The Brassicales are an order of flowering plants, belonging to the eurosids II group of dicotyledons under the APG II system. One character common to many members of the order is the production of glucosinolate compounds. Most systems of classification have included this order, although sometimes under the name Capparales.
At 824,292 km2 (318,261 sq mi), Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country. After Mongolia, Namibia is the second least densely populated country in the world. Namibia got its name from the Namib desert that stretches along the coast of the Atlantic. It is also known for its wildlife.
The Namib is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba River in Angola, through Namibia and to the Olifants River in Western Cape, South Africa. The Namib's northernmost portion, which extends 450 kilometres (280 mi) from the Angola-Namibia border, is known as Moçâmedes Desert, while its southern portion approaches the neighboring Kalahari Desert. From the Atlantic coast eastward, the Namib gradually ascends in elevation, reaching up to 200 kilometres (120 mi) inland to the foot of the Great Escarpment. Annual precipitation ranges from 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in the aridest regions to 200 millimetres (7.9 in) at the escarpment, making the Namib the only true desert in southern Africa. Having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for roughly 55–80 million years, the Namib may be the oldest desert in the world and contains some of the world's driest regions, with only western South America's Atacama Desert to challenge it for age and aridity benchmarks.
The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia. Immediately south of Angola, it stretches from the Kunene River to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San people, of the Namibian interior called the region "The Land God Made in Anger", while Portuguese sailors once referred to it as "The Gates of Hell".
Iona National Park is the largest national park in Angola. It is situated in the Southwestern corner of the country, in Namibe Province. It is roughly bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the West, an escarpment to the East that marks the beginning of the interior plateau, the Curoca River to the North, and the Cunene River to the South. It is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of the city of Namibe and covers 5,850 square miles (15,200 km2) sq. miles.
The wildlife of Namibia is composed of its flora and fauna. Namibia's endangered species include the wild dog, black rhino, oribi and puku.
The northwestern fat mouse is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is native to tropical West Africa where it occurs on grassland and crop land.
Crassothonna clavifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is found only in Namibia. Its natural habitat is rocky areas. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Euphorbia kaokoensis is a rare species of plant found in certain rocky areas of Namibia and Angola. It can appear as a woody shrub or a small tree, with green leaves that pale on undersides, which contain conspicuous veins. Males produce clusters of flowers from November to January. The species is very rare, found only at a few locations, although no threats are known.
Pieter B. Pelser is a lecturer in Plant Systematics and the curator of the herbarium at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. One research interest is the evolutionary history of the tribe Senecioneae, one of the largest tribes in the largest family of flowering plants. He wrote the most recent attempt to define and delimit this tribe and its problematic founding species Senecio. He also studies insects that eat these plants (Longitarsus) which contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids and what makes them choose which plants they eat.
Felicia filifolia is a Southern African member of the family Asteraceae. It is a hardy, sprawling shrub growing to about 1 metre tall. Leaves are narrow and clustered along the twigs. When blooming it is densely covered in flowerheads with ray florets that are pink-mauve to white and disc florets that are yellow. In the wild, flowers can be found August to December.
The Dorob National Park is a protected area in the Erongo region, along the central Namibian coast, which is 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) in length. It was gazetted as a national park under the Nature Conservation Ordinance No.4 of 1975 on 1 December 2010, and with Namib-Naukluft Park it covers an area of 107,540 square kilometres (41,520 sq mi).
Nepenthes abgracilis is a tropical pitcher plant native to the Philippines. It is known only from northeastern Mindanao, including Mount Legaspi. Little is known about the altitudinal distribution of this species, but the holotype was collected at 670 m.
Oberholzeria is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It only contains one known species, Oberholzeria etendekaensis which is endemic to Namibia. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, though its tribal affiliation is unclear.
Famatinanthus is a genus in the family Asteraceae that was described in 2014 and has been assigned to its own tribe Famatinantheae and subfamily Famatinanthoideae. It contains only one known species, F. decussatus, a small shrub of ½—1¾ m high that is an endemic of the Andes of north-western Argentina, with small, entire, oppositely set leaves and flowerheads containing about ten cream-colored, ray and disk florets, with backward coiled lobes. It is locally known as sacansa. For more than 100 years, the species was known to science only from the type collection. It was described in 1885 and originally assigned to the genus Aphyllocladus.
Corybas confusus, commonly known as the spider orchid is a species of terrestrial orchid endemic to New Zealand. It has a single heart-shaped leaf and a single dark green or light green flower with reddish maroon streaks and blotches and long, thread-like lateral sepals and petals. It grows in highland areas on both main islands.
Tiganophytaceae is a family in the plant order Brassicales, consisting of the sole monotypic genus, Tiganophyton, represented by Tiganophyton karasense. The family is endemic to Namibia, occurring in the arid Karas Region of southern Namibia.
Polymastia bouryesnaultae, the knobbly sponge, is a small and cryptic species of demosponge from South Africa and Namibia.
Tetilla capillosa, the furry sponge, is a species of demosponge from southern Africa.
Daviesia flexuosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west coast of Western Australia. It is a glabrous, spreading shrub with zig-zagged branchlets, scattered, sharply-pointed, narrowly triangular phyllodes and yellow and red flowers.
