Saturday, January 11, 2014

PP: Discovery of Plants


Peggy's Pointers
Helping you become more floral Savvy each Sunday!

World Floral and the discovery of plants
 
 An partnership agreement by the Garden and three other leading botanical gardens to create the first online catalog ( called World Floral)  of plants by 2020 is well underway The project,  World Flora, will make comprehensive information about as many as 400,000 plant species -- including the 81 newly discovered species -- available to the international community.

 As part of their effort to catalog all plant life on Earth, Botanical Garden scientists named 81 new species of plants and fungi in 2011. They also established four new genera and two new orders of plants and fungi. Genera and orders are groupings of related species.

Researchers have found a variety of species which range in size from the diminutive alpine daises on a few inclines tall to a massive eucalyptus trees in Austria over 300 feet tall. Currently, the undisputed world's smallest flowering plants belong to the genus Wolffia. 

A recent article by J. Travis in Science News Vol. 155 discusses a remarkable new species of sulfur bacteria from the greenish ooze of ocean sediment off the coast of Namibia in southwestern Africa.

Wolffia species are free-floating thalli, green or yellow-green, and without roots. The flower is produced in a depression on the top surface of the plant body. It has one stamen and one pistil. Individuals often float together in pairs or form floating mats with related plants, such as Lemna and Spirodela species. Most species have a very wide distribution across several continents.  

Wolffia species are composed of about 40 percent protein, about the same as the soybean, making them a potential high-protein human food source. They have historically been collected from the water and eaten as a vegetable in much of Asia.

Access the link below to learn more about plants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeX6ST7rexs
The Flower Nook offers a variety of 20-30 different Tropical Plants to fit your needs.  We are happy to help you select the perfect plant for your home or office!

 

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