial and dye plants. This is reflected in the types of houses they built and the names of places (often after the plants that grew there). Early European colonists foolishly ignored the wisdom of the Native Americans and modern Americans are not much wiser. Americans need to learn about the plants and animals in our own country and how they can be useful to mankind. Instead of bringing non-adapted species of Europe to North America we need to learn what native adapted species can fulfill our needs and wants (Gilmore 1977). For example, we spend thousands of dollars feeding, sheltering, and caring for European cattle when we have native bovines, bison which are naturally adapted to the climate and environment. Melvin Randolph Gilmore sums this idea up well in the following quote:
What is kudzu? Kudzu is a very interesting plant to study and learn about. The scientific name for kudzu is Pueraria lobata. The scientific name for Kudzu comes from two different locations. The first part of the name which is the Genus is named after the European botanist, M.N.Puerari and the second part of the name which is the species is a Latin word meaning lobed. (Dr. Ombrello) With a little research I found that the Kudzu plant has a variety of names other than its most common which is the Kudzu Vine. Some of the names associated with the plant is the foot-a-night vine, vine-that-ate-the-south, Japanese arrowroot and Ko-hemp according to one website. (eNature 2007) Kudzu is a native to eastern Asia and was introduced into the United States in the year 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and later introduced to the south roughly seven years later in the New Orleans Exposition. (Speer 2013) The phylum that the Kudzu vine is a party of is the Spermatophyta and the family is the Fabaceae. (CABI 2014). Kudzu is an invasive species of plant or better seen as a vine. It was used in the beggining as a cover crop for farms and food for cattle before it began to take over. (Speer 2013) The family that the Kudzu is a part of is known as one of the largest families of flowering plants. The family is also known as the pea or bean family. The habitat of this family ranges from herbs to trees. The stem varies from being herbaceous to woody and angular to cylindrical. The leaves tend to alternate and the leafbase is usually swollen. (Argawal 2012) Flowers have a wide range being bracteates, complete, bisexual or slightly perigynous. (Argawal 2012) There are also usually five petals on the corolla. (Argawal 2012) The gynoecium i...
Hewes, Henry. “ A Plant Grows in Chicago,” in Saturday Review, Vol. XLII, No. 14, April 4, 1959, p. 28.
Hawaii is such a diverse and unique area that it is said to be a biologist’s paradise. Biologists travel here to study the wide variety of species and one such species is Aleurites moluccana or the kukui tree. The kukui tree is originally from Southeast Asia, particularly the Indo-Malaysia region, and has moved its way into the Pacific. It was first introduced to the Hawaiian islands when the Polynesians navigated their way here hundreds of years ago (Elevitch, C. R., & Manner, H. I., 2006). Since then, the kukui tree’s physical adaptations have helped it to thrive in Hawaii and native Hawaiians were able to utilize this plant in a number of ways.
“Danny’s Plant”, by Meish Goldish, is about how Danny’s mom and his science teacher, Mr. Morgan, played a trick on Danny, so he would be more interested in horticulture. In the beginning of the book, Danny was not interested in horticulture, and his mom thought it was a problem. So, she made a bet with Danny. She would give him his own plant, and if he would have to tell his plant a joke everyday and water everyday. If he could make it grow like crazy, his mom would win, but if it didn’t grow, he would get a new music tape that he wanted. Immediately, Danny confirmed the bet. The article,”Probing Question: Does talking to plants help them grow?”, states that many people believe in talking to their plants, but you need a certain tone or volume
This paper includes an understanding about the parasitic roundworm called trichinella. It gives detail of the disease, its transmission and source. Emphasizing how it effects the body, further explaining the epidemiology and how the parasite poses a threat. Also providing an overview of the various types of transmission, how it obscures the human body, and informs one about the symptoms that occurs with the ingestion of trichinella. This paper also addresses the various diagnostic procedures and the treatment required in order to treat Trichinellosis. This, emerging the complex world of the most common type of trichinella species called Trichinella spiralis. In addition, it raises awareness of the health risks and possible outcomes that can come along when the parasites begins migrating throughout the body.
It is an enduring herb, which grows in most moderate countries. It varies from about two to five feet high, with long, smooth green leaves and yellowish white or purplish flowers. The root is light brown with a very sweet taste; fifty times the sweetness of cane sugar. It is an ointment, a cough mixture, and a laxative.
The Species of the World Hayakawa, Masao. The Garden Art of Japan. Trans. Richard Gage. Weatherhill.
Lucky Bamboo with the scientific name Dracaena sanderiana has owned to Dracaenaceae family. This variety of dracaena does not belong to real bamboos of the Poaceae family. This plant are popular because beautiful leaves and robustness to apartment conditions. This plant is among plants that allowed indirect and low light intensity. So they classified in plants group with low light need (Brown, 2008). Brown (2008) reported ...
Dandelion grows on many different continents, so it is used in many different ways. It was first discovered in medieval Persia in the 10th or 11th century, and have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a thousand years. Taraxacum officinale is the most common form of dandelion. There are a few other variations of dandelion, like Taraxacum albidum, a white-flowering Japanese dandelion, Taraxacum californicum, the endangered California dandelion, and Taraxacum kok-saghyz, a Russian dandelion which produces rubber. Dandelion is edible, so it was first used for food. The Chinese discovered dandelion’s medicinal use, and now people in Europe and Asia commonly use dand...
Under regular conditions, the plant develops to a tallness of 10 - 15m with the circumference of 30-50cm. At the point when coppiced every now and then it could be kept up as shrub of 2-2.5m tallness with various stems emerging from its base. The blooms are little, velvety and unnoticeable forming into dim purple ovoid one seeded berries, something like 1.5 - 2.5cm long.
This plant has already been utilized by humans for centuries—assisting them in their work and day to day living. But today, it is already a common visual of dreamy relaxation and increasingly, it is now a symbol of health.