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121-523: A zoid contains one or more flagella for motility. In the various species that produce zoids, there is a high level of diversity in the number of flagella produced. The heterokonts generally produce zoids with 2 flagella, while the Ginkgo biloba produce zoids with tens of thousands of flagella. The position of the flagella and the arrangement of the microtubules varies among species as well. The following sections will briefly outline general characteristics of

242-532: A gymnosperm . The apricot-like structures produced by female ginkgo trees are technically not fruits , but are seeds that have a shell consisting of a soft and fleshy section (the sarcotesta ), and a hard section (the sclerotesta ). The sarcotesta has a strong smell that most people find unpleasant. The ginkgo is classified in its own division , the Ginkgophyta, comprising the single class Ginkgoopsida, order Ginkgoales, family Ginkgoaceae , genus Ginkgo and

363-625: A broadly wedge-shaped leaf that lacks a distinct leaf stem. Fossils attributable to the genus Ginkgo first appeared in the Middle Jurassic . The genus Ginkgo diversified and spread throughout Laurasia during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous . The Ginkgophyta declined in diversity as the Cretaceous progressed, and by the Paleocene , Ginkgo adiantoides was the only Ginkgo species left in

484-505: A central axis. Sex conversion, wherein certain branches of a tree change sexes, has been observed. This phenomenon is difficult to research because of its rarity as well as the practice of grafting female branches onto otherwise male trees that was common in 19th century Europe. Female plants do not produce cones. Two ovules are formed at the end of a stalk, and after wind pollination , one or both develop into fruit -like structures containing seeds. The fruits are 1.5–2 cm long, with

605-617: A considerable number of antibacterial and chemical defense mechanisms. 76.58% of the assembled sequence turned out to be repetitive sequences. In 2020, a study in China of ginkgo trees up to 667 years old showed little effects of aging, finding that the trees continued to grow with age and displayed no genetic evidence of senescence , and continued to make phytochemicals indefinitely. Extracts of ginkgo leaves contain phenolic acids , proanthocyanidins , flavonoid glycosides , such as myricetin , kaempferol , isorhamnetin , and quercetin , and

726-452: A disincentive to local relief efforts. Due to poor weather conditions, the first shipment did not arrive in Ireland until the beginning of February 1846. The initial shipments were of unground dried kernels, but the few Irish mills in operation were not equipped for milling maize and a long and complicated milling process had to be adopted before the meal could be distributed. In addition, before

847-519: A family. Shortly before the famine, the British government reported that poverty was so widespread that one-third of all Irish small holdings could not support the tenant families after rent was paid; the families survived only by earnings as seasonal migrant labour in England and Scotland. Following the famine, reforms were implemented making it illegal to further divide land holdings. The 1841 census showed

968-571: A fungus). In 1851, the Census of Ireland Commissioners recorded 24 failures of the potato crop going back to 1728, of varying severity. General crop failures, through disease or frost, were recorded in 1739, 1740, 1770, 1800, and 1807. In 1821 and 1822, the potato crop failed in Munster and Connaught . In 1830 and 1831, counties Mayo , Donegal , and Galway suffered likewise. In 1832, 1833, 1834, and 1836, dry rot and curl caused serious losses, and in 1835

1089-509: A garden crop of the gentry . By the late 17th century, it had become widespread as a supplementary food; their main diet was still based on butter, milk, and grain products. The Irish economy grew between 1760 and 1815 due to infrastructure expansion and the Napoleonic Wars (1805–1815), which had increased the demand for food in Britain. Tillage increased to such an extent that there was only

1210-885: A greater genetic diversity in Southwestern China populations, supporting glacial refugia in mountains surrounding the eastern Tibetan Plateau , where several old-growth candidates for wild populations have been reported. Recently, the findings of Ginkgo trees aged 1,500 years in Samcheok-si , Korea (the Neukguri Ginkgo, designated as Korea's natural artifact in 1986), and aged 1,200 in Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Japan have discredited theories claiming Chinese origins of Ginkgo. Whether native ginkgo populations still exist has not been demonstrated unequivocally, but there

1331-414: A lack of genetic variability among potato plants, which increased vulnerability to disease. Potatoes were essential to the expansion of the cottier system ; they supported an extremely cheap workforce, but at the cost of lower living standards. For the labourer, "a potato wage" shaped the expanding agrarian economy. The potato was also used extensively as a fodder crop for livestock immediately prior to

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1452-568: A long period, the seeds may cause poisoning by ginkgotoxin (4'-O-methylpyridoxine, MPN), as found in a few case reports . A heat-stable compound not destroyed by cooking, MPN may cause convulsions, which were alleviated by treatment with pyridoxine phosphate (vitamin B6), according to limited studies. Great Famine (Ireland) The Great Famine , also known as the Great Hunger ( Irish : an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ] ),

1573-511: A mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws , the latter through soup kitchens . The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants or providing some relief through the conversionist practice of Souperism . On 1 March 1847,

1694-420: A parallel in the world. It allowed proprietors to suck the very life-blood of that wretched race". The "Gregory clause" of the Poor Law, named after William H. Gregory , MP, prohibited anyone who held at least 1 ⁄ 4 acre (0.1 ha) from receiving relief. In practice, this meant that the many farmers who had to sell all their produce to pay rent and taxes, would have to deliver up all their land to

1815-572: A peasantry created which was one of the most destitute in Europe". Immense population growth , from about 2 million in 1700 to 8 million by the time of the Great Famine, led to increased division of holdings and a consequent reduction in their average size. By 1845, 24% of all Irish tenant farms were of 0.4–2 hectares (1–5 acres) in size, while 40% were of 2–6 hectares (5–15 acres). Holdings were so small that no crop other than potatoes would suffice to feed

1936-402: A population of just over eight million. Two-thirds of people depended on agriculture for their survival but rarely received a working wage. They had to work for their landlords in return for a small patch of land to farm. This forced Ireland's peasantry to practice continuous monoculture , as the potato was the only crop that could meet nutritional needs. The potato was introduced in Ireland as

2057-485: A practice known as "tenant right" , a tenant was compensated for any improvement they made to their holding. According to Woodham-Smith, the commission stated that "the superior prosperity and tranquillity of Ulster, compared with the rest of Ireland, were due to tenant right". Landlords in Ireland often used their powers without compunction , and tenants lived in dread of them. Woodham-Smith writes that, in these circumstances, "industry and enterprise were extinguished and

2178-419: A short shoot may change into a long (ordinary) shoot, or vice versa. Ginkgo prefers full sun and grows best in environments that are well-watered and well-drained. The species shows a preference for disturbed sites; in the "semiwild" stands at Tianmu Mountains , many specimens are found along stream banks, rocky slopes, and cliff edges. Accordingly, ginkgo retains a prodigious capacity for vegetative growth. It

2299-474: A single species may exist as a contiguous entity for many millions of years, many of the ginkgo's life-history parameters fit: Extreme longevity; slow reproduction rate; (in Cenozoic and later times) a wide, apparently contiguous, but steadily contracting distribution; and (as far as can be demonstrated from the fossil record) extreme ecological conservatism (restriction to disturbed streamside environments). Given

2420-481: A small amount of land available to small farmers to feed themselves. The potato was adopted as a primary food source because of its quick growth in a comparatively small space. By 1800, the potato had become a staple food for one in three Irish people, especially in winter. It eventually became a staple year-round for farmers. A disproportionate share of the potatoes grown in Ireland were the Irish Lumper , creating

2541-564: A soft, fleshy, yellow-brown outer layer (the sarcotesta ) that is attractive in appearance, but contains butyric acid (also known as butanoic acid) and smells foul like rancid butter or vomit when fallen. Beneath the sarcotesta is the hard sclerotesta (the "shell" of the seed) and a papery endotesta , with the nucellus surrounding the female gametophyte at the center. The fertilization of ginkgo seeds occurs via motile sperm, as in cycads, ferns, mosses, and algae. The sperm are large (about 70–90 micrometres) and are similar to

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2662-410: Is a deep saffron yellow . Leaves of long shoots are usually notched or lobed, but only from the outer surface, between the veins. They are borne both on the more rapidly growing branch tips, where they are alternate and spaced out, and also on the short, stubby spur shoots, where they are clustered at the tips. Leaves are green both on the top and bottom and have stomata on both sides. During autumn,

2783-574: Is always denoted with a capital letter to express its specific historic meaning. The period of the potato blight in Ireland from 1845 to 1851 was full of political confrontation. A more radical Young Ireland group seceded from the Repeal movement in July 1846, and attempted an armed rebellion in 1848 . It was unsuccessful. In 1847, William Smith O'Brien , leader of the Young Ireland party, became one of

2904-518: Is called 'cholera' in potatoes in Ireland, especially in the north". On 13 September, The Gardeners' Chronicle announced: "We stop the Press with very great regret to announce that the potato Murrain has unequivocally declared itself in Ireland." Nevertheless, the British government remained optimistic over the next few weeks, as it received conflicting reports. Only when the crop was harvested in October did

3025-421: Is capable of sprouting from embedded buds near the base of the trunk ( lignotubers , or basal chichi) in response to disturbances, such as soil erosion. Old specimens are also capable of producing aerial roots on the undersides of large branches in response to disturbances such as crown damage; these roots can lead to successful clonal reproduction upon contacting the soil. These strategies are evidently important in

3146-601: Is common in the southern third of the country. Some planted trees at temples are believed to be over 1,500 years old. The first record of Europeans encountering it is in 1690 in Japanese temple gardens , where the tree was seen by the German botanist Engelbert Kaempfer . Because of its status in Buddhism and Confucianism , the ginkgo has also been widely planted in Korea and in Japan since

3267-432: Is considered that he may have misspelled "Ginkjo" or "Ginkio" (both consistent with his treatment of Japanese kyō in the same work) as "Ginkgo". This misspelling was included by Linnaeus in his book Mantissa plantarum II and has become the name of the tree's genus. The specific epithet biloba is New Latin for "two-lobed". Although Ginkgo biloba and other species of the genus were once widespread throughout

3388-410: Is due to a complicated etymology including a transcription error, "ginkgo" is usually pronounced / ˈ ɡ ɪ ŋ k oʊ / , which has given rise to the common alternative spelling "gingko". The spelling pronunciation / ˈ ɡ ɪ ŋ k ɡ oʊ / is also documented in some dictionaries. Engelbert Kaempfer first introduced the spelling ginkgo in his book Amoenitatum Exoticarum of 1712. It

3509-452: Is genetic evidence that these Southwestern populations may be wild, as well as evidence that the largest and oldest G. biloba trees may be older than surrounding human settlements. Where it occurs in the wild, Ginkgo is found infrequently in deciduous forests and valleys on acidic loess (i.e. fine, silty soil) with good drainage. The soil it inhabits is typically in the pH range of 5.0 to 5.5. Ginkgo has long been cultivated in China. It

3630-677: Is highly tolerant to pollution and serves as a visually appealing, shade-providing tree in many cities and gardens. Many intentionally planted ginkgos are male cultivars grafted onto plants propagated from seed, because the male trees will not produce the malodorous seeds. The popular cultivar 'Autumn Gold' is a clone of a male plant. The disadvantage of male Ginkgo biloba trees is that they are highly allergenic. They have an OPALS ( Ogren Plant Allergy Scale ) rating of 7 (out of 10), whereas female trees, which can produce no pollen , have an OPALS allergy scale rating of 2. Female cultivars include 'Liberty Splendor', 'Santa Cruz', and 'Golden Girl',

3751-493: Is part of the phylum Chlorophyta . Brown algae ( Phaeophyceae ) reproduce both sexually and asexually depending on the species. However, all motile reproductive cells in the Class are flagellated and there are no free-living flagellate organisms. The structure of brown algae varies depending on Family and Genus, thus zoids are produced in a variety of ways. Gametes or asexual zoospores can be produced in plurilocular zoidangia in

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3872-796: Is rare in angiosperms. Along the same lines, the Ginkgo is a species that has no close living relative. It is believed to be most closely related to the giant seed ferns which date back to the Jurassic period. This represents what would also be considered a "lower" land plant. Ginkgo were originally classified in the Taxaceae , or yew, family. When it was discovered that ginkgo had motile sperm, they were moved to their own family, Ginkgoaceae . Ginkgo biloba Ginkgo biloba , commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( / ˈ ɡ ɪ ŋ k oʊ , ˈ ɡ ɪ ŋ k ɡ oʊ / GINK -oh, -⁠goh ), also known as

3993-452: Is the only extant species within this group. It is one of the best-known examples of a living fossil , because Ginkgoales other than G. biloba are not known from the fossil record after the Pliocene . Ginkgo biloba is a living fossil , with fossils recognisably related to modern ginkgo from the early Permian ( Cisuralian ), with likely oldest record being that of Trichopitys from

4114-464: Is usually deep-rooted and resistant to wind and snow damage. Young trees are often tall and slender, and sparsely branched; the crown becomes broader as the tree ages. A combination of resistance to disease, insect-resistant wood, and the ability to form aerial roots and sprouts makes ginkgos durable, with some specimens claimed to be more than 2,500 years old. The leaves are unique among seed plants, being fan-shaped with veins radiating out into

4235-502: Is widely regarded as a living fossil . The plant may be toxic or allergenic in certain cases. Leaf extract is commonly used as a dietary supplement , but there is insufficient clinical evidence that it supports human health or is effective against any disease. Ginkgos are large trees, normally reaching a height of 20–35 m (66–115 ft), with some specimens in China being over 50 m (165 ft). The tree has an angular crown and long, somewhat erratic branches, and

4356-459: The Earl of Lucan owned more than 60,000 acres (240 km ). Many of these landowners lived in England and functioned as absentee landlords . The rent revenue—collected from impoverished tenants who were paid minimal wages to raise crops and livestock for export —was mostly sent to England. In 1800, the 1st Earl of Clare observed of landlords that "confiscation is their common title". According to

4477-683: The House of Commons of the United Kingdom , and Irish representative peers elected 28 of their own number to sit for life in the House of Lords . Between 1832 and 1859, 70% of Irish representatives were landowners or the sons of landowners. In the 40 years that followed the union, successive British governments grappled with the problems of governing a country which had, as Benjamin Disraeli stated in 1844, "a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, an alien established Protestant church , and in addition,

4598-640: The Isle of Wight . A week later, on 23 August, it reported that "A fearful malady has broken out among the potato crop ... In Belgium the fields are said to be completely desolated. There is hardly a sound sample in Covent Garden market  ... As for cure for this distemper, there is none." These reports were extensively covered in Irish newspapers. On 11 September, the Freeman's Journal reported on "the appearance of what

4719-534: The Lord Mayor , went to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Heytesbury to discuss the issue. They offered suggestions such as opening the ports to foreign corn, stopping distillation from grain, prohibiting the export of foodstuffs, and providing employment through public works. Lord Heytesbury urged them not to be alarmed, that they "were premature", that scientists were enquiring into all those matters, and that

4840-572: The Northern Hemisphere , while a markedly different (and poorly documented) form persisted in the Southern Hemisphere . Along with that of ferns, cycads, and cycadeoids, the species diversity in the genus Ginkgo drops through the Cretaceous, at the same time the flowering plants were on the rise; this supports the hypothesis that, over time, flowering plants with better adaptations to disturbance displaced Ginkgo and its associates. At

4961-894: The Toluca Valley in Mexico, whence it spread within North America and then to Europe. The 1845–1846 blight was caused by the HERB-1 strain of the blight. In 1844, Irish newspapers carried reports concerning a disease that had attacked the potato crops in America for two years. In 1843 and 1844, blight largely destroyed the potato crops in the Eastern United States. Ships from Baltimore , Philadelphia , or New York City could have carried diseased potatoes from these areas to European ports. American plant pathologist William C. Paddock posited that

Zoid - Misplaced Pages Continue

5082-642: The heterokonts mentioned above. Oomycota or water molds are a group of potentially pathogenic fungi-like eukaryotic organisms that utilize bi-flagellate zoids as their reproductive spores. The zoids are only released in aquatic environments. These oomycetes have been responsible for disease outbreaks such as sudden oak death and the Great Famine of Ireland ( early blight ). Zoids are found in three types of vascular plants; ferns , cycads , and Ginkgo biloba . The zoids of each of these groups are large and multi-flagellated. The mature spermatozoids of

5203-433: The maidenhair tree , is a species of gymnosperm tree native to East Asia . It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales , which first appeared over 290 million years ago, and fossils very similar to the living species, belonging to the genus Ginkgo , extend back to the Middle Jurassic epoch approximately 170 million years ago. The tree was cultivated early in human history and remains commonly planted, and

5324-498: The second reading of the government's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated by 73 votes in the House of Commons by a combination of Whigs , Radicals , Irish Repealers, and protectionist Conservatives. Peel was forced to resign as prime minister on 29 June, and the Whig leader, Lord John Russell , became prime minister. The measures undertaken by Peel's successor, Russell, proved inadequate as

5445-527: The terpene trilactones ginkgolides and bilobalides . The leaves also contain unique ginkgo biflavones , alkylphenols , and polyprenols . The older Chinese name for this plant is 銀果, meaning "silver fruit", pronounced yínguǒ in Mandarin or Ngan-gwo in Cantonese. The current commonly used names are 白果 ( bái guǒ ), meaning "white fruit", and 銀杏 ( yínxìng ), meaning "silver apricot ". The name 銀杏

5566-540: The 14th century, and a 1990 tree-ring measurement indicated the kakure-ichō's age to be about 500 years. On 10 March 2010, the tree blew down in a storm, but the stump has since sprouted vigorously. The grounds of the Buddhist temple at Gu Guanyin in the Zhongnan Mountains feature a ginkgo tree reputed to be 1,400 years old. The tree itself is a popular tourist attraction. When eaten in large quantities or over

5687-455: The 14th century; in both areas, some naturalization has occurred, with ginkgos seeding into natural forests. Ginkgo has been commonly cultivated in North America for over 200 years and in Europe for close to 300, but during that time, it has never become significantly naturalized . G. biloba is also commonly manually planted in cities across the United States and Europe. This species

5808-557: The Bank of England announced plans to raise a loan of £14 million to relieve the Irish crisis, and also for unfunded tax cuts. This led to the Panic of 1847 , in which gold was withdrawn from circulation, so reducing the amount of bank notes that the Bank could legally circulate. By 17 April 1847 the bullion reserve of the Bank of England had diminished from £15 million in January to some £9 million, and it

5929-764: The Famine and the Irish Potato Famine , was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. The most severely affected areas were in the western and southern parts of Ireland — where the Irish language was dominant — hence the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as an Drochshaol , which literally translates to "the bad life" and loosely translates to "the hard times". The worst year of

6050-571: The Inspectors of Constabulary and Stipendiary Magistrates were charged with making constant reports from their districts, and there was no "immediate pressure on the market". On 8 December 1845, Daniel O'Connell, head of the Repeal Association , proposed several remedies to the pending disaster. One of the first things he suggested was the introduction of Tenant-Right as practised in Ulster, giving

6171-800: The Northern Hemisphere through the entirety of the Cenozoic : present-day G. biloba (including G. adiantoides ) and G. gardneri from the Paleocene of Scotland . At least morphologically, G. gardneri and the Southern Hemisphere species are the only known post-Jurassic taxa that can be unequivocally recognised. The remainder may have been ecotypes or subspecies . The implications would be that G. biloba had occurred over an extremely wide range, had remarkable genetic flexibility and, though evolving genetically, never showed much speciation . While it may seem improbable that

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6292-548: The Pale (i.e., before the union with Great Britain in 1801) had adopted in periods of distress. Contemporaneously, as found in letters from the period and in particular later oral memory, the name for the event is in Irish : An Drochshaol , though with the earlier spelling standard of the era , which was Gaelic script , it is found written as in Droċ-Ṡaoġal. In the modern era, this name, while loosely translated as "the hard-time",

6413-536: The archegonia, of which there are usually two or three. Two sperm are produced, one of which successfully fertilizes the ovule. Fertilization of ginkgo seeds occurs just before or after they fall in early autumn. Embryos may develop in the seeds before or after they drop from the tree. Chinese scientists published a draft genome of Ginkgo biloba in 2016. The tree has a large genome of 10.6 billion DNA nucleobase "letters" (the human genome has three billion) and about 41,840 predicted genes which enable

6534-571: The blast). The six trees are still alive: They are marked with signs at Housenbou ( 報専坊 ) temple (planted in 1850), Shukkei-en (planted about 1740), Jōsei-ji (planted 1900), at the former site of Senda Elementary School near Miyukibashi, at the Myōjōin temple , and an Edo period -cutting at Anraku-ji temple. At the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's shrine in the city of Kamakura , Kanagawa Prefecture , Japan, an ancient ginkgo tree stands beside

6655-475: The blight was transported via potatoes being carried to feed passengers on clipper ships sailing from America to Ireland. Once introduced in Ireland and Europe, blight spread rapidly. By mid-August 1845, it had reached much of northern and central Europe; Belgium, The Netherlands, northern France, and southern England had all already been affected. On 16 August 1845, The Gardeners' Chronicle and Horticultural Gazette reported "a blight of unusual character" on

6776-409: The branches except on first-year growth. Because of the short internodes, leaves appear to be clustered at the tips of short shoots, and reproductive structures are formed only on them (see pictures below – seeds and leaves are visible on short shoots). In ginkgos, as in other plants that possess them, short shoots allow the formation of new leaves in the older parts of the crown. After a number of years,

6897-403: The classification of different types of green alga. Zoids are either released through pores or by lysing of the zoid-producing cells in either the gametangium or the sporangium. A majority of the zoids produced within this group are either bi-flagellate or quadri-flagellate. To represent the diversity of zoids found in green alga, below is a list of genera from the family Monostromataceae which

7018-632: The conditions that led to the famine. However, it was asserted that, since the Acts of Union 1800 , the British Parliament was partly to blame. This point was raised in The Illustrated London News on 13 February 1847: "There was no law it would not pass at their request, and no abuse it would not defend for them." On 24 March, The Times reported that Britain had permitted in Ireland "a mass of poverty, disaffection, and degradation without

7139-472: The cornmeal could be consumed, it had to be "very much" cooked again, or eating it could result in severe bowel complaints. Due to its yellow colour, and initial unpopularity, it became known as "Peel's brimstone". In October 1845, Peel moved to repeal the Corn Laws — tariffs on grain which kept the price of bread high—but the issue split his party and he had insufficient support from his own colleagues to push

7260-438: The crisis deepened. The new Whig administration, influenced by the doctrine of laissez-faire , believed that the market would provide the food needed. They refused to interfere with the movement of food to England, and then halted the previous government's food and relief works, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people without access to work, money, or food. Russell's ministry introduced a new programme of public works that by

7381-452: The destruction of a country". As any improvement made on a holding by a tenant became the property of the landlord when the lease expired or was terminated, the incentive to make improvements was limited. Most tenants had no security of tenure on the land; as tenants "at will", they could be turned out whenever the landlord chose. The only exception to this arrangement was in Ulster where, under

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7502-406: The diatoms as in the algal families. Diatoms are generally broken into two categories, the centric diatoms and the pennate diatoms. Of these two categories, only the centric diatoms have been found to produce zoids and only the male gametes have flagella. These motile, male gametes have been found to only possess one flagellum with no signs of even a rudimentary second flagella. This deviates from

7623-512: The earlier Salisburia adiantifolia proposed by James Edward Smith . The epithet of the latter may have been intended to denote a characteristic resembling Adiantum , the genus of maidenhair ferns. The scientific name Ginkgo is the result of a spelling error that occurred three centuries ago. Kanji typically have multiple pronunciations in Japanese, and the characters 銀杏 used for ginnan can also be pronounced ginkyō . Engelbert Kaempfer ,

7744-480: The earliest Permian ( Asselian ) of France, over 290 million years old. The closest living relatives of the clade are the cycads , which share with the extant G. biloba the characteristic of motile sperm. Such plants with leaves that have more than four veins per segment have customarily been assigned to the taxon Ginkgo , while the taxon Baiera is used to classify those with fewer than four veins per segment. Sphenobaiera has been used for plants with

7865-483: The end of December 1846 employed some half a million but proved impossible to administer. Charles Trevelyan , who was in charge of the administration of government relief, limited the Government's food aid programme, claiming that food would be readily imported into Ireland once people had more money to spend after wages were being paid on new public-works projects. In a private correspondence, Trevelyan explained how

7986-422: The end of the Pliocene , Ginkgo fossils disappeared from the fossil record everywhere except in a small area of central China , where the modern species survived. It is doubtful whether the Northern Hemisphere fossil species of Ginkgo can be reliably distinguished. Given the slow pace of evolution and morphological similarity between members of the genus, there may have been only one or two species existing in

8107-506: The evictions of farmers; the consequent reduction in homelessness and house demolition resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of deaths. Ireland was brought into the United Kingdom in January 1801 following the passage of the Acts of Union . Executive power lay in the hands of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Chief Secretary for Ireland , who were appointed by the British government. Ireland sent 105 members of parliament to

8228-418: The extremely similar fossil Ginkgo favored similar environments: The sediment record at the majority of fossil Ginkgo localities indicates it grew primarily in disturbed environments , such as along streams. Ginkgo , therefore, presents an "ecological paradox" because while it possesses some favorable traits for living in disturbed environments (clonal reproduction) many of its other life-history traits are

8349-461: The famine and the refusal of London to bar such exports, as had been done on previous occasions, was an immediate and continuing source of controversy, contributing to anti-British sentiment and the campaign for independence. Additionally, the famine indirectly resulted in tens of thousands of households being evicted , exacerbated by a provision forbidding access to workhouse aid while in possession of more than one-quarter acre of land. The famine

8470-514: The famine could bring benefit to the English; As he wrote to Edward Twisleton : "We must not complain of what we really want to obtain. If small farmers go, and their landlords are reduced to sell portions of their estates to persons who will invest capital we shall at last arrive at something like a satisfactory settlement of the country". In January 1847, the government abandoned its policy of noninterference, realising that it had failed, and turned to

8591-447: The famine entered folk memory . The strained relations between many Irish people and the then ruling British government worsened further because of the famine, heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions and boosting nationalism and republicanism both in Ireland and among Irish emigrants around the world. English documentary maker John Percival said that the famine "became part of the long story of betrayal and exploitation which led to

8712-590: The famine was 1847, which became known as "Black '47". The population of Ireland on the eve of the famine was about 8.5 million, by 1901 it was just 4.4 million. During the Great Hunger, roughly 1 million people died and more than 1 million more fled the country , causing the country's population to fall by 20–25% (in some towns, populations fell as much as 67%) between 1841 and 1871. Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, primarily on packet ships but also on steamboats and barques —one of

8833-505: The famine. Approximately 33% of production, amounting to 5,000,000 short tons (4,500,000  t ), was typically used in this way. Prior to the arrival of Phytophthora infestans , commonly known as "blight", only two main potato plant diseases had been discovered. One was called "dry rot" or "taint", and the other was a virus known popularly as "curl". Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete (a variety of parasitic, non-photosynthetic organisms closely related to brown algae , and not

8954-543: The fern Asplenium onopteris are 8 to 8.5 micrometers in length and contain 50 flagella. The zoid of the cycad can be up to 300 to 500 micrometers long and can contain thousands of flagella. The zoid of the ginkgo is approximately 86 micrometers long and also can contain thousands of flagella. Because of the high number of flagella associated with both cycads and ginkgo, there has been some debate as to whether they are flagella or cilia. Either way, cycads and Ginkgo are rare woody plants that produce motile gametes. In plants,

9075-567: The first Westerner to investigate the species in 1690, wrote down this pronunciation in the notes that he later used for the Amoenitates Exoticae (1712) with the "awkward" spelling "ginkgo". This appears to be a simple error of Kaempfer; taking his spelling of other Japanese words containing the syllable "kyō" into account, a more precise romanization following his writing habits would have been "ginkio" or "ginkjo". Linnaeus, who relied on Kaempfer when dealing with Japanese plants, adopted

9196-479: The first deaths from starvation were recorded. Seed potatoes were scarce in 1847. Few had been sown, so, despite average yields, hunger continued. 1848 yields were only two-thirds of normal. Since over three million Irish people were totally dependent on potatoes for food, hunger and famine were widespread. The Corporation of Dublin sent a memorial to the Queen, "praying her" to call Parliament together early (Parliament

9317-448: The first widely circulated tracts on the famine, The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) , published in 1861. It proposed that British actions during the famine and their treatment of the Irish were a deliberate effort at genocide. It contained a sentence that has since become famous: "The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine." Mitchel was charged with sedition because of his writings, but this charge

9438-608: The founding members of the Irish Confederation to campaign for a Repeal of the Act of Union, and called for the export of grain to be stopped and the ports closed. The following year, he helped organise the short-lived Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 in County Tipperary . When Ireland experienced food shortages in 1782–1783, ports were closed to exporting food, with the intention of keeping locally grown food in Ireland to feed

9559-503: The ginkgo's tenacity may be seen in Hiroshima , Japan, where six trees growing between 1 and 2 kilometres ( 1 ⁄ 2 and 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 miles) from the 1945 atom bomb explosion were among the few living organisms in the area to survive the blast. Although almost all other plants (and animals) in the area were killed, the ginkgos, though charred, survived and were soon healthy again, among other hibakujumoku (trees that survived

9680-490: The greatest exoduses from a single island in history. The proximate cause of the famine was the infection of potato crops by blight ( Phytophthora infestans ) throughout Europe during the 1840s. Blight infection caused 100,000 deaths outside Ireland and influenced much of the unrest that culminated in European Revolutions of 1848 . Longer-term reasons for the massive impact of this particular famine included

9801-451: The growing movement in Ireland for independence." Scholar Kirby Miller makes the same point. Debate exists regarding nomenclature for the event, whether to use the term "Famine", "Potato Famine" or "Great Hunger", the last of which some believe most accurately captures the complicated history of the period. The potato blight returned to Europe in 1879 but, by this time, the Land War (one of

9922-540: The historian Cecil Woodham-Smith , landlords regarded the land as a source of income, from which as much as possible was to be extracted. With the peasantry "brooding over their discontent in sullen indignation" (in the words of the Earl of Clare), the landlords largely viewed the countryside as a hostile place in which to live. Some landlords visited their property only once or twice in a lifetime, if ever. The rents from Ireland were generally spent elsewhere; an estimated £6,000,000

10043-768: The hungry. Irish food prices promptly dropped. Some merchants lobbied against the export ban, but the government in the 1780s overrode their protests. Historian F. S. L. Lyons characterised the initial response of the British government to the early, less severe phase of the famine as "prompt and relatively successful". Confronted by widespread crop failure in November 1845, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, purchased £100,000 worth of maize and cornmeal secretly from America with Baring Brothers initially acting as his agents. The government hoped that they would not "stifle private enterprise" and that their actions would not act as

10164-459: The landlord a fair rent for his land, but giving the tenant compensation for any money he might have laid out on the land in permanent improvements. O'Connell noted actions taken by the Belgian legislature during the same season, as they had also been hit by blight: shutting their ports against the export of provisions and opening them to imports. He suggested that, if Ireland had a domestic Parliament,

10285-407: The landlord of a regular income and relieved them of direct responsibility while leaving tenants open to exploitation by the middlemen. The ability of middlemen was measured by the rent income they could contrive to extract from tenants. Middlemen leased large tracts of land from the landlords on long leases with fixed rents and sublet to tenants, keeping any money raised in excess to the rent paid to

10406-542: The landlord to qualify for public outdoor relief. Of this Law, Mitchel wrote that "it is the able-bodied idler only who is to be fed—if he attempted to till but one rood of ground, he dies". This simple method of ejectment was called "passing paupers through the workhouse"—a man went in, a pauper came out. These factors combined to drive thousands of people off the land: 90,000 in 1849, and 104,000 in 1850. The Incumbered Estates (Ireland) Act 1849 ( 12 & 13 Vict. c. 77) allowed landlord estates to be auctioned off upon

10527-525: The landlord while the spalpeens (itinerant labourers) paid for short-term leases through temporary day work. A majority of Catholics, who constituted 80% of the Irish population, lived in conditions of poverty and insecurity. At the top of the social hierarchy was the Ascendancy class , composed of English and Anglo-Irish families who owned most of the land and held more or less unchecked power over their tenants. Some of their estates were vast; for example,

10648-433: The landlord. This system, coupled with minimal oversight of the middlemen, incentivised harsh exploitation of tenants. Middlemen would split a holding into smaller and smaller parcels so as to increase the amount of rent they could obtain. Tenants could be evicted for reasons such as non-payment of rents (which were high), or a landlord's decision to raise sheep instead of grain crops . Cottiers paid their rent by working for

10769-510: The larger thalli of brown alga. However, in smaller thalli , unilocular zoidangia produce the sexually or asexually reproductive cells. Below is some vocabulary associated with brown algal zoid production: Brown alga zoids have the same two basic flagella discussed in the heterokont section. However, orientation of the flagella is unique in the Phaeophyceae . In general, the flagella are both inserted laterally. Zoids are not as common in

10890-626: The largest agrarian movements to take place in 19th-century Europe) had begun in Ireland. The movement, organized by the Land League , continued the political campaign for the Three Fs which was issued in 1850 by the Tenant Right League during the Great Famine. When the potato blight returned to Ireland in the 1879 famine , the League boycotted "notorious landlords" and its members physically blocked

11011-825: The latter so named because of the striking yellow color of its leaves in the fall; all female cultivars release zero pollen. Many cultivars are listed in the literature in the UK , of which the compact 'Troll' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society 's Award of Garden Merit . Ginkgos adapt well to the urban environment, tolerating pollution and confined soil spaces. They rarely have disease problems, even in urban conditions, and are attacked by few insects. Ginkgos are popular subjects for growing as miniature landscapes known as penjing and bonsai ; they can be kept artificially small and tended over centuries. The trees are easy to propagate from seed. Extreme examples of

11132-497: The leaf blade, sometimes bifurcating (splitting), but never anastomosing to form a network. Two veins enter the leaf blade at the base and fork repeatedly in two; this is known as dichotomous venation . The leaves are usually 5–10 cm (2–4 in), but sometimes up to 15 cm (6 in) long. The old common name, maidenhair tree , derives from the leaves resembling pinnae of the maidenhair fern, Adiantum capillus-veneris . Ginkgos are prized for their autumn foliage, which

11253-521: The leaves turn a bright yellow and then fall, sometimes within a short space of time (one to fifteen days). Ginkgo branches grow in length by growth of shoots with regularly spaced leaves, as seen on most trees. From the axils of these leaves, "spur shoots" (also known as short shoots) develop on second-year growth. Short shoots have short internodes (they may grow only one to two centimeters in several years) and their leaves are usually unlobed. They are short and knobby, and are arranged regularly on

11374-405: The male zoids must swim from the antheridia to the archegonia. These zoids are generally bi-flagellate but this can vary species to species. Fungi are a very diverse group of organisms with very diverse life cycles. Most reproduce using spores and many do not utilize zoids for their reproduction. However, one particular class of organisms that is very closely related to fungi use a similar zoid to

11495-591: The measure through. He resigned the premiership in December, but the opposition was unable to form a government and he was re-appointed. In March, Peel set up a programme of public works in Ireland, but the famine situation worsened during 1846, and the repeal of the Corn Laws in that year did little to help the starving Irish; the measure split the Conservative Party, leading to the fall of Peel's ministry. On 25 June,

11616-558: The opposite of those exhibited by modern plants that thrive in disturbed settings (slow growth, large seed size, late reproductive maturity). The genus name is regarded as a misspelling of the Japanese pronunciation gin kyō ( [ɡiŋkʲoː] ) for the kanji 銀杏 meaning " silver apricot ", which is found in Chinese herbology literature such as 日用本草 (Daily Use Materia Medica ) (1329) and Compendium of Materia Medica 本草綱目 published in 1578. Despite its spelling, which

11737-451: The patient endurance which the labouring classes have exhibited under sufferings greater, we believe, than the people of any other country in Europe have to sustain". The Commission stated that bad relations between landlord and tenant were principally responsible for this suffering. Landlords were described in evidence before the commission as "land sharks", "bloodsuckers", and "the most oppressive species of tyrant that ever lent assistance to

11858-454: The persistence of ginkgo; in a survey of the "semiwild" stands remaining in Tianmushan , 40% of the specimens surveyed were multi-stemmed, and few saplings were present. Ginkgo biloba is dioecious , with separate sexes , some trees being female and others being male . Male plants produce small pollen cones with sporophylls , each bearing two microsporangia spirally arranged around

11979-502: The ports would be thrown open and the abundant crops raised in Ireland would be kept for the people of Ireland, as the Dublin parliament had done during the food shortages of the 1780s. O'Connell maintained that only an Irish parliament would provide both food and employment for the people. He said that repeal of the Act of Union was a necessity and Ireland's only hope. Mitchel later wrote one of

12100-406: The potato failed in Ulster. Widespread failures throughout Ireland occurred in 1836, 1837, 1839, 1841, and 1844. According to Woodham-Smith, "the unreliability of the potato was an accepted fact in Ireland". Experts are still unsure of how and when blight arrived in Europe; it almost certainly was not present prior to 1842, and probably arrived in 1844. The origin of the pathogen has been traced to

12221-459: The privations which they [the Irish labourer and his family] habitually and silently endure ... in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water ... their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather ... a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury ... and nearly in all their pig and a manure heap constitute their only property. The Commissioners concluded they could not "forbear expressing our strong sense of

12342-577: The scale of destruction become apparent. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel wrote to Sir James Graham in mid-October that he found the reports "very alarming", but allayed his fears by claiming that there was "always a tendency to exaggeration in Irish news". Crop loss in 1845 has been estimated at anywhere from one-third to one-half of cultivated acreage. The Mansion House Committee in Dublin , to which hundreds of letters were directed from all over Ireland, claimed on 19 November 1845 to have ascertained beyond

12463-413: The shadow of a doubt that "considerably more than one-third of the entire of the potato crop ... has been already destroyed". In 1846, three-quarters of the harvest was lost to blight. By December, a third of a million destitute people were employed in public works. According to Cormac Ó Gráda , the first attack of potato blight caused considerable hardship in rural Ireland from the autumn of 1846, when

12584-589: The slow rate of evolution of the genus, Ginkgo possibly represents a pre- angiosperm strategy for survival in disturbed streamside environments. Ginkgo evolved in an era before flowering plants, when ferns , cycads , and cycadeoids dominated disturbed streamside environments, forming low, open, shrubby canopies. Ginkgo 's large seeds and habit of "bolting" – growing to a height of 10 meters before elongating its side branches – may be adaptations to such an environment. Modern-day G. biloba grows best in environments that are well-watered and drained, and

12705-511: The spelling given in Kaempfer's "Flora Japonica" ( Amoenitates Exoticae , p. 811). Kaempfer's drawing can be found in Hori's article. The relationship of ginkgo to other plant groups remains uncertain. It has been placed loosely in the divisions Spermatophyta and Pinophyta , but no consensus has been reached. Since its seeds are not protected by an ovary wall, it can morphologically be considered

12826-426: The sperm of cycads, which are slightly larger. Ginkgo sperm were first discovered by the Japanese botanist Sakugoro Hirase in 1896. The sperm have a complex multi-layered structure, which is a continuous belt of basal bodies that form the base of several thousand flagella which have a cilia-like motion. The flagella/cilia apparatus pulls the body of the sperm forwards. The sperm have only a tiny distance to travel to

12947-477: The standard definition of a heterokont . Because of this deviation, diatoms are often classified as " stramenopiles ". Among the non-vascular plants, specifically the Bryophytes , species that sexually reproduce will utilize zoids as their gametes. Many species of Bryophytes are primarily asexually reproducing structures that reproduce by fragmentation or cloning. When the Bryophytes do reproduce sexually,

13068-425: The standard of living unbelievably low". Lectures printed in 1847 by John Hughes , Bishop of New York , are a contemporary exploration into the antecedent causes, particularly the political climate, in which the Irish famine occurred. The "middleman system" for managing landed property was introduced in the 18th century. Rent collection was left in the hands of the landlords' agents, or middlemen. This assured

13189-422: The stone entry staircase. According to legend, the tree has stood there since the founding of the shrine circa 1063. The tree is nicknamed kakure-ichō (hiding ginkgo), because of an Edo period legend in which shōgun Minamoto no Sanetomo was assassinated in 1219 by his nephew, Kugyō , who had hidden behind the tree to ambush the shōgun. Modern scholarship has established that ginkgos arrived from China in

13310-514: The system of absentee landlordism and single-crop dependence. Initial limited but constructive government actions to alleviate famine distress were ended by a new Whig administration in London, which pursued a laissez-faire economic doctrine, but also because some in power believed in divine providence or that the Irish lacked moral character , with aid only resuming to some degree later. Large amounts of food were exported from Ireland during

13431-433: The tinsel flagella, is generally longer and covered with bristles. The other flagella is typically shorter, potentially even shortened to just a basal body, and is generally smooth and whip-like. Green algae have a life cycle that includes an alternation of generations. Zoids can be found in both the haploid and the diploid phases of this life cycle in certain green alga. Number of flagella is one characteristic that aids in

13552-401: The weakest executive in the world". One historian calculated that, between 1801 and 1845, there had been 114 commissions and 61 special committees inquiring into the state of Ireland, and that "without exception their findings prophesied disaster; Ireland was on the verge of starvation, her population rapidly increasing, three-quarters of her labourers unemployed, housing conditions appalling and

13673-791: The world, its habitat had shrunk by two million years ago. For centuries, it was thought to be extinct in the wild, but is now a common tree cultivated throughout eastern China, Korea, and Japan. Many municipalities in Korea and Japan use Ginkgos as street trees, and Ginkgo leaves are the emblem of prominent educational institutions such as the University of Tokyo and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. Despite their widespread habitat, high genetic uniformity exists among ginkgo trees, with some Chinese scholars suggesting that ginkgo trees in these areas may have been planted and preserved by Chinese monks over about 1,000 years. A study demonstrates

13794-482: The zoid, or swimming sperm, is considered to be a trait of the "lower" land plants. In aqueous environments, the necessity for motile reproduction is obvious, but on land this adaptation loses its relevance. The zoid is most common among the non-vascular plants and the "lower" vascular plants. It is hypothesized that as the land plants evolved enclosed ovules, the necessity for a film of water and therefore motile sperm became unnecessary. Motile, flagellated sperm or zoids

13915-401: The zoids found in each subset as well as provide specific examples. Heterokonts are a diverse group of eukaryotic organisms that include diatoms , green algae , and brown algae . The defining characteristic of this group is their bi-flagellate, motile sperm (zoid). The two flagella are most commonly positioned apically or sub-apically depending on the type of heterokont . One flagella,

14036-465: Was a defining moment in the history of Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922 . The famine and its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political, and cultural landscape, producing an estimated 2 million refugees and spurring a century-long population decline . For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora,

14157-507: Was announced that the cost of famine relief would be transferred to local taxes in Ireland. The financial crisis temporarily improved, but the intended relief for Ireland did not materialise. In June 1847, the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1847 ( 10 & 11 Vict. c. 31) was passed which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property must support Irish poverty. The landed proprietors in Ireland were held in Britain to have created

14278-481: Was at this time prorogued ), and to recommend the requisition of some public money for public works, especially railways in Ireland. The Town Council of Belfast met and made similar suggestions, but neither body asked for charity, according to John Mitchel , one of the leading Repealers. In early November 1845, a deputation from the citizens of Dublin, including the Duke of Leinster , Lord Cloncurry , Daniel O'Connell and

14399-402: Was dropped. He was convicted by a packed jury under the newly enacted Treason Felony Act and sentenced to 14 years transportation to Bermuda . According to Charles Gavan Duffy , The Nation insisted that the proper remedy, retaining in the country the food raised by her people until the people were fed, was one which the rest of Europe had adopted, and one which even the parliaments of

14520-643: Was remitted out of Ireland in 1842. In 1843, the British Government recognized that the land management system in Ireland was the foundational cause of disaffection in the country. The Prime Minister established a Royal Commission , chaired by the Earl of Devon ( Devon Commission ), to enquire into the laws regarding the occupation of land. Irish politician Daniel O'Connell described this commission as "perfectly one-sided", being composed of landlords with no tenant representation. In February 1845, Devon reported: It would be impossible adequately to describe

14641-471: Was translated into Japanese as イチョウ ( ichou ) or ぎんなん ( ginnan ) and into Korean as 은행 ( eunhaeng ). Carl Linnaeus described the species in 1771, the specific epithet biloba derived from the Latin bis , "twice" and loba , "lobed", referring to the shape of the leaves. Two names for the species recognise the botanist Richard Salisbury , a placement by Nelson as Pterophyllus salisburiensis and

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