The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, 419.2 Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoic Era. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by a few million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when up to 60% of marine genera were wiped out.
The Actinidiaceae are a small family of flowering plants. The family has three genera and about 360 species and is a member of the order Ericales.
Berberidopsidales is an order of Southern Hemisphere woody flowering plants. The name is newly accepted in the APG III system of plant taxonomy. APG II system, of 2003, mentions the possibility of recognizing the order, as comprising the families Berberidopsidaceae and Aextoxicaceae. However, APG II left the families unplaced as to order, assigning them to the clade core eudicots. The APG III system of 2009 formally recognized the order.
Robinia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, tribe Robinieae, native to North America. Commonly known as locusts, they are deciduous trees and shrubs growing 4–25 metres (13–82 ft) tall. The leaves are pinnate with 7–21 oval leaflets. The flowers are white or pink, in usually pendulous racemes. Many species have thorny shoots, and several have sticky hairs on the shoots.
Arbutus is a genus of 12 accepted species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islands and North America known as madrones. The name Arbutus was taken from Latin, where it referred to Arbutus unedo.
Lentibulariaceae is a family of carnivorous plants containing three genera: Genlisea, the corkscrew plants; Pinguicula, the butterworts; and Utricularia, the bladderworts.
Actaea, commonly called baneberry, bugbane and cohosh, is a genus of flowering plants of the family Ranunculaceae, native to subtropical, temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America.
Zosteraceae is a family of marine perennial flowering plants found in temperate and subtropical coastal waters, with the highest diversity located around Korea and Japan. Most seagrasses complete their entire life cycle under water, having filamentous pollen especially adapted to dispersion in an aquatic environment and ribbon-like leaves that lack stomata. Seagrasses are herbaceous and have prominent creeping rhizomes. A distinctive characteristic of the family is the presence of characteristic retinacules, which are present in all species except members of Zostera subgenus Zostera.
Cunoniaceae is a family of 27 genera and about 335 species of woody plants in the order Oxalidales, mostly found in the tropical and wet temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere. The greatest diversity of genera are in Australia and Tasmania, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. The family is also present in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Malesia, the islands of the South Pacific, Madagascar and surrounding islands. the family is absent from mainland Asia except from Peninsular Malaysia, and almost absent from mainland Africa apart from two species from Southern Africa. Several of the genera have remarkable disjunct ranges, found on more than one continent, e.g. Cunonia, EucryphiaWeinmannia.
Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with about 731 known species in 41 genera. Well known genera include Commelina (dayflowers) and Tradescantia (spiderworts). The family is diverse in both the Old World tropics and the New World tropics, with some genera present in both. The variation in morphology, especially that of the flower and inflorescence, is considered to be exceptionally high amongst the angiosperms.
Diapensiaceae is a small family of flowering plants, which includes 15 species in 6 genera. The genera include Berneuxia Decne., Diapensia L., Galax Sims, Pyxidanthera Michx., Shortia Torr. & A.Gray, and Schizocodon Siebold & Zucc.. Members of this family have little economic importance; however, some members are cultivated by florists.
Begoniaceae is a family of flowering plants with two genera and about 2040 species occurring in the subtropics and tropics of both the New World and Old World. All but one of the species are in the genus Begonia. There have been many recent discoveries of species in the genus Begonia, such as Begonia truncatifolia which is endemic to San Vincente, Palawan. B. truncatifolia is smaller in size than other species of the genus Begonia and this new species is proposed Critically Endangered by standards set by the IUCN. The only other genus in the family, Hillebrandia, is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands and has a single species. Phylogenetic work supports Hillebrandia as the sister taxon to the rest of the family. The genus Symbegonia was reduced to a section of Begonia in 2003, as molecular phylogenies had shown it to be derived from within that genus. Members of the genus Begonia are well-known and popular houseplants.
Berberidopsis is a genus of flowering plants in the small family Berberidopsidaceae.
Berberidopsidaceae is a family of flowering plants. Such a family has only recently been recognized by more than a few taxonomists: the plants involved have often been treated as belonging to family Flacourtiaceae.
Goetzea is a genus of plant in the family Solanaceae. It was originally placed by H. Wydler in the family Ebenaceae and named for his teacher the Rev. Johann August Ephraim Goetze. It was for about half a century included in the now defunct family Goetzeaceae Miers ex Airy Shaw
Sagenista is a group of heterokonts containing the labyrinthulids and Eogyrea, a class of yet uncultured protists. Originally, it contained the Labyrinthulids and bicosoecids. The bicosoecids have been removed, and Eogyrea were added, in order to make the group monophyletic.
Gliricidia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae and tribe Robinieae. Its native range is Mexico to Peru, but Gliricidia sepium has been widely introduced to other tropical zones.
The tribe Sophoreae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family Fabaceae. Traditionally this tribe has been used as a wastebasket taxon to accommodate genera of Faboideae which exhibit actinomorphic, rather than zygomorphic floral symmetry and/or incompletely differentiated petals and free stamens. Various morphological and molecular analyses indicated that Sophoreae as traditionally circumscribed was polyphyletic. This led to a re-circumscription of Sophoreae, which resulted in the transfer of many genera to other tribes. This also necessitated the inclusion of two former tribes, Euchresteae and Thermopsideae, in the new definition of Sophoreae. Tribe Sophoreae, as currently circumscribed, consistently forms a monophyletic clade in molecular phylogenetic analyses. The Sophoreae arose 40.8 ± 2.4 million years ago.
Berberidopsis beckleri is a species of climbing plant found in cool rainforests in eastern Australia. Its common name is the montane tape vine. Ferdinand von Mueller described the plant as Streptothamnus beckleri from collections at the Clarence River.
Ernest Charles Snow CBE was born in Woodford, Essex on 12 March 1886. He was educated at East London College. In 1902 Snow won an Open Mathematical Scholarship at The Queen’s College, Oxford.
