Thursday, January 14, 2016
Thursday, September 3, 2015
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was an
American botanist and inventor. He was born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri,
around 1864. The exact year and date of his birth are unknown. Carver went on
to become one of the most prominent scientists and inventors of his time, as
well as a teacher at the Tuskegee Institute.
He wanted poor farmers to grow
alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other
products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical
bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts. He also
developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful
for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline,
and nitroglycerin. He received numerous honors for his work, including the
Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.
During the Reconstruction-era
South, monoculture of cotton depleted the soil in many areas. In the early 20th
century, the boll weevil destroyed much of the cotton crop, and planters and
farm workers suffered. Carver's work on peanuts was intended to provide an
alternative crop.
He was recognized for his many
achievements and talents. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a "Black
Leonardo".
Quotes
"Education is the key to
unlock the golden door of freedom."
"Where there is no vision,
there is no hope."
He died in 1943.
Source: George Washington Carver
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Selected Internet Resources - Botany
Selected Internet Resources - Botany
Unless otherwise noted, the sites listed in this directory are provided by organizations other than the Library of Congress. These links are being offered as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by the Library of Congress of any of the products, services, or opinions of the corporation, organization or individual. The Library of Congress bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.
GENERAL
Available either as a subject category list or an alphabetical list. Appears to be a comprehensive collection of botany links worldwide.
ARBORETA, BOTANICAL GARDENS, SOCIETIES, AND LIBRARIES
The Web site of America's oldest arboretum. The Arnold Arboretum Library provides a searchable catalog and archives collection.
Seeks to promote research and teaching. The Web site includes online teaching images, news highlights, and free access to the American Journal of Botany until April 2000.
Databases available at this site include the Gray Herbarium Index of New World Plants, Treebase, the Farlow Diatom Collections, and one on Botanical Authors.
Images, information on scientific research, databases including the List of Vascular Plant Families and Genera and The Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands. Provides links to other Web sites of botanical or horticultural interest.
Considered one of the great botanical gardens of the world, a useful site for endangered pants species, botanical and taxonomic research. Hosts other Web sites of interest, including the Center for Plant Conservation, and provides access to its Library's catalog and archives.
Plant information, searchable databases, including the Index of American Botanical Literature and provides access to one of the largest botanical libraries in the world.
SPECIALIZED SITES
Well-known for its 4-volume Dictionary of Gardening, the Society's Web site provides botanical and horticultural information, including book and plant finders.
Offers a Plant Science Reference Service, climatological data, crop data, and links to many other sites and resources.
Provides images, news items, educational materials and the Aquatic, Wetland and Invasive Plant information Retrieval System (APIRS), the world's largest information resource of its kind.
A subject-oriented resource guide for plant pathology, applied entomology, and fields on the Internet. Links are well annotated.
The database is a single source of standardized information about plants, including information on names, distributional data, crop information, plant growth data, plant materials information, plant links, reference and other plant information.
Provides information services on conservation and sustainable use of the world's living resources. Conservation databases include species, protected areas, forests, marine and costal areas, national biodiversity profiles, and the Centre's Library catalogue.
Source: loc.gov
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Huntington Desert Garden
Huntington Desert Garden Wikis on The Full Wiki
Source:Huntington Desert Garden Wikis on The Full Wiki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Huntington Desert Garden is one of the world's largest and oldest collections ofcacti, succulents and other desert plants, collected from throughout the world. The Desert Garden contains plants from extreme environments, many of which were acquired by Henry E. Huntington and William Hertrich (the first garden curator) in trips taken to several countries in North, Central and South America. One of the Huntington’s most botanically important gardens, the Desert Garden brought together a group of plants largely unknown and unappreciated in the beginning of the 1900s. Containing a broad category ofxerophytes (aridity-adapted plants), the Desert Garden grew to preeminence and remains today among the world’s finest, with more than 5,000 species in the 10 acre (4 ha) garden. [1] The Huntington Desert Garden is part of the The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.
Mr. Huntington wasn't initially interested in establishing a Desert Garden. He didn't like cacti at all, due to some unfortunate prickly pear encounters during railroad construction work. But Hertrich was persistent, and, once won over, Mr. Huntington built a railway spur to his garden, to bring in rock, soil and plants by the carload. As Gary Lyons, a later curator, remarked, it's very convenient to have a rail spur, and deep pockets, when you're building a big garden. [2] A trip to Arizona in 1908 filled three railroad cars for the trip back to the garden.
Famed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx called the Huntington Desert Garden "the most extraordinary garden in the world." [3]
Mature Golden Barrel cacti with columnar Cereus cacti from South America
Desert Garden Collections
- Also see: Desert Garden Conservatory
The most significant collections are agave and related genera (Agavaceae), aloe (Aloaceae), terrestrial bromeliads (Bromeliaceae), cacti (Cactaceae), echeveria, crassula, sedumand related genera of succulents (Crassulaceae), euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae), and fouquieria (Fouquieriaceae). [1]
The Huntington's Beaucarnea, Ponytail "Palms", members of the agave family (not true palms), are some of the oldest specimens in cultivation, and among the earliest plantings in the Desert Garden. The Desert Garden agave and yucca collections, along with the cacti, are among the Huntington’s most significant research collections.
Aloes (Aloaceae) constitute one of the largest collections outside Africa. Aloe arborescens has an unrivalled winter display of fiery red flower stalks. About 200 of the world’s 300 species of aloes reside in the upper garden. Most are from southern Africa. Aloe bainesii, which can grow fifty feet high, is the tallest.
Puyas are terrestrial bromeliads (Bromeliaceae) that put on a spectacular floral display in April/early May.
Most desert columnar plants belong to the genus Cereus. They form the structure of much of the Desert Garden landscape, producing flowers in late summer and colorful fruit in September/October. Cereus xanthocarpus, at twenty tons, is the garden's most massive plant. This tree-like cactus was already a mature specimen when planted in 1905. It is approximately 125 years old.
The most spectacular cactus displays are the 500 bright yellow-spined Golden Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus grusonii), the largest being more than 85 years old. They flower in the Spring, and are native to central Mexico. This is probably the best display of Golden Barrels in the world.[4]
The crassula family consists of unarmed leaf succulents found mostly in Mexico and Africa. Cool autumn brings out pastel leaf colors in aeonium, echeveria, kalanchoe, pachyphytum, and sedum.
The columnar cactus-like plants in the African section of the Desert Garden are succulent spurges (Euphorbia) and have caustic milky latex. Most species in the garden are native to South Africa and East Africa. Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii), the familiar house plant, is a spiny native of Madagascar that produces colorful bracts throughout the year.
The strange-looking boojum trees (Fouquieria columnaris) native to Baja California, are rare oddities in the Fouquieriaceae. The better-known ocotillo (F. splendens) is in the California bed. The central garden is landscaped with numerous fouquierias from Mexico with bright red blossoms most of the year.
The garden has the largest collection of living stones in America, small southern African plants of the genus Lithops. The collection of caudiciform plants is equally significant. These plants produce very thick stems that can look like twisted sweet potatoes. The stem serves as a water storage structure known as a caudex. [4]
Source: [1], unless cited separately.
Desert Garden gallery
A group of mature Golden Barrels (Echinocactus grusonii) showing their distinctive clustering habit. The Golden Barrel collection at the Huntigton may be the finest in the world.
Aloe saponaria (Zebra or African aloe) and Blue Stick succulents (Senecio mandraliscae), showing pathways and garden layout and design.
References
- ^ a b c Desert Garden at the Huntington Library
- ^ Gary Lyons, 2000, Desert Gardens, Rizzoli International, ISBN 978-0847821877
- ^ quoted at Review of Desert Plants
- ^ a b Botanical Pilgrimage to the Huntington
Further reading
- Hertrich, William (1949): The Huntington Botanical Gardens 1905... 1949.
- Lyons, Gary (1969): The Development of The Huntington Desert Garden: Past and Future. CSSA Cactus and Succulent Journal, 41: 10–19.
- Lyons,Gary (2007), Desert Plants: A Curator's Introduction to the Huntington Desert Garden. Huntington Library Press, ISBN 9780873282314
External links
Related links
  | Huntington Desert Garden website - The Huntington Library |
| | Botanical Pilgrimage to the Huntington - Botanical Pilgrimage to the Huntington : Landscaping : Home & Garden Television |
| | Huntington Gardens photo gallery - Collection: Viewer Hits |
Source:Huntington Desert Garden Wikis on The Full Wiki
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
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