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Kingdom  [  Taxonomy ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

     
  In old classification, a kingdom was the highest grouping (taxon) of similar organisms. Actually the top-level grouping of organisms in scientific classification is the domain or empire or superkingdom and kingdoms are the at the second level.  
     
A kingdom contains one or more division or phyla (plural of phylum). A group of similar kingdom.forms a domain.

All the kingdoms that comprise the complex life forms Animalia (animals), Plantae (plants), and fungi, which are mostly multicellular, as well as various other groups of unicellular beings called protists (protozoans and eucaryotic algae), belong to the domain eukaryotes. The eukaryotes share a common origin, and are often treated formally as a domain.

     
 


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Holdfast roots  [ Botany  ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

 
     
  Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.  
     
Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans),  develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994
     

 

 

 

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