The Flowers Of War Qartulad

[Malva Ferster]

Giantwater lilies are one of the more memorable plants you will find in the Amazon Rainforest. Named after Queen Victoria, the sheer size of the Victoria Amazonica water lilies is what sets them apart. They can grow up to 10 feet (or 3 meters) in diameter and can hold up to 60 pounds of weight. Victoria Amazonica lilies grow in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve in Peru.

The Rubber Tree has a notorious history. It is one of the most economically valued plants in the entire Amazon region. The sap of the tree is a source of latex that was used, and continues to be used for rubber manufacturing. This impressive plant was endemic to the Amazon Rainforest, however during the Rubber Boom era, the seeds of this plant were illegally smuggled into Southeast Asia (a region that has a similar tropical environment as the Amazon) resulting in the tree being propagated there.

Passion fruit juices and desserts are popular in Amazonian cuisine. While onboard the Delfin Amazon Cruises, guest can enjoy a sample of this tangy superfruit. The flower grows up high in the jungle canopy and its distinctive white and purple colors make it stand out from the lush green scenery. The Passion flower is one of the most beautiful flowers found in the jungle and it is often compared to the orchid.

Bromelias grow from the ground of the Amazon Rainforest, they are easy to spot because of their bright colors. Similar to the passion fruit flower, the Bromelia flowers also produce fruit, the pineapple. A very interesting fact about bromelias is their way of storing water. Their leaves have adapted their shape to create a makeshift water tank and they can hold up to 7 liters of water. Unlike many other plants that are up high in the forest canopy, you can spot these quite easily while out on a jungle walk.

The orchid flower is one of the most exquisite and majestic flowers in the world. They are the largest family of plants, with over 25,000 species located around the world, and over 10,000 of them in the tropical jungle. Orchids bloom in almost every color of the rainbow and thrive best in humid and environments. They rely heavily on birds and insects to pollinate their flowers.

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Angiosperms are distinguished from the other seed-producing plants, the gymnosperms, by having flowers, xylem consisting of vessel elements instead of tracheids, endosperm within their seeds, and fruits that completely envelop the seeds.The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. In the Cretaceous, angiosperms diversified explosively, becoming the dominant group of plants across the planet.

Agriculture is almost entirely dependent on angiosperms, and a small number of flowering plant families supply nearly all plant-based food and livestock feed. Rice, maize, and wheat provide half of the world's calorie intake, and all three plants are cereals from the Poaceae family (colloquially known as grasses). Other families provide materials such as wood, paper and cotton, and supply numerous ingredients for traditional and modern medicines. Flowering plants are also commonly grown for decorative purposes, with certain flowers playing a significant role in many cultures.

The largest angiosperms are Eucalyptus gum trees of Australia, and Shorea faguetiana, dipterocarp rainforest trees of Southeast Asia, both of which can reach almost 100 metres (330 ft) in height.[16] The smallest are Wolffia duckweeds which float on freshwater, each plant less than 2 millimetres (0.08 in) across.[17]

Considering their method of obtaining energy, some 99% of flowering plants are photosynthetic autotrophs, deriving their energy from sunlight and using it to create molecules such as sugars. The remainder are parasitic, whether on fungi like the orchids for part or all of their life-cycle,[18] or on other plants, either wholly like the broomrapes, Orobanche, or partially like the witchweeds, Striga.[19]

In terms of their environment, flowering plants are cosmopolitan, occupying a wide range of habitats on land, in fresh water and in the sea. On land, they are the dominant plant group in every habitat except for frigid moss-lichen tundra and coniferous forest.[20] The seagrasses in the Alismatales grow in marine environments, spreading with rhizomes that grow through the mud in sheltered coastal waters.[21]

Some specialised angiosperms are able to flourish in extremely acid or alkaline habitats. The sundews, many of which live in nutrient-poor acid bogs, are carnivorous plants, able to derive nutrients such as nitrate from the bodies of trapped insects.[22] Other flowers such as Gentiana verna, the spring gentian, are adapted to the alkaline conditions found on calcium-rich chalk and limestone, which give rise to often dry topographies such as limestone pavement.[23]

As for their growth habit, the flowering plants range from small, soft herbaceous plants, often living as annuals or biennials that set seed and die after one growing season,[24] to large perennial woody trees that may live for many centuries and grow to many metres in height. Some species grow tall without being self-supporting like trees by climbing on other plants in the manner of vines or lianas.[25]

The number of species of flowering plants is estimated to be in the range of 250,000 to 400,000.[26][27][28] This compares to around 12,000 species of moss[29] and 11,000 species of pteridophytes.[30] The APG system seeks to determine the number of families, mostly by molecular phylogenetics. In the 2009 APG III there were 415 families.[31] The 2016 APG IV added five new orders (Boraginales, Dilleniales, Icacinales, Metteniusales and Vahliales), along with some new families, for a total of 64 angiosperm orders and 416 families.[1]

In 2024, Alexandre R. Zuntini and colleagues constructed a tree of some 6,000 flowering plant genera, representing some 60% of the existing genera, on the basis of analysis of 353 nuclear genes in each specimen. Much of the existing phylogeny is confirmed; the rosid phylogeny is revised.[46]

Fossilised spores suggest that land plants (embryophytes) have existed for at least 475 million years.[47] However, angiosperms appear suddenly and in great diversity in the fossil record in the Early Cretaceous (130 mya).[48][49] Claimed records of flowering plants prior to this are not widely accepted.[50] Molecular evidence suggests that the ancestors of angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms during the late Devonian, about 365 million years ago.[51] The origin time of the crown group of flowering plants remains contentious.[52] By the Late Cretaceous, angiosperms appear to have dominated environments formerly occupied by ferns and gymnosperms. Large canopy-forming trees replaced conifers as the dominant trees close to the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago.[53] The radiation of herbaceous angiosperms occurred much later.[54]

The characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Its function is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds.[55] It may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf.[56] The flower-bearing part of the plant is usually sharply distinguished from the leaf-bearing part, and forms a branch-system called an inflorescence.[37]

Flowers produce two kinds of reproductive cells. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells; they are borne in the stamens.[57] The female cells, megaspores, divide to become the egg cell. They are contained in the ovule and enclosed in the carpel; one or more carpels form the pistil.[57]

The flower may consist only of these parts, as in wind-pollinated plants like the willow, where each flower comprises only a few stamens or two carpels.[37] In insect- or bird-pollinated plants, other structures protect the sporophylls and attract pollinators. The individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals (or tepals in flowers such as Magnolia where sepals and petals are not distinguishable from each other). The outer series (calyx of sepals) is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, especially the bud.[58][59] The inner series (corolla of petals) is, in general, white or brightly colored, is more delicate in structure, and attracts pollinators by colour, scent, and nectar.[60][61]

Most flowers are hermaphroditic, producing both pollen and ovules in the same flower, but some use other devices to reduce self-fertilization. Heteromorphic flowers have carpels and stamens of differing lengths, so animal pollinators cannot easily transfer pollen between them. Homomorphic flowers may use a biochemical self-incompatibility to discriminate between self and non-self pollen grains. Dioecious plants such as holly have male and female flowers on separate plants.[62] Monoecious plants have separate male and female flowers on the same plant; these are often wind-pollinated,[63] as in maize,[64] but include some insect-pollinated plants such as Cucurbita squashes.[65][66]

Double fertilization requires two sperm cells to fertilise cells in the ovule. A pollen grain sticks to the stigma at the top of the pistil, germinates, and grows a long pollen tube. A haploid generative cell travels down the tube behind the tube nucleus. The generative cell divides by mitosis to produce two haploid (n) sperm cells. The pollen tube grows from the stigma, down the style and into the ovary. When it reaches the micropyle of the ovule, it digests its way into one of the synergids, releasing its contents including the sperm cells. The synergid that the cells were released into degenerates; one sperm makes its way to fertilise the egg cell, producing a diploid (2n) zygote. The second sperm cell fuses with both central cell nuclei, producing a triploid (3n) cell. The zygote develops into an embryo; the triploid cell develops into the endosperm, the embryo's food supply. The ovary develops into a fruit. and each ovule into a seed.[67]

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