Artigo

PLANTS!

 

Arnica (Lychnophora pinaster)

Shrub species that develops in rocky fields on quartzite or ferruginous rock. All year round it produces flowers that are pollinated by insects. Its seeds are dispersed by the wind. This “arnica-mineira” is used as a medicinal plant, as it has analgesic and anti-inflammatory action and is also used in cases of infestation by human parasites.

 

Canela-de-ema (Vellozia sp)

Canelas-de-ema are shrubs up to two meters high, found in the fields and in the savannah. Symbol species at Rola-Moça Mountains State Park, it is an endangered plant in several places in Brazil. The fires have drastically affected their populations.

 

Cactus (Arthrocereus glaziovii)

Cactus restricted to the ferruginous rocky field in Minas Gerais. It flowers from September to January and its flowers are nocturnal. Their populations are small and are subject to loss of habitat quality, mainly due to mining and urban expansion activities, including the effects of lighting and noise on their pollinators and dispersers.

 

Capim-flexinha (Echinolaena inflexa)

Perennial grass found in various parts of Brazil, most common in Cerrado. Its seeds are dispersed by birds that feed on grain. It can be used to recover degraded areas. Due to the large production of biomass, its use as forage has been researched.

 

Orchid (Gomesa gracilis)

Orchid that grows in small populations on outcrops of iron ore in the mountains of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero (Iron Quadrangle). Its flowers are pollinated by insects and its seeds are dispersed by the wind. Threatened by the suppression of its habitat as a result of mining activities and predatory gathering.

 

Candeia (Eremanthus erythropappus)

Candeia is a small tree that grows in shallow and infertile soils, mainly between 900 and 1,700 meters of altitude. It flowers between the months of August and September and its fruits ripen in the period from September to November. Its wood, very durable, is used in the production of an oil, which has a medicinal substance used in the cosmetics industry.

 

Pau-de-tucano (Vochysia tucanorum)

Tree found in the Cerrado and in the Atlantic Forest. In some places, it stands out as the only larger species in fields dominated by herbs and shrubs. Its yellow flowers, in the rainy season, attract visitors such as bees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds. It produces gum that can be used as food by animals such as marmosets.

 

Sucupira (Bowdichia virgilioides)

Tree found in several regions of Brazil, quite frequent in the Cerrado, where it stands out for its purple flowering. It presents great variation in the size and appearance of the leaves, depending on the habitat. Its fruits are dispersed by the wind.

 

Pequizeiro (Caryocar brasiliensis)

Leafy canopy tree typical of the Cerrado. Inside its fruits are the large, strong yellow pits, coated with a soft and edible pulp. Widely used in regional cuisine, its pulp has twice as much vitamin C as an orange. Its almond is used in the manufacture of an oil that has anti-inflammatory and healing action.

 

Diesel tree or copaiba (Copaifera langsdorffii)

In the Atlantic Forest, the crown of this tree is perceived due to the reddish tone of the new leaves in the beginning of spring. Its fruits are fleshy and orange, attracting birds, which feed on them by dispersing the seeds. Its oil has several medicinal characteristics inclusive of healing and anti-inflammatory.

 

Bahia rosewood or caviúna (Dalbergia nigra)

Tree that occurs in the Atlantic Forest, in rich soils, especially in Bahia and the Southeast states. It is considered an endangered species because its hard, black, resistant wood, with varied designs, has been highly valued and exploited since the colonial period. Its seeds serve as food for rodents, which makes it difficult for them to regenerate.

 

Palm tree (Euterpe edulis)

Palm tree up to 15 meters with a thin and tall trunk. It is common in damp and shady places. Its fruits, black when ripe, are attractive to fauna and allure frugivorous birds such as the jacu. It is highly sought after for heart palm extraction, however this extraction harms the species, which only reproduces by seeds and takes up to 10 years for maturation.

 

(Plank 1):

 

DO YOU HAVE A THORN OR DO YOU HAVE PRICKLES?

We usually generically call those pointed structures present in plants thorns. But is not quite this…

The thorns are modifications of the leaves or trunk. Those that come from the leaves, leaf spines, do not carry out photosynthesis and are dry and resistant. Those that come from the branches, stem spines, are modifications of the branches that appear in the axils of the leaves. Cactuses have leaf thorns and lemon trees have stem thorns.

The prickles, in turn, are not modifications of the leaves or branches, but only projections of the bark (cortex) or epidermis of the plant. Unlike the others, the prickles do not have vascular tissues. A rose bush has prickles, not thorns.

 

(Plank 2):

 

DO PLANTS KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

The biological clock is an internal mechanism in living beings, governed by the sequence of hours, whose function is to regulate all the activities of the organism.

Dawn and dusk are predictable events and plants know it. Thus, they have a “routine” and their biological clock generates daily rhythms in order to synchronize their body with environmental rhythms. They prepare to reap the sunlight before dawn, emit smells to attract pollinators when they are most active, avoid losing water in the afternoon, when the air humidity is lower, and at night, they sustain themselves with the energy reserves produced during the day.

So it could be plants don't recognize the time the same way we do, but they do know the time that is important to them!