The Cactus and Succulent Garden displays native cactus species, as well as other cold-hardy cactus and succulent plants.
Sabtu, 06 Desember 2008
Western Colorado Botanical Gardens
The Western Colorado Botanical Gardens 12 acres (49,000 m²) are botanical gardens located at the southern end of 7th Street in Grand Junction, Colorado, USA. A variety of outdoor gardens have been developed and/or planned, including a Cactus and Succulent Garden, Children's Secret Garden, Harmony In Color Garden, International Garden, Native Garden, Seasonal Xeric Garden, and Sensory Garden.
The Cactus and Succulent Garden displays native cactus species, as well as other cold-hardy cactus and succulent plants.
The Cactus and Succulent Garden displays native cactus species, as well as other cold-hardy cactus and succulent plants.
Sabtu, 15 November 2008
Denver Botanic Gardens
The Denver Botanic Gardens is a public botanical garden located in Denver, Colorado in the Cheesman Park neighborhood. Woody Allen's 1973 movie Sleeper filmed some scenes at the gardens.
The Japanese Garden at the Denver Botanic Garden is called Shofu-en -- the Garden of Wind and Pines. The Denver Botanic Gardens, along with nearby Cheesman Park and Congress Park, sit atop what used to be the city's cemetery.
The Japanese Garden at the Denver Botanic Garden is called Shofu-en -- the Garden of Wind and Pines. The Denver Botanic Gardens, along with nearby Cheesman Park and Congress Park, sit atop what used to be the city's cemetery.
Senin, 27 Oktober 2008
The Rarest Flowers
Meanwhile, big plants capable of consuming their small prey are thought to be extinct. Fortunately, recent discoveries have validated the existence of these creatures. Environmental changes and man-made activities are considered the primary reasons for the decline of their numbers.
Youtan Poluo is a legendary flower thought to exist only in the Buddhist scriptures. Youtan Poluo is translated in Sanskrit as "Udumbara" or "Udambara" flower. Similar phenomenon has occurred at Chonggye-sa Temple in Seoul when the flower blossomed on the Buddha statue's forehead.
The Rarest Flowers
From the species of tropical flesh-eating pitcher plant, the nepenthes tenax has been spotted in the Northern Queensland, Australia. The Nepenthes Tenax can grow a maximum height of 100 cm with vines exceeding to 25 cm high.
According to the authorities of Haleakala National Park, silverswords have been endangered by extensive herding and vandalism.
Afterwards, the plant digests the prey using its digestive glands.
Otherwise known as the Cape sundew, Drosera capensis is native to the land of South African cape. Cape Sundew is usually cultivated in the southern capes of Africa due to its insecticidal function.
Youtan Poluo is a legendary flower thought to exist only in the Buddhist scriptures. Youtan Poluo is translated in Sanskrit as "Udumbara" or "Udambara" flower. Similar phenomenon has occurred at Chonggye-sa Temple in Seoul when the flower blossomed on the Buddha statue's forehead.The Rarest Flowers
From the species of tropical flesh-eating pitcher plant, the nepenthes tenax has been spotted in the Northern Queensland, Australia. The Nepenthes Tenax can grow a maximum height of 100 cm with vines exceeding to 25 cm high.
Kadupul flowers emit strange fragrance as it blooms during midnight. Strangely, these flowers immediately die during dawn.
Seeing Kadupul flower blooms is a very rare experience among those that grow the flower.
The endangered plant since 1922, Ahinahina, exclusively grows only in the alpine regions of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Haleakala. The tough skin of this plant is capable of enduring harsh weather conditions, especially snowy weather and intensive heat of the sun.Seeing Kadupul flower blooms is a very rare experience among those that grow the flower.
According to the authorities of Haleakala National Park, silverswords have been endangered by extensive herding and vandalism.
Afterwards, the plant digests the prey using its digestive glands.
Otherwise known as the Cape sundew, Drosera capensis is native to the land of South African cape. Cape Sundew is usually cultivated in the southern capes of Africa due to its insecticidal function.Senin, 20 Oktober 2008
Amazing and Weird Plants That Eat Animals
Carnivorous plants refer to any meat-eating plants with urn-, trumpet-, or pitcher-shaped leaves. Asclepiadaceae (milkweed family), Sarraceniaceae (new world pitcher plants, or Sarracenia genus found in the eastern part of North America), and Nepenthaceae (Old World pitcher plants) are some of their examples.
The known species of carnivorous plants are more than 660 species and 9 plant families, with the Venus flytrap being the famous and one of the most abundant species among them. Meanwhile, the Utricularia genus is identified as the largest number of the species on earth.
Most plants cannot absorb Nitrogen directly from the air, except for a small number of leguminous plants which are adapted with unique nitrogen-fixing property as in the example of Rhizobium.
That means, they have to break down the insects to obtain their Nitrogen content (insect bodies contain about 10.5% nitrogen), and hence they are termed as meat-eating plants. Apart from Nitrogen, Utricularia and Triphyophyllum are also known to absorb Magnesium and Potassium, while Sarracenia absorbs Phosphorus in prey. The adaptation of their leaves specially modified as traps enable them to obtain some nutrients by trapping and digesting various invertebrates, and occasionally they may even digest larger animals such as frogs and mammals.
Scientists believe that they may have evolved from rolled leaves, with selection pressure favoring more deeply cupped leaves over relatively long evolutionary time. Some of them such as Nepenthes are placed within clades consisting particularly of flypaper traps, but some have evolved from flypaper traps by loss of mucilage. Very often, these plants climb by tendrils.
In insectivorous plants (insects are one of their common prey items), their leaves appear in the form of deep cups or pitchers in which visiting insects will fall into them. Once in the plant, the prey tumbles down into a liquid pool and drowns, and then they are digested by the action of enzymes secreted by cells located in the walls in their pitcher-like structures of these plants. The digestion of prey releases nitrates and other nutrients, and these essential nutrients are then absorbed for their growth.
The Venus flytrap, which has leaf lobes, is one of the wonder in the world of plants as this carnivorous plant can capture its prey very quickly in a terrifying way. The Utricularia genus is an underwater plant, which can suck its prey into bladders with its fastest-acting trap in times as short as 1/30 of a second. Meanwhile, the complex-acting trap belongs to genus Genlisea.
The centipede may cry in help if it is accidentally trapped by Nepenthes. Utricularia and Aldrovanda live with their traps submerging in water and they capture rotifers, daphnia, mosquito larvae and other larger aquatics as their foods. Pinguicula and Drosera captures moths, flies, gnats and other flying insects as their prey. The genus Genlisea captures protozoans. It is scary to see pitcher plants such as Cephalotus, Nepenthes, Sarracenia digest wasps, butterflies, beetles, ants, spiders, and flies in a tremendously rapid and terrible manner!
Jumat, 17 Oktober 2008
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is a 26 ha (65 acre) garden, containing over 1,000 species of rare and indigenous plants. It is located in Mission Canyon, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
The purpose of the Garden is to display California native plants in natural settings. There are approximately 9.2 km (5.5 miles) of hiking trails within the garden. Mission Creek flows through the premises, and includes a rock dam which was constructed in 1806 by Native Americans (mainly Canaliños) under the direction of the Spanish padres of the adjacent Mission Santa Barbara. From now until 2007, the Garden is home to Patrick Dougherty's latest sculpture, Toad Hall, a two-story tower and a maze of pathways and chambers made of twisted and woven willows.
The Garden was founded in 1926 and designed by noted landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. By 1936 its focus had narrowed to plants native to the California Floristic Province (which includes a bit of southwestern Oregon and part of Baja California, as well as most of the state of California). The Garden became a Santa Barbara County Landmark in 1983 (the dam on Mission Creek was already designated as a State Historic Landmark).
The Garden has a plant breeding program. Plant introduction include Aesculus californica 'Canyon Pink', Agave shawii, Arctostaphylos 'White Lanterns', Arctostaphylos 'Canyon Blush', Arctostaphylos insularis 'Canyon Sparkles', Artemisia californica 'Canyon Gray', Berberis aquifolium 'Mission Canyon', Ceanothus 'Wheeler Canyon', Ceanothus 'Far Horizons', Ceanothus arboreus 'Powder Blue', Eriophyllum nevinii 'Canyon Silver', Fremontodendron 'Dara's Gold', Heuchera 'Blushing Bells', Heuchera 'Canyon Belle', Heuchera 'Canyon Chimes', Heuchera 'Canyon Delight',Heuchera 'Canyon Duet', Heuchera 'Canyon Melody', Heuchera 'Canyon Pink', Heuchera 'Dainty Bells', Heuchera 'Pink Wave', Iris 'Canyon Snow', Lessingia filaginifolia 'Silver Carpet', Leymus condensatus 'Canyon Prince', Salvia 'Dara's Choice', Salvia cedrosensis 'Baja Blanca', Salvia leucophylla 'Amethyst Bluff', and Verbena lilacina 'De La Mina'.
from wikipedia.org
Rabu, 15 Oktober 2008
Numbers Don't Lie
All the stats stats stats you ever wanted to know...plus some of our favorite photos in a slideshow.
Continents visited: 6
Countries visited: 17
Bribes given: 1, OK probably 2
Hottest temperature: Bangkok at 100F
Coldest temperature: Kilimanjaro at -10F
Phone cards purchased and not used: 3
Other useless cards purchased: 2 (international drivers' license and Hostelling International cards)
Annoying songs that played incessantly, spanning multiple weeks and multiple countries until we felt malaria-style crazy: 4 (Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston, Umbrella by Rihanna, African Queen by 2face Idibia, that Boat and Raft song by all southeast asian musicians)
Injuries: Dennis 7 (not including 4 trip/fall accidents), Kristi 2
Illnesses: Dennis 3, Kristi 4
Illnesses cured: Dennis 2 (excema, migraines), Kristi 1 (beer allergy)
Weight lost: 80 lbs
Number of old European ladies that were bigots that we were forced to spend time with: 2
Types of places slept in: 13 (tents, a van, hotel, hostel/guesthouse/residencia, apartments aka kindness of friends and total strangers, airports, planes, buses, trains, brothels, flop houses, a cult, and dorm rooms)
Nations that know what decent coffee is: 5 (but what does it matter when you're usually served Nescafe anyway)
Modes of transportation taken: 20 (airplane, ferry, party van, city bus, intercity bus, train, subway train, funicular, commuting escalator, cab, moped, dalla dalla, combi, saamlaew, tuk tuk, crocodile boat, long tail boat, land rover, bicycle and cyclo)
Longest bus ride: 22 hrs from Iguazu to Cordoba
Most off-schedule bus ride: Phitsonuluk to Suknohnoket, where a 1 1/2 hour bus ride turns into 3 when the driver stops to pick up groceries, drop off laundry, pick up his son's friends. Oh, and mopeds were passing our sad, anemic bus on the left!
Most fun bus ride: Huay Xai to Luang Nam Tha (meeting Paula, drinking lao lao with old men on the side of the road, laughing at the entire family puking in the row behind us, and feeling exhilarated by the hair-pin mountain turns and near-misses with livestock)
Most uncomfortable bus ride: Luang Nam Tha to Luang Prabang (again, Laos, but this time at 14 hours through amazing scenery which we didn't really see because we were sitting on bags of rice in the middle of the aisle)
Worst bus ride: 3 hour trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay sitting in front of 3 Australian friends talking really loudly. Sample conversation:
Friend #1: "Hollywood movies are such crap. I usually just avoid them."
Friend #2: "Oh yea, me too. Except for the Cohen Brothers. They're pretty good. Wait, that's not it. I mean the Farrelly Brothers. Dumb and Dumber is the best movie of the decade."
Friend #1: "Oh yea, they're great. Pretty much the only American films I'll watch anymore are Jim Carrey films. Well, Robin Williams, too."
Friend #2: "I loooove Robin Williams. AND Jim Carrey (etc. etc. for the next hour...)"
Most watched film on a bus: Rush Hour 3 (4 times on asian buses)
Number of buses taken: Incalculable
Longest flight: Hong Kong to Jo'Berg at 16 hours
Shortest flight: Vientienne to Siem Reap at 1 1/2 hours
Most favored airline: a tie between JAL and LAN
Most hated airline: Iberian
Most days without showering/ bathing: 7 on Kilimanjaro
Number of salt, pepper, sugar, or powdered milk packets "acquired": 65
Number of mini-soaps "acquired": 54
Number of "high-quality" condiment packets "acquired" (your soy sauce, jam, butter, etc..): 31
Number of actual alpaca sightings: 2
Well, that's about it. So long, folks, and thanks for reading! Until next time...
-K
Senin, 13 Oktober 2008
The Betty Ford Alpine Garden
The Betty Ford Alpine Gardens are the world's highest botanical garden, located at 183 Gore Creek Drive, Vail, Colorado, USA, at an 8,200 feet altitude in the Rocky Mountains. The Gardens are open to the public daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day. 
from wikipedia.org
images from flickr users: Jean., Lou Springer
The Gardens were founded by Vail and Denver horticulturists in 1985, with subsequent planting of the Alpine Display Garden (1987), Mountain Perennial Garden (1989), Mountain Meditation Garden (1991), and the Alpine Rock Garden (1999) with its stunning 120-foot waterfall. Other gardens include the Children's Garden and Schoolhouse Garden. Together these gardens contain about 2,000 varieties of plants, including over 500 different varieties of wildflowers and alpine plants.
from wikipedia.org
images from flickr users: Jean., Lou Springer
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