Yucca baccata Torrey, 1859 - banana yucca (desert plant display, visitor center grounds, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, USA)
Plants are multicellular, photosynthesizing eucaryotes. Most species occupy terrestrial environments, but they also occur in freshwater and saltwater aquatic environments. The oldest known land plants in the fossil record are Ordovician to Silurian. Land plant body fossils are known in Silurian sedimentary rocks - they are small and simple plants (e.g., Cooksonia). Fossil root traces in paleosol horizons are known in the Ordovician. During the Devonian, the first trees and forests appeared. Earth's initial forestation event occurred during the Middle to Late Paleozoic. Earth's continents have been partly to mostly covered with forests ever since the Late Devonian. Occasional mass extinction events temporarily removed much of Earth's plant ecosystems - this occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary (251 million years ago) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (65 million years ago).
The most conspicuous group of living plants is the angiosperms, the flowering plants. They first unambiguously appeared in the fossil record during the Cretaceous. They quickly dominated Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, and have dominated ever since. This domination was due to the evolutionary success of flowers, which are structures that greatly aid angiosperm reproduction.
The banana yucca, Yucca baccata, is native to parts of southwestern America and northern Mexico.
Classification: Plantae, Angiospermophyta, Asparagales, Asparagaceae
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See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_baccata
Tags: Yucca baccata banana angiosperm angiosperms plant plants flowering
Arbutus xalapensis texana Buckley, 1861 - Texas madrone (desert plant display, visitor center grounds, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, USA)
Plants are multicellular, photosynthesizing eucaryotes. Most species occupy terrestrial environments, but they also occur in freshwater and saltwater aquatic environments. The oldest known land plants in the fossil record are Ordovician to Silurian. Land plant body fossils are known in Silurian sedimentary rocks - they are small and simple plants (e.g., Cooksonia). Fossil root traces in paleosol horizons are known in the Ordovician. During the Devonian, the first trees and forests appeared. Earth's initial forestation event occurred during the Middle to Late Paleozoic. Earth's continents have been partly to mostly covered with forests ever since the Late Devonian. Occasional mass extinction events temporarily removed much of Earth's plant ecosystems - this occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary (251 million years ago) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (65 million years ago).
The most conspicuous group of living plants is the angiosperms, the flowering plants. They first unambiguously appeared in the fossil record during the Cretaceous. They quickly dominated Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, and have dominated ever since. This domination was due to the evolutionary success of flowers, which are structures that greatly aid angiosperm reproduction.
The Texas madrone, Arbutus xalapensis texana (also known as Arbutus texana) is native to southwestern America and Mexico.
Classification: Plantae, Angiospermophyta, Ericales, Ericaceae
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See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutus_xalapensis
Tags: Texas madrone Arbutus xalapensis texana
Juniperus monosperma Engelmann, 1878 - one-seeded juniper (desert plant display, visitor center grounds, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, USA)
Plants are multicellular, photosynthesizing eucaryotes. Most species occupy terrestrial environments, but they also occur in freshwater and saltwater aquatic environments. The oldest known land plants in the fossil record are Ordovician to Silurian. Land plant body fossils are known in Silurian sedimentary rocks - they are small and simple plants (e.g., Cooksonia). Fossil root traces in paleosol horizons are known in the Ordovician. During the Devonian, the first trees and forests appeared. Earth's initial forestation event occurred during the Middle to Late Paleozoic. Earth's continents have been partly to mostly covered with forests ever since the Late Devonian. Occasional mass extinction events temporarily removed much of Earth's plant ecosystems - this occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary (251 million years ago) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (65 million years ago).
The most conspicuous group of living plants is the angiosperms, the flowering plants. They first unambiguously appeared in the fossil record during the Cretaceous. They quickly dominated Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, and have dominated ever since. This domination was due to the evolutionary success of flowers, which are structures that greatly aid angiosperm reproduction.
The one-seeded juniper, Juniperus monosperma, is native to much of southwestern America. Junipers are not angiosperms - they are evergreen gymnosperms.
Classification: Plantae, Pinophyta, Pinopsida, Pinales, Cupressaceae
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See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_monosperma
Tags: Juniperus monosperma one-seeded juniper junipers gymnosperm gymnosperms one seeded 1 seed evergreen evergreens
The squiggly structures in the photo are stylolites, which are pressure dissolution features that frequently have the appearance of a hospital EKG reading. These occur in many limestones, dolostones, and marbles, especially in or near orogenic belts.
The host rock here is limestone, a biogenic sedimentary rock composed of calcite (CaCO3 - calcium carbonate). Most limestones form in ancient, warm, shallow ocean environments.
Stratigraphy: probably the Lamar Limestone, Upper Permian
Locality: trailside, McKittrick Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, western Texas, USA
Tags: stylolite stylolites limestone limestones Permian McKittrick Canyon Guadalupe Mountains National Park Texas
Opuntia sp. - prickly pear cactus in Texas, USA.
Cactuses are an odd group of angiopsperms. Their leaves have been evolutionarily modified into spines, which are used for protection against herbivores. The green, succulent stems of cactuses are the only portions of the plant that engage in photosynthesis.
Classification: Plantae, Angiospermophyta, Caryophyllales, Cactaceae
Locality: near visitor center at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, USA
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Info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia
Tags: Opuntia prickly pear cactus cactuses cacti angiosperm angiosperms flowering plant plants Guadalupe Mountains National Park Texas