title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: Azerbaijan. Prof Davud A.Akhundov provides archeological and architectural evidences and argues that the Tower is Zoroastrians' Fire temple-Tower which had 7 fire exits on the top of the tower. Zoroastrian believed that there are 7 Steps or 7 Sky to reach heaven. Davud A.Akhundov and Dr Hassan Hassanov date the fire temple-tower approximately as 8th-7th century B.C. The Maiden Tower set in the south-east part of Icheri Sheher, has mystique and hoary history and legends that are linked to two periods, though not conclusively established. The area was first settled in the Palaeolithic period. Sar a Ashurbeyli, Professor and prominent


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: historian and expert in the history of Baku has calculated that the tower foundations, which extend 15 metres below ground level and the bottom three stories above ground, were originally built between the 4th and 6th centuries CE and points out the marked difference in the stone used in the tower compared to the stone used in the medieval city surrounding it. This conclusion is partly supported by historian Prof Bretanitskiy who has postulated that the tower was partly built in the 5th to 6th centuries and then later in the 12th century. The site was believed to have been


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: used originally during the Sasanid era as a Zoroastrian temple. An inscription located 14 metres high on the south wall which in old Kufic script mentions Qubbeye Masud ibn Davud or Kubey Mesud ibn Da’ud, an architect active during the 12th century; he is the father of the architect who built the Mardakan Round Tower. However it is disputed as the inscription, unlike the Madakan Tower does not actually reveal him to have been the architect, although it is generally agreed that much of the modern tower dates back to the 12th century. Prof. Ahmadov believes that the tower was


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: used as an astronomical observatory from the time of this reconstruction, due to the fact that 30 hewed stone protuberances on the tower's lower section and the 31 protuberances on the upper section, linked with a stone belt, correlate to the days of the month. According to recent archaeological excavations, carried out in 1962–63 on the ground floor of the tunnel, the tower was built on a large rock sloping toward the sea, and the buttress structure projecting out from the main tower provided stability to the tower. Further excavations have also revealed wooden girders, each high, at the foundation


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: of the tower. This has been inferred as an earthquake resistant design. It has also been conjectured that the cylindrical shape of the tower with thick base walls tapering to ( is also mentioned) provided the solid foundation on which it has survived over the centuries. It is also mentioned that the tower was built at one go and not at different times as inferred by other scholars. The tower and other wall structures now under the UNESCO list were strengthened during the Russian rule in 1806 and have survived. The Maiden Tower is depicted on the obverse of the


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: Azerbaijani 1 to 250 manat banknotes of 1992–2006, and of the 10 manat banknote issued since 2006, as well as on the reverse of the Azerbaijani 5 qəpik coin minted since 2006. There are various mysteries and legends related to Baku Maiden Tower. However, the main mystery is: the Tower's design and purpose. Meanwhile, there are up to 20 legends related to Baku Maiden Tower. A large number of them are connected to the Islamic and Medieval period of Baku's history. But others are rooted deeply in Azerbaijan's Zoroastrian or pre-Islamic history, religion and culture. Probably, the most famous legend


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: is that of the fiery-haired virgin girl who saved Baku's people from slavery. The epic shows roots to Azerbaijan's Zoroastrian believes and culture and has reached down to modern times. Once upon a time, there was an ancient town-fortress of Baku. The fortress had a Fire Temple-Tower. In very ancient times, an enemy encircled the fortress. The enemy ordered Baku's people to surrender but they refused. So the enemy launched a siege to demolish the fortress and capture all inhabitants as slaves. Many fortress' defenders died trying to stop enemy attacks. Meanwhile, the enemy's commander ordered the water supply lines


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: to be cut. So everybody was thirsty inside the fortress. No water no food, only blood and death. And the Supreme Magi, together with other priests, prayed to the Holy Fire in the fortress' Fire Temple-Tower, asking the God of Ahura Mazda to help the people. They prayed day and night asking Ahura Mazda to save their life and to push the enemy back. Finally, he heard their prayers. On the next day, the people saw that a large piece of the Holy Fire fell down from the top of the Fire Temple-Tower. A beautiful girl came out from the


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: fire. She had long fire-colored hair. The crowd went down on their knees and started to pray to her. She said: "Don't worry. I'll help and protect you. Give me a sword and a helmet. The enemy should not see my girl's hair, open a fortress' gate". Meanwhile, the enemy's commander was waiting outside for the fortress' pahlevan for one-to-one combat. If the fortress' pahlevan had won the fight, then the enemy's army would back away. But if the enemy won, they would capture the fortress and all surviving inhabitants would be slaves. The fortress' gate was opened and the


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: enemy's commander saw that one pahlevan was coming to fight him. The heavy battle began. In one of God's blessed moments, the fortress' pahlevan unhorsed the enemy and put a knife direct to his neck. The enemy's commander screamed: "You win! Who are you? Take your helmet off. I want to see your face, pahlevan!" He took off the helmet and saw that the fortress' pahlevan was a beautiful girl with long fire-colored hair. He exclaimed: "Oh, you are a girl! You are brave and beautiful girl! If girls of Baku are so brave, I'll never capture your fortress! Don't


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: kill me, beauty!" He fell in love with her for her beauty and bravery. He asked her to marry him. Of course, the girl did not kill him. She fell in love with him too for his open heart. Thus, the enemy did not capture Baku and the local people named a tower as the Maiden tower. The next legend also has Zoroastrian roots: Once upon a time, an enemy besieged the fortress of Baku. However, Baku's people refused the enemy's request surrender. They decided to fight and defend their lives and fortress. So Baku's people fought with great bravery


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: but the situation inside the fortress became more and more perilous. The enemy implemented a tight siege to overthrow the defenders. The enemy cut the water supply. With no water and food, the defenders did not have any chance of survival. Meanwhile, Supreme Magi with other priests prayed in the fortress' Holy Fire Temple-Tower. All together, they prayed to God of Ahura Mazda asking him to protect and help the people. After several days of non-stop praying, He heard priests' blessings and prayers. A strong and devastating earthquake occurred. Thousand of enemies perished as a result and some survivors, ran


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: away. Thus, the people of Baku escaped slavery but the Holy Fires were stopped on the top of the Fire Temple-Tower. Prof Mahir Khalifa-zadeh believes that apart from legends, it has been difficult to find historical explanations or archaeological or written evidence as to why the tower was called the Maiden tower. In addition to epical backgrounds, it is believable that the word "maiden" means that the tower was not destroyed by any enemy and thus means (from the religious viewpoint) that it was never desecrated (touched) by the evil of Angra Mainyu and remains the "virgin" or "maiden" temple-tower


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: of the Zoroastrianian God, Ahura Mazda. The tower has been described as the "most majestic and mysterious monument of Baku, the Gyz Galasy", built on solid rock foundation, demonstrates right on the coast line, a fusion of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman influences. It was constructed alongside a natural oil well. It is a cylindrical eight story structure that rises to a height of with a base diameter of . The internal space available in the tower is said to be adequate to accommodate 200 people. A long solid projection to the main tower faces east, which is oriented towards sunrise


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: pointing to the equinoxes, which has led to the conclusion that it was built as an astronomical tower; while the buttress faces east, the door access to the tower faces southeast. Each floor of the tower has a shallow vaulted roof, "a stone cupola" that has a central opening. The thickness of the walls varies from at the base tapering cylindrically to at the top floors. All floors are connected by staircase which abuts the circular wall and are lighted by narrow windows or niches which flare inward. The structure built in stone masonry exhibits varying finished surfaces, which is


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: inlaid with local grey limestone. The alternate courses of stone laid in gypsum plaster gives a black and white banded effect. The northwestern part of the tower retains the original surface finish. There is also a beak-like projection, a buttress, curved in shape, made in masonry. The earliest stonework has square corners. A detailed examination of the construction features of the tower by archaeologists suggests that the stone masonry, both on its interior and exterior surfaces, is diamond-shaped and is seen at the top as well as at the bottom of the tower wall. The diamond-shaped cut seen as a


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: decorative feature, particularly on the outer face of the west side wall, is ornate at the top and plain at the bottom of the wall; a subtle feature noted throughout the tower suggests that it was built as one monolith unit at one period. However, the recent renovations are stated to be crude. Another notable structure seen in the tower is a water well of diameter, which is deep (its depth is up to the aquifer) that has been discovered at the second floor of the tower. It has an entrance also at the ground level which was discovered by


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: Archaeologist Abbas Islamov during a recent study of the tower. This well has been interpreted as rainwater harvesting structure and the water is said to be clean and fresh (though close to the sea). The ceramic pipe ( in diameter) plumbing seen running down from the niches of the tower into the well was meant as a supply source. Since the ancient plumbing system is said to be in its original form, it needs to be cleaned and its layout ascertained by further studies to describe the drainage network that was originally built as part of the tower. The ceramics


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: of the plumbing system and the silt deposited in them could also help to fix the age of the tower by using thermo-luminescence technique. Also seen in the tower, between the 2nd floor and the 7th floor, is a gutter of semicircular shape at every floor. It is made of ceramic pipes fitted one above another and joined by lime mortar. The pipes are presumably produced with the potter's wheel technique. They are in diameter with thick walls and each segment is long. Similar gutters are seen from the ground floor up to the foundation level but with the four


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: cornered ceramic pipes of × size, which run outside through the wall. Subsequent to the declaration of the entire cultural property including the tower and the city walls as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2000, there was an earthquake which caused damage to the property. UNESCO, noting the lack of efforts by the national authorities to adequately conserve this cultural heritage then listed these monuments under the "List of World Heritage in Danger," from 2004 to 2009 with the comment "Loss of authenticity due in part to the earthquake in 2000 and to the urban development pressures." However, after


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: the concerned authorities evolved a Conservation Master Plan and assured of adequate conservation and management of the property, the "in danger" tag attached to the heritage site has been removed by UNESCO in 2009. It was also requested that the State Party would submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2010, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and progress made for consideration by the World Heritage Committee at its 34th session in 2010. The legendary tale of the king willing to force his daughter to marry a man she doesn't love, which she


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: escapes by asking her father to first build a tower for her, and when it is finished committing suicide by jumping from the top of it has been the subject of many Azerbaijani poems and plays. However, the ballet titled “Maiden Tower", was the first Azerbaijani ballet composed by Afrasiyyab Badalbayli, in 1940. This ballet is performed at Baku´s Opera and Ballet Theatre. However, the story line is a modified version of the legend. According to the modified version of the Ballet, the king on his return from his war campaign found that his wife had given birth to a


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: daughter instead of a son. He became furious and ordered killing of his baby daughter. However, the baby's nanny took her away to a secret place where she grew up to a beautiful lady. At age seventeen she got engaged to a lover. At this juncture, the king chanced to see her, wanted to marry her and therefore took her away and kept her in the Maiden Tower. The girl's lover was furious with this turn of events and he managed to kill the king. He then ran to the Maiden Tower to rescue his lover. However, when the girl


title: "Maiden Tower (Baku)" content: heard sound of foot steps approaching towards the tower, she thought that it was the king coming to see her and she immediately committed suicide by jumping down from the tower. As of 2011, the tower also participates in "Earth Hour," a campaign against climate change in which large buildings "go dark" for an hour to draw awareness to the cause. Maiden Tower (Baku) The Maiden Tower () is a 12th-century monument in the Old City, Baku, Azerbaijan. Along with the Shirvanshahs' Palace, dated to the 15th century, it forms a group of historic monuments listed in 2001 under the


title: Randfontein content: male dominant. The working age-group (15 to 64) is the largest and makes up 65.5% of the local population. The elderly group (above 65 of age) constitutes only 6.1% of the population. The racial makeup and language distribution changed dramatically from the 2001 census to the 2011 census. The Black population grew from around 16% of the total population to around 41% of the population. Dominant languages now are Tswana, Sesotho, English, and Afrikaans, with many other languages being spoken, both local and international. English serves as the lingua franca for the town. Most local religions are catered for in


title: "Wouter van Twiller" content: from a tribe of Canarsee Indians for two axe heads, a string of beads and some iron nails. While in office, settlers from New England occupied the Connecticut Valley and he was never able to oust them. He was able to defend the Dutch territory in the Delaware Valley, where his soldiers captured a shipload of intended settlers from Virginia and expelled soldiers who had taken Fort Nassau. Van Twiller was able to both increase the colony's prosperity and amass a private fortune despite conflicts with Everhardus Bogardus, Dutch Reformed predikant of the New Netherland colony; and fiscaal Lubbert van


title: Electone content: Electone Electone is the trademark used for electronic organs produced by Yamaha. With the exception of the top end performance models, most Electones are based on the design on the spinet electronic organ. Current models are completely digital and contain a variety of sounds, effects, and accompaniments, on top of the ability to store programming data onto memory devices. After Hammond pioneered the electronic organ in the 1930s, other manufacturers began to market their own versions of the instrument. By the end of the 1950s, familiar brand names of home organs in addition to Hammond included Conn, Kimball, Lowrey, and


title: Rakvere content: Rakvere Rakvere ( or "Wesenbergh") is a town in northern Estonia and the capital of Lääne-Viru County, 20 km south of the Gulf of Finland. The earliest signs of human settlement dating back to the 3rd–5th centuries AD have been found on the present theatre hill. Probably to protect that settlement, a wooden stronghold was built on the present Vallimägi. When it changed owners in 1220, the Danes started to erect buildings from stone. A settlement called "Tarvanpea" was first mentioned in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia in 1226. The new Danish stronghold was called "Wesenbergh" in Middle Low


title: Rakvere content: German for the first time in 1252. The battle of Wesenberg between the Danish and German knights and Russians occurred nearby on 18 February 1268. On 12 June 1302, Rakvere was granted Lübeck rights. When the Danish king sold Danish Estonia to the Livonian Order in 1346, a large castle was built on top of the previous stronghold. The Ordensburg was protected by towers and courtyards. The building of a Franciscan monastery was started in 1508. During the Livonian War from 1558 to 1581, Rakvere was under Russian rule and was heavily damaged. Sweden, after the disastrous Siege of Wesenberg


title: Rakvere content: (1574), captured the town in 1581 before it passed to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1602; Poles destroyed the castle in 1605. After being returned to Swedish control in that year, a mansion was built on the ruins of the monastery. During the Great Northern War, Rakvere was burned down in 1703. With the Capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710 and the subsequent Treaty of Nystad in 1721, Rakvere passed to the Russian Empire, where it remained until Estonia's independence in 1918 following World War I. During the first period of independence, many prominent buildings were built, such as the


title: Rakvere content: market building, the old bank building (current SEB Eesti Ühispank), and Rakvere Gymnasium. In 1930, the town stadium was opened. Local newspapers started to emerge, including the county paper "Virumaa Teataja", which was first published in 1925. The idea of Rakvere's own professional theatre started to take shape as well. The construction of the theatre house was completed at the end of the 1930s and it was festively opened on 24 February 1940. The theatre survived World War II and is active to this day. Rakvere also has a professional theatre and it is believed that it is the smallest


title: Rakvere content: town in Europe which has a professional theatre. Its roots date back to 1882 and it is still active and very popular. The theatre of Rakvere has given Estonia many famous actors and actresses such as Volli Käro, Üllar Saaremäe, Indrek Saar, Ülle Lichtfeldt, Aarne Üksküla etc. It also holds the biannual event "Baltoscandal", which gathers avant-garde plays and groups from all over the world. Rakvere is also known now for its Tarvas statue of an aurochs, which was made by the Estonian sculptor Tauno Kangro. It is thought to be the largest animal statue in the Baltic countries. It


title: Rakvere content: is situated on the edge of Vallimägi hill and was erected for the town's 700th birthday. Along with the granite block it sits on, the statue is seven meters long and four meters high and weighs about seven tons. The statue is made out of bronze. The names of the companies and private people who financed it are engraved in the granite block. The Lutheran church of Rakvere, the Trinity church, originally dates from the 15th century and was designed to also be able to function as a stronghold in times of trouble. It was severely damaged during the Livonian


title: Rakvere content: War and renovation started only in 1684. During the Great Northern War, the church once more was damaged by fire twice. Renovations were carried out 1727–1730, and again during the middle of the 19th century, when the church received its present look, dominated by its neo-Gothic spire. The interior displays some fine craftsmanship, including a Baroque pulpit from 1690 made by Christian Ackermann. Rakvere is twinned with nine cities: Rakvere Rakvere ( or "Wesenbergh") is a town in northern Estonia and the capital of Lääne-Viru County, 20 km south of the Gulf of Finland. The earliest signs of human settlement


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: Tower of Hercules The Tower of Hercules (Galician and ) is an ancient Roman lighthouse on a peninsula about from the centre of Corunna, Galicia, in north-western Spain. Until the 20th century, the tower itself was known as the "Farum Brigantium". The Latin word "farum" is derived from the Greek "pharos" for the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The structure is tall and overlooks the North Atlantic coast of Spain. The structure, built in the 2nd century and renovated in 1791, is the oldest Roman lighthouse in use today. There is a sculpture garden featuring works by Pablo Serrano and Francisco Leiro.


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: The Tower of Hercules is a National Monument of Spain, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since June 27, 2009. It is the second-tallest lighthouse in Spain, after the Faro de Chipiona. The tower is known to have existed by the 2nd century, built or perhaps rebuilt under Trajan, possibly on foundations following a design that was Phoenician in origin. It is thought to be modeled after the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Its base preserves a cornerstone with the inscription , permitting the original lighthouse tower to be ascribed to the architect Gaius Sevius Lupus, from Aeminium (present-day Coimbra,


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: Portugal) in the former province of Lusitania, as an offering dedicated to the Roman god of war, Mars. The tower has been in constant use since the 2nd century and is considered to be the oldest extant lighthouse. The base of the building has 18 sides, the tower is 4 sided, continuing to be 7 sided, then 5 sides with a final dome on top. The earliest known reference to the lighthouse at Brigantium is by Paulus Orosius in "Historiae adversum Paganos" written around 415–417: Secundus angulus circium intendit, ubi Brigantia Gallaeciae civitas sita altissimum farum et inter pauca memorandi


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: operis ad speculam Britanniae erigit ("At the second angle of the circuit circumnavigating Hispania, where the Gallaecian city of Brigantia is sited, a very tall lighthouse is erected among a few commemorative works, for looking towards Britannia.") In 1788, the original , three-storey tower was given a neoclassical restoration, including a new fourth storey. The restoration was undertaken by naval engineer Eustaquio Giannini during the reign of Charles III of Spain, and was finished in 1791. Within, the much-repaired Roman and medieval masonry may be inspected. The Romans who conquered this region of Spain believed it to be, in a


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: figurative sense, the end of the earth—whence its name, "Finisterra". This region is notorious for shipwrecks, earning it the name "Costa da Morte", "Coast of Death". Through the millennia many mythical stories of the lighthouse's origin have been told. According to a myth that blends Celtic and Greco-Roman elements, the hero Hercules slew the giant tyrant Geryon after three days and three nights of continuous battle. Hercules then—in a Celtic gesture—buried the head of Geryon with his weapons and ordered that a city be built on the site. The lighthouse atop a skull and crossbones representing the buried head of


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: Hercules’ slain enemy appears in the coat-of-arms of the city of Corunna. Another legend embodied in the 11th-century Irish compilation "Lebor Gabála Érenn"—the "Book of Invasions"—King Breogán, the founding father of the Galician Celtic nation, constructed a massive tower of such a grand height that his sons could see a distant green shore from its top. The glimpse of that distant green land lured them to sail north to Ireland. According to the legend Breogán's descendants stayed in Ireland and are the Celtic ancestors of the current Irish people. A colossal statue of Breogán has been erected near the Tower.


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: Early geographical descriptions on the location of "Brigantia" point out that the town could be actually located in Corunna or in the locality of the modern town of Betanzos. There is some debate about this, as the people from Betanzos claim it as a fact that Betanzos was referred to as "the former city of Brigancia" until the 17th century, both in literary accounts as well as in maps, and they also believe that the name "Betanzos" is a phonetical evolution from "Brigantium > Breganzo > Betanzos". This, however, could be a false etymology. The Betanzos tradition claims that the


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: port of Betanzos was getting too small for the larger mediaeval ships, and that king Alfonso IX of León decided to create a bigger port nearby in the 13th century. The place he chose was an uninhabited place called "Clunia", which later on evolved to "Cruña" and Coruña, and so (in English) to Corunna. The place name Clunia is believed to come from the Proto-Celtic root *klou̯ni (cf. Old Irish "cluain"), meaning "meadow". However, the Coruña tradition maintains that the "port" of Betanzos (which is a fluvial one, in a quite small river) was far too small for Roman warships


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: to dock at—for example when Julius Caesar visited this area with "more than a hundred triremes". It is demonstrated that Corunna was an important Roman site, as graveyards and other Roman remains have been found in the city center, demonstrating that the site was inhabited in the Roman period, and was deserted only during the early Middle Ages due to Viking attacks, when its people moved inland to O Burgo (now Culleredo). The proponents of Corunna also explain the different name as a change that occurred in the Middle Ages, and point out the fact that the lighthouse, which was


title: "Tower of Hercules" content: called "Pharum Brigantium", was erected in Corunna, and is at least 25 km walking distance (or a whole day's journey) from Betanzos. A medieval watchtower in Segovia also bears the name "Tower of Hercules". Tower of Hercules The Tower of Hercules (Galician and ) is an ancient Roman lighthouse on a peninsula about from the centre of Corunna, Galicia, in north-western Spain. Until the 20th century, the tower itself was known as the "Farum Brigantium". The Latin word "farum" is derived from the Greek "pharos" for the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The structure is tall and overlooks the North Atlantic coast


title: "Salomon Islands" content: Chagossians, but at the time that the British Government decided to empty the Chagos of local inhabitants only Île Boddam was inhabited. Between 1967 and 1973, 500 inhabitants of the Salomon Islands were unlawfully evicted by the British by means of deceit in order to make way for an American military base. The evictees were resettled in Mauritius and The Seychelles. Île Boddam had a jetty, shops, offices, a school, a church and a villa where the plantation manager lived. All these buildings are now hidden by thick jungle. There are wells on Boddam and Takamaka islands which are still


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: Aristotelia serrata Aristotelia serrata, commonly known as wineberry or in the Maori language makomako or just mako it is a flowering plant tree of Elaeocarpaceae in the genus "Aristotelia", found in the North Island, South Island and Stewart Island of New Zealand. "Aristotelia serrata," also known as wineberry, is a small deciduous fast-growing tree or shrub. The tree can reach up to 10m tall, with a trunk diameter up to 30 cm. The bark is pale brown, smooth and patterned with flat lenticels. Branches are long, slender and spreading, branchlets have a reddish-brown color when pubescent. "Aristotelia serrata" leaves have


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: distinguishable traits. Leaves are thin, deeply and sharply serrated, light or dark green on adaxial surface, often pinkish green on abaxial surface, veins distinct on both surfaces, size between 5-12 x 4–8 cm. The leaves, are disposed in opposite or subopposite pairs. They have drawn-out, pointed tips and prominent veins forming an obvious net-like vein pattern on both sides. The margins are strikingly toothed, with larger, narrowly pointed, irregular, jagged teeth bearing smaller teeth. Some trees have red-purple twigs and leaf undersides; others are just green. The leaves have long stalks, and each leaf stalk has a pair of small,


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: narrow stipules, sometimes a few teeth, at its base. In the axils of the leafstalks are pointed buds, which can grow out into leafy shots or inflorescences. Flowers occur in an inflorescence of numerous cymes, flowers of all shades intermixed, coloured in cream through pink to dark red. Flowers has 4 to 6 mm diam; petals 3-lobed; stigma with 3-4 lobes; stamens numerous, arising from a glandular disc. Flower has 6–10 cm long, on slender pubescent pedicels with around 5-10mm long. Flowers have 4 ovate sepals around 3 mm long; 4 petals, 3-lobed, often deeply, 9mm long. Stamens occur on


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: glandular disk, minutely pubescent. Ovary 3-4 celled, styles 3-4. The flowers are very numerous, in much-branched clusters. They have petals with rounded, incised lobes at the ends and look like small versions of Elaeocarpus flowers. They are almost colourless when they open; then they change to pink, red, and dark red, providing a colorful display. Wineberry has male and female flowers on different plants, with some bisexual flowers among the males. Female flowers are borne in large panicles, on short shoots just above leaves or old leaf scars, on 2 year old wood of the upper leafy branchlets. The fruit


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: is a berry that is 4-5mm in diameter, black, containing 8 angular seeds. With 4 locules and axile placentation. They are red through dark red to almost black. Endemic to New Zealand, wineberry is found throughout the South Island of New Zealand and lower North Island. It is common in moist forest and scrub land within the lowland, montane, and subalpine climates. Wineberry can also be found on Stewart Island. Taking advantage of ecological disturbances such as natural tree falls "A. serrata" is plentiful in regenerating forest and damp river margins. Forest clearings which are followed by the colonization of


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: wineberry are often due to land slip, storm damage, natural tree fall, forest clearings, and forest fire. Wineberry is a quick growing deciduous tree. Gradually losing leaves during the winter it may become fully bare prior to new leaves and flower development in spring. Wineberry is an attractive tree, with pinkish foliage and rose coloured flowers in the spring. Berries ripen in the summer. As the flowers of the Wineberry mature they turn from white to red, there are both female and male flowers on different plants with some bisexual flowers among the males. Wineberry acts as a host to


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: numerous associated plant species and is fed on by native birds and insects. Associated plants include a range of mosses to herbaceous plants such as "Orthotrichum cyathiforme", "Orthotrichum calvum", "Macroacoma tenue", "Leptophyllopsis laxa", and "Lleostylus micranthus". The berries of "A. serrata" are susceptible to frugivory by both birds and mammals. Kereru are known to feed on the fruit of wineberry. In order to conserve Kereru populations it is suggested by DOC that wineberry be planted as a food source. The berries of the wineberry are not the only thing susceptible to herbivory, the kawakawa moth larvae can be found feeding


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: on leaves of the wineberry. "Aristotelia serrata" has a multitude of uses by both Europeans and Maori. Named Makomako, the Maori used it medically by boiling its leaves as an application to burns and infected wounds. The berries can serve as food and are often eaten by children, the berries can also be squeezed to make a thick sweet drink. Wineberry can be used in a variety of way to create dyes, the plant contains tannins, and the bark can provide a blue-black dye. European settlers burnt the shoots of the wineberry, changing the wood to charcoal for the production


title: "Aristotelia serrata" content: of gunpowder. Often form thickets after felling of forest. Aristotelia means after Aristotle, the Greek philosopher. There may exist two varieties for the same species, one with light green leaves and bright red fruits, and the other with dark green leaves, purplish below and dark fruits. Aristotelia serrata Aristotelia serrata, commonly known as wineberry or in the Maori language makomako or just mako it is a flowering plant tree of Elaeocarpaceae in the genus "Aristotelia", found in the North Island, South Island and Stewart Island of New Zealand. "Aristotelia serrata," also known as wineberry, is a small deciduous fast-growing tree


title: "Carnegie Museum of Natural History" content: Carnegie Museum of Natural History Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, was founded by the Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. It maintains an international reputation for research and is ranked among the top five natural history museums in the United States. The museum consists of organized into 20 galleries as well as research, library, and office space. It holds some 22 million specimens, of which about 10,000 are on view at any given time and about 1 million are cataloged in online databases. In


title: "Carnegie Museum of Natural History" content: 2008 it hosted 386,300 admissions and 63,000 school group visits. Museum education staff also actively engage in outreach by traveling to schools all around western Pennsylvania. The museum gained prominence in 1899 when its scientists unearthed the fossils of "Diplodocus carnegii". Today its dinosaur collection includes the world's largest collection of Jurassic dinosaurs and its "Dinosaurs in Their Time" exhibition offers the third largest collection of mounted, displayed dinosaurs in the United States (behind the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History). Notable specimens include one of the world's only fossils of a juvenile


title: "Carnegie Museum of Natural History" content: "Apatosaurus", the world's first specimen of a "Tyrannosaurus rex", and a recently identified species of oviraptorosaur named "Anzu wyliei". Research teams including former Carnegie scientists made critical discoveries such as "Puijila darwini", "Castorocauda lutrasimilis", and "Hadrocodium wui". Other major exhibits include Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems, Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians, , Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt, Benedum Hall of Geology, Dinosaurs in Their Time, and Powdermill Nature Reserve, established by the museum in 1956 to serve as a field station for long-term studies of natural populations. The museum's active curatorial departments are: Anthropology, Birds, Botany, Herpetology (Amphibians


title: "Carnegie Museum of Natural History" content: & Reptiles), Invertebrate Paleontology, Invertebrate Zoology, Mammals, Minerals, Mollusks (Malacology), and Vertebrate Paleontology. These departments work collaboratively under strategic centers created to re-frame how the museum leverages its research, exhibitions, and public programming to meet the challenges and issues of today. In late 2013, however, the museum's parent organization and interim administration eliminated multiple scientific positions, seriously affecting its capacity to conduct original research. Carnegie Museum of Natural History publishes scholarly journals and books including "Annals of Carnegie Museum", which offers peer-reviewed articles in organismal biology, earth sciences, and anthropology; "Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History", offering monographs or


title: "Carnegie Museum of Natural History" content: collections of related papers from symposia; and "Special Publications" of Carnegie Museum, documenting special topics or areas of research. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, was founded by the Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. It maintains an international reputation for research and is ranked among the top five natural history museums in the United States. The museum consists of organized into 20 galleries as well as research, library, and office space. It holds some 22 million specimens, of which


title: "African elephant" content: African elephant African elephants are elephants of the genus Loxodonta. The genus consists of two extant species: the African bush elephant, "L. africana", and the smaller African forest elephant, "L. cyclotis". "Loxodonta" (from Greek λοξός, "loxós": 'slanting, crosswise, oblique sided' + ὀδούς, "odoús": stem odónt-, 'tooth') is one of two existing genera of the family Elephantidae. Fossil remains of "Loxodonta" have been found only in Africa, in strata as old as the middle Pliocene. However, sequence analysis of DNA extracted from fossils of an extinct elephant species undermines the validity of the genus. One species of African elephant, the bush


title: "African elephant" content: elephant, is the largest living terrestrial animal, while the forest elephant is the third-largest. Their thickset bodies rest on stocky legs, and they have concave backs. Their large ears enable heat loss. The upper lip and nose form a trunk. The trunk acts as a fifth limb, a sound amplifier, and an important method of touch. African elephants' trunks end in two opposing lips, whereas the Asian elephant trunk ends in a single lip. In "L. africana", males stand tall at the shoulder and weigh , while females stand tall and weigh ; "L. cyclotis" is smaller with male shoulder


title: "African elephant" content: heights of up to . The largest recorded individual stood at the shoulder and weighed . The tallest recorded individual stood at the shoulder and weighed . Elephants have four molars; each weighs about and measures about long. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair moves forward, and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth four to six times in their lifetimes. Around 40 to 60 years of age, the elephant loses the last of its molars and will likely die of starvation, a common cause


title: "African elephant" content: of death. African elephants have 24 teeth in total, six on each quadrant of the jaw. The enamel plates of the molars are fewer in number than in Asian elephants. The elephants' tusks are firm teeth; the second set of incisors become the tusks. They are used for digging for roots and stripping the bark from trees for food, for fighting each other during mating season, and for defending themselves against predators. The tusks weigh from and can be from long. Unlike Asian elephants, both male and female African elephants have tusks. They are curved forward and continue to grow


title: "African elephant" content: throughout the elephant's lifetime. African elephants are found widely in Sub-Saharan Africa, in dense forests, mopane and miombo woodlands, Sahelian scrub, or deserts. In 1825, Georges Cuvier named the genus ""Loxodonte"". An anonymous author romanized the spelling to ""Loxodonta"", and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature recognizes this as the proper authority. Bush and forest elephants were formerly considered subspecies of "Loxodonta africana". As described in the entry for the forest elephant in the third edition of "Mammal Species of the World" ("MSW3"), there is morphological and genetic evidence that they should be considered as separate species. Much of the


title: "African elephant" content: evidence cited in "MSW3" is morphological. The African forest elephant has a longer and narrower mandible, rounder ears, a different number of toenails, straighter and downward tusks, and considerably smaller size. With regard to the number of toenails: the African bush elephant normally has four toenails on the front foot and three on the hind feet, the African forest elephant normally has five toenails on the front foot and four on the hind foot (like the Asian elephant), but hybrids between the two species commonly occur. "MSW3" lists the two forms as full species and does not list any subspecies


title: "African elephant" content: in its entry for "Loxodonta africana". However, this approach is not taken by the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre nor by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), both of which list "L. cyclotis" as a synonym (not even a subspecies) of "L. africana". A consequence of the IUCN taking this view is that the IUCN Red List makes no independent assessment of the conservation status of the two forms of African elephant. It merely assesses the two forms taken together, as vulnerable. A study of nuclear DNA sequences, published in 2010, indicated that the divergence


title: "African elephant" content: date between forest and savanna elephants was 2.6 – 5.6 million years ago, similar to the divergence date estimated for the Asian elephant and the woolly mammoths (2.5 – 5.4 million years ago), which strongly supports their status as separate species. Forest elephants were found to have a high degree of genetic diversity, perhaps reflecting periodic fragmentation of their habitat during the climatic changes of the Pleistocene. However, recent DNA sequence analysis indicates that the extinct European straight-tusked elephant, "Palaeoloxodon antiquus", is closer to "L. cyclotis" than "L. cyclotis" is to "L. africana", thus invalidating "Loxodonta" as currently recognized. African


title: "African elephant" content: elephant societies are arranged around family units. Each family unit is made up of around ten closely related females and their calves and is led by an older female known as the matriarch. When separate family units bond, they form kinship or bond groups. After puberty, male elephants tend to form close alliances with other males. Elephants are at their most fertile between the ages of 25 and 45. Calves are born after a gestation period of up to nearly two years. The calves are cared for by their mother and other young females in the group, known as allomothers.


title: "African elephant" content: Elephants use some vocalisations that are beyond the hearing range of humans, to communicate across large distances. Elephant mating rituals include the gentle entwining of trunks. While feeding, elephants use their trunks to pluck at leaves and their tusks to tear at branches, which can cause enormous damage to foliage. A herd may deplete an area of foliage depriving other herbivores for a time. African elephants may eat up to of vegetation per day, although their digestive system is not very efficient; only 40% of this food is properly digested. The foregut fermentation used by ruminants is generally considered more


title: "African elephant" content: efficient than the hindgut fermentation employed by proboscideans and perissodactyls; however, the ability to process food more rapidly than foregut fermenters gives hindgut fermenters an advantage at very large body size, as they are able to accommodate significantly larger food intakes. African elephants are highly intelligent, and they have a very large and highly convoluted neocortex, a trait they share with humans, apes and some dolphin species. They are amongst the world's most intelligent species. With a mass of just over 5 kg (11 lb), elephant brains are larger than those of any other land animal, and although the largest


title: "African elephant" content: whales have body masses twentyfold those of a typical elephant, whale brains are barely twice the mass of an elephant's brain. The elephant's brain is similar to that of humans in terms of structure and complexity. For example, the elephant's cortex has as many neurons as that of a human brain, suggesting convergent evolution. Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, allomothering, mimicry, art, play, a sense of humor, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory and possibly language. All point to a highly intelligent species that is thought to be equal with


title: "African elephant" content: cetaceans, and primates. African elephants show sexual dimorphism in weight and shoulder height by age 20, due to the rapid early growth of males. By age 25, males are double the weight of females; however, both sexes continue to grow throughout their lives. Female African elephants are able to start reproducing at around 10 to 12 years of age, and are in estrus for about 2 to 7 days. They do not mate at a specific time; however, they are less likely to reproduce in times of drought than when water is plentiful. The gestation period of an elephant is


title: "African elephant" content: 22 months and fertile females usually give birth every 3 – 6 years, so if they live to around 50 years of age, they may produce 7 offspring. Females are a scarce and mobile resource for the males so there is intense competition to gain access to estrous females. Post sexual maturity, males begin to experience musth, a physical and behavioral condition that is characterized by elevated testosterone, aggression and more sexual activity. Musth also serves a purpose of calling attention to the females that they are of good quality, and it cannot be mimicked as certain calls or noises


title: "African elephant" content: may be. Males sire few offspring in periods when they are not in musth. During the middle of estrus, female elephants look for males in musth to guard them. The females will yell, in a loud, low way to attract males from far away. Male elephants can also smell the hormones of a female ready for breeding. This leads males to compete with each other to mate, which results in the females mating with older, healthier males. Females choose to a point who they mate with, since they are the ones who try to get males to compete to guard


title: "African elephant" content: them. However, females are not guarded in the early and late stages of estrus, which may permit mating by younger males not in musth. Males over the age of 25 compete strongly for females in estrous, and are more successful the larger and more aggressive they are. Bigger males tend to sire bigger offspring. Wild males begin breeding in their thirties when they are at a size and weight that is competitive with other adult males. Male reproductive success is maximal in mid-adulthood and then begins to decline. However, this can depend on the ranking of the male within their


title: "African elephant" content: group, as higher-ranking males maintain a higher rate of reproduction. Most observed matings are by males in musth over 35 years of age. Twenty-two long observations showed that age and musth are extremely important factors; "… older males had markedly elevated paternity success compared with younger males, suggesting the possibility of sexual selection for longevity in this species." (Hollister-Smith, et al. 287). Males usually stay with a female and her herd for about a month before moving on in search for another mate. Less than a third of the population of female elephants will be in estrus at any given


title: "African elephant" content: time and gestation period of an elephant is long, so it makes more evolutionary sense for a male to search for as many females as possible rather than stay with one group. The following sequence of five images was taken in the Addo Elephant Park in South Africa. The social behavior of elephants in captivity mimics that of those in the wild. Females are kept with other females, in groups, while males tend to be separated from their mothers at a young age, and are kept apart. According to Schulte, in the 1990s, in North America, a few facilities allowed


title: "African elephant" content: male interaction. Elsewhere, males were only allowed to smell each other. Males and females were allowed to interact for specific purposes such as breeding. In that event, females were more often moved to the male than the male to the female. Females are more often kept in captivity because they are easier and less expensive to house. During the 20th century, poaching significantly reduced the population of "Loxodonta" in some regions. The World Wide Fund for Nature believes there were between 3 and 5 million African elephants as recently as the 1930s and 1940s. Between 1980 and 1990 the population


title: "African elephant" content: of African elephants was more than halved, from 1.3 million to around 600,000. Between 1973 and 1989, the African elephant population of Kenya declined by 85%. In Chad, the population declined from 400,000 in 1970 to about 10,000 in 2006. The population in the Tanzanian Selous Game Reserve, once the largest of any reserve in the world, dropped from 109,000 in 1976 to 13,000 in 2013. The government of Tanzania estimated that more than 85,000 elephants were lost to poaching in Tanzania between 2009 and 2014, representing a 60% loss. In 1989, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species


title: "African elephant" content: of Wild Fauna and Flora) banned international trade in ivory to fight this massive illegal trade. After the ban came into force in 1990, major ivory markets were eliminated. As a result, African elephant populations experienced a decline in illegal killing, particularly where they were appropriately protected. This allowed some elephant populations to recover. Nevertheless, within countries where wildlife management authorities are greatly under-funded, poaching is still a significant problem. The World Wildlife Foundation states that the two threats that impact African elephants the most are the demand for ivory and changes in land usage. The majority of the ivory


title: "African elephant" content: leaving Africa continues to be acquired and transported illegally, and over 80% of all the raw ivory traded comes from poached African elephants. From 2006 to 2012 the magnitude of poaching increased (including some 3,000 elephants slaughtered in between 2006 and 2009). In an incident lasting a few days in February 2012 in Bouba N'Djida park in Cameroon, 650 elephants were poached. In early March 2013 in Chad, 86 elephants — including 33 pregnant females — were killed in "a potentially devastating blow to one of central Africa's last remaining elephant populations." By 2014 it was estimated that only 50,000


title: "African elephant" content: elephants remained in Central Africa. The last major populations are present in Gabon and the Republic of Congo. According to the World Wildlife Fund, in 2014 the total population of African elephants was estimated to be around 700,000, and the Asian elephant population was estimated to be around 32,000. The population of African elephants in Southern Africa is large and expanding, with more than 300,000 within the region; Botswana has 200,000 and Zimbabwe 80,000. Large populations of elephants are confined to well-protected areas. However, conservative estimates were that 23,000 African elephants were killed by poachers in 2013 and less than


title: "African elephant" content: 20% of the African elephant range was under formal protection. The International Union for Conservation of Nature released a report in September 2016 that estimates Africa's elephant population at 415,000. They reported that in the past decade, this is a decline of 111,000 elephants. This is reported as the worst decline in the past 25 years. Between the African elephants and the Asian elephants there is a large variance in genetics; also, within Africa the different species vary in genetics based on where they live. The two African species, "Loxodonta africana" and "Loxodonta cyclotis", share different gene flow and have


title: "African elephant" content: limited hybridization with each other. When examining the gene flow between the forest and savanna elephants, observers look at 21 distinct locations. The evidence points to the fact that there was ancient hybridization since the species share a small amount of similar DNA. Protection of African elephants is a high-profile conservation cause in many countries. In 1989, the Kenyan Wildlife Service burned a stockpile of tusks in protest against the ivory trade. However, African elephant populations can be devastated by poaching despite nominal governmental protection, and some nations permit the hunting of elephants for sport. In 2012, "The New York


title: "African elephant" content: Times" reported a large upsurge in ivory poaching, with about 70% of the product flowing to China. Conflicts between elephants and a growing human population are a major issue in elephant conservation. Human encroachment into natural areas where bush elephants occur or their increasing presence in adjacent areas has spurred research into methods of safely driving groups of elephants away from humans. Playback of the recorded sounds of angry honey bees has been found to be remarkably effective at prompting elephants to flee an area. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) African elephant specialist group has set up


title: "African elephant" content: a "human-elephant conflict" working group. They believe that different approaches are needed in different countries and regions, and so develop conservation strategies at national and regional levels. Under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention, a Memorandum of Understanding concerning Conservation Measures for the West African Populations of the African Elephant came into effect on 22 November 2005. The MoU aims to protect the West African elephant population by providing an international framework for state governments, scientists and conservation groups to collaborate in the conservation of the species and


title: "African elephant" content: its habitat. China was the biggest market for poached ivory but announced they would phase out the legal domestic manufacture and sale of ivory products in May, 2015, and in September 2015 China and the U.S.A. "said they would enact a nearly complete ban on the import and export of ivory." In response Chinese consumers moved to purchasing their ivory through markets in Laos, leading conservation groups to request pressure be put on Laos to end the trade. African elephant African elephants are elephants of the genus Loxodonta. The genus consists of two extant species: the African bush elephant, "L.


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: Aesculus hippocastanum Aesculus hippocastanum is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large deciduous, synoecious (hermaphroditic-flowered) tree, commonly known as horse-chestnut or conker tree. "Aesculus hippocastanum" is a large tree, growing to about tall with a domed crown of stout branches; on old trees the outer branches are often pendulous with curled-up tips. The leaves are opposite and palmately compound, with 5–7 leaflets; each leaflet is 13–30 cm long, making the whole leaf up to 60 cm across, with a 7–20 cm petiole. The leaf scars left on twigs after the leaves


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: have fallen have a distinctive horseshoe shape, complete with seven "nails". The flowers are usually white with a yellow to pink blotch at the base of the petals; they are produced in spring in erect panicles 10–30 cm tall with about 20–50 flowers on each panicle. Usually only 1–5 fruit develop on each panicle; the shell is a green, spiky capsule containing one (rarely two or three) nut-like seeds called conkers or horse-chestnuts. Each conker is 2–4 cm diameter, glossy nut-brown with a whitish scar at the base. The common name "horse-chestnut" (often unhyphenated) is reported as having originated from


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: the erroneous belief that the tree was a kind of chestnut (though in fact only distantly related), together with the observation that the fruit could help panting horses. "Aesculus hippocastanum" is native to a small area in the Pindus Mountains mixed forests and Balkan mixed forests of South East Europe. However, it can be found in many parts of Europe as far north as Gästrikland in Sweden, as well as in many parks and cities in the United States and Canada. It is widely cultivated in streets and parks throughout the temperate world, and has been particularly successful in places


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: like Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, where they are commonly found in parks, streets and avenues. Cultivation for its spectacular spring flowers is successful in a wide range of temperate climatic conditions provided summers are not too hot, with trees being grown as far north as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Reykjavík, Iceland and Harstad, Norway. In Britain and Ireland, the seeds are used for the popular children's game conkers. During the First World War, there was a campaign to ask for everyone (including children) to collect horse-chestnuts and donate them to the government. The conkers were


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: used as a source of starch for fermentation using the "Clostridium acetobutylicum" method devised by Chaim Weizmann to produce acetone for use as a solvent for the production of cordite, which was then used in military armaments. Weizmann's process could use any source of starch, but the government chose to ask for conkers to avoid causing starvation by depleting food sources. But conkers were found to be a poor source, and the factory only produced acetone for three months; however, they were collected again in the Second World War for the same reason. The seeds, especially those that are young


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: and fresh, are slightly poisonous, containing alkaloid saponins and glucosides. Although not dangerous to touch, they cause sickness when eaten; consumed by horses, they can cause tremors and lack of coordination. Though the seeds are said to repel spiders there is little evidence to support these claims. The presence of saponin may repel insects but it is not clear whether this is effective on spiders. Horse-chestnuts have been threatened by the leaf-mining moth "Cameraria ohridella", whose larvae feed on horse chestnut leaves. The moth was described from Macedonia where the species was discovered in 1984 but took 18 years to


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: reach Britain. The flower is the symbol of the city of Kiev, capital of Ukraine. Although the horse-chestnut is sometimes known as the buckeye, this name is generally reserved for the New World members of the genus "Aesculus". In Germany, horse-chestnuts are often found in beer gardens, particularly in Bavaria. Prior to the advent of mechanical refrigeration, brewers would dig cellars for lagering. To further protect the cellars from the summer heat, they would plant chestnut trees, which have spreading, dense canopies but shallow roots which would not intrude on the caverns. The practice of serving beer at these sites


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: evolved into the modern beer garden. The seed extract standardized to around 20 percent aescin (escin) is used for its venotonic effect, vascular protection, anti-inflammatory and free radical scavenging properties. Primary indication is chronic venous insufficiency. A recent Cochrane Review found the evidence suggests that Horse Chestnut Seed Extract is an efficacious and safe short-term treatment for chronic venous insufficiency, but definitive randomized controlled trials are required to confirm the efficacy. Aescin reduces fluid leaks to surrounding tissue by reducing both the number and size of membrane pores in the veins. Two preparations are considered; whole horsechestnut extract (whole HCE)


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: and purified β-aescin. Historically, whole HCE has been used both for oral and IV routes (as of year 2001). The rate of adverse effects are low, in a large German study, 0.6%, consisting mainly of gastrointestinal symptoms. Dizziness, headache and itching have been reported. One serious safety issue is rare cases of acute anaphylactic reactions, presumably in a context of whole HCE. Purified β-aescin would be expected to have a better safety profile. Another is the risk of acute renal failure, "when patients, who had undergone cardiac surgery were given high doses of horse chestnut extract i.v. for postoperative oedema.


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: The phenomenon was dose dependent as no alteration in renal function was recorded with 340 μg kg−1, mild renal function impairment developed with 360 μg kg−1 and acute renal failure with 510 μg kg−1". This almost certainly took place in a context of whole HCE. Three clinical trials were since performed to assess the effects of aescin on renal function. A total of 83 subjects were studied; 18 healthy volunteers given 10 or 20 mg iv. for 6 days, 40 in-patients with normal renal function given 10 mg iv. two times per day (except two children given 0.2 mg/kg), 12


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: patients with cerebral oedema and normal renal function given a massive iv. dose on the day of surgery (49.2 ± 19.3 mg) and 15.4 ± 9.4 mg daily for the following 10 days and 13 patients with impaired renal function due to glomerulonephritis or pyelonephritis, who were given 20–25 mg iv. daily for 6 days. "In all studies renal function was monitored daily resorting to the usual tests of renal function: BUN, serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, urinalysis. In a selected number of cases paraaminohippurate and labelled EDTA clearance were also measured. No signs of development of renal impairment in the


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: patients with normal renal function or of worsening of renal function in the patients with renal impairment were recorded." It is concluded that aescin has excellent tolerability in a clinical setting. Raw Horse Chestnut seed, leaf, bark and flower are toxic due to the presence of esculin and should not be ingested. Horse chestnut seed is classified by the FDA as an unsafe herb. The glycoside and saponin constituents are considered toxic. "Aesculus hippocastanum" is used in the pseudoscientific Bach flower remedies. When the buds are used it is referred to as "chestnut bud" and when the flowers are used


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: it is referred to as "white chestnut". Quercetin 3,4'-diglucoside, a flavonol glycoside can also be found in horse chestnut seeds. Leucocyanidin, leucodelphinidin and procyanidin A2 can also be found in horse chestnut. A fine specimen of the horse-chestnut was the Anne Frank tree in the centre of Amsterdam, which she mentioned in her diary and which survived until August 2010, when a heavy wind blew it over. Eleven young specimens, sprouted from seeds from this tree, were transported to the United States. After a long quarantine in Indianapolis, each tree was shipped off to a new home at a notable


title: "Aesculus hippocastanum" content: museum or institution in the United States, such as the 9/11 Memorial Park, Central H.S. in Little Rock, and two Holocaust Centers. One of them was planted outdoors in March 2013 in front of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, where they were originally quarantined. The horse-chestnut is a favourite subject for bonsai. Aesculus hippocastanum Aesculus hippocastanum is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large deciduous, synoecious (hermaphroditic-flowered) tree, commonly known as horse-chestnut or conker tree. "Aesculus hippocastanum" is a large tree, growing to about tall with a domed crown of stout


title: "Anıtkabir" content: Anıtkabir Anıtkabir (literally, "memorial tomb") is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the Turkish War of Independence and the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey. It is located in Ankara and was designed by architects Professor Emin Onat and Assistant Professor Ahmet Orhan Arda, whose proposal beat 48 other entries from several countries in a competition held by the Turkish Government in 1941 for a "monumental tomb" for Atatürk. The site is also the final resting place of İsmet İnönü, the second President of Turkey, who was interred there after he died in 1973.


title: "Anıtkabir" content: His tomb faces the Atatürk Mausoleum, on the opposite side of the Ceremonial Ground. The mausoleum was depicted on various Turkish banknotes during 1966–1987 and 1997–2009 and was included in the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers list of the fifty civil engineering feats in Turkey, a list of remarkable engineering projects realized in the first 50 years of the chamber. The site chosen for Anıtkabir was known as "Rasattepe" ("Observation Hill"), which, at the time of the architectural competition for Anıtkabir, was a central location in Ankara and could be seen by all parts of the city. Archeological excavations unearthed


title: "Anıtkabir" content: artifacts belonging to the Phrygian civilization, which were carefully excavated and put on display in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, also in Ankara. The construction of Anıtkabir, which took nine years and spanned four stages, commenced on 9 October 1944 with the ceremony of laying the foundation stone. The first stage of the construction, comprising the preparatory excavation and the construction of the retaining wall of the Lions Road, started on 9 October 1944 and was completed in 1945. The second stage of the construction, comprising the mausoleum and the auxiliary buildings surrounding the ceremonial ground, started on 29 September


title: "Anıtkabir" content: 1945, and was completed on 8 August 1950. At this stage, due to problems related to the mausoleum's masonry and concrete structure foundations, some revisions had to be made. At the end of 1947, the excavation and insulation of the mausoleum foundation was completed and steel reinforcements for the new 11 m. (36.1 ft) high concrete foundation, capable of resisting any kind of settlement of the ground, had come to near completion. The Entrance towers, most parts of the road network, the orchard installations, the plantation works and main parts of the irrigation system were also completed at this stage.


title: "Anıtkabir" content: The third stage of the construction was the building of the roads leading to the mausoleum, The Lions Road, and the ceremonial ground; the mausoleum's upper-level stone pavement, the grand stairs, placement of the grand tombstone, and the installation of electricity, plumbing and heating systems. The fourth and last stage of construction was the laying of the Hall of Honour pavement, vaults under the side linings, and Hall of Honour perimeter stone profiles and fringe decorations, which was completed on 1 September 1953. The Anıtkabir project originally had a vaulted ceiling above the mausoleum carried by the perimeter columns. On


title: "Anıtkabir" content: 4 December 1951, the Government asked the architects about the possibility of shortening construction time by lowering the high ceiling of the Hall of Honour. After studying the subject, the architects concluded that it was possible to cover the ceiling with a reinforced concrete slab instead of a stone vault. This change reduced the weight of the ceiling and also eliminated certain constructional risks. All stones and marbles were brought in from various parts of Turkey. Easily processed porous travertine is used on external cladding of the concrete surfaces and marble is used for the inside surfaces of the Hall


title: "Anıtkabir" content: of Honour. White travertine used for the sculpture groups, lions figures and the mausoleum columns was brought from Kayseri and the travertine used inside the towers was brought from Polatlı and Malıköy. The red and black travertine used for paving the ceremonial ground and floors of the towers came from Kayseri. Yellow travertine brought from Çankırı was used for building the Victory Reliefs, the Hall of Honour's external walls, and perimeter columns of the ceremonial ground. The red, black and cream colour marble that was used on the floor of the Hall of Honour were brought from Hatay, Adana and


title: "Anıtkabir" content: Çanakkale, and for the internal walls, tiger-patterned marble from Afyon and green marble from Bilecik was used. The sarcophagus, a monolithic tomb stone weighing 40 tons, was brought from Adana and the white marble covering the sides of the sarcophagus were also from Afyon. There are four main parts to Anıtkabir: the Road of Lions, the Ceremonial Plaza, the Hall of Honor (location of Atatürk's tomb) and the Peace Park that surrounds the monument. The approach to the monument is a -long pedestrian walkway that is lined on both sides by twelve pairs of lions carved in a style like


title: "Anıtkabir" content: the Hittite archaeological finds. The lions represent 24 Oghuz Turkic Tribes and are shown seated to simultaneously represent both power and peace. A five centimeter gap separates the paving stones on the Road of Lions to ensure that visitors take their time and observe respectful behavior on their way to Atatürk's tomb. The Ceremonial Plaza is situated at the end of the Lions Road. The area is long and wide and was designed to accommodate 15,000 people. The floor is decorated with 373 rug and "kilim" (Turkish carpet) patterns, and is made of travertine in various colors. The Hall of


title: "Anıtkabir" content: Honor is the iconic symbol of Anıtkabir and the location of Atatürk's tomb. The structure is in plan and rises to a height of , with the columns themselves measuring . Atatürk's tomb is situated right under the symbolic 40-ton sarcophagus in the ground floor of The Hall of Honor, and Atatürk's body is buried below this in a special Tomb Room in the basement level. The room has an octagonal plan in Seljuk and Ottoman architectural styles, and its pyramidal ceiling is inlaid with gold mosaics. The park that surrounds the monument is called a Peace Park in honor


title: "Anıtkabir" content: of Atatürk's famous expression "Peace at home, peace in the world." It contains around 50,000 decorative trees, flowers and shrubs in 104 varieties, donated from around 25 countries. Within the Anıtkabir site there are ten towers situated in a symmetrical arrangement. These symbolize the ideals that influenced the Turkish nation and the creation of the Republic of Turkey. The towers are similar in terms of planning and structure: they are rectangular, close to a square, with pyramidal roofs. Bronze arrowheads are placed on the top of the roofs, like in traditional Turkish nomad tents. Inside the towers, geometric ornamentation inspired


title: "Anıtkabir" content: by traditional Turkish carpet (kilim) patterns and motifs, can be found on the towers' ceilings in fresco technique. There are also inscriptions of quotes by Atatürk that correspond to the theme of that tower. The relief inside the Independence Tower shows a young man standing straight and holding a sword with both hands while an eagle is perching on a rock beside him. The eagle represents power and independence in mythology and in Seljuk art, and the young man with the sword represents the Turkish nation defending its independence. In front of the Independence Tower, there is a statue group


title: "Anıtkabir" content: of three women in Turkish national costumes. The two women at the sides are holding a large wreath reaching to the ground. This wreath, made up of grain sheaves, represents the abundant country. The woman on the left with a cup in her stretched-out hand is asking for God's compassion. The woman in the middle, covering her face with her hand, is crying. This group represents the pride of Turkish women, and their solemnity and determination even in grief and hardship. The relief inside the Freedom Tower shows a figure of an angel holding a sheet of paper and a


title: "Anıtkabir" content: rearing horse next to it. The angel figure symbolizes the holiness of freedom and the sheet of paper symbolizes the Turkish Declaration of Freedom. The horse figure is a symbol of both freedom and independence. In front of the Freedom Tower there is a statue group made up of three men. The man at the right with a helmet and coat represents a Turkish soldier; on the left with a book in his hand is a Turkish youth and intellectual; behind both of these, in village clothing, is a Turkish peasant. The serious facial expressions of all three statues represent


title: "Anıtkabir" content: the solemnity and willpower of the Turkish people. The Mehmetçik Tower is situated on the right-hand side of the end of the Lion's Road. The relief on the exterior facade depicts a "mehmetçik" (Turkish foot soldier) leaving home for the front. In this composition, a sad but proud mother holding her hand on the shoulder of her son sends him to the war for the country. There is a bookstore and a gift shop in this tower for visitors interested in buying articles about Anıtkabir and Atatürk. The dates of the nation's most important three victories and Atatürk's words about


title: "Anıtkabir" content: these victories are inscribed on the walls of this tower. Inside the tower, the gun carriage, which carried Atatürk's coffin from Dolmabahçe Palace to Sarayburnu and handed over to the Navy on 19 November 1938 is on display. A relief composition expressing Atatürk's principle of Peace at home, peace in the world is inscribed inside the tower walls. In this relief, peasants and a soldier figure protecting them by holding out his sword are depicted. This soldier symbolizes the Turkish Army, the strong and genuine keeper of the peace, allowing people to live their daily lives in peace secured by


title: "Anıtkabir" content: the Turkish Army. On the inside walls of this tower is a relief depicting the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 23 April 1920. The woman standing in this relief is holding a paper in her hand with an inscription of the date. The key in her other hand symbolizes the opening of the Assembly. Atatürk's 1936 Cadillac Series 80 car, used between 1936 and 1938, is on display in this tower. This tower is the extension of the museum and Atatürk's garments are exhibited here. The relief inside the tower wall shows a weak hand holding the


title: "Anıtkabir" content: torch about to extinguish, symbolizing the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. Another, strong hand raising a radiating torch to the skies symbolizes the reforms with which the new Turkish Republic and Atatürk raised the Turkish Nation to the level of contemporary civilization. The tower is at the entry to the museum (see below) and the relief inside this tower symbolizes the binding in unity. The relief shows four hands joining on a sword hilt. This composition symbolizes the nation's common oath to save the Turkish Country. Anıtkabir Atatürk Museum opened on 21 June 1960. Atatürk's personal items, his wardrobe, and


title: "Anıtkabir" content: some of the gifts presented to him are on display in this museum. Atatürk's medals, decorations and some personal items donated to the museum by his adopted children are also exhibited in the museum. The period of Turkish architecture between 1940 and 1950 has been classified by architectural historians as the "Second National Architecture Movement". This period is characterized mostly by monumental, symmetrical, cut-stone clad buildings, with great emphasis given to detailing and workmanship in construction. Anıtkabir contains the same characteristics of this period, and is considered by many to be the ultimate monument of the era. In addition, Anıtkabir


title: "Anıtkabir" content: features Seljuq and Ottoman architectural and ornamentation features. For example, the eaves of the towers and the Hall of Honour are all Seljuq-style "sawtooth" ornamentation. On 10 November 2007, the 69th anniversary of Atatürk's death, 546,620 people, of whom 2,420 were foreigners, visited Anıtkabir, setting an all-time high record of daily visitors. In the first 11 months of 2007, Anıtkabir received more than 11 million visitors, surpassing the total number of visitors for any previous whole year. In 2006, a total of 8,150,000 people and in 2005, a total of 3,800,000 people visited Anıtkabir. On 10 November 2013, 1,089,615 people


title: "Anıtkabir" content: visited Anıtkabir which is the new all-time record. On 29 October 2013 which is the anniversary of foundation of Republic of Turkey, 438,451 people visited Anıtkabir, which is also a significant number of visitors for only one day. On 10 November 2012, the recorded number of visitors was announced as 413,568 people. Anıtkabir Anıtkabir (literally, "memorial tomb") is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the Turkish War of Independence and the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey. It is located in Ankara and was designed by architects Professor Emin Onat and Assistant Professor Ahmet


title: "Damara people" content: through an elaborate hunting ritual. This ritual is repeated twice, for teenagers and grown men, after which the initiates are considered clan elders. Their traditional clothing colors are green, white, and blue. Green and blue identify the different sub-groups. Some women may wear white and blue or white and green, the white representing peace and unity among all Damara-speaking people. The women do household chores like cooking, cleaning, and gardening. Their primary duty is milking the cows in the morning and nurturing the young. Men traditionally hunt and herd the cattle, leaving the village as early as the sunrise, patrolling


title: "Boone Pickens Stadium" content: was 53,012, which was a new Oklahoma State Football attendance record surpassing the 52,463 from the 2008 meeting with Troy University. With their success on the football field under Mike Gundy, the Cowboys have set numerous attendance records at Boone Pickens Stadium. The following are the top crowds in the history of Boone Pickens Stadium. Top 10 Single Game Attendance Boone Pickens Stadium Boone Pickens Stadium (previously known as Lewis Field) has been home to the Oklahoma State University Cowboys football team in rudimentary form since 1913, and as a complete stadium since 1920. The facility is the oldest football


title: "Province of Caserta" content: Province of Caserta The Province of Caserta () is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta, situated about by road north of Naples. The province has an area of , and a total population of 924,414 as of 2016. The former Palace of Caserta is located near to the city, a former royal residence which was constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century. In 1997, the palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: "Province of Caserta" content: The province of Caserta in the historical Terra di Lavoro region, also known as Liburia, covered the greatest expanse of territory around the 13th century when it extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea and the islands of Ponza and Ventotene to the Apennines and the southern end of the Roveto Valley. In the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Caserta was one of the most important departments in southern Italy. The first capital of the region was the ancient city of Capua until 1818, then Caserta. In addition to Naples, the most important centers were Caserta, Capua,


title: "Province of Caserta" content: Nola, Gaeta, Sora, Aversa, Teano, and Isola Liri. In 1816, during the French occupation, Joseph Bonaparte reformed the territorial division of the kingdom of Naples, on the basis of the French model. A series of royal decrees completed the reforms, introducing local administrative units or communes like the French ones. The new Napoleonic reforms led to the establishment of the Province of Naples. In 1863, after the annexation of the Kingdom of Italy, the north-eastern comuni of Terra di Lavoro became part of the province of Campobasso, and Venafro and the surrounding areas were later transferred to the province of


title: "Province of Caserta" content: Isernia, established in the 1870s. In 1927, Benito Mussolini decided to dissolve the province of Terra di Lavoro, uniting much of its territory and the Pontine Islands to the province of Naples, although municipalities near Piedimonte and Alife were distributed between the provinces of Benevento and Campobasso and the districts of Sora and Gaeta went to the province of Rome. In 1945, a Decree signed by Umberto di Savoia reconstituted the Province of Caserta, and finally in 1970, the modern province came into being. The territory of the Province of Caserta, which lies on the southwestern part of central Italy,


title: "Province of Caserta" content: is bordered to the north by the Matese mountains belonging to the Apennines and by undulating hills, and to the south and west by plains of various types. To the northeast, near the Matese mountains is the Lago del Matese. The highest point is Monte Miletto at , divided between Campania and Molise. The karst massif is rich in water and minerals, and contains many caves and mountain lakes. Other mountainous areas of note include Monte Santa Croce, with the extinct volcano of Roccamonfina, on the border with Lazio, the Trebulani Mountains, in the central part of the province to


title: "Province of Caserta" content: the north including Monte Maggiore reaching , and the Tifatini Mountains to the south. The Volturno River flows through the centre of the province with a defensive outpost at Capua. The southern highlands of Caserta border the Province of Benevento. There are 104 "comuni" (singular: "comune") in the province: <br> Province of Caserta The Province of Caserta () is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta, situated about by road north of Naples. The province has an area of , and a total population of 924,414 as of 2016. The former Palace


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: Coprosma robusta Coprosma robusta, commonly known as karamu, is a flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It can survive in many climates, but is most commonly found in coastal areas, lowland forests, or shrublands. Karamu can grow to be around 6 meters tall, and grow leaves up to 12 centimeters long. Karamu is used for a variety of purposes in human culture. The fruit that karamu produces can be eaten, and the shoots of karamu are sometimes used for medical purposes. Karamu is a large bushy shrub that grows up to 6 meters tall. Branches are stout with no hair.


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: Domatia (small holes on the back of the leaf at the intersection of veins) and stipules are significant characteristic features of Coprosmas Karamu stipules are black, hairless and obtuse with slightly serrated margin that are united at the base The glossy leaves of karamu range from 5 to 12 centimeters long, with elliptic-oblong shape and acute or obtuse leaf apex and with obvious veins (Oliver, 1935). Leaves are dark green on the blade and light green on the back (New Zealand Conservation Network, 2015) are thick, and the midrib is not raised on the upper surface. Flowers are small and


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: white, axillary, dense, have four lobes and have a different appearance in male and females. Male flowers are dense, glomerules with a campanulate shaped corolla and have four stamens; female flowers are compound with a tubular shaped corolla. Stigmas are obvious. The best flowering period is between August and September. Fruit are often dark orange-red to red, oblong to narrow ovate drups. The best fruting period is between April and May. Karamu is endemic to New Zealand. However, it is gradually becoming naturalized in areas of the south-east coast of Australia such as Victoria and Tasmania (Blood, 2001) and has


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: been rated as a weed threat there. It is widely distributed across New Zealand in both the North and South Islands. On the Chatham Islands between Waitangi and Owenga, there is a small area where karamu has become naturalized. They can often be observed naturally in lowland forest. Judging from the distribution map on New Zealand Plant Observation, the distribution of karamu increases with the differentiation in lower altitude which means more karamu in the North Island. In Canterbury, karamu is found on Banks Peninsula in fragments of regenerating native bush and bush remnants. Additionally it is also found in


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: forest margins and edges of the montane and lowland forests in the southern alps at the start of the Canterbury planes. Karamu can also be found in the urban environment of many Christchurch city green spaces (e.g. park like Riccarton Bush). Karamu can be widely found near coastal, lowland and lower montane areas. It can also grow within shrub lands and expansive areas within dense trees such as lowland forest. However, the population decreases in lowland forest such as beech and kahikatea forests. Normally karamu is a hardy plant that can adapt to infertile soils, poorly drained and exposed lands.


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: It can also grow in a large range of altitude varying from 0–1200 meters under full sun to shady, windy and frosty circumstances. In New Zealand the flowering season of karamu is from winter (approximately from July) to summer (ends around December). Male and female flowers are separated which is called dioecious. Seeds mature by about April and start germinating soon afterwards and doesn't leave a long lasting seed bank. The seed is largely dispersed by birds which eat the fruit. Due to its hardy characteristics, it is easy growing from seed even on open sites. Again, as mentioned before,


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: the best season for "C. robusta"'s fruting is between April and May. It would finally grow up to six meters high and will normally act as a secondary succession plant during this process. Karamu is an extremely hardy plant that can grow in a large range of environmental conditions from full sun to shady, from dry to moist, and can tolerate frost and wind. The mature fruit can endure a minimum temperature to -8 °C and the leaves can endure a minimum temperature -7 °C before they get irretrievably damaged. It grows best in a moist soil which is not


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: too acid, although they have the ability to live in poor soils. They can also be found in coastal conditions, lowland scrub, swamps and rock associations. Herbivorous mammals such as goats ("Capra hircus") and deer ("Cervus elaphus") have a severe impact on karamu, and hares ("Lepus timidus") and rabbits ("Oryctolagus cuniculus") eat the seedlings.(Brockie, 1992). Additional consumers of karamu are "Batracomorphus", "Batracomorphus adventitiosus", leafhoppers and Membracoidea. Birds which disperse karamu seeds include native bellbirds ("Anthornis melanura") and Tuis ("Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae"), indigenous silvereyes ("Zosterops lateralis"), and introduced blackbirds ("Turdus merula"), and song thrushes ("Turdus philomelos"). Seeds can be dispersed a long


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: way and into areas of more mature forest. According to the database in Encyclopedia of Life, additional species that interact karau are "Acalitus", "Acalitus cottieri", Eriophyid mites, European greenfinch, and goldfinchs. Karamu and mychorrhizal fungi can make a symbiotic mutualism in roots system. Because mychorrhizal fungi can supply water and nutrients to the plant. Experiments with karamu shows its growth is assisted by the presence of mychorrhizal fungi assuming there is sufficient phosphorus in the soil. Karamu will sometimes act as a host plant to support other plants including Posocarp,Totara and yellow-wood family. Juvenile shoots can be applied to release


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: inflammation or bladder problems if boiled and then the liquid drunk. The leaves are believed by Maori to have the ability to deal with kidney troubles and bark can be and used to treat stomachache and vomiting. The mature berries of karamu can be eaten as food, and its leaves used to make a tea drink. Karamu is rich in dying properties including alizarin and purpurin. Traditionally Maori used it to dye flax ("Phormium") fibers yellow. Sometimes leaves of karamu were put on stones and dye the food and preserve them after a hangi. Baptists used the leaves in a


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: ceremony and green karamu braches will be held by tohunga in tohi for newly born babies. Karamu is noted for its quick bushy growth and for this reason is commonly cultivated and frequently used for revegetation projects. "Coprosma robusta" is one of the first seven "Coprosma" species that were collected by Joseph Banks with Cook's voyage to New Zealand. At that time, "Coprosma robusta" was called "Pelaphia lata". In recent years, there is a report showing the sex ratio of karamu in the Riccarton Bush in Christchurch. The sex ratio of population of is female-biased with 70% of the flowering


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: plants being female. This female-biased ratio differs from the few other counts of sex ratios in New Zealand species of "Coprosma". That could be influenced by a number of factors, including the pollen and seed fecundity of the two sexes and factors affecting their sexual maturity and mortality. That is interesting because karamu is often male-biased in sex ratios. This differential survival of the sexes in long-lived species is usually attributed to differences in reproductive effort between male and female plants. In particular, the energy cost of producing ovules and fruit in female plants is greater than the cost of


title: "Coprosma robusta" content: male flowers producing pollen. Female-biased sex ratios also occur as a consequence of differential fertilization and genetic differentiation of sex chromosomes. Coprosma robusta Coprosma robusta, commonly known as karamu, is a flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It can survive in many climates, but is most commonly found in coastal areas, lowland forests, or shrublands. Karamu can grow to be around 6 meters tall, and grow leaves up to 12 centimeters long. Karamu is used for a variety of purposes in human culture. The fruit that karamu produces can be eaten, and the shoots of karamu are sometimes used for


title: "Northern jacana" content: Northern jacana The northern jacana or northern jaçana ("Jacana spinosa") is a wader which is a resident breeder from coastal Mexico to western Panama, and on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola. It sometimes breeds in Texas, United States, and has also been recorded on several occasions as a vagrant in Arizona. The jacanas are a group of wetland birds, which are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat. They are found worldwide within the tropical zone. In Jamaica this bird is also known as


title: "Northern jacana" content: the 'Jesus bird', as it appears to walk on water. Jacana is Linnæus' scientific Latin spelling of the Brazilian Portuguese "jaçanã," pronounced , from the Tupi name of the bird. See jacana for pronunciations. The northern jacana has a dark brown body with a black head and neck. In addition its bill has yellow patches and its forehead has a yellow wattle. Its bill has a white base. When a jacana is in flight, its yellow primary and secondary feathers are visible. Also visible are yellow bony spurs on the leading edge of the wings, which it can use to


title: "Northern jacana" content: defend itself and its young. Juveniles have a white supercilium and white lores. The female jacana is around twice as big as the male, averaging (145.4g) compared to (86.9g). Jacanas average 241 mm (8 inches)in length with a wingspan averaging 508 mm (20 inches). Young jacana chicks are called downies and have patterns of orange, browns, black and some white on them. Older chicks are gray and have brownish upper parts. The northern jacana ranges Mexico to Panama, although they occasionally visit the southern United States, with vagrants being seen in places such as Arizona. It mainly lives in coastal


title: "Northern jacana" content: areas. Jacanas live on floating vegetation in swamps, marshes, and ponds. The northern janaca feeds on insects on the surface of vegetation and ovules of water lilies. It also consumes snails, worms, small crabs, fish, mollusks, and seeds. The jacana competes with birds of a similar diet like the sora. The northern jacana is unusual among birds in having a polyandrous society. A female jacana lives in a territory that encompasses the territories of 1-4 males. A male forms a pair bond with a female who will keep other females out of his territory. Pair bonds between the female and


title: "Northern jacana" content: her males remain throughout the year, even outside of breeding. These relationships last until a male or female is replaced. The female maintains bonds with her mates though copulations and producing clutches for them, as well as protecting their territories and defending the eggs from predators. Monogamous pairs are sometimes observed among polyandrous groups. The jacana has a simultaneous polyandrous mating system. That is the female will mate with several males a day or form pair bonds with more than one male at a time. Because of the high energy costs of producing eggs, females are replaced more often than


title: "Northern jacana" content: males. If water levels remain constant, jacanas can breed year round. The male constructs a floating nest with whatever plant matter he can find. A male jacana will grab vegetation and walk backwards to uproot it and continues to walk backward to drop the plant part in the nest. The male pushes against and steps on the plant parts to create a compact mount. The best nest are ones that are the most dense and stable. A male may create several nests at different sites and the female may choose one or find a site of her own in the


title: "Northern jacana" content: territory. This bird lays a clutch of four brown eggs with black markings. These eggs usually measure around . The male incubates the eggs for 28 days. A female may sometimes shade and squat over the eggs but rarely incubate them. A female may reluctantly incubate the eggs if a male doesn’t have sufficient time to forage throughout the day due to rain and cool temperatures. Males spend most of their time within their territory during incubation but sometimes leave the nest unattended for long periods of time. A male performs when each egg hatches and stands next to the


title: "Northern jacana" content: nest to peer into it. The males continues to incubate to remaining eggs while brooding the hatched chicks. When all the eggs have hatched, the male will dispose of the remaining egg shells. It will also lead the chicks away from the nest within the next 24 hours. Chicks are able to swim, dive and feed shortly after they hatch. The male will not feed the chick but lead them to food. The male will brood the chicks for many weeks. As the chicks get bigger, fewer can fit under the males wing. Females may brood chicks when the male


title: "Northern jacana" content: is away. Territorial defense for both males and females increase when the chicks are born. Males are intolerant of intruders in their territory and make calls to the female for help for predator defense. Females respond to every call the male makes and invests much interest in the safety of the chicks, despite having little interaction with them. The females provide the males with a new clutch when the chicks are 12–16 weeks old. Predators of the jacana include snakes, caimans, snapping turtles and various large birds and mammals. Vocalizations among jacanas usually occur between mating pairs or between fathers


title: "Northern jacana" content: and their young. Jacanas will emit "clustered-note calls", which are made of individual notes clustered together, when jacanas attack intruders in their territories. Jacanas also made calls when eggs or chicks are under threat by predators. The notes and their pattern depend on the urgency of the threat. Calls are also made on flight, when a female is away from the territory too long or if a male cannot find a chick. Northern jacanas appear to be common throughout most of their range, but could become vulnerable with loss of wetlands. Northern jacana The northern jacana or northern jaçana ("Jacana


title: "New Zealand bellbird" content: New Zealand bellbird The New Zealand bellbird ("Anthornis melanura"), also known by its Māori names korimako and makomako, is a passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It has greenish colouration and is the only living member of the genus "Anthornis". The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of bird song that was much noted by early European settlers. The explorer Captain Cook wrote of its song "it seemed to be like small bells most exquisitely tuned". Its bell-like song is sometimes confused with that of the tui. The species is common across much of


title: "New Zealand bellbird" content: New Zealand and its offshore islands as well as the Auckland Islands. Males are olive green with a dark purplish sheen on their head and black outer wing and tail. While females are a duller olive brown with a blue sheen on the head and yellowish-white curving from the base of the bill to below the eye. Both have a notably red eye. They are about 17–20 cm from the tip of their beak to the end of their tail. Females weigh about 25 g and males 32 g. Juvenile females have brown eyes and a light yellow cheek stripe.