Welcome to Unique Characteristics of Plants

List of plants and their unique traits and benefits. Heres a list of plants having an unusual characteristics

Unique Characteristics Plants

1.Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora)

Not all plants obtain nourishment from sunlight. Indian pipe, a smooth, leafless, waxy herbaceous plant is colorless because it has no chlorophyll. It turns black when mature. The plant obtains nourishment from decaying organic matter. They are also called as Ghost plant or Corpse plant. It is generally scarce or rare in occurrence.

Florentine Iris (I. florentina)

Orrisroot powder is made from the fragrant rootstocks of Florentine iris and other several varieties of European irises. The name orrisroot is a corruption of iris root. It is used in the manufacture of perfumes and tooth powder

Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus oil on its natural state is toxic to most mammals. Koalas are relatively tolerant of it.

Elder or Elderberry Sambucus

This shrub of the honeysuckle family is used in making jellies, sauces, pies and wine.

Daisy

The word daisy is a contraction of days eye, referring to the flowers sun-like appearance.

Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea)

The roots of saguaro cactus can store up to 8 tons of water, collected during the brief periods of rain.

Day Lily (Hemerocallis)

Day Lily was so named because the individual blossoms last only one day, it opens at sunrise and wither at sunset, possibly replaced by another one on the same stem the next day. Some species are edible and some are use for medicinal purposes.

Dandelion
Dandelion comes from the French dent de lion (lions tooth), suggested by the tooth-like notches on the leaves.
Dandelions Leaves

Young leaves are used as green in salad.

Dandelions Flowers

Flowers of dandelion are used in making wine.

Dandelions Roots

Roots of dandelion are roasted and prepared as a substitute for coffee and
Dandelions Dried Roots

Dried roots of dandelion are used in medicine as a tonic or to increase the flow of urine.

Dayflower
Dayflower was so named because its flower opens for one day only

Common Plant Characteristics

Roots and Shoots Terrestrial plants share a few defining characteristics, structural as well as functional. Perhaps the most basic shared feature of most plants is their division into shoots and roots. The separation between these two portions of the plant came about during the evolutionary move from an aqueous environment to a terrestrial one, and each part is essential in its own way to the plants' ability to survive on land.

Angelica (Angelica archangelica)

The angelica also called archangel and wild parsnip bears greenish flowers. It is cultivated for its leaves, which are cooked as a vegetable, and for its leafstalks and stems, which yield aromatic oil used in perfumes, confections, medicines, and liqueurs.

 Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients (but not energy) from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants have adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings. Charles Darwin wroteInsectivorous Plants, the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants, in 1875.[1] True carnivory is thought to have evolved independently six times in five different orders of flowering plants,[2][3] and these are now represented by more than a dozen genera. These include about 630 species that attract and trap prey, produce digestive enzymes, and absorb the resulting available nutrients.[4] Additionally, over 300 protocarnivorous plant species in several genera show some but not all these characteristics

Characteristics of Carnivorous Plants

Carnivorous plants eat insects by attracting, capturing, killing and digesting them. They then absorb these nutrients within their system. There are 11 families and 21 genera of carnivorous plants with about 500 species. Does this Spark an idea? Trapping Mechanism
The common characteristic of all carnivorous plants is their trapping mechanism in the form of their adhesive snap, pitcher or suction traps. All plants are endowed with a glue that is a sticky mucilage which attracts insects. Sponsored Links
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Carnivorous plants exhibit an increased efficacy for trapping insects with the use of olfactoric stimulation, colors, windows, slippery material and entrapping hair. Generally carnivorous plants have very small and weak root systems compared to the actual size of the plants. With a few exceptions, carnivorous plants are perennials and live for more than two years. Carnivorous plants are flowering plants. The largest carnivorous plant can trap a small amphibian. Generally carnivorous plants grow anywhere from 12 inches to 3 feet tall. However, in their native habitat like the tropics, some can grow up to 6 feet tall.

Weak Roots Perennials Size of Carnivorous Plants

Snap traps
The only two active snap trapsthe Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) and the waterwheel plant (Aldrovanda vesiculosa)are believed to have had a common ancestor with similar adaptations. Their trapping mechanism has also been described as a "mouse trap" , "bear trap" or "man trap", based on their shape and rapid movement. However, the term snap trapis preferred as other designations are misleading,

 The classification of all flowering plants is currently in a state of flux. In the Cronquist system, the Droseraceae and Nepenthaceae were placed in the order Nepenthales, based on the radial symmetry of their flowers and their possession of insect traps. The Sarraceniaceae was placed either in the Nepenthales, or in its own order, the Sarraceniales. The Byblidaceae, Cephalotaceae, and Roridulaceae were placed in the Saxifragales; and the Lentibulariaceae in the Scrophulariales (now subsumed into the Lamiales[34]).

Dicots

 Monocots Although different species of carnivorous plants have different requirements in terms of sunlight, humidity, soil moisture, etc., there are commonalities. Most carnivorous plants require rainwater, or water that has been distilled, deionised byreverse osmosis, or acidified to around pH 6.5 using sulfuric acid.

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)

The Venus flytrap is probably the most common of all carnivorous plants, but did you know it uses electricity to ensnare its meals? Here how it happens courtesy of National Geographic, When one or more of its surface hairs are brushed twicean energyconserving system that distinguishes prey from other stimulian electrical charge signals cells on the outside of the leaf to expand, swiftly warping the shape of the plants thumbprint-size lobes from convex to concave and snapping them shut. The plants cilia comes together, but lets inadequate prey escape while munching on food worth savoring. Luckily for us living in the United States, we can observe the Venus flytrap in northeastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina, with a smaller population growing in northern Florida

. California Pitcher Plant (Darlingtonia californica)

The California pitcher plant is quite a beauty to look at. It possesses bright colors and unique features like a cobra lily for its head, a forked tongue and long tubular pitcher. This pitcher plant, native to the West Coast of the U.S., varies in its digestive manner from other plants in its family. Instead of relying on digestive enzymes, it has none. Symbiotic bacteria take over the job of digesting insects into yummy nutrients. The dark reddish-purple coloring of its leaves attract bugs and even has a transparent hood used to trick insects. For example, when a fly enters the pitcher plants hood it flies upward thinking its going straight into the sky, rather than entering a predatory zone. This pretty plant is definitely more than meets the eye. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ Noah Elhardt

Parrot Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia psittacina)

Here is another pitcher plant found in the southeastern United States. The Parrot pitcher plant likes to grow submerged in bogs or sandbanks, while capturing an array of insects like arthropods, ants and slugs. Similar to the California pitcher plant, this one also has a hood used to luring in nutrients. Hairs line the hood, all pointing down, which makes it impossible for prey to escape.

West Australian Pitcher Plant (Cephalotus follicularis)

Family: Sarraceniaceae Genus: Heliamphora

Currently 7 listed species occupying mountain plateaus of the Guiana Shield in north-central South America (Venezuela and bordering Brazil and Guyana).

Family: Byblidaceae Genus: Byblis Rainbow Plant

Currently 5 listed species occupying habitats in northern and western Australia and New Guinea. For more Byblis information and images

Subfamily Tillandsioideae Genus: Catopsis

Of the 21 species in the genus, 1 species is carnivorous. It occupies humid habitats in South America, Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, and Florida, U.S.A.

Subfamily Pitcairnioideae Genus: Brocchinia

Of the 5 species in the genus occupying lowland savanna and mountain habitats in South America, at least 2 species are carnivorous.

Family: Lentibulariaceae Genus: Pinguicula

Currently 79 listed species occupying habitats in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America

Fragrance plants

Banana Magnolia, Banana Shrub

3-gallon pots...A sweet banana-like fragrance emanates from the creamy-yellow cuppedshaped Magnolia-like blooms from spring to summer. A dense and long-lived rounded shrub with few pests or diseases

Lilacs
Of the hundreds of varieties of this popular 8 to 10 foot high shrub, the most highly fragrant and disease-resistant choices for Zones 3 to 7 are: 'Henri Robert', 'Excel', 'Vauban, 'Rhum von Horstenstein' and 'Miss Kim'. Gardeners in Zones 8 and 9 need to choose heat-tolerant lilac varieties such as 'Angel White', 'Big Blue', 'Blue Skies' and 'Lavender Lady'.

Amur maple
tartaricum ssp ginnala) Clusters of white flowers in spring; 18 by18 feet; Zones 3-7.

Mangroves
are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in salinecoastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics mainly between latitudes 25 N and 25 S. The remaining mangrove forest areas of the world in 2000 was 53,190 square miles (137,760 km) spanning 118 countries and territories.

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