Overview of the Carbon Cycle

Reduced to its simplest form, the Carbon cycle describes the flow of Carbon, and the gas Carbon dioxide, through the organic processes that happen in our world.

The Oxford English dictionary definition of the Carbon cycle is, “The movement of carbon through the surface, interior, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon exists in atmospheric gases, in dissolved ions in the hydrosphere, and in solids as a major component of organic matter and sedimentary rocks.” So we’re already looking at Carbon in the air, in earth, in rocks, and in water.  As ions in solid and gas form.  Maybe that illustration won’t be so straight-forward after all.

Early thumbnail sketch trying to incorporate the different elements of the Carbon cycle

When plants and animals die, they rot down, depositing carbon into the soil.  This travels and seeps through the soil, and although some is used by micro-organisms, fungal hyphae, and roots in the soil; some turns into sedimentary rocks.  Over time, some will be compressed and form fossil fuels.

Now we need to introduce Carbon dioxide, a gas, into the cycle.  This is exhaled by animals, both below the soil on a microscopic scale, and on land (and in water and air), on microscopic and macroscopic scale. Carbon dioxide (CO2)  is used in photosynthesis.  This image is getting complicated.

Completed tree with roots, fungal hyphae, and leaf litter.  No gas clouds added…yet

The Carbon cycle and Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration

An extra and vital step in the Carbon cycle is the role of both photosynthesis, and respiration.  Photosynthesis occurs within green leaves and produces sugar and Oxygen in sunlight, created from water and Carbon dioxide.  Respiration is practised by all living organisms (including plants) and is almost a reversal of photosynthesis.  Oxygen and sugar are broken down to release ATP (whose purpose is defined in the Encyclopedia Britannica as, “ATP captures chemical energy obtained from the breakdown of food molecules and releases it to fuel other cellular processes.”)  By-products are CO2, and water.

Diagram showing the process of photosynthesis (purple arrows are glucose, red arrows CO2, pale blue arrows O2 and dark blue arrows show water)

Perhaps an easier way of showing photosynthesis is using an entire plant?  At this stage, I’m wondering how to streamline the cycle and manage to show all the elements involved.  Looking at work I’ve done in the past for other jobs (like this leaf and plant diagram) is really helpful, although provides no instant solution to the challenge.

Annotated Photosynthesis diagram using the Japanese Knotweed

Untangling the steps of the Cycle

Having got my head round what needs including, I have to decide the best way to do this.

I want the entire illustration to be more or less cyclical, although it’s not as clean-cut as perhaps an illustration of the water cycle might be.  So the central image needs to be a tree.  Let’s make it stately, with plenty of room under the soil for roots, and enough of a canopy above to give space to include information on photosynthesis and respiration.  I illustrated a tree which will provide the perfect scaffold for the cycle last year.

White Oak Quercus alba with stylized root system

Other images can be shown as vignettes.  It’s important to make this picture visually pleasing as well as comprehensible, so I’ll balance the vignettes.  One on either side below the soil.  A mirrored pair at soil level.  And two overlaid on the tree canopy.  Sounds like a plan.

Vignettes: Below the soil: Micro-organisms

One shows soil micro-organisms.  These use Carbon from the tree and the soil to build themselves.  They also release Carbon when they die, and as CO2 from respiration.  Organisms living in the soil like this are often tiny, and can be simplified to six main groups.  Bacteria, virus, algae, fungi, protists, and nematodes.  It goes without saying that there is vast variety in each group, and these vary from habitat to habitat.

Micro-organisms in the soil

So I show a simplified representative of each.  The virus look like spiky balls.  Bacteria are spherical or rod-shaped.  The fluffy spores and hyphae on the right represent fungus.  Protists are shown by the flagellates in the centre.  Algae are represented by the diatom at the top left and the volvox-like organism by the hyphae.  Wriggling behind, we have the head end of a nematode worm.

Vignettes: Below the soil: Roots

The sister vignette on the opposite side shows a close-up of a root-tip.  It grows (using Carbon), practises respiration (producing CO2) and dies (releasing Carbon).   I can’t really show it dying in such a small space.  I’m hoping accompanying text will cover this.  The root tip cells which slough off should suggest this senescence, if the viewer knows about root anatomy.  Each root cell has a cellulose cell wall, a central space or vacuole, and cytoplasm around the edge.  In truth this is a gross simplification.  Cells in the root tip can become Parenchyma cells, which absorb and carry nutrients.  Or they can be Sclerencyma cells, which form the cell wall.   In the cytoplasmic matrix are all the cell’s organelles, along with a nucleus.

Cellular image of a root tip

The lateral projections are tiny root hairs.  These increase the surface area of the root, and allow for absorption of water and nutrients from the surrounding soil.

At the tip of the root you find the root cap.  This area is vital to plants.  Information as to gravitational and growth response occurs here, along with responses to different external environmental stimuli.  The root cap also protects the growing meristem cells.  Root cap cells are short-lived, being sloughed off  and destroyed as they nose their way through tough soil particles.  In the root cap you also have acidic hydrogen ions.  These break down the soil chemically, which allows minerals and nutrients to be absorbed by the root hairs.  For more on the structure of root tips, please visit the ehow site, or this overview from the Journal of Experimental Biology (June 2015, Kumf and Nowak).

Vignettes at Soil level: Detritovores

Mirrored vignettes at soil level show detritovores which break down Carbon from fallen leaves and twigs.  These are just flipped around the central axis of the tree trunk.  The creatures in this assemblage also breathe, exhaling CO2.  When they die, they release Carbon back into the soil.  And, of course, they use Carbon in the soil to build and grow themselves.

This is my favourite part of the illustration.  I get to cram lots of delicious invertebrates into this vignette.  Despite my best efforts, this illustration only touches the surface of the animals that make their home in the leaf litter and surface layers of soil.  As before, it’s grossly simplified.  Every habitat, in fact every plant, may have a different assemblage of detritovores associated with it.  This activity from Scientific American tells you how to see what decomposers are in your local patch of leaf litter.

Detritovores in the leaf litter

Representatives I include here are based on invertebrates I find most often when scrabbling about in leaf litter.  And ones I love illustrating.  So there are snails and slugs.  Spiders and mites.  We have a woodlouse (I love woodlice as they carry their developing young around with them, slung in a brood pouch).  And an earthworm.  I could have included another Nematode, but the scale made it tricky.  We have ground beetles, some of whom are ferocious predators, capable of slicing a slug in half with one snip of their mandibles.

Earwigs scuttle about, as do the remarkable Psedoscorpions.  There are millipedes and centipedes.

Detritovores that don’t get included

As with all of these vignettes, it has to be simplified.  Remember in fact that even within this assemblage you have herbivores (like the millipede) and carnivores (like the centipede).  Hunters (like the ground beetle and spider) and prey (the slug).  You even have parasitic relationships going on, with mites exploiting ground beetles.

Centipede

Some sources, such as Frontiers, prefer to show the leaf litter as a cycle in its own right.  This makes sense, especially when we remember that there are the same micro-organisms at play in the leaf litter, along with fungal and tree activity.

Lots of fabulous invertebrates, like springtails, thrips and ants, failed to make the cut.  For an overview on detritovores by the Biology dictionary, click here.

Soil level: The importance of fungus

At soil level, other things need to be included if we’re going to see the Carbon cycle as a whole.  Fungus is front and centre.  It’s only comparatively recently that the intense and vital relationship between roots of plants and of fungus is coming into view.  Brilliant books like “Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake have popularised it, and we’re now realising that fungus plays a massive role in allowing communities of trees and other plants to communicate at a sub-soil level.

Irrelevant of communication, fungus are also indispensable to the carbon cycle.  Their hyphae spread out under the soil, going massively further than the surface-level fruiting bodies might suggest.

Fungus with hyphae diagram

These mycelium break down wood and other organic matter.  They can also store and disperse these nutrients.  At this point in my research I also clocked that, if I was going to do this right, I ought to tie in the Nitrogen and Phosphorous cycles.  But you have to draw a line somewhere!  Mycelium move Carbon and other nutrients cover vast networks, using them for their own growth and delivering them to plant roots.  It’s well understood that plant and fungal roots are symbionts.  For more on how these sharing networks can be studies, check out “The role of wood decay fungi in the carbon and nitrogen dynamics of the forest floor” by Watkinson, Bebber et al (2009)

Fungus in my Carbon cycle illustration

I choose a few representative fungal species I see often in leaf litter.  These include notorious wood rotting species like the Honey fungus Armillaria mellea, which attacks living as well as dead wood.  There’s a representative Russula species, and a Shaggy Ink cap Coprinus comatus.

Fungus in the Carbon cycle

I also include the Fly agaric (on the opposite side of the illustration), because it’s so instantly recognizable as “fungi”.  This is disingenuous.  Agarics have lost the enzymes needed to decompose leaf litter, and are wholly reliant on their tree hosts for nutrients.  With the network or entangled roots described above, they’re the epitome of a symbiotic relationship between tree and fungus.  The fungus carry nutrients to the tree, the tree feeds the Fly agaric. (Read more on this on Woodlands.uk blog).

Fly agaric Amanita muscaria

I pop in some representative lichen.  Lichen is a symbiotic organism, composed of algae and fungus (or cyanobacteria).  Their role in the Carbon cycle is less as a decomposer, but more as a Nitrogen and Carbon fixer. They’re vital to both cycles, so need including, but on a diagram of this scale there’s no space to explain that rather than rotting down wood and leaves, they’re more important for their role as photosynthesizers.  The same is true of the tufts of moss I include.

Soil level: Larger animals and death

Obviously, it’s not just the micro-organisms and invertebrates in the leaf litter that contribute to the Carbon cycle.  Larger animals exhale CO2, and when they rot, they’re turned back into Carbon and basic nutrients by animals living in the leaf litter.  Some specialised creatures, like the rather glorious Sexton beetles, have eveolved to fit this ecological niche. I choose a rabbit as my larger animal representative, and just the other side of a log, I add some bones to show how death and decay feed into the cycle.

Bones

Soil level: Leaves

It’s self-evident, but probably worth mentioning that the main component of leaf litter is…leaves.  There are twigs, branches, dead detritovores and a host of other goodies in leaf litter.  But your main component are leaves.  These need to be shown as they rot down, but also falling from the tree, bringing their own personal packet of Carbon to the ground.

Falling leaves adding to the leaf litter layer

I include leaves from other species too, easily representing this in a simplified form by varying the leaf margins.  I make some fresh and green, and others browned or yellowing, referring to the glut of carbon-rich leaves which fall every autumn.

Now, finally, we can cast our eyes upward.

Vignettes at Sky level: Photosynthesis and Respiration

I want to include visual information on Photosynthesis, but representing it in diagrammatic form proves tricky, and too complicated.  This is also true of Respiration.

Initial Thumbnail rough Carbon cycle

I’m relieved when the client asks if we can replace the leaf cross sections you can see in the rough above with the equation for each process.  However, I don’t want the space around each equation to feel dead, so I provide simplified motifs for Carbon dioxide, Oxygen, Sugars (C6 H12 O6), Water (H2O), and ATP.

Simplifying photosynthesis

For the record, the equation for Photosynthesis, which occurs thanks to chlorophyll, in the presence of sunlight, is CO2 + H2O = O2 + C6 H12 O6 (glucose).  Respiration, occurring in plants as well as animals, is O2 + C6H12O6 = H2O + CO2 +release of ATP.  And no, I’m not tempted to get into the details of how turning ATP into ADP gives living organisms the energy they need to exist!  If you want more on that chemical process, also known as Hydrolysis, find it here.

Simplifying respiration

The last thing that needs adding to the carbon cycle illustration is, oddly, a suggestion of day and night.  This is because photosynthesis can only occur in the presence of sunlight.  And, in most plants, respiration occurs mainly at night.  I add a little sun above the Photosynthesis equation, and although I want to add a little moon above the respiration one, this is vetoed by the client.

Done.

Annotated Carbon cycle illustration

Conclusion

So several rabbit holes and a whole lot of research later, I finish my Carbon cycle illustration.  It’s too simple and doesn’t reflect the complexity of nature.  It fails to reference the interactions between the Nitrogen, Phosphate and Carbon cycle.  It doesn’t show the ongoing inter actions on a smaller scale, or how each living animal is exhaling CO2, and rotting down to Carbon after death.  I’ve more or less left out the Carbon getting trapped in soil, and rocks.  I’ve only given a superficial nod to the accumulation of carbon in the soil in rocks which get compressed to form fossil fuels  And when I introduce arrows, I feel the whole image becomes more, rather than less complicated.  But nature doesn’t keep to clean, proscriptive shapes; there are endless exchanges on a smaller level, and fascinating details like fungus, lichen, and insect parasitism to consider.

Finished and annotated carbon cycle

However, as an exploration and an illustration to accompany those four little words,. “illustrate the Carbon Cycle”?  I think it’ll do.

And here it is, on the pages of the Tradgardens Klimatnytta brochure, produced by Riksforbundet Svensk Tradgard.  The brochure will be published soon.

Carbon cycle page from the TRÄDGÅRDENS KLIMATNYTTA brochure, produced by Riksforbundet Svensk Tradgard

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Plants have been on this planet for more than 500 million years, first appearing as red seaweeds and diversifying into the plethora of forms and species we share our planet with today.

FSC Guide to Ancient Woodland plants I illustrated showing a whole range of plants

Plant Evolution time line: Non-flowering plants

If we follow a time-line, we can have some idea of the course of plant evolution on earth.

Let’s start way way back, in the Ordovician, about 500 million years ago.  Nothing grew on land, but in the oceans algae, which we recognize as red seaweeds were growing.  Green plants evolved from these, and adapted into more algaes and plants we still have today, like the Charophytes.

Jump to 470 million years ago, the Silurian.  Plants have colonized land!  They still need water for reproduction, and can’t grow to enormous sizes, but the green takeover has begun.  In this time we see the emergence of Bryophytes: Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts.

Grimmina pulvinata and Tortula muralis

The next enormous milestone in plant evolution is the development of vascular tissue.  Plants are now able to grow tall, creating forests.  Clubmosses (or Lycopods, they’re not mosses at all) now emerge in the fossil record, about 350 million years ago.  Lycopods now are small plants, but at their peak they could grow into trees up to 30m tall.

Vascular vs non vascular plants diagram showing cross section of the stem with vascular bundles

Ferns and Horsetails emerge next.  Enormous tree ferns change the land,  shading out the bryophytes.  Even today, tree ferns can be enormous, and back in the Carboniferous they could grow to gigantic sizes.  They still need water for spore dispersal, but are able to colonise drier habitats.

Plant Evolution time line: Seed producing plants

A massive change occurs; the seed evolves.  This is, as Chris Thorogood puts is, “a little plant within a box”.  Suddenly plants can live in dry environments.  They can live as dormant seeds for years.

Gymnosperms; the conifers, cycads, and ginko appear around 320 million years ago, in the Permian.  Their seeds aren’t enclosed in a fruit, but in cones.

Jack Pine Pinus banksia tree

Jump forward to the Triassic and Jurassic 280 million years ago, and the Cycads are in the ascendency.

Plant Evolution time line: Flowering plants

No-one knows quite when, but around 130 to 100 million years ago something extraordinary happens.  Flowering plants appear in the fossil record.  With tough seeds, flowers for pollinators, and the ability to exploit almost every habitat on earth; these take over.  These comprise Magnoliids, Paleoherbs, Monocots and Eudicots.  And they take over the planet, remaining dominant to this very day.

Plant evolution: Red algae

Red algae are marine seaweeds.  It’s a bit of a catch-all phrase and covers most of the red seaweeds, unicellar and multi-cellular organisms.  Brown seaweeds are a little different, and are thought to have evolved through endosymbiosis with red algae.  A common red algae is Dulse, which is also edible.

Dulse Palmaria palmata

Plant evolution: Green algae and Charophytes

On a microscopic level, tiny green algae can be stunning.  Many, like Desmids, are unicellular.  Take a look at this film of Volvox (some Volvox are unicellular whilst others live colonially) or photos of Pediastrum, a green algae living in colonies

Some green algae are larger, forming mats in ponds and pools.

Charophytes appear in this group, and are considered the oldest living relatives of land plants.  They pop up in the fossil record 500 million years ago and have remained unchanged until now.

Delicate Stonewort Chara virgata

Plant evolution: Bryophytes

Bryophytes are mosses, liverworts and hornworts.  I’m yet to illustrate a liverwort or a hornwort, but they can be really pretty, like green leathery cloaks across the ground.  They like moist environments, and often decorate cliffs by streams and waterfalls.

Mosses are subjects that I have been asked to illustrate.

Red bog moss Sphagnum capillifolium tuft

For many millions of years, land masses on planet earth were covered in moss, without any other plants in existence.  It is an almost impossible mental image.  Moss reproduce with spores, and need water to reproduce.  Spores appear in tiny capsules which are held above the blanket of moss below.  Bryophytes are haplodiploid, which means there’s an alternation of haploid and diploid generations, and like all the other early plants they have neither flowers nor seeds.

Common haircap moss Polytrichum commune

Plant evolution: Lycopods

Lycopods come to dominate after the mosses and liverworts.  They have vascular tissue so could grow high, into enormous tree-like structures.

The Club mosses we see today are far smaller, and can grow horizontally.  You might see them growing on moorland or heath, especially in Scotland.  For more the Stag’s horn clubmoss, one of our commonest Lycopods, click here.

Stags horn clubmoss Lycopodium clavatum

Plant evolution: Ferns & Angiopteris (Tree ferns)

Ferns are still much in evidence today, again, favouring moist habitats where their spores can fertilize aquatically, often in a thin film of water.  There’s an abundance of variety in the form of ferns, some having divided and sub-divided leaves, others with smooth complete fronds.

Harts tongue fern Asplenium scolopendrium

Tree ferns can grow to massive heights to this day, in the right undisturbed habitats.  There are enormous ones in the rain forests of Kalinga, Philippines.

Illustrating Bracken Pteridium aquilinum

Plant evolution: Horsetails

Horsetails are often referred to as “living fossils”, and they are indeed truly ancient.

They produce spores from a cone or strobilus.  Most prefer moist environments, and in the UK they rarely grown higher than about 1m tall.  In Mexico, some species reach over 8m!

Horsetails have a distinctive appearance, with bristles or leaves coming off a central ridged stem.  For more on horsetails click here.

Water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile

Plant evolution: Gymnosperms

Gymnosperms are the first plants to bear seeds.  This enabled a massive explosion in the places these colonising plants could grow.

They’re pollinated by wind, and seeds are borne in cones.  The seeds themselves are referred to as “naked” as they’re not enclosed in a fruit.  However, animals have evolved to exploit this rich food source – just consider the Red squirrel or the Crossbill.

Dwarf Pine subspecies cones

Conifers, Cycads, and the Ginko tree (yet another plant always called a “living fossil”) are all Gymnosperms.

Gingko Ginko biloba

Of course, the most enormous plants on earth are Gymnosperms; the Giant Redwood tree.  These heights owe everything to the earlier evolution of vascular tissue which put ferns, horsetails and eventually Gymnosperms head and shoulders above the competition.

Giant Redwood Sequoia sempevirnes

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants (Angiosperms)

Modern seed bearing plants are incredibly successful, clothing and dispersing their seeds in an astonishing variety of ways.  Many advertise their pollen to insects, birds and mammals with complex and glorious flowering structures.  Others rely on the wind.  There’s not enough room to even begin a comprehensive overview here, but I’ll touch on the four main groups of flowering plants.

Overview of a Eudicot flower

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Magnolias

Magnolia are considered one of the oldest flowering plants.  They’re truly ancient, dating back 95 million years.  Although they have petals and sepals, these aren’t clearly distinguished from each other.  They are pollinated by little beetles.

Magnolia grandiflora

One of the many magnificent facts about the Magnolia is the longevity of its’ seeds.  Remember how we referred to a seed as a “box with a plant inside”?  Well, magnolia seeds which fell from the tree thousands and thousands of years ago can be planted up, and will grow to a successful adult tree.  This blows my tiny mind.

Magnolia

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Paleoherbs

Paleoherbs are also known as Basal angiosperms and, like Magnolia, are very ancient.  This whole group was entirely new to me, and exists as many of the plants referred to as Paleoherbs share features of the eudicots and of the monocots.  Plants in this group include the Aristolochiales (Dutchman’s pipe), Piperales (Black Pepper, Wild ginger), and Nymphaeales (lotus and Waterlilies) For more on Paleoherbs, have a look at the introduction from Berkeley College, California.

White waterlily Nymphaea alba

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Monocots

And so we arrive, finally, at the true flowering plants.  These are divided into two main groups, the monocots and the eudicots.

Monocots tend to have parallel leaf veins, leaves often grow from the base of the plant, flowers are three-partite.  They grow from grains or bulbs.

Spring squill Scilla verna

Orchids, flowering blubs like tulip, Arums, iris, and my favourites the grasses, sedges and rushes are all monocots.  It’s worth remembering most of our food crops (rice, maize, wheat, barley, rye, oats) are also monocots.

Grasses: Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata, Deschampsia, Agrostis

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Eudicots

Eudicots mostly have leaves with a branching or netted vein pattern.  Their flowers have parts (eg, stamens, petals) in multiples of 4, 5, or 7.  Plants grow from a seed with two sides (think of a bean seed).

Some Eudictot families have heads with lots of flowers held together, in an inflorescence; not just one flower on the end of a stalk.  This is true of the Asteraceae, the daisy family.  Each of the outside “petals” is a ray floret, each tiny spot in the centre is a mini flower.  Take a look with a hand lens, it’s amazing.

African daisy Gerbera

75% of flowering plants are Eudicots, and they cover plants as diverse as the Cactus to the Lime tree, the Creeping thistle to the Potato, the Pomegranate tree to the daisy.

Prickly pear Opuntia ficus-indica

For more on the differences between Monocots and Eudicots, please check out my blog.

It’s the combination of that strong, safe seed; and co-opting animals or the wind to help pollination that’s led to this dominance.  Flowers are a by product that we get to enjoy, and to illustrate.  Fruit and nuts work for seed distribution, and feed us.  With these adaptations there are hardly any habitats on earth that the Eudicots can’t exploit.  They are indeed dominant.

Common Blue-sow thistle Cicerbita macrophylla

Conclusion

But I’m more in awe of the amazing variety and persistence of the plants that live on this planet.

From the unicellular green algae, still living in ponds and puddles as they did 400 million years ago.  To the Charophytes, unchanged and still growing in waterways.  The mosses which once blanketed the world and which still swaddle vast tracts of tundra and moorland.  Ferns, in all their beauty and variety remain massively successful – just look at Bracken on UK hillsides.  The strangely beautiful Lycopds and Horsetails.  Conifers and cycads, shedding cones as they have done for millenia.  Magnolia, enticing beetles with pollen all those millions of years ago.

Sphagnum magellicum

Please don’t disregard these plants, simply because they’ve not put their energies into growing pretty flowers to entice pollinators.  Instead, be awed by the majesty and history of the entire varied kingdom.  And perhaps we should all feel a little humbled by these temporal giants, too.

Enormous thanks are due to Chris Thorogood and to Julia Trickey – without Julia’s amazing series of talks I’d have never got to learn any of this fascinating information.  And without Chris and his extraordinary knowledge and ability to engage and enthuse, I wouldn’t have even known where to begin.

Euglena, a unicellular aquatic green algae

The post Plant Evolution: A brief overview appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

To get anywhere with ant identification, you need a basic grasp of ant anatomy, and a good dissecting microscope, as well as an expert on hand to set you straight when you get it wrong.  Luckily for me, I had all three when I attended the FSC Biolinks Ant Identification with microscopes course in May, and a similar course just this week.

The line drawings in this blog were done at the course, using preserved specimens and microscopes.

Ant anatomy: Recap

So the parts of the ant anatomy that really matter when trying to sort out UK ant species are the petioles, how hairy the head and mesothorax is, whether you can see an acidopore or sting, and whether or not there’s a constriction between the segments of the gaster.

Ant anatomy using the Shining Guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus

British ants

We’re lucky that telling ants apart in the UK is, in anting terms, comparatively simple.  Although there are 21 ant subfamilies globally, we only have 4 to tackle.  If you think that makes it an easy task though, think again!

Ponerinae

The first subfamily is Ponerinae.  These are possibly the easiest to spot.  All Ponerinaes have a constriction between the first and second segment of their gaster.  It looks like they’ve got a rubber band around them.  They are stinging ants, and have one petiole.

This one happens to be a queen, so has wings.

The raised central area is the petiole.  The gastral constriction is really clear, and was equally obvious in all the Ponerinae specimens I got to examine.

One of the largest ants on earth belong to this subfamily, Dinoponera gigantea.  Indian jumping ants, Harpegnathos saltator are also Ponerines.  In some cases, mated workers lay eggs, replacing the queen.  There can also be male as well as female workers.  these can be told apart by counting the antennal segments of the funiculus.

According to Antmaps, there are two native species in the UK, namely Ponera coarctata and Ponera testacea

Dolichoderinae

Dolichoderinae don’t have any constriction of the gaster.  They have one petiole.  Unlike other ants, they have very few (and mostly no) erect hairs on the head or mesoma.

Specific to this subfamily is the presence of a slit-like acidopore.  This replaces the sting, and is used to spray formic acid for defense, from the anal gland.  this can smell quite unpleasant and strong.

It’s often ants in this subfamily who “farm” aphids for their honeydew.

Sketch of a Dolichoderinae, showing hairless head and thorax, one petiole, and acidopore slit.

A few species in this subfamily invade other ant nests, replacing the queen and enslaving the colony.

The most notorious of invasive ants, the Argentine ant Linepithema humile belongs to this  subfamily.  This species is seriously successful, outcompeting native species.  It is not only found in South America, but in 6 continents across Australasia, Europe, North America, Asia and Africa; and in over 150 countries.  It’s possible the places it hasn’t been recorded are due to lack of ant recorders rather than to the Argentine ant not being present there!  All the ants in these colonies are genetically identical.  And this spread only began 100 years ago.  Thanks to (you guessed it) mankind’s endless traversal of the globe.

The two UK species in this subfamily listed by Antmaps are Tapinoma erraticum and Tapinoma subboreale.

Formicinae

You can tell a Formicinae ant with the following list: most have erect hairs on their heads and mesosoma, they have no gastral constrictions, they have one petiole, and a round (not slit shaped) acidopore, and the acidopore is surrounded by a collar of hairs.

This is a successful and diverse group, with over 3,600 species described.

So are the Wood ants, which I illustrated back in 2021.

Illustration of Formica rufibarbis showing the round acidopore, hairs on head and mesosoma, and single petiole

Honeypot ants, Carpenter ants, and Weaver ants are all members of this subfamily.  Honeypot ants Myrmecocystus store sweet food in the swollen abdomens of their workers.  Although many thought this was honey, it’s actually simple sugary nectar and honeydew from aphids.

Carpenter ants Camponotus build their nests underground or in rotting wood and are one of the most numerous of the ant genus.

Weaver ants Oecophylla live mainly in the tropics, and build nests by using the silk produced by their larvae,  these are held in the jaws of the workers and used almost like glue guns, with the silk knitting complicated nests in the trees.  One nest may hold as many as 500, 000 individual ants.  They’re hunters, and take insect prey.

According to Antmaps, there are 24 native species in the UK, including all our wood ants.

Hairy wood ant Formica lugubris alongside specimen

Myrmicinae

Myrmicinae ants are almost as easy to spot as Ponerinaes.  Their distinguishing feature is a two-part petiole.  There’s a petiole…and another one known as the Post petiole. These may be hidden under the Proprodial spine, but once you get your eye in it’s an instant indicator.

These ant species can vary from 1mm to 10mm in length, and highly varied.  They’re probably the most numerous of the subfamilies with over 6,700 species identified.

This illustration shows a close up of the Petiole and post petiole of Myrmica ruginodis

I got to draw two of these in the workshop; Myrmica rubra, M. ruginodis.

Nests of Myrmicinae tend to be comparatively small, with only a few hundred of thousand workers.  As always though, there are exceptions to this.  The Acorn ant Temnothorax nylanderi is a tiny species and an entire colony can exist within one acorn.

According to Antmaps, there are 23 native species in the UK, including my favourite, the Shining Guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus.

Myrmicinae Shining Guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus

Conclusion

Hopefully this dive into the four ant subfamilies in the UK has been interesting.  For more on ants, do check out my blog on illustrating the wood ants of the Cairngorms, and an introduction to ant anatomy.

My obsession with ants is continuing.  I have now learnt how to identify a few down to species level, and have signed up for another ant course (the 4th this year!), this time a three day residential course.  I’m hoping to be able to recognize even more species by the end, and to start feeling confident with ants and keying them out to species level.  None of this would be possible without the knowledge of the tutors I’ve met, and the courses offered by FSC.

I’m far from being an expert, so if you spot a mistake please let me know and Ill do my best to fix it as soon as I can.

The post Ants in the UK: Four subfamilies appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

For more on telling the four British subfamilies of ants apart, please check out my future blog. LINK!!!

Introduction to ants

Ants are social insects in the family Formicidea, relations of the other Hymenoptera (bees and wasps),  Like them, they live in colonies and have castes of female workers, males (produced normally once a year), and a ruling queen.  Worker ants do not have wings, males and queens have four carried in two pairs (although the queens tear theirs off once mated and establishing their nests).  Due to their haplodiploid chromosomes, all the females are very closely related, sharing 75% of genetic material.

All ants have similar body shapes, and a sting (or acidopore) at the tip of their abdomen.  All have jointed antennae.

Typical Wood ant

At any one time, there are 10 quadrillion (that’s a 10 with 15 zeros after it) ants alive on planet earth, and of the 30 thousand or so species, only 16 thousand have thus far been identified.

They’re found everywhere on earth except for the poles, and are vital in ecosystems where they help soil aeration, encourage plant diversity and seed spread, and limit numbers of plant pests.

Like humans, many practice farming, famously tending and protecting aphid “cattle” to ensure their supply of sweet honeydew is safe; or growing and eating moulds produced on chewed up leaves they take into their nests.

Ant anatomy: Overview

I thought ants, like other insects (see my blog) had three body parts; namely a head, thorax, and abdomen.  What I hadn’t realised is that, with ants, this is a little different.

Ant anatomy Shining Guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus

The Head remains, and there’s more on this and the facial features of ants below.  Worth noting is that ants have jointed, or genticulate antennae, light sensitive eye-spots (ocelli), mandibles (mouth parts) and compound eyes.

The Thorax is called the Mesoma, or Alitrunk.  it contains the muscles for flight, and serves the same function as the thorax.

The next section is called the Petiole, and is super important in ant identification.  It’s the ant’s “waist”.

Then, doing just what the abdomen does, you have the Gaster.  The tip of the gaster is where you find the sting, or perhaps an acidopore, which can squirt out acidic irritant.

Ant anatomy: The Head

The ant has large compound eyes, and three light sensitive ocelli which sit on top of its head.  Antennae are used to smell, and to groom and interact with other ants.  These have a long first segment called a Scape, and the rest of the antennae is called the Funiculus.  All ant antennae are jointed, or genticulate (meaning “kneed”).  The number of segments this funiculus is composed of is vital when you’re identifying ants to species level.  And is extremely tricky to count!

You need to be aware of whether or not the ant has hairs on its head, and if so where they spread to.  Again, it’s important for species recognition as one subfamily very rarely have any facial hair at all (the Dolichoderinae).

Other important anatomical details mean you need to take a close look at the ant’s face.  I doubt I need to point out that identifying ants to subfamily or species level requires a decent microscope!

Ant head, face on.

Ants have a top lip. above the mandible, knows as the Clypeus. The shape of this lip matters.  Is it curved?  Notched?

There’s an area between the antennae which has other diagnostic characteristics.  The central line can be seen and is known as the Frontal ridge, either side is the Frontal lobe.  The Frontal triangle sits below this.

Ant anatomy: The Mesonoma

The ant thorax has a front part, the Pronotum.  The middle is the Mesonotum, and the back part is the Propodeum.  This part is analogous to the first segment of the abdomen, but is stuck onto the thoracic region.  The Propodeum explains why ants can’t be said to have thorax and abdomens.

Sometimes there’s a prominent spine or pair of spines at the back of this, the Propodeal spines.

Ant Anatomy: The Petiole

The petiole, or the waist, is vital when it comes to identifying ants.  Petioles often (but not always) have prominent points or bumps.  One subfamily always has two petioles, the Myrmicinae.  They’re called the Petiole and post-petiole.

Some species, such as the Shining guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus, also have a ventral spike, pointing down from their undersides.

The illustration below shows a “typical” side view of the petiole, from a member of the Formicinae subfamily.

Thorax and hairs detail of Scottish wood ant Formica aquilonia

Ant Anatomy: The Gaster

Generally, the Gaster consists of 5 segments.  Some subfamilies of ants have a petiole and a post-petiole, so a two-petioled waist (the Myrmicinae).  In this subfamily, there are only 4 gaster segments as the post-petiole has been “taken” from the abdomen.

Some ant species, such as the Saharan ants Cataglyphis bicolor have square petioles.  This allows them to hold their gasters up erect, which lets them move much faster than other ants.

Many ants have smooth gasters, but one subfamily always show a distinct constriction between the first and second segment.  These are the Dolichoderinae.

At the end of the gaster ants mostly have a sting, or an Acidopore.  Males and Queens don’t have stings, as they need this part of their anatomy for reproduction.  Interestingly, queen ants do still have poison sacs, although no sting to deliver poison through.

The Acidopore is found in most members of the subfamily Forminaceae, serving a similar purpose to the sting. It delivers formic acid for protection, and this also works as a disinfectant when grooming.

Southern Red wood ant Formica rufa

Seen from above, you may not be able to count all 5 gaster segments as they can curve below the ant.  It’s important to examine your ant from the side, as well as from above.  (Side views make petiole examination easier, too.)

Conclusion

There’s a lot of new terminology to take on board when you start looking at ants.  But if you take it slowly and methodically, it’s not overwhelming.  And if, as I do, you want to be able to identify ants to subfamily or species level, then this anatomical crash course is vital!

I’m no ant expert, so please do let me know if there are errors in this blog.  And I’d like to thank the FSC and Mike and Gino for opening my eyes to the glories of these amazing insects.

The post Ant anatomy for Beginners appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Halophytes are plants that tolerate or thrive in salty conditions.  I recently finished the illustrations for a chart of seaside flowers, and got to wondering how these plants can survive in these hostile habitats?  Another job, illustrating stamps for a Seaside flowers issue, added to my interest.

This blog had me scouring the internet, and getting more and more fascinated by what I found.  However, I am no expert, and would refer interested readers to the bibliography at the end of the blog for references and further reading.

Sea Bindweed Calystegia soldanella

Salt damage

Salt damages most plants as it messes up the way cells absorb water.  A plant which isn’t adapted for salty (or haline) conditions wouldn’t last long in a salt marsh or coastal area.  Salt water can reduce plant growth and photosynthesis.  It leads to an imbalance of nutrients and ions.  It alters plant hormone production and action.  Most obviously, it makes it hard for plants to regulate their water balance.

Thrift Armeria maritima

Halophytes

Some plants have evolved to survive these harsh conditions.  These are the Halophytes.  They can tolerate a range of salty environments, from salt-marshes to dry and salty deserts.  Their adaptations help them shrug off the effects of salt spray, and allow them to live in soils saturated with salty water.  It’s not every plant that can do this.  Only 1 – 2 % of the world’s flora are halophytes.  Of these, “only 0.25% are reportedly able to complete their life cycles in Saline soils” (Flowers et al 1990, New Phytologist 1990)

(Plants which can’t tolerate salt are called Glycophytes.  This literally translates from the Latin as “Sweet loving plants”.)

Types of Halophyte

There are various classifications of Halophytes, mostly depending on what concentrations of salt they can survive.  There are Obligate halophytes, plants which need salt to grow.  An example of this is the Glasswort, Salicornia.

Common Glasswort Salicornia europaea

There are many more Faculative halophytes.  These plants can tolerate salt, but will also thrive in non-salty conditions.

Some halophytes need wet soil or salt-marshes to survive.  These are termed Hydro-halophytes.  A mangrove tree is the most obvious example.

Mangrove swamp – a haline habitat

Xero-halophytes thrive in dry and salty soils, such as deserts.  They can handle unpredictable rains as well as salty soils.  The Frankincense tree is an example.

Adaptations to Saline environments

Although there aren’t an enormous number of halophytes, they’re distributed across lots of plant families.  It’s believed that the adaptations needed to survive these inhospitable habitats have evolved independently on many occasions.  The fact that so many species have ended up with similar coping mechanisms is yet another example of convergent evolution.

Adaptations: Being a Succulent

Lots of halophytes are succulents.  This means that their stems and leaves are fleshy and watery.  Succulent plants have fewer cells, and these cells are longer than those in other plants.

Hottentot fig Carpobrotus edulis

Salt absorbs water, so it’s vital to counteract this.  In succulents, moisture is preserved using lots of these water bearing cells.  These watery cells manage to dilute the concentration of salt in the sap of the cell.  Thin cell walls allow each cell to swell and accommodate its watery burden.

English stonecrop Sedum anglicum

Adaptations: Small leaves

Halophyte leaves are excellent at counter-acting the desiccating effects of salt.  Many halophyte plants have tiny leaves.  These have a small surface area, so less water is lost through transpiration.  Lots of species have few and small stomata.  Again, this helps the plant cling onto water.

Lesser Sea spurrey Spergularia marina

Though small, leaves may be thick, and succulent.  The ratio of water-storing space to surface area is high.

Biting Stonecrop Sedum acre

Thicker epidermal layers are seen in some halophytes, and many have a thick, waxy cuticle which helps to waterproof the leaves.  However, just because plants (like sedums) have a thick waxy cuticle, this does not necessarily mean they can tolerate salty conditions.  Some can, others can not.

Remember, leaves need to keep the water inside, but they also need to protect the plant from the external damage salt spray can inflict.  The thicker epidermis and cuticle do both.

Some halophytic plants sport leaves with low levels of chlorophyll.  Perhaps this contributes to the blue-ish hue of many of their leaves?

Sea Kale Crambe maritima

Adaptations: Secreting salt & Salt glands

Salt levels can be regulated using salt glands.  These excrete salt, either direct onto the leaf surface, or into a discreet gland.  These can be vacuoles of bladder cells, and are often hidden just below the surface of the epidermis.  In some species, these glands burst; in others they break off and fall from the plant, carrying their toxic salt burden with them.

These salt bladders accommodate the build-up of salt or other ions, and allow a plant to exclude certain elements from its tissues.

Sea lavender species have salt glands just below the level of the epidermal cells.

Sea Lavender Limonium vulgare

Salt glands may be specialised Trichomes (outgrowths from the epidermis of a plant).  Lots of coastal plants have greyish blue stems and leaves.  In many cases, they are covered with a wide variety of trichomes.  Some are simple, some are un-branched.  These not only affect leaf temperature and aid water economy, but contribute to that distinctive hue.

Yellow-horned Poppy Glaucium flavum

Adaptations: Tough seeds

Seeds of halophytes have been widely researched, and their viability and ability to germinate in salty conditions is amazing.

Many have thick and waxy seed coats.  Seeds may be large.  However, it is the hormonal regulation and patterns of germination which are most interesting.

Germination times are often very fast, and times of reproduction and germination can be tightly controlled by plant hormones.  Recovery of germination after salt-stress or drought (in xerohylophtes) is rapid.  Flowers and Colmer have done extensive research on this topic.

Greater Sea spurrey Spergularia media

Greater Sea spurrey, whose seed dormancy patterns have been examined extensively by Ungar.

Adaptations: Amazing roots

Roots have an important role to play in salt regulation.  Some halophytes produce pneumatophores, structures which protrude from salty water into the air (see my blog on Root variety for more on this).

Other plants have extensive networks of roots which grow into less salty substrates.  Adventitious roots allow for horizontal growth, which could allow a plant to grow directly above saltier soils.

Marram grass Ammophila arenaria

Adaptations: Accumulate salt then die

A more extreme solution is just to accumulate salt…then die.  Some rush (Juncus) species do this.  They have no means of regulatiing their salt balance.  However, this doesn’t seem to stop them from colonising salty environments and reproducing successfully.

Why choose a salty environment?

Having looked at adaptations to this hostile environment, one has to ask, “why grow there?”  Clearly, the salt is problematic and has required an armory of evolutionary coping mechanisms.  So why spend that energy to exploit such an environment?

Firstly, there’s not a lot of competition.  As stated earlier, 95% of plants can’t survive saline habitats.  That’s 95% less potential competitors for your niche.

Haline habitats may also be lower in predators, and may help keep numbers of vermin down.  In the literature there’s also some suggestion that salty environments can help prevent disease, although I didn’t examine this fully.

Examples of Halophytes

So what plants are halophytes?  It partly depends on your definition, but below are some examples.

In the grass family Poaceae, Marram grass and Cord Grass grow on salty sand dunes.

English Cord-grass Spartina anglica

The Amaranthaceae family includes the obligate halophyte Glasswort.  It also includes Saltwort Salsola kali.

Saltwort

Other members of this family are Pig-weeds, Goose-foot, and Beet.

Sea Beet Beta vulgaris maritima

In the Plumbaginaceae family there’s Sea Lavender

In the Legumes we have the Sea pea, Lathyrus japonicus

Sea pea Lathyrus japonicas

There are databases of halophytic plants, including the Halophyte Database and a list of salt-tolerant plants from the Biosalinity Awareness Project

Why are Halophytes so important in 2020?

Halophytes aren’t just fascinating plants.  They could be vital to us humans, in our rapidly changing world.  Most crops are glycophytes, and are salt-sensitive.  With many places at increasing risk from rising sea levels, crops which are resistant to salty water could have an important role to play.  Research is being done to see if cross-breeding and genetic modification could help develop new salt-resistant crop plants.

(Sea Sandwort, below, is edible.  However, I found no evidence it was being trialled as a salt-resistant crop…as yet!)

Sea Sandwort Hockenya peploides

Salt-affected and land made toxic with heavy metals areas could be cleaned with the help of halophytes.  Some halophytes are able to regulate the ions entering their xylem stream.  These ions include sodium and other elements.    Scientists such as Lutts & Lefevre are researching their potential role as a way to clean heavy metals from the soil. (Lutts & Lefevre 2015  How can we take advantage of halophyte properties to cope with heavy metal toxicity in salt-affected areas?  Annals of Botany 2015).  Halophytes may prove vital in these processes of phytoremediation.

Ecologically, halophytes have an important role to play with land reclamation.  Their networks of tough roots and ability to withstand tidal flooding make them perfect candidates to help re-colonise saline lands.

Sea buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides

With halophytes helping humanity reclaim salty land, and produce salt-tolerant crops for a rising population in an environmentally changing world; I think it would be hard to over-estimate their importance to our future.

Conclusion

With their ingenious adaptations and ability to colonise salty habitats, halophytes are fascinating.  Couple this with their potential as an important aid to humanity, and they become ever more deserving of our attention.

Below is a list of further reading.  There are many nuances to current research which hasn’t been covered in this blog; issues relating to biochemistry and seed viability amongst them.  Hopefully the bibliography below will allow an interested reader to pursue the topic further.

(Many of these original illustrations are available to buy, just search for them in by name in the “Original Illustrations for Sale” section of my website).

Bibliography

Colmer & Flowers, 2008  Salinity tolerance in halophytes  New Phytologist  179

Dassanayake & Larkin, 2017 Making Plants Break a Sweat: The structure, function, & evolution of plant Salt glands Frontiers of Plant Science 2017

Flowers & Colmer,  2015 Plant Salt Tolerance: Adaptations in Halophytes   Annals of Botany, February 2015

Flowers et al, 1990   Salt tolerance in the halophytic wild rice, Porteresia coarctata Tateoka  New Phytologist  1990 

Gonzalez, 2019 Adaptation of Halophytes to Different Habitats  DOI: 10.5772/intechopen 87056 link

Gupta, Halophyte Plants Biology Discussion 

Lutts & Lefevre 2015  How can we take advantage of halophyte properties to cope with heavy metal toxicity in salt-affected areas?  Annals of Botany 2015

Nikita, Halophytes: Classification and Characters of Halophytes Biology Discussion

Reddy, Halophytes: Meaning and Types Biology Discussion

Ungar, I. A. & Binet, P., Factors influencing seed dormancy in Spergularia media, Aquatic Botany, 1, 45, 1975.

Ventura & Sagi, 2015 The Development of Halophyte-based agriculture: past & present  Annals of Botany 2015

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Hairy Wood rush Luzula pilosa

Anatomy of Rushes:  Overview of the Plant

Rushes are erect perennial herbs.  They have slender un-jointed cylindrical stems (or culms).  Rush stems are always round in cross section. They tend to grow straight and to be tufted in habit.  Although frequently grouped with grasses and sedges, they have a lot in common with the tulip and lily families, which are close relatives.

They often have creeping rhizomes.  Rushes will have few (if any) stem leaves.  If leaves are present they tend to be clustered around the base of the plant.  They can closely resemble the stem.  Leaves are cylindrical, channelled, or grass-like.  They have a sheathing base that clasps the stem.  In some rushes basal scales have replaced leaves.  Here, the stems take over the job of the leaves, photosynthesizing in their absence.

They have a flowering head, or inflorescence.  This may have an involucral bract directly below.

They produce fruits called capsules.

Rushes tend to favour woodland or damp habitats.

Anatomy based on the Sharp-flowered rush Juncus Acutiflorus.

Capsules

Rush capsules consist of three valves which open to release seeds.  Each capsule is enclosed by six papery perianth segments.

Diagram of a rush capsule, surrounded by perianth segments.

These capsules, and the perianth segments surrounding them, vary from species to species.

A variety of rush capsules from different species

Rush flowers

Rush flowers are bisexual and small.  They cluster and crowd together in one terminal inflorescence.  Sometimes these inflorescences look lateral, coming out of the side of the rush culm.  The flowers are wind-pollinated, so tend to be small and green, brown, or yellowish.  There’s no need for bright colours to attract pollinators.

They can be produced in a lateral inflorescence (as with the Hard rush Juncus inflexus), or a terminal inflorescence (appearing at the top of the plant).  Terminal inflorescence form varies between species.  You may see a cymose inflorescence. This is where the central floret opens first and those clustered around open afterwards, as in the Heath rush Juncus squarrosus.   You might clock a loose branched inflorescence (as in the Greater wood rush Luzula sylvatica).

Terminology here is a little patchy.  Different sources refer to these flower clusters in different terms.  The thing to note is how the inflorescence looks, rather than the terms used to describe it!

Inflorescence types in rushes (Hard rush Juncus inflexus, Heath rush Juncus squarrosus, & Greater wood rush Luzula sylvatica)

Structure of a rush flower

Each flower (or Floret) consists of six papery tepals, six stamens, and one superior ovary which bears three stigmas.  In rushes, (just to complicate matters) these tepals are often referred to as “perianth segments”.

(A tepal refers to a flower part which is neither definitely a sepal nor a petal.  Tepals often look the same whether they’re growing in the outer floral whorl where the sepals normally grow, or on the inner floral whorl where one normally finds petals. What we think of as tulip “petals” are often referred to as tepals.)

Rush flowers have 3 outer perianth segments, and 3 inner perianth segments.  Mostly, these look identical to each other and it really is only whether they’re in the outer floral whorl or the inner floral whorl that allows you to tell them apart.

Diagram of the flower of a Wood-rush (in this case of the Field Wood-rush Luzula campestris)

(Image based on reference from “The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms” by Michael Hickey and Clive King.)

Diagram of the flower of a True rush (this is the Hard rush Juncus inflexus)

(Image based on reference from “The Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns” by Francis Rose).

Why two flower diagrams, which are (in truth) very similar to each other?  Well, rushes are split into two separate genus with different characteristics, and it’s important to know which one you’re looking at.

True-Rushes: Juncus

True-rushes are familiar to anyone who has been out walking in damp or boggy areas.  They have very smooth, hairless stems which form clumps.  Their leaves, when they have them, are cylindrical, or channelled (as with the Heath rush Juncus squarrosus), and hairless.  In fact, the whole plant is glabrous.

Blunt-flowered rush Juncus subnodulosus

Leaves can be hollow, have internal partitions, or be smooth in cross section.

A selection of cross sections of leaves from different Juncus species

In some species leaves are reduced to basal scales.

Soft rush Juncus effusus

The culm is full of pith, a spongy soft white substance.  This may have internal cross walls or structures to help provide strength; so, as with the leaves, a culm in cross-section can be important in telling species apart.

The capsule of the True rushes bears loads of tiny seeds when ripe.

Diagram of the mature capsule of a Juncus species, with numerous seeds

Three-leaved rush Juncus trifidus

Wood rushes: Luzula

Wood rushes, as the name suggests, tend to favour woodland habitats (although they can be found in meadowland).

They have leaves which resemble the blades of grass, and which are often hairy, especially towards their base.  These leaves are flat and comparatively wide, or folded over.  They have short sheathing bases.

Greater wood rush Luzula sylvatica

The capsules of the Wood rushes have three large seeds at maturity rather than the numerous smaller ones borne by the True rushes.

Luzula seed capsule with three large seeds inside

How to Identify Rushes

So what should one look out for in the field, when identifying a rush?

1. Leaves

Are the leaves present?  If so, are they wide and flat or cylindrical?  Do they have hairs?  Are they stem-like, or do they appear as basal scales?

Take a leaf apart and examine the pattern of the pith within, this can be a give-away with Juncus species.

2. Inflorescence

Where does the inflorescence appear, on the top or side of the plant?  Is it a tight cluster or loose and branched?

3. Perianth segments

Check out the shape of these segments, and how they enclose the fruit capsule.  Also look at their length in relation to the capsule.  Colour can be important, but there’s often planty of variation between plants, so don’t rely on this too heavily.

4. Capsule

What shape and colour is the capsule?  Is it bearing three large, or numerous tiny seeds?

Heath rush Juncus squarrosus

Hopefully this introduction will have peaked your interest about the beautiful rushes we so often overlook.  I only started looking at rushes when I was commissioned by Field Studies Council to illustrate rushes, sedges and grasses for their lovely range of fold-out identification charts (on which many of these illustrations appear).

If you’re interested in learning more about British and European rushes, there are some really good reference books: Colour Identification to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles by Francis Rose, Collins Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe by Fitter, Fitter and Farrer. You could also look at Collins Flower Guide by Streeter.

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Like grasses and rushes, they are monocots, but are a distinctly different group of plants.  Here is a beginners guide to the Sedges.  (For a beginner’s guide to the Grasses, please click here.  For a guide to the rushes follow this link.)

Anatomy of sedges

Anatomy of the Common sedge Carex nigra

Vegetative Features of Sedges

The first and easiest way to spot a sedge is by looking at its stem.  Sedge stems are solid, and unlike grasses, they don’t have nodes or joints.  Sedge stems are triangular in cross-section, three sided, especially towards the base of the stem.  In general they are tough and wiry.

Sedge stem of the Greater tussock sedge Carex paniculata, showing it’s triangular shape.

Leaves are similar to grass leaves, being formed from a blade, a sheath (the hollow tube below the blade that encloses the stem), and a ligule (a membranous flap at the junction of the blade and the sheath).

Leaf shape varies enormously between species.  Some leaves are needle like, some have spikey points, some have hollow tips, some are broad and flat, some have smooth edges while others are toothed, in some species (Like the Deer–sedges) the leaves are reduced to tiny flaps, and in others (like the spike rushes) there are no leaf blades at all, just a sheath.  Colour differences are rife too, from yellows through vivid greens to glaucous, almost blue shades.

Sedge leaf variety

Unlike grasses,  sedge ligules are fused to the base of the leaf blade.  Below is a range of sedge ligules.  As with grasses, these can be used to identify different species.

Variety of different ligules seen in different species of Sedge

Sedge growth habit

Size and growth form varies in sedges, and both are an important way of telling species apart.  The growth patterns relate to the way shoots grow from rhizome (the underground and horizontal stem).

Some will grow in dense tussocks, like the Greater tussock sedge Carex paniculata.  Other tussocky sedges include the Schoenus and Trichophorum species.

Sedge Greater tussock sedge Carex paniculata showing its tussocky growth habit

Other species show different growth patterns from the rhizome, putting up shoots which are close to one another, and which radiate from the centre.  The Few flowered spike rush Eleocharis quinqueflora is a good example of this, as are the Isolepis species.

The Few Flowered Rush Eleocharis quinqueflora

In other sedges, there’s far more space between the shoots coming up from the rhizome, which leads to the plants having a creeping habit.  They’re sometimes referred to as “stoloniferous” which gives a good clue to their growth, even though it’s technically not quite right (unlike the stolons of grasses, rhizomes contain food supplies).  Lots of sedges grow like this, like the Stiff sedge Carex biglowii.

Shoots growing up from along the rhizome; Stiff sedge Carex biglowii

For more on these differences in rhizome growth, consult the bible for sedge enthusiasts, Sedges of the Birtish Isles by Jermy, Simpson, Foley & Porter (p. 5-6) There’s also information on how the rhizome itself can be used to tell species apart, by seeing whether it’s woody or not, and by looking at the leaf scales that grow from it.

Flowers of Sedges

The flowers and fruits of sedges are markedly different to those of grasses.  They take a little getting used to.  As with many areas of botany, they have nomenclature specific to their family.

Sedge flowers are known as Inflorescences.  They are made of lots of smaller florets.  Like grasses, they are wind pollinated.

These florets are grouped together into cylindrical or oval clusters which are known as Spikes or Spikelets.

These spikelets are arranged differently, according to species.  They can be solitary, un-branched and at the tip of a stem.  Or they can be arranged in groups, into branching flowering heads.  There may be bracts below the spikelets.  The form and length of these bracts is important when telling species apart.

Common cottongrass Eriophorum angustifolium has a branched flowering head.

The Few-flowered Spike-rush Eleocharis quinqueflora has solitary spikelets borne at its tips (see picture above).

Bisexual sedge florets

Across the sedge species, each floret is tiny, and grows in the junction between the stem and a tough scale called a glume.  Many sedge florets are bisexual, bearing three stamens (with stiff filaments bearing anthers), stigmas (less feathery than in grasses and varying from 2 to three depending on species), and an ovary inside a covering; this unit is known as the utricle.

Diagram of a bisexual sedge flower

This diagram shows the anatomy of a bisexual sedge flower.  The utricle encloses the ovary (and eventually encloses the fertilized fruit, known as a nutlet) and may have a pointed tip or beak.

The Great fen sedge Cladium mariscum has bisexual flowers and a branching inflorescence.  Bisexual flowers can also be borne in non-branching inflorescences (as in the Black bog rush Schoenus nigricans below)

Bisexual florets on the Black bog rush Schoenus nigricans

Unisexual sedge florets

However, the florets of the Carex (true sedges) and Kobresia (false-sedges) families are unisexual, meaning the male and female flowers are separate.

Diagram of a unisexual male sedge floret

Male flowers have three stamens and a glume.  In male spikelets, the lower male flowers may be sterile and have larger glumes.

Diagram of a unisex female sedge floret

Female florets have a bottle-shaped utricle with a glume below.  In some species there are two stigmas on the utricle (like the Stiff sedge Carex biglowii and the Common sedge Carex nigra) and these tend to mature into a flattened curved nutlet.

Sedge with two stigmas Common sedge Carex nigra

In other species there are three stigmas per utricle (as with the Carnation sedge Carex panacea); these tend to mature into a rounded or somewhat triangular nutlet.

Sedge with 3 stigmas Carnation sedge Carex panacea

Although sedges with unisexual flowers may have only all-male-floret or only all-female-floret spikelets, this isn’t always the case.  In some species the spikelets of both sexes are carried on the same plant, with all the male flowers at the top and female ones at the bottom (androgynous), or vis a versa.

Bottle sedge Carex rostrata has unisex florets and bears thin male spikelets above the female ones, and thus is androgynous.

In the Diocecious sedge Carex dioica, male flowers are carried on one plant with the female spikelets on another (the clue is in the name, I suppose).

Different unisex florets appear on different plants in Diocecious sedge Carex dioica

This arrangement of the tiny spikelets, and whether they’re bisexual, male or female is the bit of sedge anatomy I find most confusing!

Nutlets or fruit of sedges

The fruits or nutlets of sedges are vital when it comes to telling species apart.  Their shape and size matters.  The absence or presence of a beak is important.  Shape of a beak (if present) is vital.  Colour, hairiness (or not), and presence or absence of veins are all important.

diverse selection of sedge fruit or nutlets

Variety

The variety of sedges is amazing.  It includes beautiful species resplendent with white bristles such as the cotton grasses Eleocharis.  Then there are elegant drooping plants like the Pendulous sedge Carex pendulosa and the blueish Glaucous sedge Carex flacca.  Unobstrusive species that resemble rushes like the Black bog rush Schoenus nigricans are lovely, too.  Large plants with toothed leaf blades like the Great fen sedge Cladium mariscum are dramatic representaives.  There are what I think of as “typical” sedges like the Stiff sedge Carex biglowii.  Don’t forget deauties with extraordinary fruit (like the Bottle and Star sedge, Carex rostratum and echinata respectively.)

Below is an array of these fine plants.  I’ve been commissioned to paint these by the Field for School Studies.  They appear on fold-out guides to different habitats.

A small variety of the more than 5,500 species of sedge

Identifying sedges

There are several things to consider when trying to identify a sedge to species level.  Think about how it grows from the rhizome.  Consider leaf width, length and colour.  Lok at leaf ligules.  Where is it growing (habitat)?  What size is the plant? See whether it has separate male and female flowers.  Look for details of the spikelets.

With Carex species, you first and foremost need to consider the nutlet or fruit.

Glumes, at the base of the spikelet, need to be examined and the colour and shape considered.

Bracts (below the spikelet) need a close examination.

Figure out if there are two or three stigmas on the flowers.

Look to see how the flowers are arranged on the plant.  Both their position on the stem and in terms of where female and male flowers sit if relevant.

References

I love sedges, although I readily admit to being almost a total novice when it comes to identifying them in the field.  There are some splendid courses on sedge identification out there (like the Field Studies Council one, which I blogged about attending last year); and for the British Sedge species some very useful books.  These include the “bible” for Uk sedge identification, Sedges of the British Isles by Jermy, Simpson, Foley & Porter.  It’s published by the Botanical Society of the British Isles and is a hefty and very comprehensive volume, complete with a lot of detailed information on growth and anatomy in the opening pages, and distribution maps for each species.

I also find the Colour Identification to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns by Francis Rose very helpful and clear, along with Collins Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns by Fitter, Fitter and Farrer.  The sedge section in Collins Flower Guide by Streeter has some very good illustrations by Christina Hart-Davies.  For a comprehensive if dry resource, look at the Flora of the British Isles by Clapham, Tutin and Moore.

Diagrams in this blog owe a lot to the incredibly helpful The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms by Hickey and King .

I do hope that this introduction to the beautiful sedges will have inspired some of you to go out and start looking at these beautiful and frequently overlooked plants.  Along with grasses, and rushes, they’re proving to be really fascinating; both to learn about and to illustrate.

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Last week, Bloomsbury Publishers got in touch to ask me to do a diagram for one of the books in their “Spotlight” series of natural history titles, this book will be all about woodpeckers.  (I’ve done diagrams for other titles in the series including “Spotlight: Robin” and “Spotlight: Bumblebee”).

The woodpecker hyoid

This specific illustration was to be showing how a structure called a hyoid helps support the woodpecker tongue.  It also has a vital role in cushioning the skull as the woodpecker is busy smashing its beak into solid wood.  As stated in the article on Plos one by Wang, Cheung et al, “The woodpecker does not experience any head injury at the high speed of 6–7 m/s with a deceleration of 1000 g when it drums a tree trunk” (Why do Woodpeckers resist Head Impact Injury: A Biomechanical investigation Plos one, October 2011)  This is properly extraordinary; such force would not only give most vertebarates concussion and a massive headache, but would almost certainly result in permanent brain injury too.

Green woodpecker about to smash his beak against a tree…with no ill effects

So how do they do it?  As summarised by Samantha Hauserman in “Why Don’t Woodpeckers get Headaches?” there are a variety of adaptations that help the birds handle these massive and repeated impacts.

Illustration of the hyoid

The first is the structure I’ve been asked to illustrate, the hyoid.

Woodpecker skull with the hyoid highlighted in purple

The hyoid is in the neck, and is present in all vertebrates.  It’s made of cartilage, bones, and connective tissue.  Hyoids help support the tongue muscles.  In humans it’s pretty small, and shaped like the letter “U”.  However, in birds it’s a more complex structure.   Bird hyoids have two elongated arms which reach all the way round the skull and to the tip of the tongue, known as “hyoid horns”. (RSPB Spotlight Woodpeckers by Gerard Gorman, Bloomsbury, Sept 2018).

Woodpecker hyoid horns are especially long, and push the tongue out of the bill as they move forward.  This means the woodpecker can extend its tongue a long way into holes in trees and cracks in bark, and thus successfully feed on the insects hiding in that habitat.  The hyoid horns wrap around the skull, Keeping the hyoid structure in place, rather like a seatbelt or a harness might do.

The hyoid as a shock absorber

What’s especially clever is how the hyoid horns work when the tongue is not busy probing for insects.  In the same way that shock absorbers can made a bicycle much smoother to ride, the hyoid in woodpecker cushions the skull from the force of the blows. It’s a highly elastic structure, so when it’s at rest it’s wrapped around the skull, like an elastic and protective cushion for the brain.

Woodpecker skull from above.  This shows the hyoid is like a seatbelt round the back of the skull.  It also shows the diagonal groove in the skull that it leaves.

Closer examination of the hyoid has found that it’s a jointed structure and has a tough inner core with a more flexible outer layer.  It’s also been found that the posterior area of the hyoid bones have the lowest resistance to bending, which shows that area is highly flexible and thus perfectly designed to cushion impact.  (“Structural analysis of the tongue and hyoid apparatus in a woodpecker” Jung, Naleway et al. Acta biomaterialia 2016)

The isolated hyoid

Other adaptations to avoid brain injury

Woodpeckers are also very good at using their beaks.  They do this in a way that minimizes the impact on certain more vulnerable areas of their brains.

The beak design helps too, with the upper beak being slightly longer and harder than the lower beak.  This provides something of a protective overbite, and the very hard upper beak helps absorb impact.  It’s been proved these receive the bulk of the impact, with the force at a maximum just after a strike is made.

Great Spotted woodpecker combining behaviour and anatomy to avoid concussion

The plates of a woodpecker skull are more flexible than in other birds, with the bones in the forehead being more plate-like and spongy than in other parts of the skull. (“Structural analysis of the tongue and hyoid apparatus in a woodpecker” Jung, Naleway et al. Acta biomaterialia 2016)

Conslusion

All of these structural and behavioural elements combine to allow the woodpecker to drum against trees to find food.  They drum to declare territories and attract mates.  Repeated actions that would leave most vertebrates brain damaged can be performed over and over again with no ill effects.

Green woodpecker in open country

So next time you hear a woodpecker drumming on a tree, pause.  Spare a thought for the extraordinary level of biomechanical skill that’s gone into making such behaviour possible.  Over and over again, I’m gobsmacked by how wonderful and efficient evolution and natural forms are.  Researchers are now looking to see if the physical adaptations of the woodpecker skull can be used to improve the design of bike helmets, and of other engineered structures that need to absorb energy.

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Genus and species

Now we get down to the Latin names as you see them written.  A genus name followed by a species name.  This is referred to as the scientific name of an organism.  It is written in italics with the genus capitalised, the species name not capitalised.  You may see Latin names underlined, not italicised.  This is more common in hand writing than typing.  Also, once you’ve written a Latin name out in full once, you can use an initial for the genus name next time you mention it.  So Quercus robur can be Q. robur on its second mention.

The English oak, Q. robur

Kingdom: Plantae, Phylum: Angiosperms, (no Class, please see my last blog for reasons why!) Order: Fagales, Family:Fagaceae, Genus: Quercus, Species: robur

G is for Genus

Genus refer to closely related species.  We’re getting pretty specific, and there’s a high level of shared genetic material and relatedness by the time an organism is classified to genus level.  All Oaks are in the Quercus genus.

Four different species of Oak in the Quercus genus.  (Clockwise from top L):  Sessile oak Q. petraea, Turkey oak Q. cerris, English oak Q. robur, and the Luccombe oak Quercus x hispanica ‘Lucombeana’.  (See below for an explanation of this latin name which gives information on hybridization, and a cultivar!).

Humans are in the genus Homo, along with several extinct hominids (Homo erectus, Homo habilis and others).

European land-breathing snails are all in the same genus (Helix). Our common garden snail H. aspersa is one of 17 individual species within this genus. The plural of genus is genera, and a genus name is written in italics with the first letter capitalised or, if using handwriting, may be underlined instead of italicised.

Helix aspersa, the Common garden snail (one of 17 species in the Helix Genus)

S is for species

Finally!  This is where you can absolutely nail the identity of what you’re drawing or studying.  There can be further distinctions (see below).  But generally a species refers to one specific type of organism which breed and produce fertile offspring in nature. However, even this isn’t clear cut.  Distinct species sometimes breed and produce fertile offspring (this is called hybridizing).  This is true of the Hooded crow and the Carrion crow.

At species level I can figure out what precise organism I need to illustrate.  If a client were simply to tell me to paint a sedge (genus Carex) I’d be lost.  There are over 2000 known species!  However, by giving me the species name I have the information required to get a specific and correct painting done.

Three species of sedge.  The Brown sedge C. disticha, the Common sedge C. nigra, and the Wood sedge C. sylvatica

A good way to think of scientific names is as a noun (the genus) followed by a qualifier, or an adjective (the species name).

Scientific names can give lots of information

The English Oak we discussed earlier is Q. robur.  Robur translates as strong, and clearly refers to the stout properties of English oak timber.

The sedges above offer another good example.  Carex translates as sedge.  Disticha literally translates as “couplets”.  This refers to its flower (catkin for sedges) morphology.  In the USA the common name for the plant is the “two-tier” sedge.  Nigra translates as black.  The catkin of this plant does indeed look very dark when compared to other sedge species.  It also bears black seed heads.  Sylvaticum, the species name of the Wood sedge translates loosely as “of the woods”.

Another example is the Vanessa brush-footed butterflies.  The genus is Vanessa, within the 22 species of Vanessa you find the Andean Painted lady (Vanessa alitssima).  The Latin name literally translates as the “highest” Vanessa butterfly, which makes sense considering it lives in the Andes. Vanessa braziliensis is, not surprisingly, the Brazilian Vanessa butterfly.  The Painted lady butterfly we’re familiar with in the UK, Vanessa cardui, translates as the “thistle” Vanessa.  One of its preferred food plants is thistle.  Latin names are informative if you take the time to look at them.

The Painted lady butterfly, V. cardui on host plant thistle

What is a subspecies?

Sometimes there will be consistent variations within a species, often relating to geographically separate populations of the same organism, or the presence of a common mutation or small difference from the norm.  You can show this by following the species name with the abbreviation of “subspecies” which is “subsp.”  So the Wild daffodil has the species name Narcissus pseudonarcissus. However, the plant is actually a subspecies, so to be accurate its Latin name must read Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. pseudocarcissus.

The Wild daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. pseudocarcissus

Hybridizing and Cultivars

Remember the mention of hybridizing species?  The fact that two species have bred can be shown in in the offspring’s Latin name – a cross between the English oak (Q. robur) and the Sessile oak (Q. petraea) is Quercus petraea x robur.  The “x” is the symbol used to show what parent species have mingled to create this hybrid.

Finally, for any gardeners among you, you’ll come across cutivar names.  These follow the species name.  They appear after the prefix “cultivar”, “cv” or quotation marks.  Cultivar names tend to be in English, not Latin.  They aren’t put in italics.  With the Lucombe oak above, you can tell from its name that its a hybrid.   It includes the tell-tale “x”.  (Even though in this case, its parents, the Turkey and Cork oak aren’t mentioned in its name).  It is the ‘Lucombeana’ cultivar.

A clearer example is the King Edward potato.  Its full name is: Solanum tuberosum cv. King Edward.  To simplify, that’s the species Solanum tubersum; the“King Edward” cultivar.

The King Edward potato cultivar Solanum tubersum “King Edward”.

For more on the naming of variants, cultivars, and forms of plants check out the BBC’s gardening page or Australia’s Virtual Herbarium help page on the subject.

The joy of latin names

At this point it’s worth mentioning that there’s a world of delight in Latin names; they are often very descriptive, relating to an organism’s habitat or leaf shape, colour of smell.  But they are also sometimes very funny.  Who can resist the fact that the North American kangaroo mouse’s Latin name is Microdipodops megacephalus which translates as “a thing that looks as though it has two small feet with a big head”.  This, and many other similar examples can be found in the thoroughly engaging book on Latin names by John Wright (which I was lucky enough to illustrate); “The Naming of the Shrew: A curious history of Latin names”.

The “tip card” from the Institure for Analytical Plant Illustration (IAPI) on naming and classifying plants has been invaluable for these linked blogs, these cards come on many subjects and are well worth investing in.

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Using names to classify life

So how does this system of naming work?  It’s vital to remember that naming things is a very human trait.  We have invented this complicated and detailed format to be able to identify all living things.   It’s by no means a perfect solution.  Latin names are forever changing as new information on relationships between animals or plants is revealed.   Sometimes organisms don’t fit neatly into the named boxes we’ve built for them.  Saying that, it’s human-kind’s messy attempt to classify and organise the world around us.  Although it’s not perfect, it’s globally used and does the job.

Catching a lizard safely, from “The Complete Naturalist” by Nick Baker

A name explains relationships between organisms

Every living thing which has been identified by scientists has a whole string of Latin names.  This system was devised by the scientist Carolus Linnaeus in the 18^th century.  Each name not only helps pinpoint a particular species, but also gives a vast amount of information about how similar plants and creatures are.  It explains evolutionary relationships.  This is called the “phylogenetic relationship” and is used to categorise organisms.  Sometimes, the close relationship between seemingly different creatures can be surprising.

Seals and Bears share a common ancestor and are quite closely related

Pneumonic to remember the order of names

At high school the Latin system of naming was taught to me as “King Philip Came Over From Germany Singing”.  This is a good way to remember the letters K, P, C, F, G, S in order.  And what does each letter stand for?  K is Kingdom, P is Phylum, C is Class, O is order, F is family, G is genus, and S is species.

K is for Kingdom.

Currently, sources agree that there are six kingdoms of organisms.  These are Eubacteria (prokaryotic and unicellular, including Bacteria).  Next is Archaebacteria  (again prokaryotic unicellular organisms such as Methanogens and Thermophiles).  We have Protista (eukaryotic and uni or multicellular).  Fungi form another kingdom.  Then there’s Animalia (animals).  Finally, we have Plantae (plants).  Kingdoms are written with a capital letter, but not in italics.

Fungus is one of 6 kingdoms of organism (this one’s the Fly agaric Amanita muscaria)

P stands for Phylum.

A phylum falls between a Kingdom and a Class and includes broad groups of organisms such as Arthropods (insects, crustaceans and arachnids), or the phylum Chordata into which humans fall.  Chordata also includes all vertebrates, so it’s a vast category.  Phyla are written with a capital letter, and not italicised.

Some of the vast numbers of animals that are classed as Arthropods

C is for Class.

A class is a more closely related group than a phylum, so within the phylum of Chordates you have 7 different classes; jawless fish (Agnatha), fish with cartilage but no bones (Osteichthyes), amphibians (Amphibia), reptiles (Reptilia), birds (Aves) and mammals (Mammalia).  Each phylum is subdivided into these different taxanomic groups.  Classes bear a capital letter but no italics.

Representatives of all 7 classes of Chordates (excluding the jawless fish, Agnatha)

Interestingly, these days botanists tend to dispense with classes and prefer the use of the looser term, “clade”.  This change was heralded in 1998 by the APG or Angiosperm Phylogeny Group which reclassified flowering plants.  It’s been tweaked and updated to reflect molecular similarities between species.  These have been discovered thanks to the advancement of techniques since the 1990s.  We now operate under APGIV (published in 2016).

O stands for order

An order is a grouping of increasingly similar plants or animals.  If we look within the class Amphibia we find three orders.  These are Anura (frogs and toads), Apoda (caecilian “worms”), and Urodela (salamanders and newts).

Representatives of all three orders of Amphibians

Within the class Mammalia there are many more orders.  These include the Monotrema (egg laying mammals) and Carnivora (carnivores including lions, wolves, racoons and bears).  Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) and Chiroptera (bats) are two mroe orders.  There are lots of others.  These classifications are always shifting and changing as different molecular facts about relationships between species are discovered.  Almost every text book will give a slightly different list of Mammalia orders.  Orders are written with a capital letter and no italics.

Hares and rabbits are Lagomorphs, one of many oders in the Mammalia class.

F is Family

Family refers to a group of organisms even more closely related to one another, and sharing common attributes.  Confusingly (as with the orders of animals and plants where you find sub-orders) you can also find sub-families which slot in between families and genus.  Bear with me.

Oaks and beeches are in the same family (Fagaceae) which sits within the order Fagales.  With names in botany, it’s quite common to see the –aceae ending when you’re talking about families of plant, and the ending –ales often turns up in order names.  Large families can be divided into tribes, or into subfamilies (oaks and some other similar species are in the subfamily Quercoideae) which often bear the –oideae ending.

Beech and Oak are both in the Fagaceae family.  Pictured here is the European beech Fagus sylvatica and the English oak Quercus robur

In our example of amphibians, there are 31 families within the order Anura (frogs and toads).  It’s at the family level that you start to realise the distinctions between similar animals really do need to be made by biologists; there are over 59 different families of snails!  As before, family names bear a capital letter but are not italicised.

From the family name you get increasingly specific; next comes the Genus name and finally the very specific species name.  These are always written underlined or in italics, and allow you to confidently pinpoint the precise organism you’re looking at.  For more on Genus and species, please look at my Blog on Scientific names: What’s in a name? part 2

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