All the diverse kinds of houseplants—olive trees, hibiscus, balcony roses—have one thing in common: They hate it when their pots are too tiny. The roots appear to inhibit growth if they are confined. To what end, though? If the plant is getting enough water, what is holding it back? Is it because there has been too much growth that there isn’t enough nutrient left in the potting soil?
Plant photosynthesis is stifled in smaller pots. This results in the plants having less energy available to make new plant tissue. The outcome is slower growth for the plant. This is not, however, because of a shortage of either water or nutrients in the soil.
Neither food nor water is the reason
The nitrogen levels in the leaves of plants grown in adequately sized pots were found to be almost identical to those of plants grown in smaller-sized ones.
In most cases, the amount of this vital nutrient in the plant’s green parts may be used as an indicator of how effectively the plant is being fed with nitrogen. However, the change is so little that it is often deemed insignificant.
So, yes, a plant in a smaller container does get a somewhat reduced nutritional supply. But it still doesn’t fully account for its comparatively small growth.
What about water scarcity, for that matter? After all, the plant gets the needed moisture via its roots from the soil, isn’t it? But maybe it’s not receiving enough water if it’s unable to create as many of those stolons? Actually, plants in pots that are too tiny will not receive enough water. Since the smaller soils can’t hold as much water they dry up more rapidly.
Hydroponic plants, oddly enough, also develop significantly slower in smaller pots, even though their pots are always completely submerged in water. And obviously this cannot be the result of a deficiency in available water.
If there isn’t a lack of water or nutrients, then what is it? Plants may alter their height and width to fit the container they are in. Magnetic resonance imaging allows scientists to see how, after being watered, the plants’ roots swiftly extend to a pot’s rim. This is almost like trying to predict how much room they will have to grow in the future.
Plants slow down their growth if there is narrowness at the root. It seems that this response is rather fast. In a study, a researcher named Hendrik Poorter recorded a reaction time of barely 10 minutes after putting the roots of a plant in a tight pot; the plant’s leaves grew more slowly than before.
This shows that there is a signal sent when a significant portion of a plant’s roots are unable to continue growing unhampered. The plant’s root system sounds this alarm, and sends a message to the plant’s upper sections above the soil, telling them to restrict their development as a precaution.
Plants need to be given 1 gallon of space for every 0.15 oz of their mass
But how large of a pot should a plant need to have? Scientists have developed a rough guideline for this: 1 liter of pot volume should be provided for every gram of plant biomass. In other words, 1 gallon of space for every 0.15 ounce of their mass.
A theoretically accurate method for determining the size of a plant’s pot is to weigh the plant. But this is still generally unpractical for indoor plants. Because a rubber tree that weighs about 2.
2 lbs (1 kg) would need a vat that can hold about 265 gallons (1,000 liters), which is about the size of a dumpster.
Researchers believe that even small adjustments in pot size may have a significant impact on plant growth. According to that, increasing the size of the pot only by half results in a 20 percent rise in plant growth.
Why do some female spiders eat their mates? You frequently hear the words “I love you so much” said between people newly in love. However, there are certain creatures who take this remark to a new level. They eat members of their own species, sometimes even when they’re mating. Particularly, spiders have a bad name for engaging in “sexual cannibalism.” The black widow spider has gained as much notoriety as the red-backed spider and the native cross spider for its reputation as a predator of male humans. Nevertheless, why do female spiders kill and eat males?
Sexual Cannibalism
Sexual cannibalism may be split into two distinct subtypes. The first involves females eating a male before mating, either out of hunger or to prevent mating. This is a common occurrence in a wide variety of animal species. However, this only applies to a tiny fraction of males and is by no means the norm.
Sexual cannibalism also occurs during and immediately after the mating act. Scientists have discovered that females of certain species will systematically murder males if they so desire. For instance, Latrodectus hasselti, known as the Redback spider or the Australian black widow spider, and Argiope spiders fall within this category. Wasp spiders, recognizable by their striped abdomen of yellow, white, and black, are also members of this family.
The Reason
But why would the supposedly cruel and merciless female spiders engage in such strange behavior? They do this so that they may continue mating with different males while keeping the duration of copulation, or sexual intercourse, to a minimum. Finding a mate with the finest genes to inseminate the eggs is the main objective of mating for female spiders.
In addition, the male spider makes a pleasant source of food and energy for females when consumed after being slain. There is a clear advantage to the children from this as well. Studies have shown that female spiders that consume males have bigger clutches (total number of eggs) than female spiders who are not allowed to consume males.
Mating Length is the Key Factor
Even yet, some male spiders still make it through the initial mating without being attacked by the female spiders. Variation exists even within species when it comes to the mortality rate of males following the first successful mating. Males that don’t mate for long enough are also at a higher risk of being eaten.
Those males who get out of the encounter unharmed, however, don’t attempt to get away and instead go through with a second mating, which almost always ends in tragedy. Unfortunately, this still raises one’s odds of becoming a father and having offspring. When a male tries to push his luck and, in the end, sacrifices himself, this still lets him fertilize more of the female’s eggs.
Before making love, the St. Andrews Cross spider (Argiope keyserlingi) uses a webbing to tie its mate to itself. Keeping the male around for longer may be desirable from the female’s perspective if she hopes to increase the number of eggs that are fertilized.
Mates With Smaller Sizes Are More Likely to Be Eaten
However, sexual cannibalism in spiders does not always seem to be caused by competition for evolutionary benefit. Researchers claim to have identified an alternative cause for this behavior. They claim that when men are physically inferior to their female companions, they are more likely to be eaten. This is true of many species, including the North American wolf spider, Tigrosa helluo.
It is interesting to see that a seemingly insignificant factor—the size gap between sexes—plays such a crucial role in determining sexual cannibalism. The trade-offs involved in sexual cannibalism are usually rather simple. When a hungry female spider comes upon a “boyfriend” tiny enough to trap, she can’t stop the urge.
Praying Mantises Also Show This Behavior
The practice of eating and being eaten is not limited to the sexual partners of spiders. Scientists have known for a long time that the phenomena occur in various clades of animals. Some insects, including praying mantises, have earned a reputation for this behavior. These insects’ males have a very perilous existence before, during, and after mating. One Asian species, Hierodula membranacea, has females that have been seen biting off the males’ heads during intercourse; however, the sexual act continues undisturbed.
Sources:
Sexual Cannibalism: Why Females Sometimes Eat Their Mates After Sex. (n.d.). Discover Magazine.
What causes the color change, and why does it occur? Tomatoes that have not yet reached maturity and are green have a grainy texture and an unpleasant flavor. From our ancestral experiences, we know that tomatoes are not truly edible until they have turned red. The majority of edible fruits have bright colors that signal when they are ready to be consumed. But why are tomatoes first green and then red?
Leaves Turning into Fruit
Tomatoes begin their lives as green fruits and turn red as they ripen. Chlorophyll is the pigment that gives plants their characteristic green color. Because of the pigment, the plant is able to take in the life-giving rays of the sun.
Following the acquisition of this energy, the tomato is then able to convert carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen. The tomato fruit originates from the development of the green-colored carpels, which are located within the ovary. The green color of the newly formed fruit is caused by the fact that its constituent parts were once leaves.
The chlorophyll in the fruit body that develops from these leaves is preserved all the way up until the very last stage of the ripening process. Lycopene is a unique pigment that develops in tomatoes as they ripen and is responsible for the tomatoes’ characteristic brilliant red color.
Lycopene is a member of the carotenoid family, which is also responsible for the distinctive colors that are found in foods like carrots, bananas, and egg yolks.
A Gaseous Plant Hormone, Ethylene
In this instance, the plant’s increased ethylene production serves as the signal for the change in color. The presence of this gas, which many plants use as a hormone, has the effect of hastening the maturation process. Peaches, apples, pears, bananas, and figs are some of the fruits that fall into this category.
Also included are bananas. Ethylene has additional effects besides simply modifying the color.
The cell walls of the fruit break down, which allows the entire thing to become flexible. In addition, the quantity of compounds that produce a bitter taste decreases, while the quantity of tastes that are less offensive increases.
Because of this hormone, tomatoes can be harvested while still green, and they will continue to ripen and turn red after being stored. When stored in the same environment as ripe apples, the ethylene in the apples speeds up the maturation process, causing the berries to turn red much more quickly than they would otherwise.
However, if there are too many tomatoes, they will rot and become overripe because of their abundance. It is not a fable that a single bad apple can ruin an entire haul of fruit and vegetables.
The Use of the Color Red as a Cautionary Signal
Are there any advantages the tomato gets as a result of the change in color that occurs as it matures? Numerous plant species produce colorful fruits to attract various forms of wildlife. Animals eat fruits for their nutritional value, but they typically expel the plant’s seeds undigested.
When the seeds are mature enough to sprout, only then do they provide any benefit to the plant. Because of this, the immature fruit that is still on the tree cannot be seen because of its dull green color.
Due to their bitter taste, eating them is not a particularly appealing option.
However, when it is ready to be eaten, the tomato turns a brilliant red color, which alerts you that it is ready to be consumed and also makes it easier to find. Both animals and people attribute the meanings of “ripe,” “juicy,” “tasty,” and “edible” to the color red.
How does drought affect the soil? Drought is a lack of water that occurs as a result of lower precipitation or higher evaporation. More evaporation occurs due to high temperatures, but also due to wind. A meteorological drought means that it is one to two months drier than usual. Even long after a drought is over and the soil has long since become waterlogged again, scientists can still tell that it has been exposed to drought.
This was recently shown by an experiment. Researchers created extreme drought in a greenhouse for a meadow. The bacteria active in the soil did not like it at all: their number decreased and they were less active overall. This is a disadvantage for the soil because the bacteria are important for nitrogen fixation and ensuring the soil breathes. The fungi in the soil, on the other hand, benefited from the drought.
Even two months after the end of the artificially induced drought, the original biological state had not been regained: soil bacteria had not recovered in terms of numbers or activity. Plants in the greenhouse also changed. Fast-growing grass species tolerated the lack of water better and spread more than slow-growing grasses. The experiment showed that droughts have a lasting impact on the soil habitat.
How do plants react to dry soil?
If the soil is too dry, this can have serious consequences for plants. When the roots of a plant realize that there is a lack of water, they send out a kind of alarm signal: a stress hormone is released that causes the stomata, the small pores in the leaves, to close.
Stomata are important for photosynthesis, in which the plant converts carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and glucose. Carbon dioxide enters the leaf through them, and oxygen and water exit.
A plant can prevent about 90% of water loss in soil
However, when a plant suffers from drought stress, it tries to keep the water with it and therefore closes its stomata. This prevents about 90% of the water loss. Exactly how much varies from plant to plant.
However, if the stomata are closed due to drought, photosynthesis no longer takes place, and so the plant does not grow. There may be fewer flowers or no flowers at all. Or there may be less or nothing left to harvest because grains, fruits, or vegetables cannot ripen properly. The taste of fruits and vegetables may also deteriorate.
The drought stress on plants can be more clearly visible on fruit and vegetable shelves in summer: tomatoes, apples, and carrots can remain significantly smaller than in times when there is sufficient water.
In extreme cases, a plant can die
Drought is bad for farmers and consumers, but the situation is not yet existential for the plant itself. It only becomes so when the stomata do not close sufficiently. If water is still missing, the plant’s tissue collapses because the internal pressure is no longer there. It’s like a trampoline in that its fabric doesn’t have enough stretch. The plant wilts and there is a risk that it will die.
But too little water not only makes plants thirsty but also starves them. An international research team evaluated studies in which 26 different tree species were exposed to drought stress experiments. Although carbohydrates and other nutrients were available, the trees starved. Without water, the nutrients could no longer be transported into the trees.
How do animals in the soil react to drought?
Not all animals are equally sensitive to heat and drought. Earthworms, for example, have no problem with drought. Their comfort temperature is between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 and 15 degrees Celsius). If the soil gets too warm and too dry, they simply burrow deeper into the earth. In extreme cases, they even curl up into a ball and hold a kind of summer sleep. Earthworms can survive dry periods well with this strategy – but then they become out of sight for other animals. For example, for the mole.
Moles have a hard time with the drought
The mole specializes in earthworms but they live one or two stories higher than earthworms during droughts. This is because moles dig a widely branching system of tunnels underground, but this only reaches down to a depth of about 3.3 feet (1 meter). Another problem for moles is their highly developed metabolism: they need around 1.8 ounces (50 g) of food a day and they need something to eat almost all the time, otherwise, they quickly starve to death.
Digging new, deeper burrows only works to a limited extent in dry conditions. Instead, they search for food on the surface. But this is risky for the moles since they are then more easily become prays.
Can a lot of rain at once save the soil from drought?
Not necessarily. It may sound strange, but puddles or flooded areas are not an indication that the soil is sufficiently waterlogged. That’s because even if water is collecting on the surface, the soil may be very dry and in desperate need of water.
Heavy rain is no use
This happens especially when it rains a lot within a short time, for example, during heavy rain. Soil cannot absorb such a quantity of water so quickly, especially if it is very dry.
This is because the so-called hydraulic conductivity of soil changes which means if the soil is dry, it takes longer for the water to seep through than if the soil is moist.
Like baking in the kitchen
The phenomenon also occurs in the kitchen when baking: An already liquid cake batter can be mixed with water relatively easily and turned into a mass. However, this is hardly possible if there is only flour in a bowl.
If you dump water or milk onto this dust dry powder, a pool forms on the flour. The liquid does not seep into the flour properly and the flour remains mostly dry. It is the same with dry soil: it takes time for the water to seep through – the drier the soil, the longer.
The water gets into the environment
This means that heavy rain, i.e. a lot of rain in a short time, does not benefit the soil at all. The water does not seep into the ground, but gets into the environment: into streams, rivers, the sewage system, or cellars – a large part also evaporates.
Since the soil does not benefit from heavy rain, hardly any water reaches the plants or trees rooted in it and the drought persists. That’s why rain doesn’t automatically reduce the risk of forest fires.
What kind of rain regenerates the soil?
Dry soil can best store the missing water if it is available evenly for a long time. Meaning: when it rains moderately. Not for hours, but rather for days, or even for weeks in the case of very dry soil.
This is the rain British people are most familiar with which causes many people to be in a bad mood. However, nature is helped immensely by this long-lasting rain because the water can seep into the soil very slowly over a long period and neither runs off nor evaporates. Light, continuous rain ensures that the water seeps exactly where it is needed.
How long does it take for soil to store enough water?
Soils are generally rather poor at absorbing water. Water is slow to infiltrate. Generally, heavy soil takes more time to recover than light soil when it comes to droughts.
Heavy and therefore good soil contains a lot of clay and thus, stores water optimally. However, it takes a relatively long time to absorb water. Soil can only manage about 0.2 inches (5 mm) of water per hour of rain.
Lighter, sandy soils dry out faster, but also absorb water more easily. 0.8 to 1.2 inches (2 to 3 cm) of rainwater can seep into the soil in an hour.
It can take months for the soil to recover from drought
If summer is very dry, it takes months for the soil to recover from a drought. Even if the top layer, the topsoil, stores water again, it still takes a long time for the water to seep through to the deeper soil layers. This is because the main precipitation does not fall until winter, and the soil only slowly becomes full again.
Carl Linnaeus was in many ways a symbol for Swedish science in the 18th century. Not only was he one of the pioneers of Sweden’s new scientific era, but he was also very well-known internationally, so the country was of interest to scientists. Although Carl Linnaeus gained the title of nobility later in his life, he came from humble roots.
Who Was Carl Linnaeus?
Carl Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707, in the Smaland countryside in southern Sweden to a family of priests and farmers. Carl soon became interested in flowers and plants thanks to his amateur botanist father, Nils, who was also the pastor of the small village community.
After years in high school, he joined Lund University in 1727, but only a year later decided to enroll at Uppsala University. Linnaeus wanted to study medicine, but it was botany that most impressed him, which also played an important role in medicine.
Carl Linnaeus found that this discipline was complex and uneven. His knowledge of new plants was rapidly increasing with his travels abroad. Although he tried to emulate recent systematics such as those of Aristotle, Andreas Cesalpino, Caspar Bauhin, or Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, there were always several problems.
Some naturalists grouped the plants according to their color, some according to their size, and some according to their leaves and fruits. Eventually, Linnaeus decided to establish his own system.
He discovered that plants have separate sexes from German Rudolf Jacob Camerarius and French Sebastien Vaillant. The stamen with pollen represented the male reproductive organs, while the pistil with ovaries represented the female reproductive organs.
By the end of 1729, Linnaeus had written a short article in Swedish, but the title was in Latin: “Praeludia sponsaliorum plantarum” (On the prelude to the wedding of plants). He would then go even further based on his new observations.
At that time, Uppsala’s botanical professor had grown old. Linnaeus took up the task of teaching the students and going on short tours. In the summer of 1732, he made a trip to Lapland and published his views on the trip later under the name Iter lapponicum.
The book was published in English in 1811 and in Swedish in 1889. To become a medical doctor in Sweden, it was necessary to study abroad and get a doctorate from a foreign university.
Linnaeus set out on this trip in 1735, arrived at the small university town of Harderwijk in the Netherlands via Hamburg and Amsterdam, and received his doctorate with a thesis on fever.
He then traveled to Leiden to meet both the most distinguished medical expert of his time, Herman Boerhaave, and the respected botanist Johann Friedrich Gronovius. Luckily, Linnaeus got a job at George Clifford’s estate, Hartekamp, located between Leiden and Haarlem.
Clifford was the Dutch East India Company’s wealthy director. He spent two years here taking charge of Clifford’s garden, library, and herb collection.
Classification Systems Including Homo Sapiens
Original manuscripts of Carl Linnaeus’ article “Praeludia sponsaliorum plantarum” dated 1729.
Carl Linnaeus’ research at Hartekamp was intense and enthusiastic. He was working on and publishing many manuscripts he brought from Sweden. Being supported financially and morally by both Gronovius and Clifford, his apparent talent led his patrons and supporters to compete with each other. The most important text published in this period is Systema Naturae, published in late 1735.
He divided nature into three kingdoms on tables made of folded sheets of paper: the mineral kingdom (Regnum lapideum), the plant kingdom (Regnum vegetabile), and the animal kingdom (Regnum animale). Linnaeus placed man above the four-legged animals and called him Homo sapiens, the term he developed.
Such a suggestion, of course, was too daring for its time and could cause discomfort. In his argument, Linnaeus explained that man is also a part of creation and belongs to the animal kingdom, not the mineral or plant kingdoms.
He was also the first to divide the human species into races or varieties. Thus, he established a field of science called physical anthropology that could never get rid of its roughness.
He suggested that there were five varieties of man, consisting of European, American, Asian, African, and the “monsters” or Homo monstrosus, such as the Hotantos. Considering the period, it was not surprising that the European races were considered to be at the top and Africans at the bottom.
But the most famous of the kingdoms laid out in Systema Naturae is the plant kingdom. Carl Linnaeus especially described the sexual systems of plants, and this system was known as the Linnaeus system. In the book, he created a new system for the genitals called stamen and pistil, based on the belief that plants are sexual creatures.
By counting the stamens and specifying their arrangement, he divided the plants into 24 groups, that is, classes, and subgroups, that is, by counting the stigmas of the pistils. Classification is divided into classes, then orders, families, and species.
There are plants with one to ten stamens in the first ten classes; the following thirteen classes include plants with different stamen arrangements (e.g., two long and one short). The twenty-fourth grade is flowerless plants, class Cryptogamia.
Carl Linnaeus: Engraved by Georg Dionysius and Jan Wandelaar from Hortus Cliffortianus, a sheet showing Collinsonia canadensis from the mint family, native to North America.
Linnaeus gives lively and poetic accounts of plant sexual life in the Systema Naturae, as he did in his early article on plant marriage. According to that, the first flower in the first class is monogamous; the flower in the eighth class has one female and eight male bridal chambers; and in the fourteenth class, there is one woman and four males, two short and two tall. Some were disturbed by this frankness. Nevertheless, the sexual system was accepted and gained great importance.
Carl Linnaeus had given botanists a common language. Systema Naturae was reprinted many times during his lifetime. The last self-published edition is the 12th edition from 1766–68; at that time, the original 13 pages were expanded into three languages.
Although Linnaeus’s sexual system is not used in advanced science today, it is still used in basic manuals. The Linnaeus system was not intended to represent natural groups but to be used only for diagnosis. During his three years in the Netherlands, his productivity was incredible.
Besides Systema Naturae and other small works, he published eight large studies, mostly on the extensions and implementations of sexual systems.
He did an impressive job of describing the flowers in the Clifford garden, named Hortus Cliffortianus. Then came his original work. In his book Fundamenta botanica (Foundations of Botany), he explained the underlying method of specifying the plants into species, teams, and classes in his system.
Critica Botanica (Critique of Botany) presented the rules for the nomenclature of species. The Genera Plantarum (general plants) defines all the plant families he was concerned with until then, divides them into classes and orders, and describes all botanical systems from Cesalpino to his own. In the summer of 1736, he found the opportunity to travel to England at Clifford’s expense.
In London, he met Sir Hans Sloane, who was the chairman of the Royal Society after Newton, and the German botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius at Oxford.
Carl Linnaeus returned to Sweden in June 1738 and never left the country. He settled in Stockholm and worked as a medical doctor. In 1741, he became a professor at Uppsala University and was appointed as the court physician. In 1758, he bought the Hammarby farm outside of Uppsala. In 1762, he was given the title of nobility and the name von Linne.
Naming the Natural World
Systema Naturae, one of the greatest works in natural science history.
If the sexual system in Systema Naturae was Linnaeus’ first great achievement, the latter should be Species plantarum (species of plants), which is considered the starting point of the modern botanical nomenclature of 1751 that deals with the species of plants.
It contains approximately 8000 plant species, which were all known at the time. How they are recorded is just as important.
Here, Carl Linnaeus suggests using a binary naming system with a first name and a surname for all species. Previously, the species was given a family name followed by a long description.
Now Linnaeus could clearly identify a plant with just two words. The first, the surname, indicates the genus, and the second, the genre; for example, Sinapis arvensis is wild mustard.
The names were not given by coincidence. Genus names were often attached to the name of a famous botanist. For example, Linnaeus’ colleague Gronovius named an ordinary plant in Sweden called Linnaea borealis after Linnaeus, while borealis meant north.
Linnaeus found it appropriate because he himself was “humble and unpretentious” like the flower, but perhaps not all of his colleagues agreed on this.
His third important contribution was the way he described plants. He described the most difficult species precisely and offered terminology for the parts that identify the plants.
He had sharp eyes that easily noticed small details, and his definitions were always clear and concise, explaining the essentials in a few words. Carl Linnaeus pursued his passion for classification to its logical conclusion.
Science Based on Faith
Carl Linnaeus had to think for a while about this flower, which he would later call Peloria. Because the plant was a hybrid, it took him time to convince himself.
Linnaeus’ view of nature was based on his religious beliefs. According to him, the universe had a fixed structure. Species were fixed and unchanging. The number of species has been the same since creation. God created all species in their exact present forms.
After this act of creation, everything naturally emerged from the seed or egg. Carl Linnaeus often quoted the Latin phrase “Omne vivum ex ovo,” “all life [is] from life.”
These words indicated that he did not accept the idea of the primordial soup or the belief that some flies were derived from animal carcasses. But after a while, Linnaeus had to question the idea of the stability of species.
He saw a new plant that he would later name Peloria and first thought it was a decayed specimen of Linaria vulgaris. He later realized, however, that it was a hybrid, the result of a cross between the two species.
Confused, in his 1744 treatise, he described the plant as Peloria and attempted to explain why it did not fit into the classification system. Since he had to admit that hybridity is a phenomenon, he thought that all species in a family came from the same parent form.
Despite his clear academic manner, Linnaeus was never one of those armchair thinkers who were disconnected from nature. Nobody could describe the beauty of nature like him, and no one could celebrate the closeness of the Creator like him.
God was everywhere in creation, and the scientist was obliged to show this. Carl Linnaeus thus followed Aristotle’s idea of the “chain of being,” catena naturae: everything in creation was arranged as angels at the top, humans, animals, plants, and inanimate matter at the bottom. There were no gaps in creation; therefore, Carl Linnaeus said, “Nature does not make jumps.”
The Economy of Nature
Oeconomia naturae (The economy of nature).
The Divine Order could be described in another way, by some kind of state of equilibrium. Carl Linnaeus discussed this in his Oeconomia naturae (The Economy of Nature), published in 1749. All living things depend on each other for survival.
The defeat and death of an individual always benefit another. What happens is a “war of all against all.” Carl Linnaeus, therefore, believed that in societies, wars broke out in the most populous areas, thereby limiting population growth.
Nature exhibits order and balance in a variety of ways. Linnaeus never stopped repeating the geographical distribution of plants and animals. Different lifestyles require different environments.
God had established different climates and environments on Earth in which all creatures could be satisfied. Due to his thoughts on distinct plants and their demanding special conditions for their survival, Carl Linnaeus can therefore be regarded as the forerunner of what we now call “ecological thinking.”
Another interesting aspect of Linnaeus was his interest in common folk beliefs and mysticism. Carl Linnaeus lived in the middle of the 18th century, when rationally enlightened belief was spreading throughout Europe, but he could be quite old-fashioned in some ways.
He believed, for example, that swallows spend the winter at the bottom of the sea. Nevertheless, he never experimented by putting a swallow underwater.
He was warm to numerology and the idea that people went through twelve periods of seven years each, such as the child losing his milk teeth at the age of seven and entering puberty at the age of fourteen.
Carl Linnaeus and His “Apostles”
Linnaeus also wrote a study on various creatures from the animal kingdom. These included not only chimpanzees and orangutans but also some animals, such as cavemen and tailed men. Of course, Linnaeus had never seen these fantasy creatures; he had only heard or read about them.
However, that did not prevent him from publishing pictures of them. While Linnaeus behaved like a rational scientist by placing man in the animal kingdom, he also believed in superstitious folk beliefs.
Linnaeus had a special relationship with his disciples. He looks at them, speaks affectionately about them, and sends them into the world to discover rare plants.
He called them “the apostles.” He had a desire to learn as much as possible about the created world, mostly about all plants and animals. He sent his apostles to every corner of the world, from Iceland in the north to Australia in the south, from Japan in the east to America in the west.
They brought what they found home to their master in Uppsala; they wrote letters and reports to him and published their findings in scientific journals and books.
Carl Linnaeus did not even go to Europe in his adult years but continued to study nature in every corner of the world through his apostles. In the last four years of his life, Linnaeus was unable to do any scientific work due to two strokes that left him semi-paralyzed. He died at the age of 71 at his home in Uppsala, quite old for his time.
FAQ
What was Carl Linnaeus’ contribution to the field of taxonomy?
Carl Linnaeus is considered to be the father of modern taxonomy. He developed a hierarchical system of classification that is still used today, which is based on similarities in physical characteristics among organisms. He also developed the binomial system of nomenclature, which is still used today to name and classify organisms.
How did Carl Linnaeus’ work influence the scientific community during his time?
Carl Linnaeus’ work had a significant impact on the scientific community during his time. His development of a systematic approach to naming and classifying organisms helped to standardize the way in which scientists discussed and studied the natural world. His ideas were widely accepted and used throughout Europe, and his system of classification remains an important tool in biology today.
What was Carl Linnaeus’ impact on the field of botany?
Carl Linnaeus is considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of botany. His classification system was based on the physical characteristics of plants, which helped simplify the study of botany. He also introduced the use of Latin as the international language for scientific names, which is still used today.
How did Carl Linnaeus’ work on the natural world relate to his religious beliefs?
Carl Linnaeus was deeply religious, and he believed that the study of the natural world was a way to understand God’s creation. He believed that each organism had a purpose and that the study of nature was a way to better understand God’s plan.
What is the legacy of Carl Linnaeus today?
Carl Linnaeus’ legacy can be seen in his enduring contributions to the field of biology. His system of classification and nomenclature is still widely used today, and his ideas have influenced generations of scientists. He is also remembered as a pioneer in the field of ecology, and his work helped to establish the importance of understanding the relationships between organisms and their environment.
References
Braziel, Jana Evans (2007). “Genre, race, erasure: a genealogical critique of “American” autobiography”.
