15 1 years ago, an Englishman Richard Proust came to Brazil. In the Amazon rainforest, a complete small tree was collected-the bark was smooth and flat, with small yellow-green flowers. Cut the bark, and the white sticky substance flows out. Richard took this humble little tree back to the Royal Botanical Garden and turned to South America.
Although the Aztecs (now Mexicans) provided raw rubber to tribal leaders on murals in the 6th century, it was not until 200 years ago that humans really realized the great value of rubber.
1823, a worker named MacIntosh accidentally stained the rubber solution on his clothes and accidentally found it waterproof. Thus, the first clothes that can keep out the rain in human history was born. To this day, the word "raincoat" in English is also called mackintosh.
1887, when john boyd dunlop was helping his son to repair his bicycle, he had a brainwave and invented the pneumatic tire, which was an epoch-making invention. Two years later, in the process of repairing bicycle tires, edouard michelin thought that the tires could be made detachable and repaired by the owners themselves. 189 1 year, Michelin applied for this tire modification patent. Since then, the demand for rubber has increased dramatically. Today, Michelin is a famous multinational company in the world.
Because of rubber trees, because of rubber and rubber tires, the whole world has "turned" since then.
Who says plants can't change the world? In the process of capital globalization, rubber is not the only plant that changes the world!
Today's smokers are enjoying themselves, and probably can't imagine what happened to Rodrigo, the first smoker in Europe: after he returned to his hometown from America with Columbus' fleet, he irrationally lit those magical leaves in full view, and smoke came out of his nose and mouth. "The neighbors were scared out of their wits." He was put in prison, and by the time he came out, the neighbors had learned to smoke. After a lot of money and lives were swept away by tobacco, more and more consumers who smoked actively or passively took tobacco companies to court. But the tobacco trade has changed the world pattern, especially the relationship between Britain and North America.
Sugarcane can produce sweet sugar, which was introduced to the Caribbean by Columbus and became a new industry. The need for a large number of cheap labor has triggered the most tragic history of African blacks. Cotton, a plant with white flowers, triggered one of the most important changes in human history-the industrial revolution. As for China tea, it has a strange taste of bitterness before sweetness, and it even induces western countries to plunder the wealth of the East. The war caused by tea and poppy changed the modern history of China.
Although in the eyes of human beings, plants are silent, resigned and slaughtered by others, in fact, tobacco, sweetness, cotton, tea, poppy, cinchona and rubber trees have changed the world without exaggeration. From it, we can see human curiosity, greed, blood, violence and sin. Of course, there are also hesitations, helplessness, fragility and paranoia. The history of plants reflects the goodness and terrible evil of human nature. These are indelible history.
Recently, the diesel saplings carried by Shenzhou VI are growing well. "According to scientific research, the structure of oil extracted from this diesel tree seed is similar to that of oil. It only takes a little refining and processing to get diesel, but the current output is too low to be planted and produced on a large scale. " Dr Shen Shihua, a researcher in charge of the Shenzhou VI seedling experiment at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, hopes to increase the output of diesel seedlings several times through space travel.
Look, maybe this is the next plant that will change the world!
2. Five unique ornamental plants in China are rewarded with 50 points. Chinese name: classification of the genus Plumaceae: Eukaryotic domain: Plant phylum: Angiosperm class: Dicotyledonous plant class: Rosaceae: Rosaceae subfamily: Plum species: Plum morphological characteristics: plant height is about 5 5- 10/0m, stems are brownish purple, and there are many vertical lines.
Branchlets are green. Leaf blade broadly ovate to ovate, margin serrate.
65438+ 0~2 flowers per node, sessile or short-stalked, the original species is pale pink or white, and the cultivated varieties are purple, red and colored spots to yellowish colors, which bloom in early spring. Plum blossoms can be divided into departments, classes and types.
Such as real plum, apricot, cherry plum, etc. Classification under the system, classification under the hierarchy.
Plum blossoms are small deciduous trees, with grayish brown trunks, slender green hairless branchlets, oval or round leaves, fine teeth on the leaf margin, and flower buds planted in the axils of long branches, with 65,438+0 ~ 2 flowers per node, fragrant, 5 petals, white to pink, double petals. Distribution: Plum blossom originated in the southwest of China, and wild plum first evolved into ornamental plum, which is a branch of plum blossom.
China wild plum has four sub-centers, namely, eastern Sichuan and western Hubei mountainous areas; Southeast Hubei, northeast Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang mountainous areas; Guangdong and Guangxi, southern Jiangxi mountainous areas and Fujian and Taipei areas. This is a deciduous tree.
Meixi has a warm climate, and its flowering period is particularly sensitive to climate change. Meixi has a high air humidity, but it avoids heavy rain during flowering.
Plum blossoms can grow well in areas where the annual rainfall is above 1000mm, and the requirements for soil are not strict and relatively poor. Active tree species, like sunshine and good ventilation.
It is a long-lived tree species. The flowering period in the Yangtze River basin is from February to March.
Wild plums are distributed in high altitude areas such as Sichuan, Hubei and Guangxi. Plum blossoms cultivated in the south of the Yellow River can safely overwinter in the open air, and hybrid plum blossoms have successfully overwintered in the open air in Beijing. Plum blossoms like a warm and slightly humid climate, slightly tolerant of shade and not afraid of cold. The soil is light soil and sandy soil, which is rich in humus and easy to grow on medium clay loam.
Plum blossoms can grow well in areas where the annual rainfall is above 1000mm, and the requirements for soil are not strict and relatively poor. Active tree species, like sunshine and good ventilation.
It is a long-lived tree species. The flowering period in the Yangtze River basin is from February to March.
Variety classification (1) Plum blossom strains are divided into four categories: 1 true plum strain, 2 apricot-plum strain, 3 plum strain and 4 apricot-plum strain (2) six categories: 1 straight plum, 2 vertical plum, 3 long right plum, 4 plum and 6 apricot (the first three categories) Jiang Mei type, and. Seed leaves are opposite, mostly oval or rectangular, with smooth, leathery leaves and serrated edges.
The crown is spherical. The trunk is rough and gray.
Flowers are clustered, with 3- 15 flowers in the axils of leaves. The flowering period is from September to June, 10. Most of them were born in the spring of that year, and some branches bloomed in two or three years. Corolla is divided into ivory, yellow, orange and other colors, with strong fragrance. There are many varieties of osmanthus fragrans, among which Jingui, Yin Gui, Dangui and Sijigui are common.
The fruit is purple-black drupe, commonly known as cinnamon. Han Gui in Hanzhong is the best of osmanthus, which enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad, and is also a household name in Kyushu.
Distribution of origin Osmanthus fragrans originated in southwest and central China and is now widely planted in Huaihe River Basin and its south area. Its suitable area is north to the lower reaches of the Yellow River and south to Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. Wild plants are distributed in southwest China, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hubei provinces, and also in India, Nepal and Cambodia.
Like warm and humid climate, it is a subtropical tree species, resistant to high temperature but not too cold. Osmanthus fragrans leaves are lush and evergreen, and the trees are long in age. They bloom in autumn and are full of fragrance. It is a unique ornamental flower and aromatic tree species in China.
Osmanthus fragrans is the city flower of more than 20 cities in China. Osmanthus fragrans is not strict with the soil. Except alkaline soil and low-lying land or soil that is too sticky and poorly drained, it can generally grow, but slightly acidic sandy loam with deep soil layer, loose and fertile soil and good drainage is the most suitable.
Morphological characteristics Osmanthus fragrans is an evergreen broad-leaved tree with a tree height of 15 m and a crown covering 400 square meters. The bark is rough, the opposite leaves are grayish brown or grayish white, ovoid, ovoid to lanceolate, and the whole or upper part is sparsely serrated.
The leaves are leathery, opposite, oval or oblong, and the edges of young leaves are serrated. Flowers are clustered, with 3-5 flowers in the axils of leaves, mostly in the spring shoots of that year, and there are also flowers on the biennial branches. The corolla splits into milky white, yellow, orange red and other colors, and the aroma is very rich.
Flowers cluster in leaf axils to form cymes. The flowers are small, yellow and white, and very fragrant. The bark is smooth and gray.
The single leaf is opposite, the leather is bright, the leaf shape and leaf margin vary with varieties, the leaf shape is elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, and the leaf margin is whole or serrated. Flowers are axillary cymes, small and fragrant, and their colors vary with varieties.
There are osmanthus fragrans with strong growth potential, thick branches, large leaf shape, rough leaves, dark green leaves and orange red leaves; There are silvery laurel trees with medium growth, smooth leaves, serrated leaves, milky white flowers and dense and sweet flowers; Strong growth potential, smooth leaf surface, sparse serrated or entire leaf margin, light yellow flowers and sparse fragrance, which can bloom with the above varieties from September to autumn 10, or once every 2 -3 months. Dangui and Sijigui, the fruit is purple-black drupe, commonly known as cinnamon.
Osmanthus fragrans seedlings have obvious taproots, developed and deep roots. Young roots are yellow-brown, and old roots are yellow-brown.
The root system of grafted seedlings varies with rootstock; When cuttings are buried in the soil, adventitious roots grow everywhere, but there is no obvious main root. Hanging flowers have strong branching and low technical points, especially in the early stage, and often appear shrub-like for a long time.
After close planting or pruning, it can become an obvious trunk. Bark is rough, grayish brown or grayish white, sometimes showing lenticels.
The leaf surface is smooth, leathery, dark and bright green near the axis, and the far axis surface is more talked about; Oval, oblong, oval, obovate, lanceolate, oblanceolate, oblanceolate to ovate-lanceolate. Osmanthus fragrans is an evergreen broad-leaved tree with a height of15m and a crown of 400.
3. What are the four plants that change the world? What is the tobacco that makes the world addicted?
Tobacco originated in America and spread to Europe with the return of Columbus' fleet. On the one hand, people once thought it had magical effects. In Europe in the16th century, almost all doctors used tobacco as a "magic medicine" to treat toothache, intestinal parasites, halitosis, tetanus and even cancer. On the other hand, smoking has a unique self-entertainment function and is deeply loved by nobles and ordinary people.
Tea that triggered two important wars
1559, * * people brought tea to Europe. At that time, drinking tea was a part of aristocratic life, and it was expensive. /kloc-At the beginning of the 7th century, the British East India Company obtained the franchise to engage in tea trade with China people, but it could only be purchased with silver. In order to raise silver, the East India Company illegally imported opium into China, which caused great harm to China and eventually led to the outbreak of the Opium War. Tea was also the cause of the American War of Independence.
Sugarcane that led to the great migration of mankind
Shortly after the opening of the new air route, Spain, Portugal and other countries began to grow sugar cane in the Caribbean. And brought a large number of slaves from Africa to work. /kloc-In the 300 years after the 6th century, as many as1/kloc-0.7 million slaves were sold from Africa to America to work in large plantations, including planting sugar cane, and only 9.8 million people survived. Great changes have taken place in the demographic composition of the Caribbean and even South America.
Potatoes to feed the world
The origin of potato is the Andes in South America. The pioneers of the new air route brought it to Europe and then spread it to other parts of the world, becoming the fourth largest crop in the world. The significance of potato to the world is that it feeds more people, and its yield per mu is 3-4 times that of grain.
4. the evolution of plants on the earth has seen the answer. The earth where we live has biological footprints everywhere, and everything shows the vitality of life. So, how did the * * *-shaped creatures on the earth form today? How did life on earth begin?
For centuries, the fascinating mystery of the origin of life has been attracting people to explore and study. The struggle between materialism and idealism about the origin of life has never stopped. Science and religion are completely hostile and irreconcilable.
People have studied the remains of animals and plants that once lived on the earth, proving that life has been evolving and evolving. The earliest living things on earth are completely different from the living things now. The longer the age, the lower and simpler the creatures of that era.
Engels put forward a scientific concept about the origin of life. He affirmed the unity of life and non-life and thought that life was the product of development. He gave a glorious definition of life, and his conclusion was that protein was the carrier of material life. 1952, Miller proved the evolution process from primitive atmosphere to living matter through scientific experiments, which gave a fatal blow to idealism. The scientific law of the origin of life has been recognized and accepted by more and more people.
About 3 billion years ago, plants appeared on the earth. Primitive plants are extremely simple in structure and poor in species, and all live in water; Hundreds of millions of years later, some plants moved from water to land to live. The environmental conditions on land are different from those in water, and the living conditions are varied and varied.
For example, when plants live in water, they use the whole surface of their bodies to absorb nutrients. On land, they need special organs to absorb water and minerals from the soil on the one hand, and carbon dioxide and oxygen from the atmosphere on the other.
1. In the process of evolution, plants constantly struggle with external environmental conditions. The environment is constantly changing, and the morphological structure and physiological functions of plants are bound to change accordingly. Second, geographical isolation Because of some geographical obstacles, such as oceans, large tracts of land, mountains and deserts, many creatures cannot move freely from one area to another, thus isolating the population on the east coast of the ocean from the population on the west coast. Isolation makes it possible for different populations to accumulate different variations under different conditions, resulting in morphological differences, physiological differences, ecological differences or chromosome aberrations, thus achieving reproductive isolation. In this way, new species are formed. 3. Under natural conditions, the plant kingdom constantly produces new types and varieties through mutual natural hybridization or long-term cultivation by human beings. Today, in different living environments, such as oceans, lakes, polar regions, temperate zones, tropics, hot deserts and cold mountainous areas, we can meet all kinds of different plants everywhere, and their external morphology and internal structure, colors, habits and reproductive ability are very different. All these indicate that plants adapt to the environment with diversity, thus forming different kinds and shapes of plants.
Through research, it is found that the ocean is the cradle of life, and the earliest plants in the ocean are cyanobacteria and bacteria, which are also creatures that appeared in the early days of the earth. They are much more perfect in structure than the protein regiment, but much simpler than the simplest creatures now. They have no cell structure or even a nucleus. They are called prokaryotes, and their residual fossils can be found in ancient strata.
Cyanobacteria appear on the earth, which are abundant and reproduce quickly, and can release oxygen during metabolism. Its appearance has made amazing achievements in transforming atmospheric composition. In the process of biological evolution, organisms that can use sunlight and inorganic substances to make organic matter have gradually appeared, and new types of nuclei such as red algae and green algae have appeared.
Algae once had the heyday of tens of thousands of centuries on the earth, and their plant tissues gradually became more complex and reached a more perfect level.
Due to climate change, some algae growing in water were forced to contact the land and gradually evolved into ferns. After this era, gymnosperms appeared. About one million years ago, in Qian Qian, the largest family of angiosperms in the plant kingdom was born in this land. They have developed rapidly, and the appearance of the whole plant is very close to that of modern plants. Until now, they are still dominated by angiosperms.
In this way, in the long years, plants have experienced huge and extremely complex evolution, ups and downs, from inanimate to living, from low to advanced, from simple to complex, from aquatic to terrestrial, and today's plant kingdom has emerged.
The earliest terrestrial plant fossils appeared in the continental sediments from Late Silurian to devonian period, indicating that plants had been pushed from the ocean to the mainland 400 million years ago, realizing the great historical process of landing. The landing of plants has changed the desert landscape of the mainland in the past, making the mainland gradually put on green clothes and full of vitality. In addition, the emergence and evolution of terrestrial plants have improved the global ecosystem. Terrestrial plants are more productive. They not only produce carbohydrates with incomparable productivity, but also absorb a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere and release a lot of free oxygen (O2) in the process of photosynthesis, thus increasing the composition ratio of the atmosphere and making great contributions to increasing the amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere. Therefore, the landing of plants 400 million years ago was a great event in the history of the earth's development. It can even be said that without the successful landing of plants, there would be no world today.
5. What changes have taken place in plant classification over time? Plants were originally classified according to whether they have medicinal value or other uses.
Inspector Cato (234- 149) listed 125 plants in his book Agronomy, which is one of the earliest Roman flora. Pope Gaya, Pliny and Sekundus (GaiusPliniusSecundus, 23-79-79), also known as Pliny the Elder, published his book Natural History in the 1 century.
This book is one of the oldest and most important ancient plants, describing more than 1000 plants. With the discovery of more and more plants, their classification becomes more and more complicated.
1583, one of the earliest plant taxonomists, Italian botanist Caesalpinus (1519-1603) classified 1500 plants according to their different characteristics, such as leaf structure, appearance of seeds and fruits. John ray (1627— 1705) was the first botanist to classify plants according to their multiple similarities and characteristics.
His book Plant History was published between 1686 and 1704. In the book, 18000 plants are classified in detail, and monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous flowering plants are distinguished. French biologists j, p, De and Turner Ford (j, p, Det 0 URNEF0RT, 1656- 1708) first introduced "genus" between "family" and "species".
His classification system has 700 genera, including 9000 species. 1753, Swedish naturalists Karl and Linnaeus published Flora.
This book divides plants into 24 categories according to their reproductive characteristics. Today, Linnaeus binomial method is still the most widely used animal and plant classification system.
However, this system often cannot reflect the natural relationship, so it is considered as artificial classification. /kloc-In the late 8th century, people put forward several natural classification systems.
French botanist Antoine Laurent de Giussieu (1686-1758) published his work Flora. 1824, Swiss botanist Augustine Pirame de Candole (1778- 184 1) set out to compile an introduction to natural systems in the plant kingdom, which took 50 years to complete.
From 1862 to 1883, British botanists George and Ji Bentham (1800-1884), Joseph Dalton of Hekou and Hook (Joseph Dalton H00KER,18). /kloc-In the late 9th century, the evolutionism of Charles and Darwin began to influence the classification of plants.
The first major plant natural classification system appeared at the end of 19. 1887- 19 15, German botanists Adolfengles and Karl Brandt (Karl Prantl, 1849- 19).
This system is one of the most complete natural classification systems and is still in use in the 20th century. The author identified about 654.38 million species of plants and listed them in the assumed evolutionary order.
Plant classification system also developed in the 20th century. Some systems begin to pay attention to flora, especially flowering plants, but not all plants.
Charles Besses1845—1915) was the first American scientist to put forward a plant classification system in the early 20th century. Cladistic taxonomy is one of the latest classification methods at present.
It usually refers to a set of concepts and methods to describe the evolutionary branching graph of evolutionary branching structure.