The pigweed is a quickly evolving weed in the farming industry. Scientifically, this plant is known as Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson. Amaranthus comes from the Greek for evergreen or unfading. This plant was first described by Sereno Watson in the late 1800s. However, it was named after Edward Palmer, who actually discovered the plant earlier in the same century. This is where the palmeri of Amaranthus palmeri was derived. The pigweed is also known by other names such as, Carelessweed and Palmer’s Ameranth. The classification of this plant is very intricate. It is in the Domain Eukarya, the Kingdom Plantae, the sub-kingdom Tracheobionta, the superdivision Spermatophyta, the division (Phylum) Magnoliophyta, the class Magnoliopsida, the subclass Caryophyllidae, the order Caryophyllalus, the family Amaranthaceae, the genus Amaranthus L., and the species Amaranthus palmeri. There are no other sub-species or varieties of this taxon.
The family Amaranthaceae has several characteristics. The leaves of plants in this family usually show no indention. Each plant may contain female or male flowers. There are also species in this family with contain both sexes of flower within one plant. There may also be bracts, specialized leaves, below the flowers. The plants may also have fruits which come in several different forms such as, berries, capsules, or small nuts. Another plant that was in the same family is the Hawai’i chaff flower, Achyranthes atollensis H. St. John, which is in the genus Achyranthes L. The Hawai’i chaff flower actually became extinct in 1964 due to habitat loss. While one species in a family has been extinct for fifty years (the chaff flower), another species (Palmer Amaranth) in the same family is adapting and becoming mo...
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...spersed all over the place. As mentioned before, each female plant is capable of producing up to 1 million seeds. One gust of wind across the top of one female plant can cause an unbelievable spread of pigweeds. These characteristics are just a few of many that lead to the successfulness of this weed. While it is a problem in agriculture, it is not considered a problem in other types of industries.
Amaranthus palmeri has cause decreases in crop yields and has affected farmers all across the United States. It is an invasive weed to farmers, money to the herbicide industry, and a complex plant to botanists. The research on this weed is sure to continue and maybe one day there will be a control method that will successfully keep all Palmer Amaranth under control. One day, somewhere in a research setting, someone will unlock the secret to controlling Amaranthus palmeri.
The book “Milkweed” by Jerry Spinelli tells a story about a boy who survived the horrible days of World War 2. He struggles every single day to find his identity and what is happening in the world. The book “Milkweed” itself shows many signs of survival. Both literally, and figuratively. This novel describes what the Jews did to survive and how they survived. The theme of survival is represented by different objects. The author, Spinelli, uses many literary elements to describe and support the theme of survival. The main three are: setting (where and what time), symbols such as the plant Milkweed that represents a new hope, and conflicts (what is the fight/fighting in the story).
The plantains seem to have been an herb of particular importance to the Anglo-Saxons, both medicinally and magically. The Anglo-Saxon “Nine Herbs Charm” mentions plantain or “waybread” as effective against “the loathly foe roaming over the land”. Plantain also appears as one of the three herbs making up the ointment used in the charm Wiþ Færstice (“Against a Sudden Pain”), one of the best-known spells against the ailments variously known as elf-shot, witch-shot, troll-shot, u.s.w.; and the culprits in this spell are likewise described as riding over the land. The roots of smooth plantain (probably plantago major) are included in the Leechdom recipe to cure someone who has the elfsogoþu (either “alf-hiccup...
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.
CThe Californian thistle weeds control program is one of the programs that Brain was not really that happy with due to the results. The success of the program was mixed, as after the second application of Pasture Boss some of the Californian thistles still regenerated from their root systems. Even though it was a relatively small proportion that regenerated, for the cost and the time taken to carry out the process it was believed that the results were not good enough. From this, I think that the money being spent on the control of the Californian thistles is not totally being returned in increased yields and therefore it is not an a compete adequate system.
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.
As a result of these factors, the flora has adapted to these conditions in a variety of ways including their shape, leaf type, root system, and color. One of the most prominent adapt...
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.
Although the term encompasses a number of different members of the aster family, ragweeds share one characteristic — the pollen they produce is responsible for many allergy attacks every year. Interestingly, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Mexico are part of the area known as the original home of ragweeds. A ragweed may be a perennial or annual, grow to a height of a few inches or more than 12 feet and have leaves in a variety of shapes and alignments. The diversity can make identification difficult for the average
Weeds are known to be a bad sign for farmers and gardeners alike. Weeds take all the nutrients from the intended crop and prevent the plant intended to grow from growing. This is a highly tedious and expensive task. For some mass produced crops such as corn, it is not cost-effective to remove weeds by physical means, so farmers will often spray large amounts of herbicides to kill weeds, which also is time-consuming and expensive. Sometime the herbicide is so strong that is ends up killing the plant as well. C...
Lauffer, H. B., Williams, P., & Lauffer, D. (2012). Wisconsin Fast Plants® Program. Retrieved February 26, 2014, from http://www.fastplants.org
Janick. J. (2011). Center for New Crops & Plant Products - Department of Horticulture and
Throughout The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, the author argues that the coevolution of plants and humans is seen within the relationship of humans manipulating plants to fulfill their desires. Pollan touches on four main examples where coevolution can be easily seen throughout history and the present. The apple satisfies sweetness, the tulip beauty, marijuana intoxication, and the potato control. As we are benefitting from evolving the plants for our own interest, the plants themselves are benefitting as well. The environmental message of the book surpasses that of coevolution and dives into the technology of genetic engineering
Many critics say that agribusiness can have a negative effect on the population. There are speculations that the hormones injected into cows, chickens, and pigs can be harmful to us. Some people in the
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).
Koul, Opender, et. al. 1990. Properties and uses of neem Azadirachta indica. Canadian Journal of Botany. v68. National Research Council of Canada.