Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides said that borage was the nepenthe (νηπενθές : nēpenthés) mentioned in Homer, which caused forgetfulness when mixed with wine.
Francis Bacon  thought that borage had "an excellent spirit to repress the fuliginous vapour of dusky melancholie."
John Gerard's Herball mentions an old verse concerning the plant: "Ego Borago, Gaudia semper ago (I, Borage, bring always joys)". He asserts:
Those of our time do use the flowers in salads to exhilerate and make the mind glad. There be also many things made of these used everywhere for the comfort of the heart, for the driving away of sorrow and increasing the joy of the mind. The leaves and flowers of Borage put into wine make men and women glad and merry and drive away all sadness, dullness and melancholy, as Dioscorides and Pliny affirm. Syrup made of the flowers of Borage comfort the heart, purge melancholy and quiet the frantic and lunatic person. The leaves eaten raw engender good blood, especially in those that have been lately sick.


Borage is used in companion planting. It is said to protect or nurse legumes, spinach, brassicas, and even strawberries. It is also said to be a good companion plant to tomatoes because it confuses the mother moths of tomato hornworms or manduca looking for a place to lay their eggs. Claims that it improves tomato growth and makes them taste better remain unsubstantiated.


Borbo cinnara, commonly known as the rice swift, Formosan swift or rice leaf folder, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, and Australia.


Above thorax and bases with inconspicuous greenish clothing. Usually upperside forewing with a conspicuous non-hyaline spot in space 1b, discal series in spaces 2, 3, 4 and apical dots in spaces 6, 7, 8, as well as an upper cell spot. Upperside hindwing with I or 2 dots. Underside hindwing with olive-ochreous scaling and spots in spaces 2, 3, 6. F 15-16 mm.
— William Harry Evans, A Catalogue of the Hesperiidae from Europe, Asia, and Australia in the British Museum
Larvae are known to feed on Setaria barbata, Axonopus compressus, Rottboellia cochinchinensis and Brachiaria mutica.


Borrichia frutescens is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known by the common names sea oxeye, sea oxeye daisy, bushy seaside tansy, and sea-marigold. In Veracruz it is called verdolaga de mar. It is native to the United States and Mexico, where it occurs along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Its distribution extends from Maryland south to Florida and west to Texas in the US, and along the Mexican Gulf Coast to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is an introduced species in some areas, such as Bermuda and Spain.


This species is variable in appearance. In general, it is a perennial herb or shrub reaching up to about 90 centimeters (3 feet) tall. The herbage is gray-green to silvery, and fleshy. It has oval to lance-shaped leaves up to 11 centimeters long. The blades are toothed near the bases, smooth-edged otherwise, and are usually hairy. The leaf base or petiole usually has at least one spine. The inflorescence is a solitary rounded flower head lined with spine-tipped phyllaries. The head has 15 to 30 short, yellow ray florets. At the center are many yellow disc florets with black anthers. The fruit is a dark-colored, flattened, somewhat triangular cypsela a few millimeters long. As the head dries and the flowers fall away, it becomes a hard, spiny, burr-like body packed with the small fruits. The life span of the plant may exceed five years.


The flowering season varies geographically and according to weather conditions, but along the US Gulf Coast it usually takes place from June to August. Reproduction occurs sexually by flowering, as well as vegetatively via rhizome.
This plant is a halophyte, growing in various types of coastal habitat. It occurs on beaches, dunes, and barrier islands, in saline and brackish wetlands and mangroves. It is an emergent plant, tolerating inundation in ocean water. It also tolerates drought and a range of soil conditions, from acidic to alkaline. In the Florida Keys much of its substrate is limestone.


This species occurs with another member of its genus, Borrichia arborescens, in some parts of its range. The two often hybridize, producing offspring that has been called Borrichia × cubana, the Cuban borrichia. The hybrid is variable in morphology, but it is usually intermediate to its parents.
The plant also grows with other typical salt marsh and coastline plants such as glasswort (Salicornia virginica), saltwort (Batis maritima), seashore saltgrass (Distichlis spicata), and annual seepweed (Suaeda linearis).
The plant is attractive to butterflies. Other insects associated with it include the delphacid planthopper Pissonotus quadripustulatus, aphids of the genus Uroleucon (formerly Dactynotus), the leafhopper Carneocephala floridana, and the gall midge Asphondylia borrichiae. P. quadripustulatus and A. borrichiae specialize on this plant. The midge causes the development of galls in the apical meristem. Destruction of tissue in this part of the plant can stop its growth, prevent its flowering, and kill the whole stem. There is usually one gall per plant, but each may have several chambers, usually no more than three, but sometimes up to eight. Each contains a fly larva which feeds on fungus growing inside the gall, then pupates and emerges as an adult. The galls also contain several species of wasps, which are parasitoids on the fly.


The American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) is a species of wading bird in the heron family. It has a Nearctic distribution, breeding in Canada and the northern and central parts of the United States, and wintering in the U.S. Gulf Coast states, all of Florida into the Everglades, the Caribbean islands and parts of Central America.
It is a well-camouflaged, solitary brown bird that unobtrusively inhabits marshes and the coarse vegetation at the edge of lakes and ponds. In the breeding season it is chiefly noticeable by the loud, booming call of the male. The nest is built just above the water, usually among bulrushes and cattails, where the female incubates the clutch of olive-colored eggs for about four weeks. The young leave the nest after two weeks and are fully fledged at six or seven weeks.
The American bittern feeds mostly on fish but also eats other small vertebrates as well as crustaceans and insects. It is fairly common over its wide range, but its numbers are thought to be decreasing, especially in the south, because of habitat degradation. However the total population is large, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "Least Concern".


The American bittern is a large, chunky, brown bird, very similar to the Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris), though slightly smaller, and the plumage is speckled rather than being barred. It is 58–85 cm (23–33 in) in length, with a 92–115 cm (36–45 in) wingspan and a body mass of 370–1,072 g (0.816–2.363 lb).
The crown is chestnut brown with the centers of the feathers being black. The side of the neck has a bluish-black elongated patch which is larger in the male than in the female. The hind neck is olive, and the mantle and scapulars are dark chestnut-brown, barred and speckled with black, some feathers being edged with buff. The back, rump, and upper tail-coverts are similar in color but more finely speckled with black and with grey bases to the feathers. The tail feathers are chestnut brown with speckled edges, and the primaries and secondaries are blackish-brown with buff or chestnut tips. The cheeks are brown with a buff superciliary stripe and a similarly colored mustachial stripe. The chin is creamy-white with a chestnut central stripe, and the feathers of the throat, breast, and upper belly are buff and rust-colored, finely outlined with black, giving a striped effect to the underparts. The eyes are surrounded by yellowish skin, and the iris is pale yellow. The long, robust bill is yellowish-green, the upper mandible being darker than the lower, and the legs and feet are yellowish-green. Juveniles resemble adults, but the sides of their necks are less olive.


The American bittern was first described in 1813 by the English clergyman Thomas Rackett from a vagrant individual he examined in Dorset, England. No extant subspecies are accepted. However, fossils found in the Ichetucknee River in Florida, and originally described as a new form of heron (Palaeophoyx columbiana McCoy, 1963) were later recognized to be a smaller, prehistoric subspecies of the American bittern which lived during the Late Pleistocene (Olson, 1974) and would thus be called B. l. columbianus. Its closest living relative is the pinnated bittern (Botaurus pinnatus) from Central and South America.
The generic name Botaurus was given by English naturalist James Francis Stephens, and is derived from Medieval Latin butaurus, "bittern", constructed from the Middle English name for the Eurasian bittern, botor. Pliny gave a fanciful derivation from Bos (ox) and taurus (bull), because the bittern's call resembles the bellowing of a bull. The species name lentiginosus is Latin for "freckled", from lentigo (freckle), and refers to the speckled plumage.
Many folk names are given for its distinctive call. In his book on the common names of American birds, Ernest Choate lists "bog bumper" and "stake driver". Other vernacular names include "thunder pumper", "bog bull", "bog thumper", "mire drum", and "water belcher".


Its range includes much of North America. It breeds in southern Canada as far north as British Columbia, the Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay, and in much of the United States and possibly central Mexico. It migrates southward in the fall and overwinters in the southern United States of the Gulf Coast region, most notably in the marshy Everglades of Florida, the Caribbean Islands and Mexico, with past records also coming from Panama and Costa Rica. As a long-distance migrant, it is a very rare vagrant in Europe, including Great Britain and Ireland. It is an aquatic bird and frequents bogs, marshes and the thickly-vegetated verges of shallow-water lakes and ponds, both with fresh and brackish or saline water. It sometimes feeds out in the open in wet meadows and pastures.


The American bittern is a solitary bird and usually keeps itself well-hidden and is difficult to observe. It usually hunts by walking stealthily in shallow water and among the vegetation, stalking its prey, but sometimes it stands still in ambush. If it senses that it has been seen, it remains motionless, with its bill pointed upward, its cryptic coloration causing it to blend into the surrounding foliage. It is mainly nocturnal and is most active at dusk. More often heard than seen, the male bittern has a loud, booming call that resembles a congested pump and which has been rendered as "oong, kach, oonk". While uttering this sound, the bird's head is thrown convulsively upward and then forward, and the sound is repeated up to seven times.
The process by which the bittern produces its distinctive sound is not fully understood. It has been suggested that the bird gradually puffs out its neck by inflating its esophagus with air accompanied by a mild clicking or hiccuping sound. The esophagus is kept inflated by means of flaps beside the tongue. Once this action is completed and the esophagus is fully inflated, the distinctive gulping sound is made in the syrinx. When the sound is finished, the bird deflates its esophagus.
Like other members of the heron family, the American bittern feeds in marshes and shallow ponds, preying mainly on fish but also consuming amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, crustaceans and insects. It is a territorial bird and has a threat display which involves slowly erecting long, white, previously-concealed, plumes on its shoulders, to form wing-like extensions that nearly meet across its back, resembling a ruff. The bird then stands still in a threatening posture, or stalks the intruder in a crouching position, with its head retracted and a gliding gait.
This bird nests solitarily in marshes among coarse vegetation such as bulrushes and cattails, with the female building the nest and the male guarding it. The nest is usually about 15 cm (6 in) above the water surface and consists of a rough platform of dead stalks and rushes, sometimes with a few twigs mixed in, and lined with bits of coarse grass. Up to about six eggs are laid and are incubated by the female for twenty-nine days. The eggs are bluntly ovoid in shape, olive-buff and unspeckled, averaging 49 by 37 mm (1.93 by 1.46 in) in size. The chicks are fed individually, each in turn pulling down the female's beak and receiving regurgitated food directly into its beak. They leave the nest at about two weeks and are fully-fledged at six to seven weeks.


The bird's numbers are declining in many parts of its range because of habitat loss. This is particularly noticeable in the southern part where chemical contamination and human development are reducing the area of suitable habitat. However, the bird has an extremely large range and a large total population, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern". The American bittern is protected under the United States Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. It is also protected under the Canadian Migratory Birds Convention Act of 1994 to which both Canada and the United States are signatories.


BirdLife International (2016). "Botaurus lentiginosus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22697340A93609388. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22697340A93609388.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
Lepage, Denis. "American Bittern Botaurus lentiginosus (Rackett, 1813)". Avibase. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
"American Bittern". All About Birds. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5.
Witherby, H. F., ed. (1943). Handbook of British Birds, Volume 3: Hawks to Ducks. H. F. and G. Witherby Ltd. pp. 160–162.
Martínez-Vilalta, A.; Motis, A.; Kirwan, G.M. (2014). "American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
McCoy, John J. (1963). "The fossil avifauna of Itchtucknee  River, Florida" (PDF). Auk. 80 (3): 335–351. doi:10.2307/4082892. JSTOR 4082892.
Olson, Storrs L. (1974). "A reappraisal of the fossil heron Palaeophoyx columbiana McCoy" (PDF). Auk. 91 (1): 179–180. doi:10.2307/4084689. JSTOR 4084689.
Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 75, 221. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
"Bittern (1)". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 May 2016.(subscription required)
McAtee, Waldo Lee (1959). Folk-names of Canadian Birds. Bulletin of National Museum of Canada. Vol. 51. National Museum of Canada. p. 6.
Choate, Ernest Alfred (1985). The Dictionary of American Bird Names. Harvard Common Press. ISBN 978-0-87645-117-5.
Gardner, Dana; Overcott, Nancy (2007). Fifty Uncommon Birds of the Upper Midwest. University of Iowa Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-58729-590-4.
Criswell, Rob (2021). "Ghosts of the Marsh". Pennsylvania Game News 92 (6): 14–18.
Chapin, James, P. (1922). The Function of the Oesophagus in the Bittern's Booming. The Auk, Vol XXXIX. p. 196.
"List of Migratory Bird Species Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act as of December 2, 2013". Migratory Bird Program. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
MacDowell, Laurel Sefton (2012). An Environmental History of Canada. UBC Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-7748-2103-2.


The Eurasian bittern or great bittern (Botaurus stellaris) is a wading bird in the bittern subfamily (Botaurinae) of the heron family Ardeidae. There are two subspecies, the northern race (B. s. stellaris) breeding in parts of Europe and across the Palearctic, as well as on the northern coast of Africa, while the southern race (B. s. capensis) is endemic to parts of southern Africa. It is a secretive bird, seldom seen in the open as it prefers to skulk in reed beds and thick vegetation near water bodies. Its presence is apparent in the spring, when the booming call of the male during the breeding season can be heard. It feeds on fish, small mammals, fledgling birds, amphibians, crustaceans and insects.
The nest is usually built among reeds at the edge of bodies of water. The female incubates the clutch of eggs and feeds the young chicks, which leave the nest when about two weeks old. She continues to care for them until they are fully fledged some six weeks later.
With its specific habitat requirements and the general reduction in wetlands across its range, the population is thought to be in decline globally. However the decline is slow, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its overall conservation status as being of "least concern". Nevertheless, some local populations are at risk and the population of the southern race has declined more dramatically and is cause for concern. In the United Kingdom it is one of the most threatened of all bird species.


This species was first described as Ardea asteria sive stellaris as early as 1603 by Ulisse Aldrovandi in his Ornithologiae. In 1660 the ornithologist Thomas Browne referred to it as Ardea stellaris botaurus and then the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae of 1758 named it again as Ardea stellaris. It is placed in the subfamily Botaurinae, and its closest relatives are the American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), the pinnated bittern (Botaurus pinnatus) and the Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus). Two races of Eurasian bittern are recognised; the nominate subspecies B. s. stellaris has a palearctic distribution and occurs across a broad swathe of Europe, North Africa and Asia, while the other subspecies, B. s. capensis, occurs only in southern Africa. The name capensis was used for species found in the Afrotropics for which no exact range was known.
The generic name Botaurus was given by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens, and is derived from Medieval Latin butaurus, "bittern", itself constructed from the Middle English name for the bird, botor. Pliny gave a fanciful derivation from Bos (ox) and taurus (bull), because the bittern's call resembles the bellowing of a bull. The species name stellaris is Latin for "starred", from stella, "star", and refers to the speckled plumage.
Its folk names, often local, include many variations on the themes of "barrel-maker", "bog-bull", "bog hen", "bog-trotter", "bog-bumper", "mire drum[ble]", "butter bump", "bitter bum", "bog blutter", "bog drum", "boom bird", "bottle-bump", "bull of the bog", "bull of the mire", "bumpy cors", and "heather blutter". Most of these were onomatopoeic colloquial names for the bird; the call was described as "bumping" or "booming". Mire and bog denote the bird's habitat.


Bitterns are thickset herons with bright, pale, buffy-brown plumage covered with dark streaks and bars As its alternate name suggests, this species is the largest of the bitterns, with males being rather larger than females. The Eurasian or great bittern is 69–81 cm (27–32 in) in length, with a 100–130 cm (40–50 in) wingspan and a body mass of 0.87–1.94 kg (1 lb 14+1⁄2 oz – 4 lb 4+1⁄2 oz).
The crown and nape are black, with the individual feathers rather long and loosely arranged, tipped with buff narrowly barred with black. The sides of the head and neck are a more uniform tawny-buff, irregularly barred with black. The mantle, scapulars and back are of a similar colour but are more heavily barred, the individual feathers having black centres and barring. The head has a yellowish-buff superciliary stripe and a brownish-black moustachial stripe. The sides of the neck are a rusty-brown with faint barring. The chin and throat are buff, the central feathers on the throat having longitudinal stripes of rusty-brown. The breast and belly are yellowish-buff, with broad stripes of brown at the side and narrow stripes in the centre. The tail is rusty-buff with black streaks in the centre and black mottling near the edge. The wings are pale rusty-brown irregularly barred, streaked and mottled with black. The plumage has a loose texture, and elongated feathers on the crown, neck and breast can be erected. The powerful bill is greenish-yellow with a darker tip to the upper mandible. The eye has a yellow iris and is surrounded by a ring of greenish or bluish bare skin. The legs and feet are greenish, with some yellow on the tarsal joint and yellow soles to the feet. Juveniles have similar plumage to adults but are somewhat paler with less distinct markings.


The breeding range of B. s. stellaris extends across temperate parts of Europe and Asia from the British Isles, Sweden and Finland eastwards to Sakhalin Island in eastern Siberia and Hokkaido Island in Japan. The bird's northern extent of occurrence is around 57°N in the Ural Mountains and 64°N in eastern Siberia. Its southern limit is the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Hebei Province in northern China. Small resident populations also breed in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. It typically inhabits reed beds (Phragmites) and swamps, as well as lakes, lagoons and sluggish rivers fringed by rank vegetation. It sometimes nests by ponds in agricultural areas, and even quite near habitations where suitable habitat exists, but for preference, chooses large reed beds of at least 20 hectares (50 acres) in which to breed.
Some populations are sedentary and stay in the same areas throughout the year. More northerly populations usually migrate to warmer regions but some birds often remain; birds in northern Europe tend to move south and west to southern Europe, northern and central Africa, and northern Asian birds migrate to parts of the Arabian peninsula, the Indian sub-continent, and the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Inner Mongolia in eastern China. Outside the breeding season it has less restrictive habitat requirements, and as well as living in reed beds, it visits rice fields, watercress beds, fish farms, gravel pits, sewage works, ditches, flooded areas and marshes.
The subspecies B. s. capensis is endemic to southern Africa, where it is found sparingly in marshes near the east coast, the Okavango Delta and the upland foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains. This population is sedentary.


Usually solitary, the Eurasian bittern forages in reed beds, walking stealthily or remaining still above a body of water where prey may occur. It is a shy bird, and if disturbed, often points its bill directly upwards and freezes in that position, causing its cryptic plumage to blend into the surrounding reeds, an action known as bitterning. While in this position, the shield of elongated feathers on throat and breast droop downwards and hide the neck, so that the outline of the head and body is obscured. Sometimes it resorts to applying powder down produced by patches of specialist down feathers at the side of its breast. This white dusty material seems to help it to rid its head and neck of slime after feeding on eels. It then removes the excess powder by scratching vigorously before applying preen oil from the gland at the base of its tail.
The bird has a secretive nature, keeping largely hidden in the reeds and coarse vegetation. Occasionally, especially in hard winter weather, it stands in the open beside the water's edge, although usually close to cover to facilitate a hasty retreat. In flight, its wings can be seen to be broad and rounded, and its legs trail behind it in typical heron fashion. Its neck is extended when it takes off, but is retracted when it has picked up speed. It seldom flies however, except when feeding young, preferring to move through the vegetation stealthily on foot. Its gait is slow and deliberate and it can clamber over reeds by gripping several at a time with its toes. It is most active at dawn and dusk, but also sometimes forages by day.
Eurasian bitterns feed on fish, small mammals, amphibians and invertebrates, hunting along the reed margins in shallow water. British records include eels up to 35 cm (14 in) and other fish, mice and voles, small birds and fledglings, frogs, newts, crabs, shrimps, molluscs, spiders and insects. In continental Europe, members of over twenty families of beetle are eaten, as well as dragonflies, bees, grasshoppers and earwigs. Some vegetable matter such as aquatic plants is also consumed.
Males are polygamous, mating with up to five females. The nest is built in the previous year's standing reeds and consists of an untidy platform some 30 cm (12 in) across. It may be on a tussock surrounded by water or on matted roots close to water and is built by the female using bits of reed, sedges and grass stalks, with a lining of finer fragments. The eggs average 50 by 40 mm (2 by 1+1⁄2 in) in size and are non-glossy, olive-brown, with some darker speckling at the broader end. Four to six eggs are laid in late March and April and incubated by the female for about twenty-six days. After hatching, the chicks spend about two weeks in the nest before leaving to swim amongst the reeds. The female rears them without help from the male, regurgitating food into the nest from her crop, the young seizing her bill and pulling it down. They become fully fledged at about eight weeks.


The mating call or contact call of the male is a deep, sighing fog-horn or bull-like boom with a quick rise and an only slightly longer fall, easily audible from a distance of five kilometres (three miles) on a calm night. The call is mainly given between January and April during the mating season. Surveys of Eurasian bitterns are carried out by noting the number of distinct male booms in a given area. Prior to modern science, it was unknown how such a small bird produced a call so low-pitched: common explanations included that the bird made its call into a straw or that it blew directly into the water. It is now known that the sound is produced by expelling air from the oesophagus with the aid of powerful muscles surrounding it.


The Eurasian bittern has a very wide range and a large total population, estimated to be 110,000 to 340,000 individuals. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its overall conservation status as being of "least concern because although the population trend is downward, the rate of decline is insufficient to justify rating it in a more threatened category. The chief threat the bird faces is destruction of reed beds and drainage and disturbance of its wetland habitats. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. The southern race has suffered catastrophic decline during the 20th century due to wetland degradation and, unlike the northern race, is of high conservation concern.
In the United Kingdom the species was once thought extinct, but in 1997 there were 11 males and by 2007 an estimated 44 breeding pairs, concentrated mainly in Lancashire and East Anglia. In 2021, 228 breeding males were counted in the United Kingdom, an increase of 19 birds since 2019. The Lancashire population at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve declined in recent decades, while bitterns have been attracted to new reed beds in the West Country. After extensive reedbed restoration, nesting and breeding was observed in north Wales, while in 2020, two pairs successfully bred at Newport Wetlands in Gwent, south Wales. These were the first bitterns to breed in the county in some 250 years. In the 21st century, bitterns are regular winter visitors to the London Wetland Centre, enabling city dwellers to view these scarce birds. In Ireland, it died out as a breeding species in the mid-19th century, but in 2011 a single bird was spotted in County Wexford and there have been a number of subsequent sightings.


The artist Abbott Handerson Thayer argued in his ill-advised 1909 venture into zoology, Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, that animals were concealed by a combination of countershading and disruptive coloration, which together "obliterated" their self-shadowing and their shape. On the disruptive effect of bittern plumage, he wrote:
I was watching a standing [American] Bittern at a distance of about ten feet. The light stripes on the bill were repeated and continued by the light stripes on the sides of the head and neck, and together they imitated very closely the look of separate, bright reed-stems; while the dark stripes pictured reeds in shadow, or the shadowed interstices between the stems.
On the Eurasian bittern's markings, he wrote:
Reed-like patterns occur also ... on the necks of some of the true herons ... The beautiful European Bittern has kindred markings with a strong admixture of richly brindled grass-pattern—a pattern at once bold and subtile, whose obliterative effect is the bird's normal environment must be consummate.
The zoologist Hugh Cott, in his classic 1940 study of camouflage, Adaptive Coloration in Animals, cites William Palmer's account of seeing a bittern:
he once marked the place in a marsh where one of these birds had alighted: on reaching the spot he had the "greatest difficulty in finding it clinging motionless, with bill almost erect, to a stem of wild oats".


Bothriochloa ischaemum is a species of perennial grass in the family Poaceae, found throughout much of the world. It is commonly known as yellow bluestem.  Two varieties are recognized, of which Bothriochloa ischaemum var. ischaemum is native to Europe, Asia, and Africa and naturalized elsewhere, and var. songarica is native to Asia and naturalized elsewhere. Var. songarica is an invasive weed in Texas, where it is known as "King Ranch bluestem"; it has displaced native grasses in large areas of central and south Texas.
The species name come from the Ancient Greek ischaemum, a styptic  (causing ischemia).


Botrychium lunaria is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae known by the common name moonwort or common moonwort. It is the most widely distributed moonwort, growing throughout the Northern Hemisphere across Eurasia and from Alaska to Greenland, as well as temperate parts of the Southern Hemisphere.


This is a small plant growing up to 30 cm in height from an underground caudex. The leaf is pinnate and is divided into a sterile frond and a fertile frond. The sterile frond of the leaf has 4 to 9 pairs of fan-shaped leaflets or pinnae. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with grapelike clusters of round sporangia producing spores by which it reproduces. As in other members of the family Ophioglossaceae, this species is eusporangiate, the sporangia derived from more than one initial cell and having sporangial walls more than one cell thick. Their spores develop into underground, mycotrophic gametophytes.  Moonworts die down at the end of summer, frequently lying dormant for several seasons before re-appearing.


Moonwort has a circumpolar distribution, being recorded in Eurasia, North America and Greenland. It also occurs in north Africa, the Himalayas, and temperate zones of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and South America. Although its distribution is patchy, and it may be locally rare, it is rated as of least concern in The IUCN Red List of threatened species. There is evidence of some decline in the British Isles, and in Ukraine, 189 loci were recorded, 118 before 1980, 58 after 1980  and 13 after 1980. In Britain it is found mainly in the north and west, while in the lowlands of England it has been largely lost and the decline continues. For example, in Worcestershire it had been recorded at seven sites in the past but now appears to be restricted to a single site.


Botrychium lunaria is a species which grows on relatively dry to moist short grassland, meadows, small woods, heaths and moors frequently on higher ground and rarely in forests, either deciduous or pine, or open woodland. It has also been recorded on dune slacks. Within Europe the common moonwort is a characteristic species of four habitats, namely acid Alpine and sub-Alpine grassland, southern Balkan montane grasslands, closed sand steppes in central Europe and grasslands in Finland and Scandinavia.
It will also colonise brownfield sites such as spoil heaps and shale brings, this is especially notable in central Scotland. It has a preference for neutral to alkaline soils, often over limestone or chalk, or in other lime-rich habitats. It occurs up to 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). In the younger and adult states it is reliant on mycorrhizal relationships and this means that it can be vulnerable to disturbance of the soil. The presence of rotting plant material may be required for this fern to grow successfully.


Botrypus virginianum, synonym Botrychium virginianum, sometimes called rattlesnake fern is a species of perennial fern in the adders-tongue family. It is monotypic within the genus Botrypus, meaning that it is the only species within the genus. It is called the rattlesnake fern in some parts of North America, due to its habit of growing in places where rattlesnakes are also found. Rattlesnake fern prefers to grow in rich, moist woods in dense shade and will not tolerate direct sunlight.


It is a low growing species, typically being a foot high or smaller. The leaf emerges in the early spring and will senesce in late summer. The leaf is roughly triangularly shaped and 15–50 cm in size and held roughly parallel to the ground. The leaf is 3-4 times pinnately compound, brightly green colored, and feels soft to the touch.  The stem is round and bicolor, being pinkish or light tan at the base but greenish nearer the branches or leaves. The diploid number is 184.
Rattlesnake fern has separate fertile and sterile leaves, when present the sterile leaf arises halfway up the stalk and the fertile leaf exists at the tip. The spores are shed in late spring.  Like other ferns rattlesnake fern undergoes alternation of generations and the form described in this article is the sporophyte.
This fern has been used medicinally. In India it is still used to treat dysentery.


Bouteloua gracilis, the blue grama, is a long-lived, warm-season (C4) perennial grass, native to North America.
It is most commonly found from Alberta, Canada, east to Manitoba and south across the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and U.S. Midwest states, onto the northern Mexican Plateau in Mexico.
Blue grama accounts for most of the net primary productivity in the shortgrass prairie of the central and southern Great Plains. It is a green or greyish, low-growing, drought-tolerant grass with limited maintenance.


Blue grama has green to greyish leaves less than 3 mm (0.1 in) wide and 1 to 10 in (25 to 250 mm) long. The overall height of the plant is 6 to 12 in (15 to 30 cm) at maturity.
The flowering stems (culms) are 7 to 18 in (18 to 46 cm) long. At the top are one to four, usually two, comb-like spikes, which extend out at a sharp angle from the flowering stem. Each spike has 20 to 90 spikelets. Each spikelet is 5 to 6 mm (0.20 to 0.24 in) long, and has one fertile floret and one or two reduced sterile ones. Below the florets are two glumes, one 1.5 to 3 mm (0.06 to 0.12 in) long and the other 3.5 to 6 mm (0.14 to 0.24 in) long. The fertile floret has a lemma (bract) 5 to 5.5 mm (0.20 to 0.22 in) long, with three short awns (bristles) at the tip, and the sterile floret has a lemma about 2 mm (0.08 in) long with three awns about 5 mm (0.2 in) long. If pollinated, the fertile floret produces an oblong-elliptic brown seed 2.5 to 3 mm (0.10 to 0.12 in) long. When the seed is mature, the whole spikelet detaches, except for the two glumes, which remain.
The roots generally grow 12 to 18 in (30 to 46 cm) outwards, and 3 to 6.5 ft (0.9 to 2.0 m) deep.
Blue grama is readily established from seed, but depends more on vegetative reproduction via tillers. Seed production is slow, and depends on soil moisture and temperature. Seeds dispersed by wind only reach a few meters (6 ft); farther distances are reached with insects, birds, and mammals as dispersal agents. Seedling establishment, survival, and growth are greatest when isolated from neighboring adult plants, which effectively exploit water in the seedling's root zone. Successful establishment requires a modest amount of soil moisture during the extension and development of adventitious roots.
Established plants are grazing-, cold-, and drought-tolerant, though prolonged drought leads to a reduction in root number and extent. They employ an opportunistic water-use strategy, rapidly using water when available, and becoming dormant during less-favorable conditions. In terms of successional status, blue grama is a late seral to climax species. Recovery following disturbance is slow and depends on the type and extent of the disturbance.


Blue grama has the widest distribution of all grama grasses. It will grow on most soil types, and readily adapts to local conditions. It can be found as far north as Alberta, and as far south as Mexico. It is present in most of the Midwestern United States, extending east to Missouri and Texas, and as far west as Southern California. It has been introduced to some eastern states, as well as South America.


Blue grama is valued as forage, and is the most valuable grama. It is an ideal range grass in the southwest. It will survive heavy grazing and extreme drought, and is quite palatable to livestock. Grazing of blue grama rangelands might also prevent invasion of undesirable weedy plants.
Blue grama is grown by the horticulture industry, and used in perennial gardens, naturalistic and native plant landscaping, habitat restoration projects, and residential, civic, and highway erosion control. Blue grama flowers are also used in dried flower arrangements. Blue grama is the state grass of Colorado and New Mexico. It is listed as an endangered species in Illinois.
Blue grama has a large genome relative to other grama grasses. It can be diploid or tetraploid.
Among the Zuni people, the grass bunches are tied together and the severed end is used as a hairbrush, the other as a broom. Bunches are also used to strain goat's milk. The Costanoan, or Ohlone, use(d) the hollow stems as drinking straws. The Navajo use(d) it as sheep and horse feed.


Blue grama is the dominant species of the US shortgrass steppe ecoregion. Populations of blue grama across the great plains are genetically differentiated (even at small spatial scales) and show functional trait variance connected to climate. Blue grama from more arid grasslands are also characterized by greater phenotypic plasticity.
It is a larval host to the Garita skipperling, green skipper, Pahaska skipper, Rhesus skipper, Simius roadside skipper, and the Uncas skipper.


Bouteloua hirsuta, commonly known as hairy grama, is a perennial short prairie grass that is native throughout much of North America, including the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies region, as well as Mexico and Guatemala.


B. hirsuta is a warm-season grass growing 10–20 in (0.2-0.5 m tall, and grows well on mountainous plateaus, rocky slopes, and sandy plains. The leaf blade is flat or slightly rolled, narrow, mostly basal, with hairy margins. The leaf sheath is rounded, smooth, and shorter than internodes. The seedhead is one to four spikes, purplish before maturity, about 1 in (2.5 cm) long; the rachis extends beyond spikelets. It is used primarily for grazing.


Hairy grama prefers rocky slopes, as well as dry yet sandy areas between 4,000–6,500 ft (1,200–2,000 m).


Bouvardia ternifolia, the firecracker bush, is a shrub widespread across much of Mexico, the range extending south into Honduras and north into the southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico and Texas).
Bouvardia ternifolia is a shrub up to 120 cm (4 feet) tall. It has dark green, narrowly egg-shaped leaves. Flowers are speculacular: long, tubular, bright scarlet, up to 10 cm (2 inches) long, in clusters at the ends of the branches. Hummingbirds frequently imbibe the nectar from the blooms.
Bouvardia ternifolia is widely cultivated as an ornamental because of its showy flowers.


Bowlesia incana is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae known by the common name hoary bowlesia. It is native to South America and the southeastern and southwestern United States as far north as Oregon. It can also be found in Pakistan and New Zealand as an introduced species. It grows in many types of habitat. This is a small annual herb growing thin, spreading stems less than 60 centimeters long. The leaves are borne on long petioles and have multilobed rounded or kidney-shaped blades less than 3 centimeters wide. The green herbage of the plant is coated in fine white hairs. The inflorescences of yellow-green flowers appear in the leaf axils. The tiny inflated fruit is only 2 millimeters wide.


Boyeria vinosa, the fawn darner,  is a species of dragonfly in the family Aeshnidae. It is found in south-eastern Canada and eastern USA.  Its natural habitat is rivers. They are most active at dusk.


The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a small seabird from the North Pacific. It is a member of the auk family. It nests in old-growth forests or on the ground at higher latitudes where trees cannot grow. Its habit of nesting in trees was suspected but not documented until a tree-climber found a chick in 1974, making it one of the last North American bird species to have its nest described. The marbled murrelet has declined in number since humans began logging its nest trees in the latter half of the 19th century. The decline of the marbled murrelet and its association with old-growth forests, at least in the southern part of its range, have made it a flagship species in the forest preservation movement.


The marbled murrelet is a small (25 cm), chunky auk with a slender black bill. It has pointed wings and plumage that varies by season. The non-breeding plumage is typically white underneath with a black crown, nape, wings and back. The bird closely resembles its closest relative, the Long-billed murrelet; in fact, these species were considered conspecific up until 1998. In breeding plumage, both have a brown mottled body and face. The Long-billed has a pale white throat, lacking in the Marbled. In winter plumage, the Marbled murrelet has a white neck collar, absent in Long-billed. The Marbled murrelet is shorter-billed and slightly smaller than the Long-billed murrelet.


The marbled murrelet feeds at sea both in pelagic offshore areas (often associating with upwellings) and inshore in protected bays and fiords. The bird has not been known to wander from the Pacific coast of North America, all inland and eastern Brachyramphus records being of the closely related long-billed murrelet.
Marbled murrelets feed below the water surface on small fish and invertebrates. Some principal foods include sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus), Pacific herring (Clupea haringus), capelin (Mallotus villosus), shiner perch, and the invertebrates Euphausia pacifica and Thysanoessa spinifera.
Marbled murrelets often forage in pairs but do not feed in large flocks as do other alcids.  Loose aggregations of 500 or more birds occasionally occur in winter. Subadults feed singly; but in early July, when pairs of adults are still feeding young, mixed flocks begin to form. Marbled murrelets feed during the day and at night.


The nesting behavior of the marbled murrelet is unusual, since unlike most alcids it does not nest in colonies on cliffs or in burrows, but on branches of old-growth and mature conifers such as western hemlock, Sitka spruce, Douglas-fir and coastal redwood, as far as 80 km inland. It lays one egg on a platform of lichen or moss on these branches (less often on the ground). In northern populations, murrelets nest on the ground among rocks, as do other related murrelet species. The egg is incubated for a month, then fed for around 40 days until the chick is able to fledge. Adults fly from ocean feeding areas to inland nest sites, mostly at dusk and dawn. They feed nestlings at least once and sometimes twice per day or night. Usually only one fish is carried to the young. The chick then leaves the nest and flies unaccompanied to the sea. Breeding success is low and chick mortality high.
Marbled murrelets do not breed until they are at least two years old. Marbled murrelets nest from mid-April to late September. Peak activity occurs from mid-June to late July in California, and the second week of July to mid-August in Oregon. Marbled murrelets are semicolonial in nesting habits. Two nests found in Washington were located only 150 feet (46 m) apart. Not all mature adults nest every year. Marbled murrelets lay only one egg.
Nestlings fledge in 28 days. Young marbled murrelets remain in the nest longer than other alcids and molt into their juvenile plumage before leaving the nest. Fledglings fly directly from the nest to the ocean.


Marbled murrelets occur in summer from Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Barren islands, and Aleutian Islands south along the coast of North America to Point Sal, Santa Barbara County, in south-central California. Marbled murrelets winter mostly within the same general area, except that they tend to vacate the most northern sections of their range, especially where ice forms on the surface of the fiords.  They have been recorded as far south as Imperial Beach of San Diego County, California.


Marbled murrelets are coastal birds that occur mainly near saltwater within 1.2 miles (2 km) of shore. However, marbled murrelets have been found up to 59 miles (95 km) inland in Washington, 35 miles (56 km) inland in Oregon, 22 miles (37 km) inland in northern California, and 11 miles (18 km) inland in central California. Over 90% of all marbled murrelet observations in the northern Washington Cascades were within 37 miles (60 km) of the coast. In Oregon, marbled murrelets are observed most often within 12 miles (20 km) of the ocean. Many marbled murrelets regularly visit coastal lakes. Most lakes used by marbled murrelets are within 12 miles (20 km) of the ocean, but a few birds have been found at lakes as far inland as 47 miles (75 km). All lakes used by marbled murrelets occur within potential nesting habitat.


From southeast Alaska southward, marbled murrelets use mature or old-growth forest stands near the coastline for nesting. These forests are generally characterized by large trees (>32 inches [80 cm] diameter at breast height (d.b.h.)), a multistoried canopy, moderate to high canopy closure or an open crown canopy, large snags, and numerous downed snags in all stages of decay. Marbled murrelets tend to nest in the oldest trees in the stand. In Oregon, forests begin to exhibit old-growth characteristics at about 175 to 250 years of age. Moss, on which marbled murrelets nest, forms on the limbs of Douglas-fir that are more than 150 years old.
The only four marbled murrelet tree nests found before 1990 shared the following characteristics: (1) located in a large tree (>47 inches [120 cm] d.b.h.) with an open crown structure, (2) on a moss-covered limb that is camouflaged, partially shaded, and approximately horizontal with a diameter (including associated moss) of at least 14 inches (36 cm), and (3) located within the middle or lower part of a live crown. However, Marshall  stated that because of their low aerial buoyancy marbled murrelets often nest high in the treetops or on steep slopes. Habitat must be sufficiently open to allow for easy flight. All marbled murrelet nests found in Washington, Oregon, and California were located in old-growth trees that ranged from 38 inches (88 cm) d.b.h. to 210 inches (533 cm) d.b.h. with a mean of 80 inches (203 cm) d.b.h. Nests were located high above the ground and had good overhead protection but allowed easy access to the exterior forest. It was initially believed that marbled murrelets might use the same nest in successive years but there has been little evidence of this.
Stand size is also important in nest sites. Marbled murrelets more commonly occupy stands greater than 500 acres (202 ha) than stands less than 100 acres (40 ha). However, marbled murrelets may nest in remnant old-growth trees or groves that are surrounded by younger trees. In California, marbled murrelets are usually absent from stands less than 60 acres (24 ha) in size. In Washington, marbled murrelets are found more often when old-growth and mature forests make up over 30% of the landscape. Fewer marbled murrelets are found when clearcut and meadow areas make up more than 25% of the landscape. Concentrations of marbled murrelets offshore are almost always adjacent to old-growth or mature forests onshore, although marbled murrelets may not use the interior of dense stands.
Where large trees are absent in the northern parts of marbled murrelet range, marbled murrelets nest in depressions on the ground, in rock cavities on the ground, or on rock outcrops. Marbled murrelets are both ground nesters and tree nesters where forests and treeless areas meet.


In northern regions where coniferous forests nest sites are unavailable, marbled murrelets occupy alpine or tundra near the ocean. In Washington and Oregon, marbled murrelets commonly nest in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) dominated stands. They also select stands dominated by mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), western redcedar (Thuja plicata), and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) for nesting. In California, nests are most often located in redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) dominated stands with scattered Sitka spruce, western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and Douglas-fir. Marbled murrelets also occur in stands dominated by Port-Orford-cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana).


Marbled murrelets forage in the ocean near shore and in inland saltwater areas such as bays, sounds, and saltwater passageways. Some also forage on inland freshwater lakes. Flocks of 50 or more birds have been observed near freshwater lakes. Subadults occur at sea throughout the summer. Marbled murrelets feed within 1,640 feet (500 m) of shore.


Marbled murrelet winter habitat is the same as the nesting and foraging habitat. During the winter marbled murrelets use inland old-growth or mature sites for roosting, courtship, and investigating nest sites. The use of inland lakes during the nonbreeding season occurs in conjunction with visits to nesting areas.


Steller's jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) and common ravens (Corvus corax) prey on marbled murrelet eggs and nestlings.


The marbled murrelet is considered globally endangered. Scientists at Redwood National Park have established a connection between human presence in marbled murrelet territory and corvid predation of marbled murrelet chicks.
Properly counting marbled murrelets is, as a study by Winston Smith et al indicated, is difficult "over large geographic ranges and long time periods".


Brandegea is a monotypic genus containing the single species Brandegea bigelovii, the desert starvine. This sprawling perennial vine in the squash family is native to the deserts of California, Arizona, and northern Mexico. The distinctive small, dark-green leaves are variable in shape but are usually a deeply lobed long-fingered palmate shape. They are heavily speckled with white oil glands. The vine bears tendrils, tiny five-pointed white flowers only 2 or 3 millimeters wide, and small, dry, prickly fruits 5 or 6 millimeters in length and holding a single seed. The plant grows from a deep taproot.


The brant is a small goose with a short, stubby bill. It measures 55–66 cm (22–26 in) long, 106–121 cm (42–48 in) across the wings and weighs 0.88–2.2 kg (1.9–4.9 lb). The under-tail is pure white, and the tail black and very short (the shortest of any goose).
The species is divided into three subspecies:
Dark-bellied brant goose B. b. bernicla (Linnaeus, 1758)
Pale-bellied brant goose B. b. hrota (Müller, 1776) (also known as light-bellied brent goose in Europe, and Atlantic brant in North America)
Black brant goose B. b. nigricans (Lawrence, 1846) (sometimes also known as the Pacific brant in North America)
Some DNA evidence suggests that these forms are genetically distinct; while a split into three separate species has been proposed, it is not widely accepted, with other evidence upholding their maintenance as a single species.
The body of the dark-bellied form B. b. bernicla is fairly uniformly dark grey-brown all over, the flanks and belly not significantly paler than the back. The head and neck are black, with a small white patch on either side of the neck. With a population of about 250000, it breeds on the Arctic coasts of central and western Siberia and winters in western Europe, with over half the population in southern England, the rest between northern Germany and north-western France.
The pale-bellied brant B. b. hrota appears blackish-brown and light grey in colour. The body is different shades of grey-brown all over, the flanks and belly are significantly paler than the back and present a marked contrast. The head and neck are black, with a small white patch on either side of the neck. The total population is about 250000, with the main population breeding in northeastern Canada and wintering along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. from Maine to Georgia, and two smaller populations, one breeding in Franz Josef Land, Svalbard, and northeastern Greenland and wintering in Denmark, northeast England, and Scotland, and the other breeding in the far-northeastern Canadian islands and wintering in Ireland, southwest England, and in a small but significant area, le Havre de Regnéville, centered on the Sienne Estuary in Manche (Northern France). In Ireland it is recorded in winter from a number of areas including Lough Foyle, Strangford Lough, Tralee Bay and Castlemaine Harbour.
The black brant B. b. nigricans appears blackish-brown and white in colour. This form is a very contrastingly black and white bird, with a uniformly dark sooty-brown back, similarly coloured underparts (with the dark colour extending furthest back of the three forms) and a prominent white flank patch; it also has larger white neck patches, forming a near-complete collar. The population of about 125000 breeds in northwestern Canada, Alaska and eastern Siberia, and winters mostly on the west coast of North America from southern Alaska to California, but also some in east Asia, mainly Japan, also Korea and China. The population has been as high as 200,000 in 1981, and as low as 100,000 in 1987.
The Asian populations of the black brant populations had previously been regarded as a separate subspecies B. b. orientalis based on purported paler upperparts coloration; however, it is generally now believed that this is not correct, and they are assigned to B. b. nigricans.
A fourth form (known variously as gray brant, intermediate brant, or grey-bellied brent goose) has been proposed, although no formal subspecies description has been made as yet, for a population of birds breeding in central Arctic Canada (mainly Melville Island), and wintering on Puget Sound on the American west coast around the U.S./Canada border. These birds are intermediate in appearance between black brant and pale-bellied brant, having brown upperparts and grey underparts which give less of a contrast with the white flank patch. It has also been proposed that, rather than being a separate subspecies, it is actually a result of interbreeding between these two forms, given that this population exhibits mixed characters.
Individual birds when wintering generally remain in loose family-groups, together with others of the same sub-species, but there is overlap in some areas (for example Western Europe, see above); and this is also true in the breeding colonies. Outside the breeding season, individuals with characteristics of any subspecies may occasionally turn up with regular migrants, and there has been debate as to whether this is related to migration routing accidents, or to breeding range overlap, or even interbreeding.


The brant goose was strictly coastal bird in winter, rarely leaving tidal estuaries, where it feeds on eelgrass (Zostera marina) and the seaweed, sea lettuce (Ulva). On the east coast of North America, the inclusion of sea lettuce is a recent change to their diet, brought about by a blight on eelgrass in 1931. This resulted in the near-extirpation of the brant. The few that survived changed their diet to include sea lettuce until the eelgrass eventually began to return. Brants have maintained this diet ever since as a survival strategy. A similar collapse in eelgrass in Ireland in the 1930s also negatively impacted the population. In recent decades, it has started using agricultural land a short distance inland, feeding extensively on grass and winter-sown cereals. It has been suggested that they learnt this behaviour by following other species of geese. Food resource pressure may also be important in forcing this change, as the world population increased over 10-fold to 400,000-500,000 by the mid-1980s, possibly reaching the carrying capacity of the estuaries. In the breeding season, it uses low-lying wet coastal tundra for both breeding and feeding. The nest is bowl-shaped, lined with grass and down, in an elevated location, often near a small pond.
The brant goose is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.


Branta is a Latinised form of Old Norse brandgás, "burnt (black) goose", and bernicla is the medieval Latin name for the barnacle.
The brant and the similar barnacle goose were previously considered one species, formerly believed to be the same creature as the crustacean. That myth can be dated back to at least the 12th century. Gerald of Wales claimed to have seen these birds hanging down from pieces of timber, William Turner accepted the theory, and John Gerard claimed to have seen the birds emerging from their shells. This myth arose because in the 1100's the migration of birds was unknown, but it was known that none of these birds was ever seen nesting, nor were eggs found, nor were goslings seen.
The legend persisted until the end of the 18th century. In County Kerry, until relatively recently, Catholics could eat this bird on a Friday because it counted as fish.


The barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) is a species of goose that belongs to the genus Branta of black geese, which contains species with largely black plumage, distinguishing them from the grey Anser species. Despite its superficial similarity to the brant goose, genetic analysis has shown it is an eastern derivative of the cackling goose lineage.


The barnacle goose was first classified taxonomically by Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1803. Branta is a Latinised form of Old Norse Brandgás, "burnt (black) goose" and the specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek leukos "white", and opsis "faced".
The barnacle goose and the similar brant goose were previously considered one species, and were formerly believed to spawn from the goose barnacle. This gave rise to the English name of the barnacle goose and the scientific name of the brant. It is sometimes claimed that the word comes from a Celtic word for "limpet", but the sense-history seems to go in the opposite direction.
The barnacle myth can be dated back to at least the 12th century. Gerald of Wales claimed to have seen these birds hanging down from pieces of timber, William Turner accepted the theory, and John Gerard claimed to have seen the birds emerging from their shells. The legend persisted until the end of the 18th century. In County Kerry, until relatively recently, Catholics abstaining from meat during Lent could still eat this bird because it was considered as fish.


The barnacle goose is a medium-sized goose, 55–70 cm (22–28 in) long, with a wingspan of 130–145 cm (51–57 in) and a body mass of 1.21–2.23 kg (2.7–4.9 lb). It has a white face and black head, neck, and upper breast. Its belly is white. The wings and its back are silver-gray with black-and-white bars that look like they are shining when the light reflects on it. During flight, a V-shaped white rump patch and the silver-gray underwing linings are visible.


Barnacle geese breed mainly on the Arctic islands of the North Atlantic. There are five populations, with separate breeding and wintering ranges - from west to east:
Breeding in eastern Greenland, wintering on the Hebrides of western Scotland and in western Ireland, population about 40,000
Breeding in southeast and northwest Iceland, population about 1000
Breeding on Svalbard, Norway, wintering on the Solway Firth on the England/Scotland border, population about 24,000
Breeding on Novaya Zemlya, Russia, wintering in the Netherlands, population about 130,000
A recent population, derived from the Novaya Zemlya population, has become established since 1975 breeding on the islands and coasts of the Baltic Sea (Estonia, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden), and wintering in the Netherlands and Germany. Its population numbers about 8,000.
Small numbers of feral birds, derived from escapes from zoo collections, also breed in other Northern European countries. Occasionally, a wild bird will appear in the Northeastern United States or Canada, but care must be taken to separate out wild birds from escaped individuals, as barnacle geese are popular waterfowl with collectors.


Barnacle geese frequently build their nests high on mountain cliffs, away from predators (primarily Arctic foxes and polar bears), but also away from their feeding grounds such as lakes, rivers. Like all geese, the goslings are not fed by the adults. Instead of bringing food to the newly hatched goslings, the goslings are brought to the ground. The parents show them the way to jump from the cliff and the goslings follow them by instincts and take the plunge.
Unable to fly, the goslings, in their first days of life, jump off the cliff and fall; their small size, feathery down, and very light weight helps to protect some of them from serious injury when they hit the rocks below, but many die from the impact. Arctic foxes are attracted by the noise made by the parent geese during this time, and capture many dead or injured goslings. The foxes also stalk the young as they are led by the parents to wetland feeding areas. Due to these hardships only 50% of the chicks survive the first month.


The barnacle goose is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds  applies. According to Sveriges ornitologiska förening, the geese began breeding in Sweden in 1971, and according to Skansen, it was 40 years ago, more or less, when the entire population of barnacle geese left in the autumn to return in spring, soon after they began breeding in the wild.  The number of barnacle geese is stable to increasing.


The natural history of the barnacle goose was long surrounded with a legend claiming that they were born of driftwood:
Nature produces [Bernacae] against Nature in the most extraordinary way. They are like marsh geese but somewhat smaller. They are produced from fir timber tossed along the sea, and are at first like gum. Afterwards they hang down by their beaks as if they were a seaweed attached to the timber, and are surrounded by shells in order to grow more freely. Having thus in process of time been clothed with a strong coat of feathers, they either fall into the water or fly freely away into the air. They derived their food and growth from the sap of the wood or from the sea, by a secret and most wonderful process of alimentation. I have frequently seen, with my own eyes, more than a thousand of these small bodies of birds, hanging down on the sea-shore from one piece of timber, enclosed in their shells, and already formed. They do not breed and lay eggs like other birds, nor do they ever hatch any eggs, nor do they seem to build nests in any corner of the earth.
The legend was widely repeated in, for example, Vincent of Beauvais's great encyclopedia. However, it was also criticized by other medieval authors, including Albertus Magnus.
This belief may be related to the fact that these geese were never seen in summer, when they were supposedly developing underwater (they were actually breeding in remote Arctic regions) in the form of barnacles—which came to have the name "barnacle" because of this legend.
Based on these legends—indeed, the legends may have been invented for this purpose—some Irish clerics considered barnacle goose flesh to be acceptable fast day food, a practice that was criticized by Giraldus Cambrensis, a Welsh author:
...Bishops and religious men (viri religiosi) in some parts of Ireland do not scruple to dine off these birds at the time of fasting, because they are not flesh nor born of flesh... But in so doing they are led into sin. For if anyone were to eat of the leg of our first parent (Adam) although he was not born of flesh, that person could not be adjudged innocent of eating meat.
At the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215), Pope Innocent III explicitly prohibited the eating of these geese during Lent, arguing that despite their unusual reproduction, they lived and fed like ducks and so were of the same nature as other birds.
The question of the nature of barnacle geese also came up as a matter of Jewish dietary law in the Halakha, and Rabbeinu Tam (1100–71) determined that they were kosher (even if born of trees) and should be slaughtered following the normal prescriptions for birds.
In one Jewish legend, the barnacle goose is purported to have its beak forever attached to the tree from which it grew just as the Adne Sadeh is fixed to the earth by its navel cord. The mythical barnacle tree, believed in the Middle Ages to have barnacles that opened to reveal geese, may have a similar origin to the other legends already mentioned.


The holotype specimen of Anser sandvicensis Vigors (List Anim. Garden Zool. Soc., ed.3, June 1833, p.4.) is held in the vertebrate zoology collection at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool, with accession number NML-VZ T12706. The specimen was collected from the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands) and came to the Liverpool national collection via the Museum of the Zoological Society of London collection, Thomas Campbell Eyton’s collection, and Henry Baker Tristram’s collection.
It is thought that the nene evolved from the Canada goose (Branta canadensis), which most likely arrived on the Hawaiian islands about 500,000 years ago, shortly after the island of Hawaiʻi was formed. This ancestor is the progenitor of the nene as well as the prehistoric giant Hawaiʻi goose (Branta rhuax) and nēnē-nui (Branta hylobadistes). The nēnē-nui was larger than the nene, varied from flightless to flighted depending on the individual, and inhabited the island of Maui. Similar fossil geese found on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi may be of the same species. The giant Hawaiʻi goose was restricted to the island of Hawaiʻi and measured 1.2 m (3.9 ft) in length with a mass of 8.6 kg (19 lb), making it more than four times larger than the nene. It is believed that the herbivorous giant Hawaiʻi goose occupied the same ecological niche as the goose-like ducks known as moa-nalo, which were not present on the Big Island. Based on mitochondrial DNA found in fossils, all Hawaiian geese, living and extinct, are closely related to the giant Canada goose (B. c. maxima) and dusky Canada goose (B. c. occidentalis).


The nene population stands at 2,500 birds, making it the world's rarest goose. It is believed that it was once common, with approximately 25,000 Hawaiian geese living in Hawaiʻi when Captain James Cook arrived in 1778. Hunting and introduced predators, such as small Indian mongooses, pigs, and feral cats, reduced the population to 30 birds by 1952. The species breeds well in captivity, and has been successfully re-introduced. In 2004, it was estimated that there were 800 birds in the wild, as well as 1,000 in wildfowl collections and zoos. There is concern about inbreeding due to the small initial population of birds. The nature reserve WWT Slimbridge, in England, was instrumental in the successful breeding of Hawaiian geese in captivity. Under the direction of conservationist Peter Scott, it was bred back from the brink of extinction during the 1950s for later re-introduction into the wild in Hawaiʻi. There are still Hawaiian geese at Slimbridge today. They can now be found in captivity in multiple WWT centres. Successful introductions include Haleakala and Piʻiholo ranches on Maui.


Brassica nigra, or black mustard, is an annual plant cultivated for its dark-brown-to-black seeds, which are commonly used as a spice. It is native to tropical regions of North Africa, temperate regions of Europe, and parts of Asia.


It is an upright plant, with large stalked leaves. They are covered with hairs or bristles at the base, but on the stem smoother. It can reach up to 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) tall in moist fertile soil. It blooms in summer, from May (in the UK) onwards. The flowers have four yellow petals, which are twice as long as the sepals. Each stem has around four flowers at the top, forming a ring around the stem. Later, the plant forms long seed pods, that contain four rounded seeds.


It was formally described by Karl Koch in "Deutschl. Fl." (or Deutschlands Flora) ed.3 on page 713 in 1833. This was based on a description by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.
The Latin specific epithet nigra is derived from the Latin word for black. This is due to the black seeds.


It is native to tropical regions of North Africa, temperate regions of Europe and parts of Asia.


It is found in North Africa, within Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Ethiopia, Morocco and Tunisia. Within Asia it is found in Afghanistan, Armenia, the Caucasus, China (in the provinces of Gansu, Jiangsu, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Xizang), Cyprus, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. In eastern Europe, it is found within Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. In middle Europe, it is in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. In northern Europe, in Ireland and United Kingdom. In southeastern Europe, within Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Also in southwestern Europe, it is found in France and Spain.
It was introduced to the Pacific coast of North America and is considered an invasive species.


More than 2,000 years ago, the plant was used as a condiment; it was mentioned by the Roman author Columella in the 1st century A.D. The plant leaves were also pickled in vinegar. In 13th century France the seeds were ground and used. They were mixed with partially fermented grape juice to create "moût-ardent" (or burning must, "must" meaning unfermented grape juice). This became later "moutarde", now called mustard in English.
A spice is generally made from ground seeds of the plant, with the seed coats removed. The small (1 mm) seeds are hard and vary in color from dark brown to black. They are flavorful, although they have almost no aroma. The seeds are commonly used in Indian cuisine, for example in curry, where it is known as rai. The seeds are usually thrown into hot oil or ghee, after which they pop, releasing a characteristic nutty flavor. The seeds have a significant amount of fatty oil, mainly oleic acid. This oil is used often as cooking oil in India, it is called "sarson ka tel".
The young leaves, buds and flowers are edible. In Ethiopia, where the plant is cultivated as a vegetable in Gondar, Harar and Shewa, the shoots and leaves are consumed cooked and the seeds used as a spice. Its Amharic name is senafitch.
Black mustard is thought to be the seed mentioned by Jesus in the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
Since the 1950s, black mustard has become less popular as compared to brown mustard, because some cultivars of brown mustard have seeds that can be mechanically harvested in a more efficient manner.


In the UK, the plant was used to make "hot mustard baths", which would aid people with colds.
Ground seeds of the plant mixed with honey are widely used in eastern Europe as cough suppressant. In Eastern Canada, the use of mouche de moutarde to treat respiratory infections was popular before the advent of modern medicine. It consisted in mixing ground mustard seeds with flour and water, and creating a cataplasm with the paste. This poultice was put on the chest or the back and left until the person felt a stinging sensation. Mustard poultice could also be used to aid muscular pains.


Despite their similar common names, black mustard and white mustard (genus Sinapis) are not closely related. Black mustard belongs to the same genus as cabbage and turnips.
B. nigra also resembles Hirschfeldia incana, or hoary mustard, (formerly Brassica geniculata), which is a perennial plant.


Brassica rapa is a plant species growing in various widely cultivated forms including the turnip (a root vegetable); napa cabbage, bomdong, bok choy, and rapini; and Brassica rapa subsp. oleifera, an oilseed which has many common names, including turnip rape, field mustard, bird's rape, and keblock.
The oil made from the seed is sometimes also called canola oil or colza oil. The term rapeseed oil is a general term for oil from Brassica species that may not conform to canola or colza standards. Canola refers to three species of Brassica plants: Brassica rapa (Polish canola) is the less commonly grown, Brassica napus (Argentine canola), commonly grown in Canada and Brassica juncea (brown mustard) is a minor crop.


The origin of B. rapa, both geographically and any surviving wild relatives, has been difficult to identify because it has been developed by humans into many types of vegetables, is now found in most parts of the world, and has returned to the wild many times as a feral plant. A study of genetic sequences from over 400 domesticated and feral B. rapa individuals, along with environmental modelling, has provided more information about the complex history. These indicate that the ancestral B. rapa probably originated 4000 to 6000 years ago in the Hindu Kush area of Central Asia, and had three sets of chromosomes. This provided the genetic potential for a diversity of form, flavour and growth requirements. Domestication has produced modern vegetables and oil-seed crops, all with two sets of chromosomes.
Oilseed subspecies (oleifera) of Brassica rapa may have been domesticated several times from the Mediterranean to India, starting as early as 2000 BC. Edible turnips were possibly first cultivated in northern Europe, and were an important food in ancient Rome. The turnip then spread east to China, and reached Japan by 700 AD. There are descriptions of B. rapa vegetables in Indian and Chinese documents from around 1000 BC.
In the 18th century, the turnip and the oilseed-producing variants were seen as being different species by Carl Linnaeus who named them B. rapa and B. campestris. Twentieth-century taxonomists found that the plants were cross fertile and thus belonged to the same species. Since the turnip had been named first by Linnaeus, the name Brassica rapa was adopted.


Many butterflies, including the small white, feed from and pollinate the B. rapa flowers.
The young leaves are considered an excellent leaf vegetable and can be eaten raw; older leaves are better cooked. The taproot and seeds can also be eaten raw, although the latter contains an oil which may cause irritation for some people.


Brassica tournefortii is a species of plant known by the common names Asian mustard, pale cabbage, African mustard, and Sahara mustard, and is well known as an invasive species, especially in California.
The plant is generally similar to other mustards, but the yellow flowers are not as bright and flashy as closely related species. It is a spreading annual herb with long stems up to 100 centimetres (40 inches) in length.


This mustard is native to the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. It became notorious during the twentieth century after it invaded the deserts of the United States and Mexico. Recently it has become an abundant weed of low deserts including the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts, plus the desert valleys such as the Coachella and Imperial Valleys of southern California. The plant disperses easily at the first hint of rain. When the seed coats are moistened they form a gel and become very sticky and readily adhere to people, animals, and objects. Seeds easily take hold along roadsides and arid desert lands, especially in disturbed habitats. The plant disperses 750 to 9000 seeds which stay viable for several years in soil, contributing to its status as an invasive species.


Thick stands of the plant can crowd out native flora. Well-adapted to desert life, it monopolizes any moisture in the soil before other plants can get it and forms seeds before other species do. It is particularly an issue in desert farms when the land is tilled.
It produces seed as early in the year as January, especially if the region undergoes a warm spell, which is a common occurrence during southern California winters. It self-fertilizes and drops seeds into the soil, where they persist, survives fires, and long periods without rain. The fact that it propagates by leaving large numbers of viable seeds in the soil prevents eradication measures such as pulling, mowing, grazing and burning. Individual plants have the capacity to separate from the ground and become like tumbleweeds, dropping seeds as they are carried across the desert floor in the breeze.


B. tourneforii outcompetes native plants and monopolizes resources before other plants can acquire them, effectively starving out the competition. The plant also inhibits growth of competition by exhibiting an allelopathic effect on surrounding plants, inhibiting their growth.


Methods of control currently lack biological control, instead physical and preventative measures are taken. Studies are being done that suggests the plant may be controlled using allelopathic methods. One study suggests that there are two factors that affect the dormancy of B. tournefortii: one for the removal of the seed coat and another for darkness. The study showed that when the seed coat was removed using NaOCl and placed in dark conditions, germination was increased. This requirement for darkness indicates that B. tournefortii may be less of an issue in farmland where the ground is untilled.
The seeds of B. tournefortii are highly sensitive to certain germination stimulants released by burning vegetation, collectively known as karrikins. Duplication and subsequent evolution of genes encoding the karrikin receptor protein in the B. tournefortii genome is thought to contribute the increased sensitivity to karrikins. In turn, this trait may have enhanced this species' ability to invade after fire events. Control of this species may be improved by exploiting this trait through chemical stimulation of germination, with the aim of clearing the soil seed bank followed by herbicidal applications or physical removal.


B. tournefortii invades sandy soil, particularly deserts. Notably in areas such as Southern California, Northern and Southern Australia, Saharan Africa, Mexico, etc.


B. tournefortii occupies the 6th position in the national ranking in terms of revenue loss (AU$10.6 million) due to crop yield losses in Australia.


The Pale-faced Clubskimmer (Brechmorhoga mendax) is a dragonfly of the family Libellulidae.
Total length is 52 to 64mm.


Brenthis daphne, the marbled fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.


This widespread species is present in the Palearctic realm from the southern parts of continental Europe (northern Spain, southern France, Germany, Italy, and eastwards to Slovakia and Greece), to the Caucasus, western Siberia, Korea and Japan. It prefers warm and sunny forest edges, woodland and bushy areas where the host plants grow, at an elevation of 75–1,750 metres (246–5,741 ft) above sea level.


Brenthis daphne has a wingspan of 30–44 millimetres (1.2–1.7 in). Wings are rather rounded, the basic color of the upperside of the forewings is bright orange, with an incomplete black marginal band. The underside of the hindwings have a yellowish postdiscal band and the marginal area is completely suffused with purple, with a marble effect (hence the common name). The quadrangular patch on the underside hindwing is partially shaded orange pink to outer side. The chrysalis has two dorsal rows of thorns with bright spots and a bright metallic shine.
This species is very similar to the lesser marbled fritillary (Brenthis ino), but the latter is slightly smaller and the coloration of said patch is completely yellow.


The butterfly flies from late May to early August depending on the location. The eggs are laid separately in July on the leaves of the host plants. The larvae feed on brambles (Rubus fruticosus), raspberry (Rubus idaeus), Rubus caesius, Rubus sachalinensis, Sanguisorba officinalis  and Filipendula species, while adults usually feed on nectar from brambles, thistles and other flowers. This species is univoltine. It overwinters at the caterpillar stage in the egg shell.


Brenthis ino, the lesser marbled fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.


B. i. ino in Europe
B. i. achasis (Fruhstorfer, 1907)
B. i. acrita (Fruhstorfer, 1907)
B. i. adalberti (Fruhstorfer, 1916)
B. i. amurensis (Staudinger, 1887)
B. i. maxima (Staudinger, 1887)
B. i. paidicus (Fruhstorfer, 1907)
B. i. parvimarginalis Nakahara, 1926
B. i. schmitzi Wagener, 1983
B. i. siopelus (Fruhstorfer, 1907)
B. i. tigroides (Fruhstorfer, 1907)
B. i. trachalus (Fruhstorfer, 1916)


The lesser marbled fritillary is present in Spain, France, Italy, central and northern Europe, Siberia, temperate Asia, northern China and Japan.


This species prefers damp meadows and bogs at an elevation of 0–1,500 metres (0–4,921 ft) above sea level.


Brenthis ino is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of 34–42 millimetres (1.3–1.7 in). Females are larger and usually darker than males. The antennae are clavate (club shaped). The basic color of the upper side of the wings is orange with several dark brown blotches. The edges are brown too, with a discontinuous stripe of small blotches. The lower side of the wings is creamy orange with an indented edge and dark brown blotches on the forewings, while the hindwings show brown-edged beige blotches and some ringed dark brown and violet shading spots. The wings of this species lacks any silver blotches. The butterfly flies from June to August depending on the location. It overwinters in the form of caterpillar. The larvae feed on meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris), stone bramble (Rubus saxatilis), raspberry (Rubus idaeus), Aruncus species, Spiraea species and salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor).


The western pygmy blue (Brephidium exilis or Brephidium exile) is one of the smallest butterflies in the world and the smallest in North America. It has reached Hawaii, as well as the Persian Gulf, including eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.


Males establish a territory in which they look for receptive females to mate with. After mating, females lay eggs on all parts of the host plant, oftenmost on the uppersides of leaves. The caterpillars eat all parts of the plant; host species include Pigweed (Chenopodium album), saltbush species (Atriplex), and others in the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae). Adult imagos appear in July–September in the north, while it appears year round in South Texas. Adults feed on nectar only.


This butterfly can be found in alkaline areas such as deserts, salt marshes, and barren areas. They are common across their natural range, which includes the Southwestern United States from California eastwards to west Texas, and from Mexico to Venezuela. It may migrate to Arkansas, Nebraska, and Oregon. Its introduced range includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and eastern Saudi Arabia along the Persian Gulf coast up to Kuwait.


The Federal Register's final listing rule of the Florida brickell-bush as Endangered occurred October 6, 2014 in Florida. This was first petitioned on May 11, 2004, however, because there was no new information provided, there was no new submission after this date.


Critical habitat
Listed as 5C in region 4 means that this species faces a high degree of threat with low recovery potential.
On October 3, 2013, a proposed critical habitat designation for the Florida brickell-bush was published in the Federal Register. Approximately 1,062 hectares for the Florida brickell-bush in Miami-Dade County, Florida, was designated as critical habitat. The goal is to expand where the plants would be able to live, and reestablish populations into areas where these plants previously occurred. Typically this species does not grow in great abundance.
These plants need limestone substrate to provide suitable growing conditions. This combination of ecosystem characteristics occurs only in Pine Rockland habitats.
To avoid potential negative impacts, mowing time is critical and should occur after flowering has occurred. Mowing can serve to create and maintain an open canopy.
Mechanical control of hardwoods may also help maintain an open canopy in Pine Rockland, but cannot completely replace fire since it does not have the same benefits related to removal of leaf litter and nutrient cycling.


Brodiaea terrestris, the dwarf brodiaea, is a species of plant in the genus Brodiaea that is native to California and Oregon.
In California, it is found in coastal ranges from the Oregon border, through the Bay Area, to San Diego, and in the central Sierra Nevada.
There are two subspecies:
Brodiaea terrestris ssp. kernensis (Kern brodiaea)
Brodiaea terrestris ssp. terrestris (dwarf brodiaea).


Bromelia pinguin is a plant species in the genus Bromelia. This species is native to Central America, Mexico, the West Indies and northern South America. It is also reportedly naturalized in Florida. It is very common in Jamaica, where it is planted as a fence around pasture lands, on account of its prickly leaves. The plant can be stripped of its pulp, soaked in water, and beaten with a wooden mallet, and it yields a fiber whence thread is made. In Nicaragua and El Salvador it is used to make gruel.


Bromus catharticus is a species of brome grass known by the common names rescuegrass, grazing brome, prairie grass, and Schrader's bromegrass. The specific epithet catharticus is Latin, meaning cathartic. The common name rescuegrass refers to the ability of the grass to provide forage after harsh droughts or severe winters. The grass has a diploid number of 42.
It is native to South America but it can be found in other places, including Europe, Australia and North America, as an introduced species.


Bromus catharticus is a coarse winter annual or biennial grass, growing 0.2–1 m (7.9 in–3 ft 3.4 in) in height. The culms of the grass are glabrous and 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) thick. The sheaths are densely hairy. The grass lacks auricles and the glabrous ligule is 1–4 mm (0.039–0.157 in) long. The leaf blades are 4–30 cm (1.6–11.8 in) long and 3–10 mm (0.12–0.39 in) wide and are glabrous or pubescent. The erect or nodding panicles are 9–28 cm (3.5–11.0 in) long. The upper spikelets are erect and the lower spikelets are nodding or drooping. Each flat and pointed spikelet is 20–40 mm (0.79–1.57 in) long and has four to twelve florets. The glumes are smooth or occasionally slightly scabrous. The lower glume is fie to seven-veined and 7–12 mm (0.28–0.47 in) long, and the upper glume is seven to nine-veined and 9–17 mm (0.35–0.67 in) long. The lemmas are scabrous or nearly glabrous and lack awns or possess very short awns 2 mm (0.079 in) in length. The lemmas are 11–20 mm (0.43–0.79 in) long. The palea is over half the length of the lemma. The anthers are 0.5–5 mm (0.020–0.197 in) long.


Bromus catharticus grows in open and disturbed areas.


Bromus hordeaceus, the soft brome, is an annual or biennial species of grass in the true grass family (Poaceae). It is also known in North America as bull grass, soft cheat, and soft chess.
It is the most common species of Bromus in Britain, where it can be found on roadsides, waste ground, meadows, and cultivated land. It is found throughout Europe and western Asia, and was introduced into North and South America and Australia.


Previously known as B. mollis, this species belongs to a group of closely related species, including some hybrids, which are difficult to tell apart. Some of the other species in this group include: B. thominii, B. lepidus, B. ferronii, and B. molliformis.


The plant is pubescent entirely and lacks rhizomes. It can grow 7–110 cm (3–43 in) high, sometimes in tufts, sometimes singly.
The smooth, yellowish brown culms measure 0.5–5 mm (0.02–0.20 in) wide at their base, and are minutely to densely pubescent, with hairs measuring up to 0.6 mm (0.02 in) long. The moderately to densely pilose leaf sheaths are mostly closed, with hairs 1.2 mm (0.047 in) long. The plant lacks auricles. The membraneous and erose ligules are 1–2.6 mm (0.04–0.10 in) long and are glabrous or pubescent. The grey-green leaf blades are 2.2–18 cm (0.9–7.1 in) long and 1–5.3 mm (0.04–0.21 in) wide, with a pubescent adaxial surface and an abaxial surface pubescent with hairs about one quarter the length of those on the adaxial surface. The leaf margins are smooth or serrated.
The grey-green to purple panicles are 2.5–14 cm (1.0–5.5 in) long and 1–4 cm (0.39–1.57 in) wide. The panicles can be dense or reduced to just one spikelet. The erect to ascending or lax branches of the panicle are scabrous or pubescent, each branch bearing one spikelet.
The ovate-lanceolate spikelets are 1.7–3 cm (0.67–1.18 in), including the awns 3–8 mm (0.12–0.31 in) long. The rachillae can be visible when the spikelet is mature and the spikelet has six to eleven florets. The subequal glumes are minutely to densely pubescent and the keels are serrated. The lower glumes are 5.2–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long with three to five nerved, and the upper glumes are 6–8.5 mm (0.24–0.33 in) long and seven- to nine-nerved. The lemmas are 7.5–9 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long and 1.9–2.5 mm (0.07–0.10 in) wide, with seven to nine visible, conspicuous nerves. The lemmas have hyaline margins 0.3–0.6 mm (0.012–0.024 in) broad. The apex is bifid and the cleft is 0.3–0.7 mm (0.012–0.028 in) deep. The awns are 4–7.6 mm (0.16–0.30 in) long, arising 0.4–1.2 mm (0.016–0.047 in) below the lemma. The paleas are shorter than the lemmas, with glabrous backs and ciliate keels. The dark brown anthers are 0.3–1.3 mm (0.012–0.051 in) long.
It grows during winter and flowers from late spring onwards, maturing in the summer. The grass blooms in May and August.
Bromus hordeaceus is closely related to and difficult to distinguish from Bromus racemosus. The only obvious distinguishing characteristic is the level of lemma nerve protrusion; the lemma nerves are raised and conspicuous in B. hordeaceus while they are smooth and obscure in B. racemosus.


Bromus hordeaceus is native to the Mediterranean basin, and is now widely distributed across North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. It grows in waste areas, road verges, fields, grassy plains, and sandy beaches. The grass prefers drained or dry soils consisting of clay loam or sand, especially areas tending to be less fertile. The plant is resistant to drought and temperature variations.


Bromus hordeaceus can be a weed in cereal crops. It grows in wheat and spring barley crops competing and reducing their yield. The seeds can contaminate the crop seeds and lower seed quality.
There are very few herbicides that selectively control soft brome in wheat or barley. The management of this weed is mostly based on an integrated programme. This includes hygiene to minimise its introduction to the fields as well as cleaning the fence lines where the infestation is more severe. A good crop rotation is useful as B. hordeaceus can be controlled with several herbicides in most other crops in the rotation. Growers in New Zealand use stubble burning to reduce the seed input in the following crops.


Bromus hordeaceus subsp. ferronii, the least soft brome, is a rare annual that occurs in northwestern Europe. The grass is tufted and erect or decumbent. The spikelets are villous and the awns are spreading or twisted. This subspecies can be used for erosion control.
Bromus hordeaceus subsp. hordeaceus, the soft brome or soft chess, is an annual or biennial occurring in Europe, western North America, and northeastern North America. The culms are 10–70 cm (3.9–27.6 in) tall. The subspecies lacks auricles and the ligules are hyaline and smooth. The panicles are 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) long. The spikelets are cleistogamous. The lemmas are 8–11 mm (0.31–0.43 in) long. The apex of the ovary is pubescent. This subspecies is primarily a forage plant, and occurs in waste places and roadsides. The subspecies has a diploid number of 14 or 28.
Bromus hordeaceus subsp. molliformis is an tufted annual occurring in France, Italy, California, Idaho, and New Mexico. The culms are 15–25 cm (5.9–9.8 in) tall. The subspecies has a contracted panicle about 10 cm (3.9 in) long, with villous spikelets. The pubescent lemmas are 8–11 mm (0.31–0.43 in) long and have rounded margins. The scabrid awns are somewhat erect. The subspecies grows as a weed in cultivated areas, typically in dry soils but rarely in wetlands.
Bromus hordeaceus subsp. pseudothominii occurs in Europe and sporadically throughout North America. The culms are 10–70 cm (3.9–27.6 in) tall. The panicles are up to 10 cm (3.9 in) long. The typically glabrous lemmas are 6.5–8 mm (0.26–0.31 in) long. The awns are straight and erect. The subspecies can be mistaken for Bromus lepidus in its similar lemma form and characteristics. It grows in meadows and grasslands.
Bromus hordeaceus subsp. thominei, the lesser soft brome, occurs in West Europe and the western United States, in California and the Pacific coast of Canada. The culms are 2–16 cm (0.79–6.30 in) long. The panicles are 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) long and often consist of a single spikelet. The pubescent or glabrous lemmas are 6.5–7.5 mm (0.26–0.30 in) long, with bluntly angled margins. The awns can become divaricate when mature. The subspecies grows in waste areas and sandy soils or dunes. The subspecies has a diploid number of 28.


Bromus inermis is a species of the true grass family (Poaceae). This rhizomatous grass is native to Europe.
The plant is characterized by an erect, leafy, long-lived perennial, 46 to 91 cm (1+1⁄2 to 3 ft) tall, rhizomatous and commonly producing a dense sod. It starts growth in early spring; flowers May to July; reproduces from seeds, tillers, and rhizomes. It may regrow and re flower in the fall if moisture is sufficient.
The leaves are glabrous or occasionally pubescent, particularly on the sheaths; blades 20 to 38 cm (8 to 15 in) long, 0.6 to 1.3 cm (1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in) wide, flat, with a raised and keeled midrib below; sheaths closed, except near collar, and papery when dry; leaves rolled in the bud; ligates up to 0.3 cm (1⁄8 in) long, rounded, and membranous; auricles absent.


Bromus inermis subsp. inermis
Austrian bromegrass  – English
awnless brome – English
Hungarian brome – English
Hungarian bromegrass – English
Russian bromegrass  – English
smooth brome – English
smooth bromegrass – English
brome inerme – French
brome sans arêtes – French
unbegrannte Trespe – German
wehrlose Trespe – German
capim-cevadilha – Portuguese
bromo de Hungría – Spanish
bromo inerme – Spanish
Bromus inermis subsp. pumpellianus
Arctic brome – English
Pumpelly's brome – English


Bromus madritensis is a species of brome grass known by the common name compact brome. The specific epithet madritensis refers to Madrid, Spain. It has a diploid number of 28.
There are two subspecies:
Bromus madritensis subsp. madritensis: panicles less dense, stem and leaf sheath less hairy
Bromus madritensis subsp. rubens (syn. Bromus rubens) – foxtail brome, foxtail chess, red brome: dense panicles and slightly hairy stems


The yellow-chevroned parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri) is native to tropical South America south of the Amazon River  basin from central Brazil to southern Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Argentina. Caged birds have been released in some areas, and the birds have established self-sustaining populations in the  Miami, Florida, and Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. This bird seems to be doing better in its North American feral population than the closely related  white-winged parakeet. The species is also established in the downtown area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and in Buenos Aires, Argentina; where it was introduced. The native population in South America continues to do well.


The bird is 20–25 cm in length, and is mostly light green in color. It has a trailing yellow edge on its folded wings, which is also seen when the bird is in flight.  It  was considered conspecific with the  white-winged parakeet until 1997.


The bird feeds mostly on seeds and fruit in its native habitat, and feral populations have adapted to take in blossoms and nectar.  Feral birds also come to bird feeders.  Wild birds primarily use disturbed forest and forest clearings around settlements.  They rarely use deep tropical forest.
Yellow-chevroned parakeets usually find holes in trees for nesting.  They also form nesting tunnels in dead palm fronds.  The female lays four to five eggs.  After raising their young, all birds form rather large communal roosts until the next breeding season.


The paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera, syn. Morus papyrifera L.) is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae.  It is native to Asia, where its range includes Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Burma, and India. It is widely cultivated elsewhere and it grows as an introduced species in parts of Europe, the United States, and Africa. Other common names include tapa cloth tree.