Vegetation - Spores and Seeds #1
Concerning Algae and what to eat from the waters
Compiled by Keith Hunt
The following is taken from "ABC's of Nature - a family answer
book" by Reader's Digest 1984.
All capital words are mine throughout for emphasis.
ARE ALL PLANTS GREEN AND LEAFY?
Stroll through any park or garden and you may find yourself
surrounded by the green and leafy living things people think of
as typical plants. The trees overhead and the shrubs in dense
hedges are clearly plants. So are the roses, zinnias, and
marigolds growing in neatly tended beds, and the lawns' carpet of
grass. Perhaps a few patches of moss or clumps of ferns grow in
shady nooks. They are also plants.
But what about the mushrooms, ghostly white and leafless,
poking up through the grass? They are fungi, another type of
plant. Boulders may be blotched with colorful crusty patches,
like smears of paint. These are lichens, clinging to the rocks;
they have no leaves, no stems, no roots, but they too are plants.
The greenish tint on trunk trees is yet another type of plant -
microscopic one-celled algae. A closer look at a woodlot, a
marsh, or almost any other habitat would reveal similar diversity
in the colors, form, and size of the living things we call
plants.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PLANTS AND ANIMALS?
Plants and animals are as different as dandelions and
deer.....Most animals, for instance, can move about actively.
Most plants cannot.....Most plants contain the green
pigment chlorophyll, which permits them to manufacture their own
food through the process of photosynthesis. Animals must rely on
the food manufactured by green plants. But again there are
exceptions. The fungi and even certain flowing plants contain no
chlorophyll and so cannot manufacture their own food.
Unlike animals, plants have no nervous system....Even the
cellular structure of plants and animals is different. Most
plants have rigid cell walls containing cellulose, a substance
not found in any animal....Animals grow until they reach
maturity; plants never stop growing until they die.
HOW MANY KINDS OF PLANTS ARE THERE?
Plants of some sort live nearly everywhere on earth - on the
land, in the sea, from deserts to rain forests, and even on and
inside the bodies of animals. They include some of the smallest
living things - one-celled bacteria and algae so minute that they
can be seen only with the aid of microscopes - and the largest of
all living things - the giant sequoia trees of western North
America.
In all science estimates that the vast and varied plant
kingdom includes MORE THAN 350,000 SPECIES.
In terms of sheer numbers of individuals there are FAR MORE
plants than animals in the world. And it terms of combined MASS,
the plants account for nearly all the living matter that exists
on earth........
COULD WE LIVE WITHOUT PLANTS?
Without earth's green mantle of vegetation, animal life as
we know it could not exist. For plants, from the loftiest trees
to the tiniest algae in the sea, are the ultimate source of the
very food we eat and the oxygen in the air.
In the process of photosynthesis, green plants form simple
sugars in the presence of sunlight. As part of the reaction, they
release oxygen into the atmosphere - the oxygen that all animals
need to survive. In a never-ending cycle, the animals in turn
exhale the carbon dioxide that plants require for photosynthesis.
Since plants alone can manufacture food, all animals must
rely on them for nourishment. Some animals eat the leaves,
fruits, and other parts of the plants themselves. Others feed on
animals that in turn fed on plants.
Humans use plants in countless other ways as well. Plants
supply us with fibres for textiles and ropes, wood products for
buildings and furniture, paper for a multitude of purposes; and
even for lifesaving medicines.
ALGAE ARE SIMPLE PLANTS
What are algae?
Rockweed, kelp, sea lettuce, dulse, and all the other
well-known seaweeds are algae. So is the bubbly green scum that
forms in stagnating ponds, and the greenish film
that develops on the walls of aquariums.
In all, more than 25,000 SPECIES of plants are classified as
ALGAE. Despite a tremendous diversity in shape and size, all
share several traits. Like the majority of plants,
MOST algae contain chlorophyll, the green substance that makes
them able to manufacture their own food. BUT unlike MORE FAMILIAR
plants of fields and forests, algae DO NOT bear flowers OR
produce SEEDS.
They do not have true leaves, stems, or roots, although the
larger kind are often intricately branched.
Algae multiply in a variety of ways. The single-celled
species can simply divide to form two new individuals. Some
produce SPORES that grow into new plants. In a process
called fragmentation, pieces may be broken off and, if conditions
are favorable, continue to grow on their own. Some algae can
reproduce sexually by the fusion of male and female germ cells.
HOW BIG ARE ALGAE?
The tiniest algae are single-celled forms, so minute that
millions can exist unseen in a gallon of seawater....At the other
extreme are the giant kelps. Some of these are more than 200 feet
long; one type can grow to its full length of 150 feet in just
one year....
The thin green film that forms on moist stones, flowerpots,
and the shady side of trees is actually millions of individual
single-celled algae. Other kinds can transform stagnant pools
into a thick greenish soup.
The Red Sea, in turn is noted for reddish algae that
sometimes tint its water. Similarly, "red tides" in the ocean are
caused by population explosions of algae. These strange outbreaks
can have devastating effects, for the algae sometimes produce
POISONS that kill millions of fish.
Eeriest of all are certain of the dinoflagellates - minute,
one-celled algae that swim about by whipping long oarlike hairs.
Some of these tiny plants are phosphorescent and produce the
pinpricks of light that are often seen flashing in tropical seas.
WHERE DO ALGAE LIVE?
Water, both salt and fresh, is the NATURAL habitat of MOST
algae. But these incredible adaptable plants thrive in MANY other
places as well. Some live in the upper layers of the soil, on
rocks, tree trunks, and even on the walls and roofs of buildings.
Many kinds survive in the frigid climates of both the Arctic and
Antarctica; others are equally at home in hot springs with
temperatures as high as 185 degrees F.
Algae also live in and on the bodies of other plants and
animals......A type of European flatworm gets its dark green
color from the many algae that live and multiply beneath its
skin. Turtles are often camouflaged by colonies of larger algae
that live attached to their shells. And sloths, large mammals
that inhabit the treetops of tropical rain forests, frequently
have a greenish tinge from the many algae that live on their fur.
ARE ALL ALGAE GREEN?
Although all algae contain the green coloring matter
chlorophyll, not all of them are green. Other pigments frequently
MASK the chlorophyll, tinting different kinds with a rainbow of
hues. Many of the large, familiar seaweeds, for example, are
various shades of brown. But dulse, a widespread species, is
purplish, sometimes yellow. Others range from delicate pink to
deep violet.
Microscopic varieties, are equally colorful. The kinds that
live in hot springs tinge the walls with splashes of brilliant
yellow, orange, and red. Myriads of algae cause the strange
phenomenon of red snow: living on the surface of snowfields and
glaciers, they sometimes stain them with a reddish bloom......
ARE ALGAE EDIBLE?
People who live near the ocean have always collected
seaweed.....seaweeds are cultivated for human consumption.
Animals, too, take advantage of algae. Sheep have been known to
patrol beaches at low tide in search of laver. Horses, cattle,
and pigs are fed seaweed in coastal areas.....But algae are most
important as an INDIRECT food source.....The primary producers of
food in the ocean and other bodies of water, they are fed upon by
microscopic animals that are eaten in turn by larger
animals......
END OF QUOTES
God created algae (unless we want to believe that God set
certain things in motion and there would be spin-offs as an
automatic result, or with the fall of mankind into sin,
some things so resulted) and useful as God created them for
whatever reason He created them for, sometimes the reason is not
too obvious (why do we have flies and mosquitos, surely the world
can live very well without either, so there is a question as to
God's direct creation at the beginning and what was allowed by
God to take place after sin entered the world, maybe from the
beginning God never wanted flies and mosquitos to be part of
mankind's physical life). Humans have made use of "algae" and
some substances in algae and deposits such as diatomaceous earth
- deposited over the ages by diatoms - tiny one-celled algae with
silica in their cell walls. I is a gritty material used as a mild
abrasive in things like metal polishes. It serves as a filter in
sugar refining and an absorbent in the manufacture of dynamite.
The creation by God of living cells with their atoms which
make up all things we call "alive" is very wonderfull and in some
ways mysteriously done. It is done in such a way that the Eternal
told mankind that some things were "clean" to eat as food and
some things were "unclean" to eat as human food. We would
naturally, with just our own reasoning, think that horse meat
would be very good to eat as part of our regular diet. Horses eat
green, seed bearing grasses and hay. They eat good oats, bran,
flax seeds (flax seeds must be cooked for them though). Horses
eat all this good stuff, the latter of course should be only in
small amounts as compared to grasses and hay. It works for
them to produce healthy strong muscles and bodies. If humans ate
only what horses eat, we would become unhealthy and probably die
eventually directly from such a diet or indirectly by being
unhealthy from only that diet of food. Although horses can grown
and be strong on such a diet of good grasses and hay, their flesh
meat is STILL by God classified as UNclean for human consumption.
It is all still to do with the created cells, how it all
works within itself, as within the working of cells of all living
substances.
The science of mankind may not be able to figure it out,
hence mankind without the divine revelation and laws of God, eat
just about anything that moves or crawls or grows anywhere. So
humans eat seaweeds (large algae) by the plate full. Humans have
not made a factory business out of collecting moss and bottling
it up to sell as a type of butter spread on your bread, as yet,
but you never know what humans will do next. They sure have done
some other crazy things within so-called "food consumption."
Algae are mainly water living plants, salt and fresh water
is their natural habitat as we have seen. What law did God give
for waters and the things in the waters for us humans to eat and
not eat?
"These shall you eat of ALL that are in the waters,
whatsoever HAS FINS AND SCALES in the waters, in the seas, and in
the rivers, them shall you eat. And all that have NOT fins and
scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of ALL that MOVE in the
waters, and of ANY LIVING THING which is in the waters, they
shall be an ABOMINATION unto you......" (Lev.11:9-10).
"These you shall eat of all that are in the waters: ALL that
has FINS and SCALES shall you eat. And WHATSOEVER has NOT fins
and scales you may NOT eat; it is UNclean unto you" (Deut.
14:9-10).
It is very simple, such things as algae, seaweeds, dulse,
moss etc. (which maybe green but do not reproduce by seeds)
shrimp, lobster, crab, snails, cockles, mussels, water snakes,
etc, etc. all of which do not have fins and scales, are not foods
which God created for us to go out and collect, bring home, cook,
put on our food plates, put into our salad or spread on our
bread, and consume as part of our daily or weekly diet.
I have read recently reports from those scientists in the
"know" who now admit that 70 to 80 percent of all human
sicknesses on the face of the earth are caused by and from
our diet eating habits.
As the late health and strength strong man Charles Atlas
used to say, "You are what you eat."
You need to make sure you know, understand, and obey, the
balanced food and health laws that God ordained, besides diet,
they include, 7 or 8 hours of sleep per day, regular physical
exercise, a good mental happy attitude of mind, and also
continued exercise of the mind in reading, studies or other
things that keep the mind active,
..............................
TO BE CONTINUED
Compiled and written June 2003
Vegetation - Spores and Seeds? #2
About molds, mushrooms, lichens
Compiled by Keith Hunt
The following is taken from "ABC's of Nature - a family answer
book" by Reader's Digest 1984.
All capital words are mine throughout for emphasis.
OF MOLDS AND MUSHROOMS
What are fungi?
Like algae, fungi are simple non-flowering plants that lack
true leaves, stems, and roots. But unlike algae, they contain no
chlorophyll and so are unable to manufacture their own food.
Mushrooms are the best known of more than 75,000 species of
plants classed as fungi. The one-celled yeasts that cause bread
to rise and juices to ferment are also fungi, as is the mildew
that may form on a pair of shoes, in a damp closet. Still other
types of fungi cause the various rust and smut diseases that
afflict plants, and the ringworm and athlete's foot infections of
human skin.
The mold that appears on decaying fruit and the fuzz mold
that sometimes forms on bread are fungi, too......
HOW DO MUSHROOMS AND OTHER
FUNGI REPRODUCE?
If you squeeze a ripe puffball, a cloud of dark 'dust'
spurts out. And if you tap a mushroom cap over a piece of white
paper, the paper is peppered with similar specks. These are
SPORES, the reproductive units of fungi. Occurring in a variety
of shapes and colors, they all have the ability to develop into
new plants.
Fungi generally reproduce huge numbers of spores. A single
mushroom may release BILLIONS of them. Some spores are shot from
the parent plant. Others are scattered by falling raindrops. But
MOST are spread by the WIND. Tiny and lightweight, they can ride
through the air for thousands of miles. So many eventually land
and germinate that fungi are among the most widespread of all
living things.
CAN MUSHROOMS GROW UP OVERNIGHT?
A mushroom is only the fruiting, or reproductive, structure
of a much larger fungus body that grows out of sight in rotting
logs, rich humus, and similar dark, damp places. The hidden part
of the plant consists of a multitude of minute, threadlike
filaments, called hyphae, that form a tangled mass known as the
mycelium
In many of the familiar mushrooms, the fruiting bodies are
fleshly and umbrella- shaped. Warm, damp weather triggers their
sudden appearance. First, to show up is a small round 'button'
composed of densely packed hyphae. Soon the outer covering
ruptures, the stem elongates and the cap enlarges to its full
size. The entire process can indeed happen overnight.
ARE ALL FUNGI SHAPED LIKE MUSHROOMS?
The fruiting bodies of fungi come in a seemingly endless
array of forms and colors.....many other fungi do NOT resemble
mushrooms at all......One kind of fungus looks like a head of
cauliflower, and others resemble upright branching clumps of
coral. Still others protrude like shelves from three trunks, and
other kinds look like glistening blobs of jelly......
WHAT DO FUNGI FEED ON?
Unable to produce their own food, all fungi take their
nourishment from the bodies of other plants and animals, both
living and dead. Thousands of plant diseases are caused by
parasitic fungi that attack living plants. One kind of fungus is
even PREDATORY. It snares microscopic nematode worms in nooselike
growths on its hyphae, then absorbs their substance.
Other kinds of fungi live in close association with the
roots of pines, orchids, and other types of plants......In this
case the relationship is mutually beneficial, not parasitic;
the fungi supply the roots with water and nutrients and in return
receive essential food.
But the MAJORITY of fungi live on the REMAINS of plants and
animals. their hyphae permeate the DEAD tissue, hastening its
breakdown and decay. Fungi, in fact are invaluable for their role
in decomposing organic matter.
ARE TOADSTOOLS A TYPE OF MUSHROOM?
In common usage, mushroomlike fungi that are poisonous or
inedible are often called toadstools. The word originated in
times gone by, when toads were considered vile, poisonous
creatures, and the fungi found with them in damp, dark places
were presumed to be poisonous too. But while the word is
certainly picturesque, it is not used by scientists who study
fungi.......
HOW CAN YOU TELL IF A MUSHROOM
IS POISONOUS?
......Some of the TOXIC kinds cause only mild discomfort;
others are LETHAL. Some kinds may be poisonous to one person and
not to others, or they may have ill effect only if eaten in large
quantities. And some are HALLUCINOGENS, causing severe
distortions of perception.
Unfortunately, there is NO EASY WAY to tell if a mushroom is
POISONOUS. Some of the edible kinds are quite easily recognized,
BUT OTHERS have LETHAL LOOK-ALIKES that can only be distinguished
by EXPERTS with MANY YEARS of experience......
WHERE DO TRUFFLES COME FROM?
.......Found mainly in western Europe, they grow in open
woodlands near the roots of trees. The fruiting bodies, ranging
from white to greyish brown to nearly black, are fragrant, fleshy
structures, usually about the size of golf balls.
Truffles are difficult to find because, unlike typical
mushrooms, they develop UNDERGROUND. Truffle hunters use
specially trained dogs and pigs to find the flavourful
morsels.....Pigs, in fact, can scent a truffle 20 feet away.....
WHAT ARE SLIME MOLDS?
.....500 or so species of fungi known as SLIME MOLDS; for
much of their lives they act more like animals than plants. In
their active phase, slim molds are jellylike blobs,
sometimes brightly colored and often several inches in diameter,
that flourish among decaying vegetation. Creeping along like
giant amoebas, they ingest microorganisms and bits of rotting
plant debris.
Eventually, however, the slime molds make their way to
higher, drier places, and the masses of protoplasm are gradually
transformed into fruiting bodies. These stalked, often ornately
formed structures then release myriads of SPORES that germinate
and start the cycle anew.
LICHENS: TWO PLANTS IN ONE
What are lichens
......For, whatever their shapes and sizes, each and every
type of lichen is actually composed of TWO separate plants - a
FUNGUS and an ALGAE - living in close association. The BULK of
the lichen is made up of a meshwork of minute, threadlike FUNGAL
filaments; embedded within this network are multitudes of
microscopic one-celled ALGAE.
Both members benefit from this partnership. The fungus
absorbs the moisture that the algae need, and may supply them
with essential minerals. It supplies the algae with a living
place; anchored to the surface by rootlike structures, the fungus
also furnishes stability. The algae are the food-producing
members of the partnership, and supply the fungus with
carbohydrates. Lichens, in fact, ate notable examples of
mutualism - a case of two different organisms living together to
the advantage of both.
HOW DO LICHENS SPREAD?
.....The chanciest method is by producing SPORES. The fungi
in lichens form reproductive organs, often brilliantly colored,
that release countless microscopic spores. If the spores alight
in the right sort of habitat, they develop into tiny fungus
plants. And if, as they grow, they happen to come into contact
with exactly the right species of algae, the two develop into a
lichen. But often than not, the fungus fails to find the right
partner and dies.
Other methods leave less to chance. Lichens become brittle
when they dry out, and fragments tend to break off and blow away.
If the pieces land in moist places, they revive, take hold, and
continue to grow. Lichens also produce little clumps of fungal
threads and algal cells on their upper surface. Broken off and
carried away by wind or water, these tiny structures develop into
mature lichens.
WHERE DO LICHENS LIVE?
Lichens flourish in all sorts of habitats, from dripping
rain forests to searing deserts. Some have been found high above
the timberline in the Himalayas, others within 250 of the South
Pole. Lichens grow on rocks, trees, and bare soil as well as on
gravestones, buildings, and even sunbleached bones and the backs
of certain weevils.
Lichens, in fact, frequently thrive where no other plants
can survive.....By colonizing such inhospitable habitats as bare
rock, they play a part in preparing the way for other plants.
They help break down the rock and so create pockets of soil,
which furnish a suitable environment where spores and seeds of
other plants can gain a foothold.
HOW DO LICHENS SURVIVE?
The lichens that live in Antarctica regularly endure
temperatures that fall far below 0 degrees F. Desert species live
on rocks that sometimes become literally too hot to touch. In one
experiment, some lichens were baked for SEVEN hours at a
temperature of 434 degrees F - more than twice the temperature of
boiling water. and they SURVIVED. (Yeast fungi used sometimes to
raise bread, cannot live in heat of 140 degrees F or above -
Keith Hunt).
One secret of lichens' success however, is that they
normally avoid such extremes by drying out and becoming DORMANT.
When favorable conditions return, they soak up moisture and begin
to grow actively again.
Yet even the hardy lichen cannot survive everywhere. Despite
their adaptability, MOST species are extremely sensitive to air
pollution. As a result, large cities and industrial areas are
among the few places where lichens are generally not found. But
there are exceptions even to this rule; in Great Britain one kind
of lichen is actually increasing in abundance in areas of severe
air pollution.
ARE ALL LICHENS ALIKE?
Scientists recognize some 15,000 species of lichens, each
consisting of one particular kind of fungus combined with a
specific algal partner.This bewildering array is usually divided
into three groups, each determined by the way the plants grow.
One group, the crustose lichens, includes all the species
that grow as thin, flat crusts on rocks and other
surfaces.....The foliose lichen look more or less like leaves
that have been carelessly pasted down and are loose at the
edges.....The third group is called fruticose lichens, from the
Latin word "shrub." Some of these, such as reindeer moss,
grow on the ground in upright branching tufts. Others, such as
the beard lichen, hand like tassels from the limbs of trees. Some
of the hanging types are nine feet long.
HOW LONG DO LICHENS LIVE?
The longevity of lichens varies, depending on the species
and many other facts. In temperate regions, a full-grown lichen
is likely to be as much as 50 years old. But specimens of some
rock-encrusting types in the Arctic may be up to 4,500 years old.
Long life spans and slow growth rates often go together, and
this is certainly true of lichens. The fastest growing types
expand by less than half an inch per year, and the crustlike
types grow even slower. Some of the Arctic species need hundreds
of years to grow a single inch.....
ARE LICHENS USEFUL?
Lichens, like every living thing, have a role in the general
scheme of nature. They not only help form soil from solid rock
but also serve as food for animals from reindeer to snails and
tiny insects.
Man, too, has found many special uses for
lichens....traditional lichens product is DYE, including
scarlets, purples, blues, browns, and yellows. Scottish craftsmen
still use lichen dyes to color their famous Harris tweeds.
Lichens are also the source of litmus, the dye used in chemical
tests for acidity.
Although most lichens are INEDIBLE, the leaflike species
called Iceland moss yields a starchy food that poor people used
to eat......
END QUOTES
All very interesting and informative on some of the
vegetation of this world. All are part of the whole, all have a
part to play in the whole scheme of nature as was said above.
But as like the animal kingdom, the bird kingdom, the insect
kingdom, and the world of that which is in the waters, only PARTS
of the vegetation world was created by God for human consumption
as food to nourish and build the cells of the human body. The
vegetation law that we discussed in earlier studies underlines
that we as human beings should NOT use algae, molds, fungi,
lichens, for and as a food supply in our regular diet.
God has given us more than enough green seedbearing
vegetation to amply supply our bodies with nutrition for cell
reproduction in a healthy manner.
But mankind seems to want to eat just about anything that
will not kill him on the spot. At the same time TV news and
documentary shows CRY OUT to us that we are LESS healthy and more
obese (the stats for the USA on obesity in children run this way:
1980 5% of children obese, 2003 it is 15.5% - three times
as many, then they show you what children are eating on a regular
basis, and you understand why they are three times more obese
than in 1980) than ever before.
If you have not done so already, it really is time to do a
stock taking inventory of what YOU, and/or your family is
consuming as food. Our physical bodies are the Temple of God, we
should care about how we look after that Temple.
...............................
TO BE CONTINUED
Compiled and written July 2003
Vegetation - Spores and Seeds? #3
Mosses, Horsetails and Ferns
Compiled by Keith Hunt
The following is taken from "ABC's of Nature - a family answer
book" by Reader's digest 1984.
All capital words are mine throughout for emphasis.
THE DIMINUTIVE MOSSES
What are mosses?
......They are members of a group of plants called
BRYOPHYTES, which also include the less familiar LIVERWORTS and
HORNWORTS.
Mosses are generally small, standing no more than a few
inches high or creeping flat across the ground and other
surfaces.....most mosses lack any specialized tissue for
transporting food or water from one part of the plant to another.
Because they have no such "plumbing" system, they are not
considered to have true roots, stems, or leaves. The "roots" of a
moss, for example, serve only to hold it in place, not to bring
water and nutrients up from the ground; the whole surface of the
plant absorbs these vital substances. And the "leaves," except at
their midribs, are usually only a single cell thick. Nor do
mosses produce any FLOWERS or SEEDS. Instead they are generally
topped by grainlike little SPORES capsules on long slender
stalks. The spores germinate into plants that produce eggs and
sperm. The fertilized eggs, in turn, give rise to a new
generation of spore-producing plants. And so the cycle continues.
HOW DO MOSSES REPRODUCE?
The two-stage life cycle of a moss plant begins with a spore
that spills from the spore capsule of a parent plant. The spore
herminates into a branching green thread, and buds along its
length sprout into new moss plants. In many species some of these
grow into male, sperm-producing plants, others into female,
egg-producing plants. when they are mature, a sperm cell from a
male plant swims through a film of dew or other moisture
to a nearby female plant and fertilizes an egg cell. The
fertilized egg then grows into a spore-producing plant - slender
stalk topped by a spore capsule - that remains attached to the
parent plant. When spores are released from the capsule, the
two-stage cycle begins again.
WHERE DO MOSSES GROW?
Although they may seen delicate and fragile, mosses are
actually quite tough and hardy. Various finds can be found from
the shores of the Arctic Ocean through the tropics to parts of
Antarctica. Some manage to survive in deserts and on sunbaked
rocks, while other live in bogs and streams. But most mosses
prefer damp, shaded locations in temperate climates. In forests
they frequently form thick cushiony mats that completely
cover rotting logs and the woodland floor.
Some mosses require specialized living conditions. Certain
species grow only on acid soil, others only on alkaline. Still
others, the so-called copper mosses, live only in the vicinity of
copper and furnish valuable clues to the presence of ore
deposits.
Another specialized type, luminous moss, is restricted to
caves, recesses under the roots of trees, and similar dimly lit
places. Equipped with cells shaped like tiny lenses,
it focuses what little light there is on its food-making
chlorophyll granules. In the near darkness of the places where it
grows, luminous moss seems to glow with a golden-green
light. It really shines by reflecting light, not its own.
IS IT TRUE THAT MOSS GROWS ONLY ON
THE NORTH SIDE OF TREES?
Folklore tells of many a person, lost in the woods, who
found his way to safety by using moss as a kind of natural
compass indicating north. And in fact, moss does TEND to frow
more luxuriantly on the north side of tree trunks, for that is
usually the shadier, moister side. But other factors, such as the
presence or absence of nearby trees, also influence the growth of
moss, and it can be found on any and all sides of trees. so while
the moss on tree trunks frequently gives a clue to general
direction, it is far from fool-proof "compass."
CAN MOSSES ENDURE DROUGHT?
Although mosses are moisture-loving plants, most kinds can
survive long severe dry spells. For one thing, they can store
large quantities of water in their cells and draw on this reserve
during the first few days or weeks of drought. Then, when this
water is almost gone, they simply go dormant. Their leaves curl
up, so that no remaining moisture evaporates. The whole plant
shrivels, turns brown, and looks completely dead. But the
spark of life remains. As soon as the rains return, the plants
become green and fresh again, almost overnight, and resume their
vital processes.
WHEN IS A MOSS NOT A MOSS?
Down through the ages, many a plant has come to be called a
moss even though it is not related to mosses at all.....Reindeer
moss, another lichen, is a mainstay in the diets of reindeer and
caribou in the far northern lands. And club mosses, a whole group
of plants that often look mossy indeed, are actually only very
distantly related to mosses. But the least mosslike of all in the
family tree of plants is spanish moss, which hangs in greyish
festoons from trees in the southeastern United States. Though its
blossoms are minute and seldom noticed, it is in fact a flowing
plant of the pineapple family.
ARE MOSSES USEFUL TO MAN?
Mosses play an important role in forming soil in which other
plants can take root. These low-growing plants protect bare soil
from erosion, and when they decay they too turn into components
of soil.
But in the most part, mosses have seldom been of great
importance to people. Some kinds have been traditionally used for
stuffing mattresses. Just as many birds line their nests with
moss, so in Lapland, mothers use it to line their infants'
cradles. In North America, pioneers employed moss to chink the
cracks in their log cabins. And in Japan, gardens are sometimes
planted with nothing but mosses.
Today, however, the only mosses with widespread commercial
value are the many kinds of sphagnum, or peat moss. Most
gardeners are well acquainted with sphagnum....(sphagnum can
absorb 20 times its own weight in water)....Among the
mosses that thrive in water, sphagnum can fill in entire ponds
and transform them into bogs. In time the sphagnum in bogs is
compressed into peat. When cut into slabs and dried, peat makes a
good fuel that burns with some smoke. It was once widely used in
northern Europe......
CLUB MOSSES AND HORSETAILS
How do club mosses differ from true mosses?
The creeping evergreen woodland plants commonly known as
ground pine and running cedar are familiar examples of club
mosses. Although they are neither conifers nor mosses, some do
indeed resemble miniature pines and cedars, and others are
decidedly mosslike in appearance.
But unlike true mosses, club mosses and their relatives -
spike mosses, quilworts, and horsetails - all have true leaves,
stems, and roots. The leaves often are narrow, scalelike, and
densely packed around the stems, giving many species their mossy
look.
And unlike the true mosses and other simpler plants, club
mosses and their kin are equipped with special water-conducting
tissues - a vascular, or circulatory system. Well-developed
bundles of tubelike cells transport water and nutrients from the
roots to leaves; similar sets of cells distribute food throughout
the plants.
DO ALL CLUB MOSSES CREEP ACROSS
THE GROUND?
In temperate climates club mosses are primarily low-growing
plants of moist, shaded woodlands. Typical, branching stems
spread across the ground, sending up leafy stalks all along their
length....
But the majority of club mosses live in the tropics and
subtropics, where many of them have adopted a different
life-style. Instead of sprawling on the ground, they cling to
the trunks and limbs of trees, their roots anchored in debris
that has collected in crevices and crannies.
The closely related spike mosses, also mainly tropical, are
more varied. Some look mossy, others resemble miniature ferns;
some creep, some stand erect, and others form filmy mats.....
WHAT ARE THE CLUBS ON CLUB MOSSES?
The upright stems of many club mosses are topped with
slender little clublike structures that account for the plants'
common name....The clubs, known as strobili, are actually
SPORE-bearing structures. ....(In species without strobili, the
spore cases are scattered along the stems).
When the spores are ripe, they are released and blown about
by the wind......The highly flammable golden "dust" known as
vegetable sulphur, is collected for medical purposes and also for
use in manufacturing fireworks.
DO THE SPORES SPROUT INTO NEW PLANTS?
The club mosses we see on the forest floor do not grow
DIRECTLY from spores. When the spores germinate, each one
develops into a diminutive plants, called a prothallus, that
looks nothing like the parent plant. In most tropical species,
the prothalli are so small that they are rarely noticed....The
prothalli of cool-climate species are larger, sometimes as big as
grapes. But they too go unnoticed, for they usually develop
underground......
At maturity, sex organs develop on the prothallus, some
producing male reproductive cells, others female cells.
Fertilization takes place when a male cell, or sperm, swims
through a film of water and unites with a female cell, or egg.
The fertilized egg then develops into a green spore-producing
plant.
In most tropical species, all this happens within a matter
of months. Temperate-region kinds develop more slowly. Frequently
two or three years, pass before the spores even germinate. Then
10 years or more may elapse while the prothallus matures, leading
its hidden life underfoot.
WHAT ARE HORSETAILS?
Some two dozen or so species of the strange and simple
plants called horsetails thrive in waste places around much of
the globe. Most are less than 3 feet tall, although one vinelike
horsetail of the American tropics occasionally reaches heights of
30 feet.....
Many of the horsetails have cone-like spore-producing
structures at the tips of the stems. Others send up
special-producing shoots up that die back after the spores are
shed. The spores like those of the club mosses, germinate into
inconspicuous prothalli, when then produce the familiar
spore-bearing plants.
WHY ARE SOME HORSETAILS CALLED
SCOURING RUSHES?
The stems of many horsetails have a gritty feel, the result
of silica deposits in some of the cells. (Silica is the hard,
glassy mineral of which quartz and sand grains are composed). In
one species, an unbranched type that grows in moist places, so
much silica is present that the plant has earned the name
SCOURING RUSH. In the days before chemical cleaners were
invented, these plants were used for scouring pots and
pans and scrubbing wooden floors. A few craftsmen still rely on
horsetails when a gentle fine sanding is required, as in the
making of wooden musical instruments. And the "rushes" continue
to serve as an ingredient in a few abrasive powders.
Except for these incidental uses, however, horsetails have
few practical applications today.
ARE FOSSIL FORMS VALUABLE?
......Some of the long-extinct horsetails were some 50 feet
tall. The ancestors of today's lowly club mosses were even
bigger, with trunks up to 100 feet and 3 feet in diameter. Their
spore-bearing cones were up to a foot long, and some had leaves
more than three feet long......
Yet without them, life on earth would be far different from
what it is today. The remains of the lush, long-gone forests
accumulated in thick layers of organic matter. Subsequently
buried beneath younger sedimentary rocks, they were compressed
into tremendous deposits of COAL.
FABULOUS FERNS
Are ferns very common?
To many people, ferns are familiar only as house and garden
plants, and as sprays of greenery that florists include with
bundles of cut flowers. Or they may be acquainted with one or two
lacy-leaved types that grow in damp, dark woodlands.
In fact ferns are a widespread group of plants including
some 10,000 species. They are most abundant in warm, moist
tropical regions, but some range northward into the
tundra, other grow in rocky places, and a few even live in water.
They range in size from kinds so small that they resemble carpets
of moss to others that are as tall as trees.
HOW DO FERNS GROW?
Although ferns are among the many plants that lack flowers,
they do possess true leaves, stems, and roots. The stems usually
go unnoticed, however, since they generally trail underground.
The visible part of the plant consists only of leaves, or fronds,
rising at intervals from the underground stem.....
In cool climates the leaves of most ferns die back in autumn
and are replaced by the new growth the following spring. In
warmer regions, many species grow as epiphytes attached to the
trunks and branches of trees and remain green all year round.
WHAT ARE THE DOTS ON FERNS?
Many a plant lover has been alarmed at the discovery of
small dark spots on the undersides of the leaves of a favorite
fern. Far from the result of some disease or insect
pest, however, the spots are actually clusters of SPORE sacs. In
some species, the spots, called sori, are bare; in others, each
is covered by a little flap of tissue. Depending on the type of
fern, the sori may be round, curved, lang and slender, or take a
variety of other shapes.....
HOW DO FERNS REPRODUCE?
Whatever the arrangement of a fern's spore sacs, their
ultimate fate is the same: when the spores are mature, the sacs
burst open and scatter the dustlike granules to the wind. Those
that land in favorable places germinate into small, flat, usually
heart-shaped plants called prothalli. Most are less than half an
inch long.
Like those of club mosses and horsetails, fern prothalli
produce male and female sex cells - sperms and eggs. When they
are mature, the sperms unite with the eggs. And from each united
egg a new spore-producing fern plant grows.
Fern also multiply by other means. New clusters of leaves
may rise from the spreading underground stems, and in this way
large colonies may be produced. Some ferns reproduce tiny
bulb-like growths on the underside of their leaflets. At
maturity, the bulblets fall off and grow into a new plant. And
the walking fern gets its name from its habit of producing new
plantlets at the tips of its lance-shaped leaves; the leaves arch
down and touch the soil, permitting the plantlets to take root
and so "walk" away.
CAN ANY FERNS FLOAT?
Among the least fernlike of ferns are the several kinds that
live in water. Some - the water clovers, with their
shamrock-shaped fronds - grow rooted in the mud in shallow
ponds. Others have dispensed with roots entirely and simply float
on the surface of lakes, ponds, and sluggish streams.
One of the floaters, water spangles, has rows of nearly
circled leaves, and carpets the water with masses of greenery.
Others, the mosquito ferns, have even tinier leaves. But they
form such dense mats that they have sometimes been used for
MOSQUITO CONTROL. The leaves grow so profusely that mosquito
larvae are unable to break through to the surface to breathe. The
plants are even considered pests in some areas; the choking
growths of the midget ferns are sometimes so dense that they
interfere with boating, fishing, and other uses of waterways.
WHAT ARE FERN TREES?
Ferns as big as trees were common in the swampy forests that
flourished.....millions of years ago. Some had trunks several
feet in diameter and as much as 100 feet tall. Topped by crowns
of lacy fronds up to 15 feet long, they looked much like
present-day palms. Their dead remains, along with those of the
giant club mosses and horsetails, were compacted into the coal
deposits we mine today.
Similar-looking tree ferns still survive in many parts of
the world, especially in warm, moist tropical rain forests. Some
of them reach heights of 70 feet or more, and are the largest of
all living ferns. In places like the Hawaiian Islands, these
giants sometimes grow in solid stands......
ARE ALL FERNS FEATHERY?
Although we tend to think of ferns as delicate, lacy,
featherlike plants, they come with a surprising assortment of
leaf form. The stout fronds of the royal fern, topped by
beadlike clusters of spore sacs, sometimes grow six feet tall.
The delicate Venus maidenhair fern bears broad leaflets on
much-branched fronds. The fronds of the hart's tongue fern, in
contrast, are straplike and leathery.
Many others are even less fernlike. Curly grass ferns are
slender and grasslike; some of the climbing ferns are vinelike
and look remarkably like ivy. The tropical staghorn fern has
fronds that are branched and look something like antlers. Among
the aquatic ferns, the water clovers have floating fronds divided
into four leaflets and look like four-leaved clovers....
END QUOTES
Ferns, Horsetails, all were created for a purpose by the
Eternal in the design of the vegetation on this earth, but ferns
and horsetails were never mean by God for mankind to go and
gather from the forests, and lakes, and bogs, and cut down and
chop up and use for food or mix among other vegetation that was
created for us to eat, as part of our salad bowl. So also with
mosses. God never intended for mankind to go out and scrape
up the various mosses, bake them and/or spread them on our bread
as some form of butter or sandwich mix.
Just think what it must have been like for Adam and Eve in
the garden of Eden. Here they had all the wonderful fruit trees
of the spring and fall seasons, just makes my mouth water
thinking about it. Then there were the figs, dates, all that kind
of fruit. The book of Genesis does not go into all the details,
but God must have given them a "tour of the garden" and must have
taught them His food laws. He must have shown them all the fruits
and all the great green seedbearing vegetation that he had
created for them to eat, such as the tomato, the carrots, peas,
snow and running beans, the potato, the broccoli, cabbage,
cauliflower, sweet potato, spinach, and many more. I think about
the large grapes hanging on the vines, the melons, cantaloup, and
then there must have been the blueberry bushes, the raspberry
bushes, and the strawberries. Truly the garden of Eden must have
been a land flowing with milk and honey, literally and
figuratively, for indeed there were the cows and goats for milk,
and the bees making their honey.
God would have instructed them on which animals were clean
and created for meat to eat as part of their diet. We know from
the life of Abel and Cain that "animal sacrifices" and "grain
offerings" were obviously taught to them by the Eternal from the
very start. God brought man and woman together in marriage. He
must have instructed them on marriage, sex, childbearing and
birth, as well as child rearing. There is so much and so many
things God must have taught them, but we are not told those
details. It is probably not detailed as we are to take all that
as a "given." A God of love and caring and friendship, would not
create a full grown man and woman who would find themselves
"alive and there" in this garden, without taking lots of time to
educate them on the very basics of physical living and marriage
and reproduction.
God did not create ALL vegetation for human consumption. The
variety of vegetation that is green and seed bearing, that is the
obvious and needs very little guess-work, is varied indeed. God
is a God of variety for sure. The things He has ordained for
us as "clean" food to eat is certainly varied, no need to be
bored in what we can under God's laws eat for food.
One of those food laws is eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
The modern scientific world is telling us over and over again
that a PART of having a good healthy life is by eating lots of
fruits and vegetables. I add as do others in the "natural health
industry" that you should eat those fruits and vegetables in
organic form if at all possible. If you can have your own garden
then you should. It is a wonderful blessing to have organic
vegetables in your own back yard.
...........................
Compiled and written July 2003
Vegetation - Spores and Seeds? #4
Seed Plants
Compiled by Keith Hunt
The following is taken from "ABC's of Nature - a family answer
book" by Reader's digest 1984.
All capital words are mine throughout for emphasis.
SOME PLANTS HAVE SEEDS
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
SPORES AND SEEDS?
The development of SEEDS was a GREAT LEAP FORWARD in the
history of plant life (Reader's Digest and those they had write
this book, "The ABC's of Nature" were coming from the point of
view of evolution, so to them indeed seeds were a great
leap forward from spores - Keith Hunt).
Like spores, their sole function is to produce new
generations of plants and so ensure the survival of the species.
But SEEDS accomplish this task MUCH MORE EFFICIENTLY.
Spores leave a great deal to chance. Each one consists of a
single cell that contains little or no food reserve - just a
genetic "blueprint" for a new plant. And it can germinate and
survive only if it happens to land in a place where conditions
are just right for growth. As a result, mosses, ferns, and
similar plants must produce spores by the millions to overcome
the great odds against their survival.
SEEDS, on the other hand, give the next generation a head
start in the struggle to mature into new plants. Each one
consists of many cells within a protective covering. The cells,
moreover, are usually organized into an entire embryonic plant,
one that is complete with rudimentary, root, stem, and leaves.
And in almost all cases, the seeds contain a food supply that
supports the emerging plantlet until the seedling can exist on
its own.
Seeds are so much more efficient than spores, in fact, that
the plants that bear them have become the DOMINANT VEGETATION on
earth.
TWO KINDS OF SEEDS PLANTS
First, pines, and other conifers, as well as a few other
obscure plant groups, produce seeds in CONES and other
specialized structures. The commonest seed-producers, however,
are the ENORMOUSLY VARIED FLOWERING plants.
WHICH SORT OF PLANTS PRODUCE SEEDS?
The flowering plants are the commonest, most widespread
seed-producers on earth today. Everyone is familiar with apple
trees that blossom in the spring and then, in the fall, yield
plump fruits containing "packets" of seeds - the pips - in the
cores.
On some flowering plants, the flowers, unlike the showy ones
of apple blossoms, orchids, and the like, have been greatly
modified or reduced in size, so that they do not look like
flowers at all. But the basic parts are there in one form or
another. Corn, for instance, is a flowering plant. The tassels
are clusters of pollen-producing male flowers. The ears are
formed from spikes of female flowers, and each kernel of corn is,
of course, a seed.
Certain nonflowering plants also produce seeds. The
best-known example are the conifers, such as pines, spruce, and
firs. Instead of developing from flowers, their seeds are formed
between the scales of their woody cones. One kind, the pinyon
pine of the American Southwest, produces the large edible seeds
commonly known as pinyon nuts. The "pignoli" nuts of southern
Europe are large, tasty seeds of another kind of pine.
HOW MANY KINDS OF SEED PLANTS
ARE THERE?
In all, more than 235,000 species of plants produce seeds.
The vast MAJORITY are the FLOWERING plants. The non-flowering
seed-producers - conifers and a few other types of plants -
number only about 800 species.
Botanists have special names for these two types of plants.
The non-flowering seed plants are called gymnosperms, from the
Greek for "naked seeds." This does not mean that the seeds lack
protective coverings. The term refers to the fact that the
ovules, which develop into seeds, are borne unprotected on the
bare surface of the cone scales or similar structures.
The flowering plants are called angiosperms, meaning
"enclosed seeds." Their ovules develop into seeds within the
protective enclosure of a structure called the ovary, usually
located at the center of the flower. The ovary - sometimes along
with other parts of the flower as well - matures into a fruit
encasing the seeds. Following pollination, the ovary of the
edible plum, for example, develops into a fleshly fruit with a
seed inside the stony pit at its center. Other flowering plants
bear their seeds in fruits as varied as acorns and apples,
blueberries and beans, chestnuts and cranberries.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
FLOWERING PLANTS AND CONIFERS?
The flowering plants are a varied lot indeed. In addition to
producing flowers and fruits, they differ from the conifers in
many ways. All the conifers, for instance, are woody plants that
grow as trees or shrubs; some flowering plants are trees, but the
majority are low-growing plants with soft, juicy stems. The tree
types have a much more complex and efficient circulatory system
than any of the conifers. Instead of evergreen needles or
scalelike leaves, the flowering plants bear broad leaves in a
multitude of shapes and sizes. While the conifers live for many
years, vast numbers of flowering plants can compete their life
cycles in a single growing season. All the conifers, moreover,
are pollinated by the wind. The flowering plants have a more
sophisticated system; most rely on insects or other animals to
transfer pollen to the female flower parts.
The flowering plants, in short, have become supremely
adaptable. From lawn grass and garden flowers to trees more than
100 feet tall, they include FAR MORE species than ANY OTHER plant
group on earth today.....
WHY DO PLANTS HAVE FLOWERS?
Whether large or small, colorful or inconspicuous, all
flowers have the same basic function: to produce seeds and so
perpetuate the species. They perform this role so well that the
flowering plants, or angiosperms, have become the MOST ABUNDANT
and varied group of plants on earth today.....
DO ALL FLOWERS HAVE THE SAME PARTS?
From the simplicity of buttercups to the extravagant
complexity of orchids, the forms of flowers are incredibly
diverse. Depending on the species, there may be may or few of
each of the basic parts, or some of them may have been lost
entirely.....
WHEN IS A FLOWER MANY FLOWERS?
Some flowers grow singly, one to a stem; others, such as
lilacs and lupines, grow in characteristic clusters called
inflorescences. In some cases the clusters are so compact
that people think of the whole mass as a single bloom....on
daisies each "petal" is a separate flower, and the eye at the
center is dozens of individual florets.....
ARE FLOWERING PLANTS IMPORTANT?
The flowering plants are everywhere around us. Growing as
trees, shrubs, vines, and soft-stemmed herbs, they have come to
DOMINATE most of the world's dry land. Many thrive in fresh
water, and some even live in salt water near the margins of the
sea.
These abundant, adaptable plants affect our lives in many
ways. Growing wild they are vital links in the web of life. They
protect the soil from erosion and supply valuable timber. We
cultivate many species as ornamentals or as windbreaks, and for
shade.
FLOWING PLANTS ARE THE SOURCE OF ALMOST ALL THE FOOD WE EAT
- either DIRECTLY, as grains, fruits, and vegetable, or
INDIRECTLY as milk, meat, and eggs. They also yield MEDICINES,
spices, oils, and countless other useful products.
HOW LONG DO FLOWERING PLANTS LIVE?
The life expectancies if the flowering plants differ
dramatically from species to species. A sunflower lives for less
than a year, for example, but an oak may continue to grow for
centuries.
The many plants that, like the sunflower, have their entire
life cycle compressed into a single growing season are called
annuals. They germinate, flower, set seed, and then die within a
matter of days, weeks, or months.
Biennials are plants that live for two years. They grow and
store food in their first season, remain dormant over the winter,
and then flower and die in their second year. Many garden
vegetables, such as carrots and cabbages, are biennials. But we
usually harvest them in their first year of growth, never giving
them a chance to blossom and produce seeds.
The longest-lived are the perennials, which continue to
flower and set seed year after year. Flowering trees and shrubs
are woody perennials....
HOW BIG CAN FLOWERS BE?
The largest of all blossoms are produced by RAFFLESIA, a
parasitic plant that lives in southeast Asia. Each of its giant
blossoms is up to 3 feet in diameter and commonly weighs more
than 10 pounds. Another giant of the plant world is PUYA
RAIMONDII, a South American relative of the pineapple. Although
its individual flowers are small, as many as 8,000 of them may be
clustered in huge upright spikes some 35 feet high and 8 feet
across.
At the opposite end of the scale is WOLFFIA (also known as
watermeal or duckweed), the smallest of all flowering plants.
Tiny specks of green that float on fresh water, the individual
plants are a mere FIFTIETH of an inch across. Yet from time to
time they bloom, producing male flowers, each consisting of a
single minute stamen, and female flowers, each of which is
nothing more than a tiny pistil.
DO ALL TREES HAVE FLOWERS?
Except for the conifers and other gymnosperms, all the trees
in the world are flowering plants. On some, such as magnolias,
cherries, and horse chestnuts, the blossoms are large and showy.
On others, the flowers are inconspicuous and easily overlooked -
so much so, in fact, that people are more likely to notice the
FRUIT than the flowers that produce them. The acorns on oaks, the
winged seeds of maples, and the berries on hollies are all the
product of flowering trees......
FROM FLOWERS TO FRUIT
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
A FRUIT AND A VEGETABLE?
In everyday usage, oranges and the like are called fruits;
vegetables include such edibles as carrots, asparagus, tomatoes,
and corn. Botanists, however, are more precise in their
terminology. They say that a fruit is the mature, seed-bearing
ovary of a flowering plant, sometimes with other parts of the
plant attached. Thus all the seed-containing vegetables -
eggplants and tomatoes, for example - are actually fruits. So to
are such unfruitlike fruits milkweed pods and the winged key of
maples.
Many other vegetables are not true fruits but simple edible
plant parts. Radishes and carrots are roots, lettuce and spinach
are leaves, and broccoli and cauliflower are tightly clustered
flower buds. Rhubarb, on the other hand, is commonly called a
fruit but it is not really a fruit in botanical terms; the
rosy-red stalks are edible stems of oversized leaves.
HOW DOES A FLOWER BECOME A FRUIT?
Only the FLOWERING plants produce fruits. The process begins
when pollen fertilizes an egg inside an ovule. While the ovule is
developing into a SEED, the ovary (the flower part that holds the
ovule) goes through changes of its own. In some cases the
ovary wall develops exocarp, a middle mesocarp, and an inner
layer called the endocarp. All three layers together make up the
pericarp.
The layers are most obvious in cherries, peaches, plums, and
the other stone fruits, which are known as drupes. In a peach for
example, the thin fuzzy skin is the exocarp, the juicy flesh is
the mesocarp, and the stony pit that encloses the seed is the
endocarp.
Apples develop differently. In their case, the pericarp
forms only the seed-containing care at the center of the fruit.
The edible flesh is formed by the enlargement of the floral tube
that originally surrounded the ovary. Apples, pears, quinces, and
all the other core fruits are called pomes.
ARE ALL FRUITS FLESHY?
Only berries, pomes, drupes, and a few other kinds of fruits
are moist and fleshy. Many more are dry, with woody or papery
pericarps. The pods of peas and beans, for example, are called
legumes. They are usually harvested and eaten while still green
and moist, but if allowed to mature on the plants, they
eventually dry out and split open to release their seeds. The
long, slender pods of mustard plants are dry fruits of another
type, known as siliques, while the winged fruits of maples and
elms are samaras.
In the case of true NUTS such as hazelnuts, the oily meat
that we eat is the seed and the hard shell is the pericarp. The
sunflower seeds that we feed to birds are yet another example of
dry fruits, of a kind technically known as achenes. Birds crack
open the tough outer covering - the pericarp - to get at the true
seed inside.
IS THE BLUEBERRY A TRUE BERRY?
Berries in botanical terms, include such seemingly diverse
fruits as grapes and tomatoes, avocados and eggplants. All are
alike in being simple fruits with entirely fleshy pericarps that
enclose one or more seeds. The citrus fruits such as oranges are
also a type of berry, distinguished by the possession of a
leathery outer rind.
Blueberries, on the other hand, are classed as false
berries. Although berrylike at first glance, the mature fruits
are formed from other floral parts in addition to the ovary
wall. Look closely and you can see remnants of the sepals still
attached to the tip of each fruit. Watermelons, cucumbers, and
squashes are false berries of another type, called pepos. Like
blueberries, they have at least part of the outer skin derived
from the floral tube that encased the ovary.
Blackberries and raspberries, in contrast, are not berries
at all. Each segment of a ripe raspberry is actually a separate
fruit that developed from one of many individual ovaries in a
single flower. All grew together as they matured to form that
botanists call an aggregate fruit. The individual segments are
drupelets, comparable in structure to miniature cherries.
WHY DO FRUITS CHANGE COLOR AS
THEY RIPEN?
The fleshy fruits undergo many COMPLEX CHANGES as they
approach maturity. Color is the most obvious. Tomatoes turn from
GREEN to RED, plums become RED or BLUE and so on. Flesh that was
hard and sour, bitter, or otherwise unpalatable frequently
becomes soft, juicy, sweet, and fragrant.
All these changes are related to the fruit's role in
reproduction. The green color of immature fruit helps keep it
hidden among the plant's foliage. Unpleasant flavors also
deter animals from eating it before the seeds are fully matured.
Ripe fruit, colorful and succulent, on the other hand,
offers an irresistible invitation to hungry birds and other
creatures. When they eat the fruits, small seeds pass unharmed
through their digestive tracts and later are deposited far from
the parent plant, along with a dose of natural fertilizer. If the
seeds are too big to swallow, animals are likely to drag
them off and eat it elsewhere, leaving the seeds to sprout when
conditions are favorable.
ARE NUTS A SPECIAL KIND OF FRUIT?
Acorns are the most familiar examples of the kinds of fruits
that are classed as nuts. Each consists of a single seed enclosed
in a hard seamless shell. In most cases the nut is covered by
modified leaves called bracets. The cups of acorns are made up
of many scalelike bracts. On hazelnuts, another true nut, the
bracts are thin and leaflike.
Many of the things commonly called nuts are really the
edible parts of various other kinds of fruits. Peanuts are the
seeds of pealike plants; they grow underground in legumelike
pods. Coconuts are the inner parts of large dry drupes; their
thick, fibrous husks, removed before shipment, are comparable to
the flesh of a peach. Almonds are the seeds of another stone
fruit. Brazil nuts, cashews, and pistachios are other familiar
examples of "nuts" that are not true nuts.
HOW DO STRAWBERRIES DEVELOP?
Succulent strawberries, studded with tiny seeds, are among
the most deceptive of fruits. Like blackberries and raspberries,
they are aggregate fruits., each one formed from a single flower
that contained many separate ovaries. But in the case of
strawberries, each ovary matures into a dry, one-seeded achene.
Thus the "seeds" are actually individual dry fruits. The juicy
red edible part of the strawberry is the much enlarged, fleshy
receptacle, the tip of the flower stem to which the ovaries were
attached.
Pineapples are even stranger, for they form, not from one,
but from a whole cluster of flowers and fuse into a single fleshy
mass. The bulk of the pineapple's flesh is formed from the many
individual flowers; the tough inner core develops from the
upright stalk on which the flower grew.
HOW BIG CAN FRUITS BECOME?
The ovary that gives rise to a fruit often enlarges
ENORMOUSLY as it matures. A full-grown tomato, for instance, may
be as much as 100,000 times the size of the ovary from which it
developed, and an avocado 300,000 times its original size.
Not surprising, some of the largest fruits are produced by
cultivated plants, which are of course selectively bred. Some
varieties of watermelon yield fruits that weigh 50 pounds, and
100-pound pumpkins are a common sight at country fairs. But the
record may well be held by a squash raised by an Indiana family
in 1977; it weighed 513 pounds (that record has probably been
beaten now, as this book from Reader's Digest was published in
1984 - Keith Hunt).
It is difficult to say which fruit is the smallest, since
many plants produce tiny dry fruits that we ordinarily think of
as seeds. Each "seed" of a daisy, dandelion, or buttercup, for
example, is a complete fruit in and of itself.
ALL SORTS OF SEEDS
ARE ALL SEEDS THE SAME INSIDE?
When corn sprouts, only a single leaf lifts out of the kernel.
For corn belongs to the group of plants called monocots; "mono"
means "one" and "cot" refers to the cotyledon, or seed leaf, that
forms inside the seed. Beans are dicots: in contrast to corn, a
sprouting bean seed unfolds two seed leaves.
This division into monocots and dicots is the major one
among flowering plants.....The most important group of monocots
is the GRASS family, which includes corn, wheat, rice, oats, and
other cereal grains as well as lawn and pasture grasses.
Orchids, lilies, palms, and bananas are also monocots.
The flowering plant that is not monocot is a dicot. There
are many MORE dicots than monocots......
WHICH SEEDS ARE GIANTS AND WHICH
ARE DWARFS?
You can't tell how big a plant will grow by looking at its
seeds. Nor is the actual height of the plant much of a clue to
the size of its seeds. A pea, for example, is the seed of a
rather humble plant - yet it is FAR larger than that of the
redwood - the world's tallest tree.
The largest seed of all is the COCO-DE-MER, the impressive
product of a palm that grows on the Seychelles Islands, in the
Indian Ocean. Weighing 40 pounds or more, the huge double-lobed
coco-de-mer can measure 18 inches long and more than 8 inches
thick.
The SMALLEST are seeds of a witchweed plant native to Asia,
which measure less than a thousandth of an inch long. Orchids,
too, have very small seeds, some so lightweight that there are 30
million to the ounce. WHY DO PLANTS PRODUCE SEEDS?
Seeds are MORE than a way for plants to perpetuate
themselves, more than a way for plants to "sit out" such hostile
conditions as cold and drought. Seeds are also the means by which
plants travel - mostly for a short distance but sometimes for
hundreds or even thousands of miles......The force that most
frequently propels seeds from place to place is the wind.....
Tumbleweeds are perhaps the most spectacular wind travellers.
Once their seeds have developed, the round plant balls break off
at ground level and roll across the landscape, scattering the
seeds as they tumble along.
Water also helps fruits and seeds to travel about. Heavy
rains wash them short distances; floods carry them for many
miles. Some seeds transported by water have special "equipment"
that helps them travel - the spongy tissues of the coconut and
the water lily fruit, for example.
DO ANIMALS SPREAD SEEDS?
....Some fruits and seeds, such as those of sticktights and
avens, are equipped with hooks or barbs that cling to feathers
and fur; they may ride along for miles before they fall
off......Seeds swallowed by animals may pass through the
digestive system intact, then sprout where they had been
deposited......
AREN'T SOME SEEDS "SHOT" AWAY
FROM THE PARENT PLANT?
As fruits ripen, physical tension may build up inside them,
and eventually the seeds inside are FORCIBLY expelled. If you
tough the seedpod of a touch-me-not (also called Impatiens and
jewelweed), it rips apart and throws its seeds a distance of six
feet or more. Some violet pods also "explode" to release their
seeds; squirting cucumbers send out their seeds in a fluid jet.
DO SEEDS EVER SPROUT ON THE
PLANT ITSELF?
A squash called the chayote, native to the American tropics
and subtropics, looks somewhat like a bleached green pepper. If
left on the vine to develop (human hand may pick it first), it
sprouts a new vine from its tip. And so, when the squash falls to
the ground, it is already a growing plant, having only to put out
roots to establish itself in the soil.
This growth of the seed while still attached to its parent
is called viviparity - the same term (it means "live birth") used
for animals whose young develop inside the mother's body.
Viviparity occurs in a number of other plants.....
HOW LONG DOES A SEED STAY ALIVE?
Some seeds remain alive, or viable, for only a few days
after they mature; unless they germinate right away, they will
not germinate at all. Others, particularly those growing
in cool climates, need a period of dormancy before they can
sprout - a fact that enables them to survive during the cold
winter months.
But if kept cool and dry, most seeds remain viable for more
than from one season to the next, delaying their germination
until conditions become suitable. The longevity record belongs to
an Arctic lupine. Seeds stored in a northern lemming burrow some
10,000 years ago and then frozen were washed out recently in a
mining operation. Most amazingly, some of them sprouted and
actually grew into healthy plants.
WHAT DO PEOPLE USE SEEDS FOR?
Seeds are the MOST IMPORTANT food on earth. All of the
GRAINS (wheat, corn, rice, rye, among others) plus BEANS, PEAS,
PEANUTS, SOYBEAN, and other legumes are SEEDS eaten DIRECTLY by
man. Seed-eating poultry and livestock convert plant material
into animal PROTEIN, which eventually become human food. SEEDS
supply vegetable oils used in cooking and in soaps, paints,
lubricants, and other products. Some seeds and add spice to our
lives - among them, mustard, pepper, and caraway. We also
consume SEEDS when we drink COFFEE, COCOA, and certain alcoholic
beverages.
END QUOTES
God law of vegetation was not and is not ALL encompassing,
it is EXCLUSIVE but not INCLUSIVE of ALL seed bearing plants on
earth. For some seed-bearing plants like those from the
"nightshades" family are poisonous to the degree of either making
you sick to the stomach, giving you hallucinations, interference
with breathing and circulation, or sometimes even death.
God's overall vegetation law is as was shown in previous
studies, to be vegetation from those plants which were green and
seed-bearing (an EXCLUSIVE LAW, not an inclusive). All the
vegetation that was not green and seed producing was to be
avoided.
THE PROBLEM WITH GENESIS 9:3
IF THERE IS NO VEGETATION LAW
Some, even most I would say, among those Churches of God
that DO teach that God's clean and unclean foods laws are still
to be observed today by Christians, would say that there never
was a "vegetation" law. They would say you can eat whatever from
the vegetation world as long as it does not make you sick in one
way or another or kill you.
If that is so, if that was ALWAYS so, right from the
beginning, that the Eternal never ever had a "vegetation food
law" then for those who have always believed or taught that the
meat unclean and clean laws of animals, birds, insects, and fish,
WAS FROM THE BEGINNING, THERE IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM in what we
read in Genesis 9:3.
Back up some first. We have the clear statement in Genesis
chapter 7 that Noah was to take SEVEN pair of CLEAN animals on
board the Ark and ONE pair of unclean animals. Most Churches that
teach the clean and unclean food laws were from the very
beginning, point to this section of Scripture to point out that
obviously Noah knew which animals were "clean" and which animals
were "unclean." It is obvious from this that there was some kind
of teaching or law from God to Noah at least, about clean and
unclean animals. Now are we to suppose they were clean if they
did not crawl around in the mud and unclean if they did wallow in
the mud or bogs or swampy ponds? I really do not think this is
what God had in mind concerning the orders to Noah about seven
pair of clean and one pair of unclean animals to come aboard the
Ark.
It would seem indeed that God had clean and unclean animal
food laws from the beginning. It sure would seem it was certainly
there at the time Noah was to enter the Ark. Now after Noah came
out from the Ark and the waters were dried up from the land,
God tells Noah something in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 3. There
is only one fair and consistent way to read and understand this
verse for those who believe there was NEVER any vegetation law.
For such a belief, verse 3 is then clearly saying that God had
given Noah the right and permission to EAT ANYTHING that moved or
lived (again of course as long as it did not kill you, or make
you violently ill within a short space of time).
Really, let's be honest, we who believe there was an animal
food law from the beginning but NOT a vegetation law. If that was
so, then here in verse 3 of Genesis chapter 9, God is REMOVING
ALL FOOD LAWS!!!
It is just that simple, to understand, it is just that
LOGICAL, it takes no degree in theology. If there never was a
food vegetation law, but there was an animal food law of clean
and unclean, then here after Noah left the Ark and started to
live again on the land, God was REMOVING ALL FOOD LAWS!!!
Hence to take this one step further, as SOME have indeed put
forth the argument, the food laws of clean and unclean were never
to do with diet or health of the body in the first place, but had
to do with....well you go figure what they then had to do
with....maybe sacrifices, maybe some strange "make holy" and then
"not make holy" ritual of some kind, that God dreamed up for one
generation and not for another. Such being, if that was the
case, then there can be a reasonable logical argument that under
the New Covenant a Christian is under no obligation to observe
any so-called "food laws" from a health perspective, as there
never was really any health food laws at any time, in any age,
since Adam and Eve.
I personally do NOT believe such theology. I believe and
teach there were ALWAYS food laws from the beginning, both in the
vegetation and animal world. God is again RE-iterating to Noah
some of the very things He fist gave to Adam and Eve. He
is again re-stating (God often repeats Himself over and over
again, so mankind will get the point, you know they say
repetition is one of the best ways to learn something) that
man (now with Noah and his three sons and their wives) will be
given a ruling hand over the physical live forms on earth (verse
2) and that the laws of animal (moving things of land, sea and
air) eating will still REMAIN as the laws of vegetation still
remain. The first part of verse 3 is QUALIFIED by the last part
of verse 3.
This is a section of re-iterating many things first given to
Adam and Eve, just as God told Adam and Eve to multiply and
replenish the earth (Genesis 1) so God re-states it again to Noah
in Genesis 9. As God told Adam and Eve to have dominion over the
physical life forms on earth, so He again re-states such to Noah
and his family in chapter nine.
I'm sure God went into much more detail on these things with
Adam and Eve and with Noah, we are just given a nut-shell of it
all.
Genesis chapter 9 is NOT proof that God was abolishing the
clean and unclean animal food laws.
The world has wondered away over the centuries from eating
ONLY the things God has created for us to eat. As I've said
before in a previous study, modern 21st century scientists, who
have no religious axe to grind, now claim and admit that 70 to 80
percent of all illnesses, sicknesses, and diseases, are CAUSED
directly by what we put into our stomachs. The majority of the
world is eating too many unclean things as God defines unclean in
His food laws. Then we have an ever increasing population of the
world eating far too much processed and refined food products,
where most of the natural goodness has been taken out. We then
add chemicals in growing and packaging, to put insult upon
injury. We have refined or fried foods with trans-fats that are
adding pounds to North American people, who are now statistically
the fattest people on earth (of course part of that is because we
eat way too much of those fried trans-fat foods). Our children
are obese as never before. In the early 80s it was 5% of our
children that were obese, but today in 2003 (as I compile this)
it is 15.5% of children that are obese. Another statistic is that
80% of diabetics are diabetic because of the life style of foods
they eat, only 20% of diabetics are true diabetics. Then we have
all the ills and sicknesses that result directly from smoking
cigarettes. We have a number of serious sicknesses and deseases
because of sexual immorality most of the world indules in. Many
diseases are caused by a lack of clean fresh water and sanitation
(that is common in third world countries), which are also laws of
God.
Yes, put all this together, and I think we can see why
scientists are now saying 70 to 80 percent of diseases are caused
by eating habits and other health laws like sanitation, clean
water, and sexual purity.
Eating seed producing fruits and vegetables (as organic as
possible - many large grocery stores now have sections of organic
produce) should be AT LEAST 50% of our diet. I will bring a few
studies on basic laws of health from those who have made "food
and health studies" their life long work.
Our body is the Temple of God, and the Lord excepts us to
look after it.
.........................
Compiled July 2003
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