Aloe

Aloe

Aloe succotrina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asphodelaceae
Genus: Aloe
L.
Species

See Species
For other uses, see Aloe (disambiguation).

Aloe, also written Aloë, is a genus containing about four hundred species of flowering succulent plants.

The genus is native to Africa and is common in South Africa's Cape Province and the mountains of tropical Africa, and neighbouring areas such as Madagascar, the Arabian peninsula and the islands off Africa.

The APG II system (2003) placed the genus in the family Asphodelaceae. In the past it has also been assigned to families Aloaceae and Liliaceae. Members of the closely allied genera Gasteria, Haworthia and Kniphofia which have a similar mode of growth, are also popularly known as aloes. Note that the plant sometimes called "American aloe" (Agave americana), belongs to Agavaceae, a different family.

Most Aloes have a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves. The leaves are often lance-shaped with a sharp apex and a spiny margin. Aloe flowers are tubular, frequently yellow, orange or red and are borne on densely clustered, simple or branched leafless stems.

Many species of Aloe are seemingly stemless, with the rosette growing directly at ground level; other varieties may have a branched or un-branched stem from which the fleshy leaves spring. They vary in colour from grey to bright green and are sometimes striped or mottled.


Uses
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Aloe species are frequently cultivated as ornamental plants both in gardens and in pots. Many Aloe species are highly decorative and are valued by collectors of succulents. Some species, in particular Aloe vera are purported to have medicinal properties.

Other use of Aloes include their role in alternative medicines (see Herbalism) and in home first aid. Both the translucent inner pulp as well as the resinous yellow exudate from wounding the Aloe plant is used externally to relieve skin discomforts and internally as a laxative. To date, some research has shown that Aloe vera produces positive medicinal benefits for healing damaged skin. Conversely, other research suggests Aloe vera can negatively effect healing (Vogler and Ernst, 1999).

Some Aloe species have also been used for human consumption. For example, drinks made from or containing chunks of aloe pulp are popular in Asia as commercial beverages and as a tea additive; this is notably true in Korea.

[edit] External uses

Various extracts of Aloe vera are frequently used in herbal medicine and by cosmetic companies. For more information see: Aloe vera.

[edit] Internal uses
Aloe vossii
Aloe vossii

Aloe contains a number of medicinal substances used as a purgative. The medicinal substance is produced from various species of aloe, such as A. vera, A. vulgaris, A. socotrina, A. chinensis, and A. perryi. Several kinds of aloes are commercially available: Barbadoes, Socotrine, Hepatic, Indian, and Cape aloes. Barbadoes and Socotrine are the varieties most commonly used for curative purposes[citation needed].

Aloes is the expressed juice of the leaves of the plant. When the leaves are cut, the juice that flows out is collected and evaporated. After the juice has been removed, the leaves are sometimes boiled to yield an inferior kind of aloes. The juice of the leaves of certain species, e.g. Aloe venenosa, is poisonous.

There have been very few properly conducted studies about possible benefits of aloe gel taken internally. One study found improved wound healing in mice. Another found a positive effect of lowering risk factors in patients with heart disease. Some research has shown decreasing fasting blood sugar in diabetic animals given aloe [1]. None of these studies can be considered to be definitive, and there are many false advertising claims for aloe.

Aloe has been marketed as a remedy for coughs, wounds, ulcers, gastritis, diabetes, cancer, headaches, arthritis, immune-system deficiencies, and many other conditions when taken internally. However, these uses are unsubstantiated; the only substantiated internal use is as a laxative. Furthermore, there is evidence of potential adverse side effects (for example, acute hepatitis[1]). Although some studies suggest that certain components of aloe such as aloe-emodin have genotoxic activity, human clinical trials and rodent carcinogenicity studies do not substantiate a genotoxic risk to humans when aloe products are consumed as directedBrusick D, Mengs U (1997). "Assessment of the genotoxic risk from laxative senna products". Environ Mol Mutagen 29 (1): 1-9. PMID 9020301. .

On 9 May 2002, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule banning the use of aloe and cascara sagrada as laxative ingredients in over-the-counter drug products[2].

In homeopathic medicine aloe is used for hemorrhoids

Actinidia

Actinidia

Actinidia foliage and fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ericales
Family: Actinidiaceae
Genus: Actinidia
Lindl.
Species

See text

Actinidia is a genus of woody plants native to temperate eastern Asia, occurring throughout most of China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, and extending north to southeast Siberia and south into Indochina. The genus includes shrubs growing to 6 m tall, and vigorous, strong-growing vines, growing up to 30 m in tree canopies.

The leaves are alternate, simple, with a dentate margin and a long petiole. The flowers are solitary or in axillary cymes, usually white, with five small petals. Most of the species are dioecious with separate male and female plants, but some are monoecious. The fruit is a large berry containing numerous small seeds; in most species the fruit is edible.

There are about 40-60 species of Actinidia:


Uses

For the edible fruit, see Kiwifruit, which is a Cultivar Group of Actinidia deliciosa, and Hardy Kiwi, of the species Actinidia arguta. Some species are grown as ornamental plants, notably A. kolomikta.

Actinidia arguta has small fruit 10-15 g, with green edible skins and green flesh; hardier than A. deliciosa.

In Japan, Actinidia polygama (silver vine) is commonly known as "matatabi" (木天蓼) and noted for having an effect on cats much like that of catnip. It is mentioned in the saying 猫にまたたび、女郎に小判 (neko ni matatabi, jorō ni koban, "Silver vine to a cat, a coin to a prostitute"), meaning to put someone in a good mood by providing that which they most desire.

Actinidia kolomikta is the hardiest species (to about -40°C), and has distinctive white- and pink-variegated foliage even on wild plants, an unusual phenomenon. Its fruit is very small, 8 g or smaller.
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Actinidia
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Abelia

Abelia

Abelia

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Dipsacales
Family: Caprifoliaceae (Linnaeaceae)
Genus: Abelia
R.Br.
Species

See text

Abelia is a genus of about 15-30 species and many hybrids in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, in the part of that family split off by some authors in the segregate family Linnaeaceae. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group considers Linnaeaceae to encompass such genera as Linnaea, Abelia, Dipelta, Kolkwitzia, and Zabelia.

Abelias are shrubs from 1-6 m tall, native to eastern Asia (Japan west to the Himalaya) and southern North America (Mexico); the species from warm climates are evergreen, and colder climate species deciduous. The leaves are opposite or in whorls of three, ovate, glossy, dark green, 1.5-8 cm long, turning purplish-bronze to red in autumn in the deciduous species. The flowers appear in the upper leaf axils and stem ends, 1-8 together in a short cyme; they are pendulous, white to pink, bell-shaped with a five-lobed corolla, 1-5 cm long, and usually scented. Flowering continues over a long and continuous late spring to fall period.


Cultivation and uses

Abelias are popular garden shrubs. The most widely grown is the hybrid Abelia x grandiflora (Glossy Abelia; hybrid Abelia chinensis x Abelia uniflora). This is a rounded, spreading, multi-stemmed shrub with gracefully arching branches to 1-1.8 m tall, with ovate, glossy, dark green semi-evergreen leaves to 2-6 cm long, and clusters of white-tinged-pink, bell-shaped flowers to 2 cm long.

Abelia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species - see list of Lepidoptera which feed on Abelia.

Shrub

Shrub

A broom shrub in flower

A shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 6 m tall. A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience. Small, low shrubs such as lavender, periwinkle and thyme are often termed subshrubs.

A natural plant community dominated by shrubs is called a shrubland. The word bush can also refer to a type of plant community, as in the Australian bush. This is often characterised by scrubby, open woodland and is a generic term for Eucalyptus dominated woodland in particular.

An area of cultivated shrubs in a park or garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, shrubs generally have dense foliage and many small leafy branches growing close together. Many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a 'stool' results in long new stems known as "canes". Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure and character.

Shrubs in common garden practice are generally broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as Mountain Pine and Common Juniper are also shrubby in structure. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen.

Plants

Plants are a major group of living things including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, and mosses. About 350,000 species of plants, defined as seed plants, bryophytes, ferns and fern allies, have been estimated to exist. As of 2004, some 287,655 species had been identified, of which 258,650 are flowering and 15,000 bryophytes. Plants are mostly autotrophs, organisms that obtain energy from sunlight or organisms that make their own food. Most plants carry out a process called photosynthesis, which occurs in the chloroplasts of plants.


Classification

Aristotle divided all living things between plants, which generally do not move, and animals. In Linnaeus' system, these became the Kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Plantae) and Animalia. Since then, it has become clear that the Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups, and the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms. However, these are still often considered plants in many contexts. Indeed, any attempt to match "plant" with a single taxon is doomed to fail, because plant is a vaguely defined concept unrelated to the presumed phylogenic concepts on which modern taxonomy is based.

When the name Plantae is applied to a specific taxon, it is usually one of three groups, each more inclusive than the last. From smallest to largest these are:

* Land plants (also known as Embryophyta)—see below.
* Green plants (also known as Viridiplantae or Chlorobionta) comprising Embryophytes and green algae. Essentially the subject of this article.
* Primoplantae (also known as Plantae sensu lato, Plastida, or Archaeplastida) comprises green plants, red algae and glaucophyte algae. The broadest plant clade, this comprises the eukaryotes that acquired their chloroplasts directly by engulfing bacteria.

Informally, other creatures that carry out photosynthesis are called plants as well, but they do not constitute a formal taxon.