Desert Plants

Desert Plants PDF

Author: Catherine A. Welch

Publisher: Capstone

Published: 2005-09

Total Pages: 30

ISBN-13: 9780736843218

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Describes desert plants, how desert plants are used, and why these plants need to be protected.

Sonoran Desert Plants

Sonoran Desert Plants PDF

Author: Raymond M. Turner

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2022-02-08

Total Pages: 523

ISBN-13: 0816547939

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Sonoran Desert, a fragile ecosystem, is under ever-increasing pressure from a burgeoning human population. This ecological atlas of the region's plants, a greatly enlarged and full revised version of the original 1972 atlas, will be an invaluable resource for plant ecologists, botanists, geographers, and other scientists, and for all with a serious interest in living with and protecting a unique natural southwestern heritage. An encyclopedia as well as an atlas, this monumental work describes the taxonomy, geographic distribution, and ecology of 339 plants, most of them common and characteristic trees, shrubs, or succulants. Also included is valuable information on natural history and ethnobotanical, commercial, and horticultural uses of these plants. The entry for each species includes a range map, an elevational profile, and a narrative account. The authors also include an extensive bibliography, referring the reader to the latest research and numerous references of historical importance, with a glossary to aid the general reader. Sonoran Desert Plants is a monumental work, unlikely to be superseded in the next generation. As the region continues to attract more people, there will be an increasingly urgent need for basic knowledge of plant species as a guide for creative and sustainable habitation of the area. This book will stand as a landmark resource for many years to come.

Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert

Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert PDF

Author: Wendy C. Hodgson

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2001-03

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9780816520602

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Food Plants of the Sanoran Desert includes not only plants such as gourds and legumes but also unexpected food sources such as palms, lilies, and cattails, all of which have provided nutrition to desert peoples. Each species entry lists recorded names and describes indigenous uses, which often include nonfood therapeutic and commodity applications. The agave, for example, is cited for its use as food and for alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, syrup, fiber, cordage, clothing, sandals, nets, blankets, lances, fire hearths, musical instruments, hedgerows, soap, and medicine, and for ceremonial purposes. The agave entry includes information on harvesting, roasting, and consumption - and on distinguishing between edible and inedible varieties.".

Desert Plants

Desert Plants PDF

Author: Kishan Gopal Ramawat

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-12-16

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 3642025501

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Deserts appear very fascinating during our short visits. However, the lives of plants and animals are very dif?cult under the harsh climatic conditions of high tempe- ture and scant water supply in deserts, sometimes associated with high concent- tions of salt. The editor of this book was born and brought up in the Great Indian Desert, and has spent much of his life studying the growth and metabolism of desert plants. It is very charming on a cool summer evening to sit at the top of a sand dune listening only to blowing air and nothing else. It has been my dream to prepare a volume on desert plants encompassing various aspects of desert plant biology. In this book, I have tried to present functional and useful aspects of the vegetation resources of deserts along with scienti?c input aimed at understanding and impr- ing the utility of these plants. The scant vegetation of deserts supports animal life and provides many useful medicines, timber and fuel wood for humans. Therefore, there are chapters devoted to medicinal plants (Chap. 1), halophytes (Chaps. 13, 14), and fruit plants (Chaps. 17, 20). Desert plants have a unique reproductive biology (Chaps. 9–11), well-adapted eco-physiological and anatomical charact- istics (Chap. 7), and specialised metabolism and survival abilities. These plants are dif?cult to propagate and pose many problems to researchers developing biote- nological approaches for their amelioration (Chaps. 18–20).

Survival Strategies of Annual Desert Plants

Survival Strategies of Annual Desert Plants PDF

Author: Yitzchak Gutterman

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2002-08-28

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9783540431725

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Annual desert plant species of unrelated taxa in the Negev Desert of Israel have developed complementary sets of adaptations and survival strategies as ecological equivalents with physiological, morphological and anatomical resemblances, in the various stages of their life cycles. After 40 years of research in hot deserts Yitzchak Gutterman provides a comprehensive treatise of such adaptations and strategies. In doing so he covers the following topics: post-maturation primary seed dormancy, which prevents germination of maturing seeds before the summer; seed dispersal mechanisms with escape or protection strategies; cautious or opportunistic germination strategies; seedling drought tolerance. The day-length is an important factor in regulating flowering as well as the phenotypic plasticity of seed germination which is also affected by maternal factors.

River and Desert Plants of the Grand Canyon

River and Desert Plants of the Grand Canyon PDF

Author: Kristin Huisinga

Publisher: Mountain Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Grand Canyon's isolation, great elevational range, and position at the convergence of three North American deserts--the Mojave, Sonoran, and Great Basin--have created unique habitats for an unusual assemblage of plants. Some grow only at seeps and springs, others emerge from cracks in the bedrock, and some live only in the Grand Canyon--for example, Roaring Springs prickly poppy and Grand Canyon flaveria. River and Desert Plants of the Grand Canyon, the first comprehensive field guide devoted to plants that live below the canyon rims, is bursting with beautiful color photographs and detailed line drawings of more than 250 ferns, grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees. Narratives organized by life form and common family name describe each plant and its natural history, and thumbnail photographs arranged by flower color and shape offer a key for easy identification. Essays by contributing experts explore such topics as Grand Canyon ecology, desert-plant adaptations, biological soil crusts, plant pollination, invasive species, and domesticated plants of the canyon's indigenous people.

Physiological Ecology of North American Desert Plants

Physiological Ecology of North American Desert Plants PDF

Author: Stanley D. Smith

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 3642592120

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Following a description of the physical and biological characterization of the four North American deserts together with the primary adaptations of plants to environmental stress, the authors go on to present case studies of key species. They provide an up-to-date and comprehensive review of the major patterns of adaptation in desert plants, with one chapter devoted to several important exotic plants that have invaded these deserts. The whole is rounded off with a synthesis of the resource requirements of desert plants and how they may respond to global climate change.

Structure-Function Relations of Warm Desert Plants

Structure-Function Relations of Warm Desert Plants PDF

Author: Arthur C. Gibson

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 3642609791

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

For centuries biologists have been extremely interested in the structure of desert plants as examples of natural selection to harsh environmental conditions. Indeed, desert plants are frequently used as examples in many biology classes and textbooks to illustrate natural selection, but this has led to an unfortunate litany of errors and misconceptions about desert plant adaptations. This new synthesis focuses on plants of lowland tropical and subtropical arid deserts. Readers will be surprised to discover that many features commonly ascribed to desert plants are rareley observed in the most common species. Instead, the typical structural adaptations of nonsucculent warm desert plants are now viewed as ways to maximize photosynthetic rate.

Desert Plants

Desert Plants PDF

Author: Gary Lyons

Publisher: Huntington Library Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Praise for the Huntington's Desert Garden: "Nowhere else is there such a stunning collection of these succulents in quantity, maturity, and diversity."--Maureen Gilmer, DIY's "Weekend Gardening" "A radiant spectacle of beautiful freaks."--"New York Times"