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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Wildflower Of The Year—Cymes, Not Corymbs!, W. John Hayden
Wildflower Of The Year—Cymes, Not Corymbs!, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
I hit a snag while composing the text for this year’s wildflower of the year brochure on Wild Geranium, Geranium maculatum. The problem concerned the proper descriptive term for its inflorescence, i.e., the pattern in which its flowers are grouped. In more than one source, I read that, for the family Geraniaceae, inflorescences are cymes (Figures 1 and 2), but those same sources indicated that inflorescences of Geranium maculatum are corymbs (Figure 4). That conflict caused me to scratch my head because cymes and corymbs are fundamentally different kinds of inflorescences.
Difficult Creek, Difficult Management Choices, W. John Hayden
Difficult Creek, Difficult Management Choices, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Virginia is blessed with many botanical wonderlands; see Chapter 4 of the Flora of Virginia (Weakley et al. 2012) for thumbnail sketches describing 50 of these special places. One such treasure, Difficult Creek Natural Area Preserve, is home to a thriving population of the 2019 VNPS Wildflower of the year, Ceanothus americanus (New Jersey Tea). Paradoxically, however, our featured wildflower of last year is inextricably linked to a difficult conservation management decision.
Branching Out: How Virginia Can Strategically Use Trees To Combat Biodiversity Loss, Taylor Pfeiffer
Branching Out: How Virginia Can Strategically Use Trees To Combat Biodiversity Loss, Taylor Pfeiffer
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
Biodiversity loss is a particularly concerning effect of climate change because as greenhouse gas emissions increase global temperatures, decreases in the abundance and diversity of species has reduced ecosystem resiliency to these changes (Verchot et al. 2007). Weakened ecosystems and threatened species decrease the environment’s capacity to provide humans with services like safe drinking water, fuel, and protection from natural disasters, just to name a few (US EPA 2013). The agricultural industry plays a unique role in this environmental conversation, as farmland both contributes to climate change and is jeopardized by the negative effects created by the issue in a …