But strictly speaking, Nostoc flagelliforme is not a plant, and it is not endangered, so why should Nostoc flagelliforme be included in the national first-class protected plants?
Nostoc flagelliforme, whose scientific name is Nostoc flagelliforme, is an algae of Nostoc order of Cyanomycetes, because it is very slender in shape, with a diameter of less than 1 mm, and its diameter can reach about 0.5 meters when it is aggregated, and its color is dark.
It is brown in the natural state and black after drying, which is similar to the shape of human hair, so people call it? Nostoc flagelliforme The common names are Dictyophora, Gracilaria lemaneiformis, Hairy algae and so on.
Nostoc flagelliforme is widely distributed in deserts and poor soils all over the world, and mainly distributed in Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and other places in China. It is a unique algae plant in grassland and sandy land in arid and semi-arid areas.
What is the definition of a plant? I believe many people are confused about this concept. This is not because you think that what looks like grass and grows in the soil can be called a plant. The classification of organisms is a very complicated problem.
According to the current biological classification method, people divide all the creatures in the world into six kingdoms, namely, virus kingdom, kingdom monera kingdom, eukaryote kingdom, fungi kingdom, plant kingdom and animal kingdom.
Among them, plants have a clear scientific definition, which is defined as: they must be multicellular eukaryotes and have cell walls; Most of them contain chloroplasts or chlorophyll, which can be used for photosynthesis; As a producer, we should be able to support ourselves, that is, make our own nutrients.
Nostoc flagelliforme is not a plant, but a fungus. First of all, Nostoc flagelliforme is a kind of blue-green bacteria belonging to Nostoc genus of Nostoc family. Although it is called algae, it is actually a bacterium. In the early stage of biological development, because people didn't realize that cyanobacteria were bacteria, they named it? Algae? .
Nostoc flagelliforme is a bacterium, which is no different from mushrooms. We can think that the algae morphology of bacteria is a step towards multicellular. However, due to the complexity of cells, cyanobacteria are generally connected into beads by filamentous bodies, and then form male colloid by secreting polysaccharides, and finally are formed into a simple morphological structure.
If you look closely, it is not difficult to find that the most obvious difference between algae bacteria and plants is that there are no differentiated tissues and organs. Secondly, Nostoc flagelliforme has no chloroplast because it has no mitochondria and corresponding organelles.
But Nostoc flagelliforme can carry out photosynthesis, but not through chloroplasts, but in green vegetative cells.
Why can Nostoc flagelliforme be listed as a national first-class protected plant? Nostoc flagelliforme is not only delicious, but also nutritious. But Nostoc flagelliforme has a more important function? Protect the ecological environment. Because of Nostoc flagelliforme, take it? Send? (f? ) homophonic? Send? (fā) and written? Nostoc flagelliforme , there is a potential meaning? Get rich? Coupled with its delicious taste, it has become a famous dish in Guangdong cuisine.
However, the wild resources of Nostoc flagelliforme are scarce, and it is also difficult to exploit them. Coupled with the cost of long-distance transportation, the price of Nostoc flagelliforme rises again and again, so many people go to the northwest to explore Nostoc flagelliforme, which has set off a climax of mining Nostoc flagelliforme in the northwest desert.
However, at that time, many people were driven by interests and didn't realize that Nostoc flagelliforme is an algae plant. idioblast in the filamentous body has nitrogen fixation function, which can absorb nitrogen in the air, synthesize amino acids, provide natural nitrogen fertilizer for the soil, and has strong resistance to high temperature, cold and drought, and can play a role in preventing wind and fixing sand in the desert. Therefore, Nostoc flagelliforme plays an important role in protecting soil vegetation, improving soil quality, reducing soil erosion and so on, and has efficient ecological protection benefits.
However, Nostoc flagelliforme grows slowly, only increasing by 6% a year. It is not easy to collect Nostoc flagelliforme. Excessive excavation can easily cause serious environmental problems. For example, it is found that every two or six times of Nostoc flagelliforme is equivalent to destroying the grassland of 16 football field. Some people even think that Nostoc flagelliforme is one of the main causes of sandstorms in China.
Based on the protection of the ecological environment, Nostoc flagelliforme was listed in the National List of Key Protected Wild Plants (First Batch) issued by the State Council on August 4th, 1999.
As for why Nostoc flagelliforme should be included in the list of plant protection, it is because from the current scope of our protection objects, there is no detailed category for creatures other than plants and animals, so out of people's traditional cognition, Nostoc flagelliforme is included in the list of plant protection.