More About Plant Names: Why Bother?

Familiarity with the different plant names, their accurate identification, and their agricultural classification are important in learning the basics of crop science.

There are various ways of assigning names to farm crops: either by common names, or by scientific names. The use of common names, also called local names, vernacular names and country names, is generally restricted to one geographical area. This area may consist of a small locality which is dominated by a certain ethnic group, or it may be an entire country.

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This One Coconut Tree Reveals Comparative Advantage of Green Coconut

This one particular coconut tree is my self-proclaimed Hall of Famer. The tree grows in my farm. Reckoned from the time the former owner acquired possession of the property, the tree is likely about 20 years old. The variety, though, is unknown.

This coconut tree is a prolific producer of medium-sized fruits, commonly called nuts, although no fertilization has ever been done. In August 2018 one bunch naturally dropped and found to contain 26 mature nuts. This was followed soon by one bunch with 24 nuts. The average was 25 per bunch.

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Types of Dominance Relations: 4. Codominance

4. Codominance. This is a type of dominance in which the heterozygote exhibits a phenotype that reflects both characters carried by the two alleles making up the heterozygous genotype. In this case both alleles are equally dominant and are thus visible in the heterozygote.

As to our hypothetical cross between parents possessing homozygous genotypes (p1p1 and p2p2), it is the dominance relation in which the heterozygote (p1p2) exhibits both paternal characters. The heterozygote (p1p2) will thus have pods each of which may be colored with patches, spots, or mosaic of green and yellow.

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Bonsai Pointers: 3. Basic Rules in Judging a Good Upright Style

There should be no hard rules in bonsai. Every tree is distinctly different from another hence different rules should apply.

In competitions, one judge may favor one entry but  another may disagree with him. 

In fact, strict adherence to rules will likely hamper the imagination of the artist, limit his creativity, and prevent him from creating a unique masterpiece which carries with it his own brand of originality.

Worst, his collection may just be miserable imitations from books or with formulaic look as if mass produced with a moulding machine.

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The Molave Trees Are Amazing, What With Their Plenty of Conventional Uses and New Ones That Evolved

The molave trees are uniquely versatile and should deserve more vigorous attention.

Their specific uses are so numerous that it is quite impossible to make a complete list.

To generalize, they are used in the form of round logs or posts, sliced lumber, driftwood, or intact live plants, and also as fuel, fodder for livestock, and herbal medicine.

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Transpiration in Plants Can Cause Huge Loss of Water, Highlights the Importance of Proper Water Use

Transpiration in plants has been described as a necessary evil.

This is mainly because the process involves the loss of large amounts of water.

The volume of water transpired is considered lost because it is not used by the plant for its life processes.

It consists of a major portion of the water that is absorbed by plants and which simply escapes outward.

The “evil” is necessary because transpiration occurs largely as a natural consequence of the opening of the stomata which is essential in photosynthesis.

Major loss of water is through the stomatal pores when they open to facilitate the entry of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and the release of oxygen which is generated in the photolysis of water.

It may be possible to stop stomatal transpiration by inducing the closure of the stomata but it will also mean putting a stop to photosynthesis.

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There Are Practical Ways of Incorporating Durian Trees in Landscaping

Durian trees are generally excluded in residential lots or in public areas frequented by people.

Even in plantations, anyone should be wary of taking shelter under the canopy specially without a protective head cap on.

When the trees are mature and fruiting, naturally falling fruits can possibly cause harm or injury to man or any property including roofs and parked cars.

This is primarily because the fruit of durian can become both large and heavy, with a hard, spiny shell.

The impact of a drop can be severe.

The fruit naturally dehisces (separates) from the stem when ripe or otherwise drops even when still young due to various causes.

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Descriptive Terms Referring to the Various Types of Sex in Plants

Taking aside botanical issues, there are three types of sex in individual or solitary flowers:

(1) perfect, also called bisexual, hermaphrodite, and monoclinous flower;

(2) staminate or male flower;

and (3) pistillate, also called carpellate and female flower.

These are also referred to as modes of sexuality in individual flowers (Dellaporta and Calderon-Urrea 1993) or simply flower sex (Simpson 2010).

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A Carpenter’s Level Hose Can Be Used to Locate Contour Lines Instead of an a-frame Yet Both May Not Be Necessary

I’d long been aware that the process of locating contour lines in sloping agricultural lands is basically the same as that when spots on posts at the same vertical elevation are marked using a carpenter’s level hose.

I in fact wrote in Bamboo Production and Propagation Methods which was published via this website in PDF format in 2010:

“Viewed from the side, an imaginary line that will traverse the points of each contour line will be more or less horizontal, as if a plastic hose filled with water was used by a carpenter in locating two points of the same elevation.”

But it took a brief reunion with Dr. Ariston Calvo at the University of Southern Mindanao in 2011 for me to be enlightened that indeed, a level hose can be used in place of A-Frame.

From then on I mentally stretched to formulate a procedure on how exactly would I use the carpenter’s level-hose.

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