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Vitamin N-for a better life...

Time spent in the natural world can help build our physical, emotional, and family fitness. The mind/body connection, of course, is a familiar concept, but research and common sense suggest a new container: the mind/body/nature connection.
Over two thousand years ago, Chinese Taoists created gardens and greenhouses to improve human health. In 1699, the book English Gardener advised the reader to spend “spare time in the g
arden, either digging, setting out, or weeding; there is no better way to preserve your health.” And a century ago, John Muir observed that: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”
Today, the long-held belief that nature has a direct positive impact on human health is making the transition from theory to evidence and from evidence to action. Certain findings have become so convincing that some mainstream health care providers and organizations have begun to promote nature therapy for an array of illnesses and for disease prevention. And many of us, without having a name for it, are using the nature tonic. We are, in essence, self-medicating with an inexpensive and unusually convenient drug substitute. Let’s call it vitamin N — for Nature.
New research supports the contention that nature therapy helps control pain and negative stress; and for people with heart disease, dementia, and other health issues, the nature prescription has benefits that may go beyond the predictable results of outdoor exercise. The restorative power of the natural world can help us heal, even at a relative distance. On the surgical floors of a two-hundred-bed suburban Pennsylvania hospital, some rooms faced a stand of deciduous trees, while others faced a brown brick wall. Researchers found that, compared to patients with brick views, patients in rooms with tree views had shorter hospitalizations (on average, by almost one full day), less need for pain medications, and fewer negative comments in the nurses’ notes. In another study, patients undergoing bronchoscopy (a procedure that involves inserting a fiber-optic tube into the lungs) were randomly assigned to receive either sedation, or sedation plus nature contact — in this case, a mural of a mountain stream in a spring meadow and a continuous tape of complementary nature sounds (e.g., water in a stream or birds chirping). The patients with nature contact had substantially better pain control.

 http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/nature-therapy-ze0z1206zsie.aspx#ixzz2iziLGEbc

SEASONS....

 

 

SEASONAL CHANGES OF THE NATURE

 

Plants and animals are affected by the changing of the seasons. In the winter time there is less food for the animals. This forces some animals to leave the area, migrating to locations where food is more plentiful. Many birds migrate, as do reindeer and monarch butterflies. Some animals hibernate through the winter, many rodents do this as do queen bumblebees and frogs. Animals hibernate in places that are protected from the freezing weather. A woodchuck sleeps deeply all winter (hibernates) Its body is cold, and it barely breathes. It is almost impossible to awaken a hibernating animal. Still other animals make do with food that is still available in winter. Deer eat twigs and bark. Many animals give birth in spring. Thus the rapid growing period of the baby animals takes place during a time when food is most plentiful. Geese fly south where it is warmer, for the winter. Explain that many birds and other animals move or migrate in the fall to other places. Scientists are not sure how animals know when to migrate. Some scientist believe that as the weather gets cooler, the amount of food available in a region decreases. This may cause animals to migrate.

In the spring and summer, when there is much sunlight and the days are warm and long, the leaves will produce a lot of green color, chlorophyll. there are other colors in the leaves, but the green color covers them . In the fall, when there is less sun and the days are cool and short, the leaves stop making the green color. Then the other colors in the leaves begin to show. Explain that when a tree loses its leaves in fall, it does not die. Its growth slows down in winter though, because it cannot make food without its leaves. Next year's leaves already have formed inside tiny buds. when spring returns, the buds will open, and leaves will begin to grow.            

 

HERBS.......

 

MOST VALUABLE HERBAL PLANTS IN THE WORLD.....

 There are hundreds of remarkably common herbs, flowers, berries and plants that serve all kinds of important medicinal and health purposes that might surprise you: anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, insect repellent, antiseptic, expectorant, antibacterial, detoxification, fever reduction, antihistamine and pain relief. Here are eighteen potent medical plants you’re likely to find in the wild – or even someone’s backyard – that can help with minor injuries, scrapes, bites and pains.

Marijuana

Images via Current and Street Knowledge

Seriously. Though marijuana is still illegal in the United States, it is legal in 12 states for medicinal purposes, and if a case of poison ivy in the woods isn’t a medicinal purpose, what is? Marijuana was *mostly* legal until 1970 when it became classified as a hard drug. No one thought of it as a dangerous or illicit drug until the 20th century; in fact, hemp was George Washington’s primary crop and Thomas Jefferson’s secondary crop. The Declaration of Independence is written on it; the Gutenberg Bible was printed on hemp, too. There’s actually an environmental dimension to legalizing marijuana – hemp is a remarkable and renewable plant, offering all kinds of foodstuff and product uses that surpass cotton and plastic. But health benefits are well documented, from depression and anxiety relief to reduced blood pressure, pain alleviation and glaucoma treatment. It is not addictive, does not kill brain cells and is not a “gateway” drug – in fact, when pot is more available, studies show that the use of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine actually decreases. The bottom line for hikers: when your leg is broken from a misjudged boulder hopping attempt (pain) and a bear has eaten your friend (depression) and you’re lost because you forgot the compass (dumbass), consult the cannabis.
Lady Ferns

Image via US Forest Service

If you grew up in the Pacific Northwest you likely know what ferns are good for: treating stinging nettles. One of the world’s oldest plants, there are many varieties of ferns, but if you’re lucky enough to spy the soft, delicate lady fern, grab some and roll it up between your palms into a rough mash. The juices released will quickly ease stinging nettle burns and can also ease minor cuts, stings and burns (fresh salt water also works in a pinch for bee stings). Bracken fern are similar to lady fern and will work, as well. The rougher, glossier, stiff sword fern and deer fern won’t be as effective, though. (Learn about types of ferns.) Lady ferns actually grow all over North America but are common in areas with high rainfall.
California Poppy

Images via Netstate and Mountain Meadow Seeds

The brilliant blooms of the poppy make this opioid plant an iconic one. The plant is an effective nervine (anxiety reliever) and is safe for use on agitated children. Can be made into a a tea for quick relief of nervousness and tension. A stronger decoction will offer pain relief. (A decoction is made by “stewing” all safe plant parts, including stems and roots if possible, in water for several hours and, ideally, soaking overnight.)
Blood Flower

Image via Mistifarang

The blood flower (also Mexican butterfly weed) is a type of tropical milkweed with toxic milky sap that is emetic (it makes you hurl). It’s also historically favored as a heart stimulant and worm expellent. Pretty useful for a number of potential hiking disasters, if you think about it. (Of course, if you’d quit eating those poisonous berries you probably wouldn’t need to worry about finding a natural expectorant.)
Tansy

Image via Earth Heart Farm

If you’ve decided to backpack through Europe instead of the mountains of Mexico (but why?), you’ll want to know about a few helpful medicinal plants. Tansy is an old-world aster and remedy, used for flavoring beer and stews as well as repelling insects. Rubbing the leaves on the skin provides an effective bug repellent, but tansy can also be used to treat worms. It is said to be poisonous when extracted, but a few leaves are not harmful if ingested.
Korean Mint (hyssop)

Image via Herb Gully

Who doesn’t want to be minty fresh? Most of the various types of “mint” or mentha – spearmint, Korean mint, applemint, regular old mint – offer reported health benefits and medicinal properties. (Avoid pennyroyal, as it’s poisonous.) Mint is famous for soothing headaches, fighting nausea, calming the stomach and reducing nervousness and fatigue. Korean mint, also called Indian mint and hyssop, is a fairly effective antiviral, making it useful for fighting colds and the flu. Whatever continent you’re on, some type of mint is usually to be found. Eat whole, garnish food or make tea to get the all purpose health benefits.
Alfalfa

Image via In Advance

Alfalfa is fodder for livestock for a reason: it’s incredibly rich in minerals and health-promoting nutrients and compounds. With roots that grow 20 to 30 feet deep, alfalfa is considered the “father of all plants”. (It also contains a high amount of protein for a green.) Alfalfa originally grew in the Mediterranean and Middle East but has now spread to most of Europe and the Americans. It can treat morning sickness, nausea, kidney stones, kidney pain and urinary discomfort. It is a powerful diuretic and has a bit of stimulant power, helping to energize after a bout with illness. It’s a liver and bowel cleanser and long-term can help reduce cholesterol. You can purchase seeds and sprouts, but it’s fine to eat the leaves straight from the earth.
Catnip

Images via UCC

The cannabis of the cat kingdom. Famous for making cats deliriously crazy, catnip has health properties that are great for humans, too. Catnip can relieve cold symptoms (helpful if you’re on a camping trip and don’t have access to Nyquil). It’s useful in breaking a fever as it promotes sweating. Catnip also helps stop excessive bleeding and swelling when applied rather than ingested. This mint plant (yep, another one) is also reportedly helpful in treating gas, stomach aches, and migraines. Catnip can stimulate uterine contractions, so it should not be consumed by pregnant women. It grows in the Northern Hemisphere.
Sage

Image via Palestine Shop

Sage is an incredibly useful herb, widely considered to be perhaps the most valuable herb. It is anti-flammatory, anti-oxidant, and antifungal. In fact, according to the noted resource World’s Healthiest Foods, “Its reputation as a panacea is even represented in its scientific name, Salvia officinalis, derived from the Latin word, salvere, which means ‘to be saved’.” It was used as a preservative for meat before the advent of refrigeration (eminently useful: you never know when you’ll be forced to hunt in the wild). Sage aids digestion, relieves cramps, reduces diarrhea, dries up phlegm, fights colds, reduces inflammation and swelling, acts as a salve for cuts and burns, and kills bacteria. Sage apparently even brings color back to gray hair. A definite concern when lost in the woods.
Blackberries

Image via Old Ice Works

Did you know blackberries have useful healing properties? Of course they’re loaded in antioxidants and vitamins, but the leaves and roots have value, too. Native Americans have long used the stems and leaves for healing, while enjoying the young shoots peeled as a vegetable of sorts and the berries, either raw or in jams. The leaves and root can be used as an effective treatment against dysentery and diarrhea as well as serving usefulness as an anti-inflammatory and astringent. Ideal for treating cuts and inflammation in the mouth.
Wild Quinine

Image via Stone Silo Prairie Gardens

According to Alternative Nature Online, wild quinine is a potent herb that “is used as an antiperiodic, emmenagogue, kidney, lithontripic, poultice. It has traditionally been used in alternative medicine to treat debility, fatigue, respiratory infection, gastrointestinal infection, and venereal disease.” Whatever the ailment, quinine is famously helpful in treating it. Only the root and flowers are edible; avoid the plant.
Navajo Tea

Image via Birds ‘n Garden

Also called greenthread, Plains Tea or Coyote Plant, this plant has been used for centuries by Native Americans to quickly relieve that most brutal and irritating of infections: the UTI (urinary tract infection). Best when made into a tea or decoction.
Red Clover

Image via Foxy Island

Native to Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia, red clover is now ubiquitous worldwide. The plant’s reddish pink blossoms can be used for coughs and colds, but they are an excellent detoxifier and blood cleanser as well.
Sweet Marjoram

Images via Tasteful Garden and Veseys

Marjoram and oregano are often used interchangeably, but the aromatic sweet marjoram is slightly different. The Greeks called it the “Joy of the Mountain” and it was revered throughout the Mediterranean for its fragrance, flavor and medicinal value. The famous French herbs de provence and Middle Eastern za’atar both use sweet marjoram. Marjoram has many uses (it’s a famous digestive aid) but it is effective as an antifungal, antibacterial and disinfectant treatment in a pinch.
Burdock Herb

Images via Norman Allen and Ontario Wildflowers

Burdock, or cocklebur, is a prickly, thistle-like plant that grows commonly in many parts of the world. It can get fairly big and its leaves resemble the elephant ear plant. Though the burs often get caught in pets’ and livestock’s fur, don’t think of it only as an annoying plant. It is a highly effective treatment against poison ivy and poison oak (claims that it cures cancer are slightly *less* substantiated).
Feverfew

Image via Earth Heart Farm

Feverfew is a plant that has well-known and documented health properties and medicinal benefits. This anti-inflammatory can treat rheumatism, arthritis and, most famously, migraine headaches and tension headaches. It’s also good for alleviating tension and general anxiety (it is a natural serotonin inhibitor). It also helps to reduce swelling and bruising. Though feverfew is most effective when taken daily, it can be a helpful pain reliever when no Advil is on hand.
Sweet Violet

Image via Firefly Forest

Native to Europe and Asia, sweet violet is cultivated around the world and is a pleasant, delicate purple color. When brewed into a syrup the plant is effective as a treatment for colds, flu and coughs or sore throat. However, when made as a tea, it is wonderfully effective for relieving headaches and muscle and body pain.
Winter Savory

Image via CGNA

Winter savory is your savior against insect bites and stings. One of the most effective natural plant treatments for bug bites is originally from Europe and the Mediterranean but often shows up elsewhere thanks to global trade. In addition to being an antiseptic, it is delicious – used for flavoring meats and stews – and all parts are edible.

Biomes of the world..

Biomes are the major regional groupings of plants and animals discernible at a global scale. Their distribution patterns are strongly correlated with regional climate patterns and identified according to the climax vegetation type. However, a biome is composed not only of the climax vegetation, but also of associated successional communities, persistent subclimax communities, fauna, and soils.

The biome concept embraces the idea of community, of interaction among vegetation, animal populations, and soil. A biome (also called a biotic area) may be defined as a major region of distinctive plant and animal groups well adapted to the physical environment of its distribution area.

To understand the nature of the earth’s major biomes, one needs to learn for each:

• The global distribution pattern: Where each biome is found and how each varies geographically. A given biome may be composed of different taxa on different continents. Continent-specific associations of species within a given biome are known as formations and often are known by different local names. For example, the temperate grassland biome is variously called prairie, steppe, pampa, or veld, depending on where it occurs (North America, Eurasia, South America, and southern Africa, respectively).
• The general characteristics of the regional climate and the limitations or requirements imposed upon life by specific temperature and/or precipitation patterns.
• Aspects of the physical environment that may exert a stronger influence than climate in determining common plant growthforms and/or subclimax vegetation. Usually these factors are conditions of the substrate (e.g., waterlogged; excessively droughty, nutrient-poor) or of disturbance (e.g., periodic flooding or burning).
• The soil order(s) that characterize the biome and those processes involved in soil development.
• The dominant, characteristic, and unique growthforms; vertical stratification; leaf shape, size, and habit; and special adaptations of the vegetation. Examples of the last are peculiar life histories or reproductive strategies, dispersal mechanisms, root structure, and so forth.
• The types of animals (especially vertebrates) characteristic of the biome and their typical morphological, physiological, and/or behavioral adaptations to the environment.

Biomes are classified in various ways. This page will group biomes into five major types:

Aquatic Deserts Forests Grasslands Tundra

These exhibits explore the ancestor/descendant relationships which connect all organisms, past and present.  DISTRIBUTION OF BIOMES OVER THE WORLD

THE PLANET EARTH..

The most important planet to us is the Earth that distinguishes itself from other heavenly bodies of the solar system in respect of the following facts.

(a) It is the largest of the minor or inner group of planets.

(b) The earth, with a radius of about 6400 km and large circumstance of about 40,000 km, might seem to be large enough but in fact, this whirling planet is but a tiny speck in the astoundingly vast Universe.

(c) It is the only planet of the solar system and the only member of the myriads of systems in the universe, which presents an intermingling condition of air, water and land. Thus, it is unique among the planets having abundant water, an atmosphere and surface temperature condif that have supported life.

It is the only planet known till date where living being including intelli creatures like man exists. The other planet where probability of life surmised is the Mars.

Unlike other planets, the Earth has a strong magnetic field of its own, It is the densest planet. It shows evidences of erosion of its suit (change of landforms by actions of air and water etc.) which is complet lacking in other planets.

While in other planets and satellites there are innumerable meteoritic era (depressions made by impact of meteorites), the Earth's surface shows m less evidence of such craters which are very much modified by erosion.

Physical Aspects of Earth: The following physical aspects of the Ea are noteworthy.

Shape:

Slight flattened sphere (oblate spheroidal) the figure of the ea corresponds to an imperfect sphere.

The idea of earth's shape as an oblate sphere with slight flattening at i poles and bulging at the equator was propounded by Newton in 17th century. According to Newton, the earth being a rotating sphere would subject to centrifugal flattening in the Polar Regions. Thus, the ea departed from perfect sphere and would be roughly orange-shaped. This i attested by the fact that the equatorial diameter of the earth is about 42 lr greater than the polar diameter.

The idea of Pear-shaped earth was first proclaimed by Sir James"Jeans by the beginning of 20th century. The latest measurements by artificial satellites confirm the idea of Jeans and indicate the shape to be a slightly flattened sphere with some irregularities at the north and south poles. Thus, the shape of the earth as per the latest computations is more nearly PEAR- shaped than orange-shaped.

Size:

Earth is an average-sized planet in the solar system. Latest data based on geodesic survey (Geodesy deals with the study of measurement of dimensions of the Earth) and satellite observation, speak of the following measurements relating to the dimension (size) of the Earth.

Equatorial diameter

Polar diameter

Mean diameter

Equatorial circumference

Polar circumference

Area

Volume

Mass

12,755 km 12,713 km 12,742 km 40,075 km 40,008 km

510 million square kms 1.08 x 10²⁷ cc 5.976 x 10²⁷gm

The difference between equatorial and polar diameters of the earth (12,755 - 12713 = 42 km.) indicates the bulging and flattering of the earth at the equator and poles respectively.