Trinidad and Tobago dry forest on Chacachacare showing the dry-season deciduous nature of the vegetation

The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest biome, also known as tropical dry forest, is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive several hundred centimeters of rain per year, they have long dry seasons which last several months and vary with geographic location. These seasonal droughts have great impact on all living things in the forest.

Deciduous trees predominate in most of these forests, and during the drought a leafless period occurs, which varies with species type. Because trees lose moisture through their leaves, the shedding of leaves allows trees such as teak and mountain ebony to conserve water during dry periods. The newly bare trees open up the canopy layer, enabling sunlight to reach ground level and facilitate the growth of thick underbrush. Trees on moister sites and those with access to ground water tend to be evergreen. Infertile sites also tend to support evergreen trees. Three tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregions, the East Deccan dry evergreen forests, the Sri Lanka dry-zone dry evergreen forests, and the Southeastern Indochina dry evergreen forests, are characterized by evergreen trees.

Though less biologically diverse than rainforests, tropical dry forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife including monkeys, deer, large cats, parrots, various rodents, and ground dwelling birds. Mammalian biomass tends to be higher in dry forests than in rain forests, especially in Asian and African dry forests. Many of these species display extraordinary adaptations to the difficult climate.

This biome is alternately known as the tropical and subtropical dry forest biome or the tropical and subtropical deciduous forest biome. Locally some of these forests are also called monsoon forests, and they tend to merge into savannas.

Geographical variation[link]

Dry forests tend to exist north and south of the equator rain forest belt, south or north of the subtropical deserts, generally in two bands, one between 10° and 20°N latitude and the other between 20° and 30°S latitude. The most diverse dry forests in the world occur in southern Mexico and in the Bolivian lowlands. The dry forests of the Pacific Coast of northwestern South America support a wealth of unique species due to their dry climate. The subtropical forests of Maputo land-Ponderousin the sub-tropical regions of the United States of America and in southeastern Africa are diverse and support many endemic species. The dry forests of central India and Indochina are notable for their diverse large vertebrate faunas. Madagascar dry deciduous forests and New Caledonia dry forests are also highly distinctive (pronounced extremism and a large number of reliquary taxa) for a wide range of taxa and at higher taxonomic levels. Trees use underground water during the dry seasons.

Biodiversity patterns and requirements[link]

Species tend to have wider ranges than moist forest species, although in some regions many species do display highly restricted ranges; most dry forest species are restricted to tropical dry forests, particularly in plants; beta diversity and alpha diversity high but typically lower than adjacent moist forests.

Effective conservation of dry broadleaf forests requires the preservation of large and continuous areas of forest. Large natural areas are required to maintain larger predators and other vertebrates, and to buffer sensitive species from hunting pressure. The persistence of riparian forests and water sources is critical for many dry forest species. Large swathes of intact forest are required to allow species to recover from occasional large events, like forest fires.

Dry forests are highly sensitive to excessive burning and deforestation; overgrazing and exotic species can also quickly alter natural communities; restoration is possible but challenging, particularly if degradation has been intense and persistent. Degrading dry broadleaf often leaves thorny shrublands, thickets, or dry grasslands in their place.

See also[link]

• Holdridge life zones in Guatemala
• List of national parks of Madagascar

	Environment portal
	Ecology portal
	Earth sciences portal
	Sustainable development portal

References[link]

• 2006-01-13, Sciencedaily: Deep-rooted Plants Have Much Greater Impact On Climate Than Experts Thought Citat: "...The tap roots transfer rainwater from the surface to reservoirs deep underground and redistribute water...increases photosynthesis and the evaporation of water...by 40 percent in the dry season...During the wet season, these plants can store as much as 10 percent of the annual precipitation as deep as 13 meters (43 feet) underground, to be tapped during the dry months...tree roots acting like pipes to allow water to shift around much faster than it could otherwise percolate through the soil..."

Much material in this article has been reworked from Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests, by WWF with their permission.

External links[link]

• The Tropical Dry Forest of Costa Rica

World map with the intertropical zone highlighted in red.

Tropical climate zones of the Earth where all twelve months have mean temperatures above 18 °C (64 °F).

The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately 23° 26′ 16″ (or 23.4378°) N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23° 26′ 16″ (or 23.4378°) S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth. The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone (see geographical zone). The tropics include all the areas on the Earth where the Sun reaches a point directly overhead at least once during the solar year. About 40 percent of the world's human population lives within the tropical zone (by 2008 statistics), and by 2060, 60% of the human population will be in the tropics, owing to high birth rates and migration.^[1]

The tropics are distinguished from the other climatic and biomatic regions of Earth, the middle latitudes and the polar regions on either side of the equatorial zone.

Seasons and climate[link]

A graph showing the zonally averaged monthly precipitation. The tropics receive more precipitation than higher latitudes. The precipitation maximum, which follows the solar equator through the year, is under the rising branch of the Hadley circulation; the sub-tropical minima are under the descending branch and cause the desert areas.

Tropical sunset over the sea in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

"Tropical" is sometimes used in a general sense for a tropical climate to mean warm to hot and moist year-round, often with the sense of lush vegetation.

Many tropical areas have a dry and wet season. The wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls.^[2] The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities.^[3] Areas with wet seasons are disseminated across portions of the tropics and subtropics.^[4] Under the Koppen climate classification, for tropical climates, a wet season month is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 millimetres (2.4 in) or more.^[5] Tropical rainforests technically do not have dry or wet seasons, since their rainfall is equally distributed through the year.^[6] Some areas with pronounced rainy seasons will see a break in rainfall mid-season when the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough move poleward of their location during the middle of the warm season.^[7]

When the wet season occurs during the warm season, or summer, precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon and early evening hours. The wet season is a time when air quality improves, freshwater quality improves, and vegetation grows significantly, leading to crop yields late in the season. Floods cause rivers to overflow their banks, and some animals to retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases. The incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures. Animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wetter regime. Unfortunately, the previous dry season leads to food shortages into the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature.

Regions within the tropics may well not have a tropical climate. There are alpine tundra and snow-capped peaks, including Mauna Kea, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Andes as far south as the northernmost parts of Chile and Argentina. Under the Köppen climate classification, much of the area within the geographical tropics is classed not as "tropical" but as "dry" (arid or semi-arid) including the Sahara Desert, the Atacama Desert and Australian Outback.

Tropical ecosystems[link]

Coconut palms in the warm, tropical climate in Brazil.

Tropical forest near Fond St-Denis, Martinique.

Tropical plants and animals are those species native to the tropics. Tropical ecosystems may consist of rainforests, dry deciduous forests, spiny forests, desert and other habitat types. There are often significant areas of biodiversity, and species endemism present, particularly in rainforests and dry deciduous forests. Some examples of important biodiversity and/or high endemism ecosystems are: El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, Costa Rican and Nicaraguan rainforests, Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazon Rainforest territories, Madagascar dry deciduous forests, Waterberg Biosphere of South Africa and eastern Madagascar rainforests. Often the soils of tropical forests are low in nutrient content making them quite vulnerable to slash-and-burn techniques, which are sometimes an element of shifting cultivation agricultural systems.

In biogeography, the tropics are divided into Paleotropics (Africa, Asia and Australia) and Neotropics (Caribbean, Central America, and South America). Together, they are sometimes referred to as the Pantropics. The Neotropical region should not be confused with the ecozone of the same name; in the Old World, there is no such ambiguity, as the Paleotropics correspond to the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and partly the Australasian and Oceanic ecozones.

See also[link]

Geography portal

References[link]

A Morpho peleides (Blue Morpho) tropical butterfly.

External links[link]

• Tropen, Goethe-Institut (bilingual web site English/German with a lot of information and extracts from novels, short stories, essays, etc. written by explorers, conquerors and writers since the discovery of the so called New World)

Look up dry in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Dry or dryness denotes a lack of water. It may also refer to

Common meanings[link]

• Prohibiting alcohol (see Dry county)
• Dryness (taste), the lack of sugar in a drink, especially an alcoholic one (not to be confused with the meaning listed above)
• Dryness (medical)
• Dryness (drought)
• "Dry", a style of writing
• Deadpan, dry humor

Places[link]

• Dry, Loiret, a commune of the Loiret département in France
• Dry River (disambiguation), various rivers and towns

Music[link]

• Dry (rapper), real name Landry Delica, rapper of Congolese origin
• Dry (album), an album by PJ Harvey
• "Dry", a song by Kutless from their self-titled album
• "Dry", a song by Welsh band Feeder, from the 1999 album Yesterday Went Too Soon
• audio unprocessed with reverb and delay

Other[link]

• Dry, a memoir by Augusten Burroughs
• Don't repeat yourself (DRY), a computer programming philosophy
• Wets & Dries, a faction in the British Conservative Party
• Dry cell, a type of battery

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Dry"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Flowering plants Temporal range: Early Cretaceous — Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Magnolia virginiana Sweet Bay
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Angiospermae Lindley[1] [P.D. Cantino & M.J. Donoghue][2]
Clades
Amborellaceae Nymphaeales Austrobaileyales Mesangiospermae Ceratophyllaceae Chloranthaceae Eudicotyledoneae (eudicots) Magnoliidae Monocotyledoneae (monocots)
Synonyms
Anthophyta Magnoliophyta Cronquist, Takht. & W.Zimm., 1966

The flowering plants (angiosperms), also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants.^{[citation needed]} Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies (derived characteristics). These characteristics include flowers, endosperm within the seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds.

The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms around 245–202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants known to exist are from 140 million years ago. They diversified enormously during the Lower Cretaceous and became widespread around 100 million years ago, but replaced conifers as the dominant trees only around 60–100 million years ago.

Angiosperm derived characteristics[link]

Bud of a pink rose

• Flowers

The flowers, which are the reproductive organs of flowering plants, are the most remarkable feature distinguishing them from other seed plants. Flowers aid angiosperms by enabling a wider range of adaptability and broadening the ecological niches open to them.^{[clarification needed]} This has allowed flowering plants to largely dominate terrestrial ecosystems.^{[citation needed]}

• Stamens with two pairs of pollen sacs

Stamens are much lighter than the corresponding organs of gymnosperms and have contributed to the diversification of angiosperms through time with adaptations to specialized pollination syndromes, such as particular pollinators. Stamens have also become modified through time^{[clarification needed]} to prevent self-fertilization, which has permitted further diversification, allowing angiosperms eventually to fill more niches.^{[clarification needed]}

• Reduced male parts, three cells

The male gametophyte in angiosperms is significantly reduced in size compared to those of gymnosperm seed plants.^{[citation needed]} The smaller pollen decreases the time^{[clarification needed]} from pollination — the pollen grain reaching the female plant — to fertilization. In gymnosperms, fertilization can occur up to a year after pollination, whereas in angiosperms, fertilization begins very soon after pollination. The shorter time leads to angiosperm plants' setting seeds sooner and faster than gymnosperms, which is a distinct evolutionary advantage.^{[clarification needed]}

• Closed carpel enclosing the ovules (carpel or carpels and accessory parts may become the fruit)

The closed carpel of angiosperms also allows adaptations to specialized pollination syndromes and controls.^{[clarification needed]} This helps to prevent self-fertilization, thereby maintaining increased diversity. Once the ovary is fertilized, the carpel and some surrounding tissues develop into a fruit. This fruit often serves as an attractant to seed-dispersing animals. The resulting cooperative relationship presents another advantage to angiosperms in the process of dispersal.

• Reduced female gametophyte, seven cells with eight nuclei

The reduced female gametophyte, like the reduced male gametophyte, may be an adaptation allowing for more rapid seed set, eventually leading to such flowering plant adaptations as annual herbaceous life-cycles, allowing the flowering plants to fill even more niches.^{[clarification needed]}

• Endosperm

In general, endosperm formation begins after fertilization and before the first division of the zygote. Endosperm is a highly nutritive tissue that can provide food for the developing embryo, the cotyledons, and sometimes the seedling when it first appears.

These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants and the most commercially important group to humans.^{[citation needed]} The major exception to the dominance of terrestrial ecosystems by flowering plants is the coniferous forest.

Evolution[link]

Further information: Evolutionary history of plants – Flowers

Flowers of Malus sylvestris (crab apple)

Fossilized spores suggest that higher plants (embryophytes) have lived on the land for at least 475 million years.^[3] Early land plants reproduced sexually with flagellated, swimming sperm, like the green algae from which they evolved. An adaptation to terrestrialization was the development of upright meiosporangia for dispersal by spores to new habitats. This feature is lacking in the descendants of their nearest algal relatives, the Charophycean green algae. A later terrestrial adaptation took place with retention of the delicate, avascular sexual stage, the gametophyte, within the tissues of the vascular sporophyte. This occurred by spore germination within sporangia rather than spore release, as in non-seed plants. A current example of how this might have happened can be seen in the precocious spore germination in Sellaginella, the spike-moss. The result for the ancestors of angiosperms was enclosing them in a case, the seed. The first seed bearing plants, like the ginkgo, and conifers (such as pines and firs), did not produce flowers. The pollen grains (males) of Ginkgo and cycads produce a pair of flagellated, mobile sperm cells that "swim" down the developing pollen tube to the female and her eggs.

The apparently sudden appearance of relatively modern flowers in the fossil record initially posed such a problem for the theory of evolution that it was called an "abominable mystery" by Charles Darwin.^[4] However, the fossil record has considerably grown since the time of Darwin, and recently discovered angiosperm fossils such as Archaefructus, along with further discoveries of fossil gymnosperms, suggest how angiosperm characteristics may have been acquired in a series of steps. Several groups of extinct gymnosperms, in particular seed ferns, have been proposed as the ancestors of flowering plants, but there is no continuous fossil evidence showing exactly how flowers evolved. Some older fossils, such as the upper Triassic Sanmiguelia, have been suggested. Based on current evidence, some propose that the ancestors of the angiosperms diverged from an unknown group of gymnosperms during the late Triassic (245–202 million years ago). A close relationship between angiosperms and gnetophytes, proposed on the basis of morphological evidence, has more recently been disputed on the basis of molecular evidence that suggest gnetophytes are instead more closely related to other gymnosperms.

The evolution of seed plants and later angiosperms appears to be the result of two distinct rounds of whole genome duplication events.^[5] These occurred in 319 million years ago and 192 million years ago respectively.

The earliest known macrofossil confidently identified as an angiosperm, Archaefructus liaoningensis, is dated to about 125 million years BP (the Cretaceous period),^[6] while pollen considered to be of angiosperm origin takes the fossil record back to about 130 million years BP. However, one study has suggested that the early-middle Jurassic plant Schmeissneria, traditionally considered a type of ginkgo, may be the earliest known angiosperm, or at least a close relative.^[7] In addition, circumstantial chemical evidence has been found for the existence of angiosperms as early as 250 million years ago. Oleanane, a secondary metabolite produced by many flowering plants, has been found in Permian deposits of that age together with fossils of gigantopterids.^[8][9] Gigantopterids are a group of extinct seed plants that share many morphological traits with flowering plants, although they are not known to have been flowering plants themselves.

Recent DNA analysis based on molecular systematics ^[10][11] showed that Amborella trichopoda, found on the Pacific island of New Caledonia, belongs to a sister group of the other flowering plants, and morphological studies ^[12] suggest that it has features that may have been characteristic of the earliest flowering plants.

The orders Amborellales, Nymphaeales, and Austrobaileyales diverged as separate lineages from the remaining angiosperm clade at a very early stage in flowering plant evolution.^[13]

The great angiosperm radiation, when a great diversity of angiosperms appears in the fossil record, occurred in the mid-Cretaceous (approximately 100 million years ago). However, a study in 2007 estimated that the division of the five most recent (the genus Ceratophyllum, the family Chloranthaceae, the eudicots, the magnoliids, and the monocots) of the eight main groups occurred around 140 million years ago.^[14] By the late Cretaceous, angiosperms appear to have dominated environments formerly occupied by ferns and cycadophytes, but large canopy-forming trees replaced conifers as the dominant trees only close to the end of the Cretaceous 65 millions years ago or even later, at the beginning of the Tertiary.^[15] The radiation of herbaceous angiosperm occurred much later.^[16] Yet, many fossil plants recognizable as belonging to modern families (including beech, oak, maple, and magnolia) appeared already at late Cretaceous.

Two bees on a flower head of Creeping Thistle, Cirsium arvense

It is generally assumed that the function of flowers, from the start, was to involve mobile animals in their reproduction processes. That is, pollen can be scattered even if the flower is not brightly colored or oddly shaped in a way that attracts animals; however, by expending the energy required to create such traits, angiosperms can enlist the aid of animals and, thus, reproduce more efficiently.

Island genetics provides one proposed explanation for the sudden, fully developed appearance of flowering plants. Island genetics is believed to be a common source of speciation in general, especially when it comes to radical adaptations that seem to have required inferior transitional forms. Flowering plants may have evolved in an isolated setting like an island or island chain, where the plants bearing them were able to develop a highly specialized relationship with some specific animal (a wasp, for example). Such a relationship, with a hypothetical wasp carrying pollen from one plant to another much the way fig wasps do today, could result in the development of a high degree of specialization in both the plant(s) and their partners. Note that the wasp example is not incidental; bees, which, it is postulated, evolved specifically due to mutualistic plant relationships, are descended from wasps.

Animals are also involved in the distribution of seeds. Fruit, which is formed by the enlargement of flower parts, is frequently a seed-dispersal tool that attracts animals to eat or otherwise disturb it, incidentally scattering the seeds it contains (see frugivory). While many such mutualistic relationships remain too fragile to survive competition and to spread widely, flowering proved to be an unusually effective means of reproduction, spreading (whatever its origin) to become the dominant form of land plant life.

Flower ontogeny uses a combination of genes normally responsible for forming new shoots.^[17] The most primitive flowers are thought to have had a variable number of flower parts, often separate from (but in contact with) each other. The flowers would have tended to grow in a spiral pattern, to be bisexual (in plants, this means both male and female parts on the same flower), and to be dominated by the ovary (female part). As flowers grew more advanced, some variations developed parts fused together, with a much more specific number and design, and with either specific sexes per flower or plant, or at least "ovary-inferior".

Flower evolution continues to the present day; modern flowers have been so profoundly influenced by humans that some of them cannot be pollinated in nature. Many modern, domesticated flowers used to be simple weeds, which sprouted only when the ground was disturbed. Some of them tended to grow with human crops, perhaps already having symbiotic companion plant relationships with them, and the prettiest did not get plucked because of their beauty, developing a dependence upon and special adaptation to human affection.^[18]

A few palaeontologists have also come up with a theory that flowering plants, or angiosperms, might have evolved because of dinosaurs; in other words, they believe that dinosaurs "created" flowers. One of the theory's biggest proponents is Robert T. Bakker. He theorizes that herbivorous dinosaurs, with their eating habits, forced plants to find new ways to develop new adaptations, in order to avoid predation by herbivores.^{[citation needed]}

Classification[link]

There are eight groups of living angiosperms:

• Amborella — a single species of shrub from New Caledonia
• Nymphaeales — about 80 species^[21] — water lilies and Hydatellaceae
• Austrobaileyales — about 100 species^[21] of woody plants from various parts of the world
• Chloranthales — several dozen species of aromatic plants with toothed leaves
• Magnoliidae — about 9,000 species,^[21] characterized by trimerous flowers, pollen with one pore, and usually branching-veined leaves — for example magnolias, bay laurel, and black pepper
• Monocotyledonae — about 70,000 species,^[21] characterized by trimerous flowers, a single cotyledon, pollen with one pore, and usually parallel-veined leaves — for example grasses, orchids, and palms
• Ceratophyllum — about 6 species^[21] of aquatic plants, perhaps most familiar as aquarium plants
• Eudicotyledonae — about 175,000 species,^[21] characterized by 4- or 5- merous flowers, pollen with three pores, and usually branching-veined leaves — for example sunflowers, petunia, buttercup, apples and oaks

The exact relationship between these eight groups is not yet clear, although there is agreement that the first three groups to diverge from the ancestral angiosperm were Amborellales, Nymphaeales, and Austrobaileyales.^[22] The term basal angiosperms refers to these three groups. The five other groups form the clade Mesangiospermae. The relationship between the three largest of these groups (magnoliids, monocots and eudicots) remains unclear. Some analyses make the magnoliids the first to diverge, others the monocots.^[20] Ceratophyllum seems to group with the eudicots rather than with the monocots.

History of classification[link]

From 1736, an illustration of Linnaean classification

The botanical term "Angiosperm", from the Ancient Greek αγγείον, angeíon (receptacle, vessel) and σπέρμα, (seed), was coined in the form Angiospermae by Paul Hermann in 1690, as the name of that one of his primary divisions of the plant kingdom. This included flowering plants possessing seeds enclosed in capsules, distinguished from his Gymnospermae, or flowering plants with achenial or schizo-carpic fruits, the whole fruit or each of its pieces being here regarded as a seed and naked. The term and its antonym were maintained by Carolus Linnaeus with the same sense, but with restricted application, in the names of the orders of his class Didynamia. Its use with any approach to its modern scope became possible only after 1827, when Robert Brown established the existence of truly naked ovules in the Cycadeae and Coniferae, and applied to them the name Gymnosperms. From that time onward, as long as these Gymnosperms were, as was usual, reckoned as dicotyledonous flowering plants, the term Angiosperm was used antithetically by botanical writers, with varying scope, as a group-name for other dicotyledonous plants.

Auxanometer: Device for measuring increase or rate of growth in plants

In 1851, Hofmeister discovered the changes occurring in the embryo-sac of flowering plants, and determined the correct relationships of these to the Cryptogamia. This fixed the position of Gymnosperms as a class distinct from Dicotyledons, and the term Angiosperm then gradually came to be accepted as the suitable designation for the whole of the flowering plants other than Gymnosperms, including the classes of Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. This is the sense in which the term is used today.

In most taxonomies, the flowering plants are treated as a coherent group. The most popular descriptive name has been Angiospermae (Angiosperms), with Anthophyta ("flowering plants") a second choice. These names are not linked to any rank. The Wettstein system and the Engler system use the name Angiospermae, at the assigned rank of subdivision. The Reveal system treated flowering plants as subdivision Magnoliophytina (Frohne & U. Jensen ex Reveal, Phytologia 79: 70 1996), but later split it to Magnoliopsida, Liliopsida, and Rosopsida. The Takhtajan system and Cronquist system treat this group at the rank of division, leading to the name Magnoliophyta (from the family name Magnoliaceae). The Dahlgren system and Thorne system (1992) treat this group at the rank of class, leading to the name Magnoliopsida. The APG system of 1998, and the later 2003^[23] and 2009^[19] revisions, treat the flowering plants as a clade called angiosperms without a formal botanical name. However, a formal classification was published alongside the 2009 revision in which the flowering plants form the Subclass Magnoliidae.^[24]

The internal classification of this group has undergone considerable revision. The Cronquist system, proposed by Arthur Cronquist in 1968 and published in its full form in 1981, is still widely used but is no longer believed to accurately reflect phylogeny. A consensus about how the flowering plants should be arranged has recently begun to emerge through the work of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG), which published an influential reclassification of the angiosperms in 1998. Updates incorporating more recent research were published as APG II in 2003^[23] and as APG III in 2009.^[19][25]

Monocot (left) and dicot seedlings

Traditionally, the flowering plants are divided into two groups, which in the Cronquist system are called Magnoliopsida (at the rank of class, formed from the family name Magnoliacae) and Liliopsida (at the rank of class, formed from the family name Liliaceae). Other descriptive names allowed by Article 16 of the ICBN include Dicotyledones or Dicotyledoneae, and Monocotyledones or Monocotyledoneae, which have a long history of use. In English a member of either group may be called a dicotyledon (plural dicotyledons) and monocotyledon (plural monocotyledons), or abbreviated, as dicot (plural dicots) and monocot (plural monocots). These names derive from the observation that the dicots most often have two cotyledons, or embryonic leaves, within each seed. The monocots usually have only one, but the rule is not absolute either way. From a diagnostic point of view, the number of cotyledons is neither a particularly handy nor a reliable character.

Recent studies, as by the APG, show that the monocots form a monophyletic group (clade) but that the dicots do not (they are paraphyletic). Nevertheless, the majority of dicot species do form a monophyletic group, called the eudicots or tricolpates. Of the remaining dicot species, most belong to a third major clade known as the Magnoliidae, containing about 9,000 species. The rest include a paraphyletic grouping of primitive species known collectively as the basal angiosperms, plus the families Ceratophyllaceae and Chloranthaceae.

Flowering plant diversity[link]

A poster of twelve different species of flowers of the Asteraceae family

The number of species of flowering plants is estimated to be in the range of 250,000 to 400,000.^[26][27][28] The number of families in APG (1998) was 462. In APG II^[23] (2003) it is not settled; at maximum it is 457, but within this number there are 55 optional segregates, so that the minimum number of families in this system is 402. In APG III (2009) there are 415 families.^[19]

The diversity of flowering plants is not evenly distributed. Nearly all species belong to the eudicot (75%), monocot (23%) and magnoliid (2%) clades. The remaining 5 clades contain a little over 250 species in total, i.e., less than 0.1% of flowering plant diversity, divided among 9 families.

The most diverse families of flowering plants, in their APG circumscriptions, in order of number of species, are:

In the list above (showing only the 10 largest families), the Orchidaceae and Poaceae are monocot families; the others are eudicot families.

Vascular anatomy[link]

Cross-section of a stem of the angiosperm flax:
1. Pith,
2. Protoxylem,
3. Xylem I,
4. Phloem I,
5. Sclerenchyma (bast fibre),
6. Cortex,
7. Epidermis

The amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings.

In the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium. By the formation of a layer of cambium between the bundles (interfascicular cambium), a complete ring is formed, and a regular periodical increase in thickness results from the development of xylem on the inside and phloem on the outside. The soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Owing to differences in the character of the elements produced at the beginning and end of the season, the wood is marked out in transverse section into concentric rings, one for each season of growth, called annual rings.

Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the young stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases.

The flower, fruit, and seed[link]

Flowers[link]

A collection of flowers forming an inflorescence

The characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species. The function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf (where the petiole attaches to the stem). Occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. More typically, the flower-bearing portion of the plant is sharply distinguished from the foliage-bearing or vegetative portion, and forms a more or less elaborate branch-system called an inflorescence.

There are two kinds of reproductive cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which will divide to become pollen grains, are the "male" cells and are borne in the stamens (or microsporophylls). The "female" cells called megaspores, which will divide to become the egg cell (megagametogenesis), are contained in the ovule and enclosed in the carpel (or megasporophyll).

The flower may consist only of these parts, as in willow, where each flower comprises only a few stamens or two carpels. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls and to form an envelope attractive to pollinators. The individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals (or tepals in flowers such as Magnolia where sepals and petals are not distinguishable from each other). The outer series (calyx of sepals) is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, especially the bud. The inner series (corolla of petals) is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators. Attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower. The characteristics that attract pollinators account for the popularity of flowers and flowering plants among humans.

While the majority of flowers are perfect or hermaphrodite (having both pollen and ovule producing parts in the same flower structure), flowering plants have developed numerous morphological and physiological mechanisms to reduce or prevent self-fertilization. Heteromorphic flowers have short carpels and long stamens, or vice versa, so animal pollinators cannot easily transfer pollen to the pistil (receptive part of the carpel). Homomorphic flowers may employ a biochemical (physiological) mechanism called self-incompatibility to discriminate between self- and non-self pollen grains. In other species, the male and female parts are morphologically separated, developing on different flowers.

Fertilization and embryogenesis[link]

Angiosperm life cycle

Double fertilization refers to a process in which two sperm cells fertilize cells in the ovary. This process begins when a pollen grain adheres to the stigma of the pistil (female reproductive structure), germinates, and grows a long pollen tube. While this pollen tube is growing, a haploid generative cell travels down the tube behind the tube nucleus. The generative cell divides by mitosis to produce two haploid (n) sperm cells. As the pollen tube grows, it makes its way from the stigma, down the style and into the ovary. Here the pollen tube reaches the micropyle of the ovule and digests its way into one of the synergids, releasing its contents (which include the sperm cells). The synergid that the cells were released into degenerates and one sperm makes its way to fertilize the egg cell, producing a diploid (2n) zygote. The second sperm cell fuses with both central cell nuclei, producing a triploid (3n) cell. As the zygote develops into an embryo, the triploid cell develops into the endosperm, which serves as the embryo's food supply. The ovary now will develop into fruit and the ovule will develop into seed.

Fruit and seed[link]

The fruit of the Aesculus or Horse Chestnut tree

As the development of embryo and endosperm proceeds within the embryo sac, the sac wall enlarges and combines with the nucellus (which is likewise enlarging) and the integument to form the seed coat. The ovary wall develops to form the fruit or pericarp, whose form is closely associated with the manner of distribution of the seed.

Frequently, the influence of fertilization is felt beyond the ovary, and other parts of the flower take part in the formation of the fruit, e.g., the floral receptacle in the apple, strawberry, and others.

The character of the seed coat bears a definite relation to that of the fruit. They protect the embryo and aid in dissemination; they may also directly promote germination. Among plants with indehiscent fruits, in general, the fruit provides protection for the embryo and secures dissemination. In this case, the seed coat is only slightly developed. If the fruit is dehiscent and the seed is exposed, in general, the seed-coat is well developed, and must discharge the functions otherwise executed by the fruit.

Economic importance[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Agriculture is almost entirely dependent upon angiosperms, which provide virtually all plant-based food, and also provide a significant amount of livestock feed. Of all the families of plants, the Poaceae, or grass family (grains), is by far the most important, providing the bulk of all feedstocks (rice, corn — maize, wheat, barley, rye, oats, pearl millet, sugar cane, sorghum). The Fabaceae, or legume family, comes in second place. Also of high importance are the Solanaceae, or nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers, among others), the Cucurbitaceae, or gourd family (also including pumpkins and melons), the Brassicaceae, or mustard plant family (including rapeseed and the innumerable varieties of the cabbage species Brassica oleracea), and the Apiaceae, or parsley family. Many of our fruits come from the Rutaceae, or rue family (including oranges, lemons, grapefruits, etc.), and the Rosaceae, or rose family (including apples, pears, cherries, apricots, plums, etc.).

In some parts of the world, certain single species assume paramount importance because of their variety of uses, for example the coconut (Cocos nucifera) on Pacific atolls, and the olive (Olea europaea) in the Mediterranean region.

Flowering plants also provide economic resources in the form of wood, paper, fiber (cotton, flax, and hemp, among others), medicines (digitalis, camphor), decorative and landscaping plants, and many other uses. The main area in which they are surpassed by other plants is timber production.

See also[link]

	Plants portal
	Botany portal
	Agriculture and Agronomy portal

• List of garden plants
• List of plants by common name
• List of plant orders
• List of systems of plant taxonomy

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Cronquist, Arthur (1981). An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. ISBN 0-231-03880-1. 
• Heywood, V. H., Brummitt, R. K., Culham, A. & Seberg, O. (2007). Flowering Plant Families of the World. Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada: Firefly Books. ISBN 1-55407-206-9. 
• Dilcher, D. (2000). "Toward a new synthesis: Major evolutionary trends in the angiosperm fossil record". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97 (13): 7030. DOI:10.1073/pnas.97.13.7030. 
• Simpson, M.G. Plant Systematics, 2nd Edition. Elsevier/Academic Press. 2010.
• Raven, P.H., R.F. Evert, S.E. Eichhorn. Biology of Plants, 7th Edition. W.H. Freeman. 2004.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Magnoliophyta

Wikispecies has information related to: Magnoliophyta

The Wikibook Dichotomous Key has a page on the topic of Magnoliophyta

• Cole, Theodor C.H.; Hilger, Dr. Harmut H. Angiosperm Phylogeny Poster – Flowering Plant Systamatics
• Cromie, William J. (December 16, 1999). "Oldest Known Flowering Plants Identified By Genes". Harvard University Gazette.
• Watson, L. and Dallwitz, M.J. (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval.
• Flowering plant at the Encyclopedia of Life

v t e Botany Subdisciplines of botany Ethnobotany Paleobotany Plant anatomy Plant ecology Plant evo-devo Plant morphology Plant physiology Plants Evolutionary history of plants Algae Bryophyte Pteridophyte Gymnosperm Angiosperm Plant parts Flower Fruit Leaf Meristem Root Stem Stoma Vascular tissue Wood Plant cells Cell wall Chlorophyll Chloroplast Photosynthesis Plant hormone Plastid Transpiration Plant reproduction Alternation of generations Gametophyte Plant sexuality Pollen Pollination Seed Spore Sporophyte Plant taxonomy Botanical name Botanical nomenclature Herbarium IAPT ICN Species Plantarum Glossaries Glossary of botanical terms Glossary of plant morphology terms Category Portal

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. vep:Peitsemnižed

T.I.
T.I. performing at the 2008 Bumbershoot festival.
Background information
Birth name	Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr.
Born	(1980-09-25) September 25, 1980 (age 31) Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor, author
Instruments	Keyboards, sampler
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Grand Hustle, Atlantic
Associated acts	P$C
Website	trapmuzik.com

Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. (born September 25, 1980), better known by his stage name T.I., is an American rap artist, film and music producer, actor and author. He is also the founder and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Grand Hustle Records.^[1][2]

T.I. has released seven studio albums (I'm Serious, Trap Muzik, Urban Legend, King, T.I. vs. T.I.P., Paper Trail, and No Mercy) with the most recent five being highly successful on the commercial market. He has released such successful singles as "Bring Em Out", "What You Know", "Big Shit Poppin' (Do It)", "Swagga Like Us" (featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne), "Whatever You Like", "Live Your Life" (featuring Rihanna), "Dead and Gone" (featuring Justin Timberlake), "Got Your Back" (featuring Keri Hilson) and "That's All She Wrote" (featuring Eminem). He has served two stints in county jail, twice for probation violations and a federal prison bid for a U.S. federal weapons charge. While serving 11 months in prison he released his seventh studio album, No Mercy. T.I. has also had successful acting career, starring in the films Takers and ATL.

Biography[link]

1980–2000: Early life and career beginnings[link]

T.I. was born Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. on September 25, 1980, in Riverdale, Georgia, the son of the late Clifford "Buddy" Harris Sr. and Violeta Morgan.^[3][4] He was raised by his grandparents in Bankhead, Atlanta, Georgia. His father lived in New York and he would often go up there to visit him. His father suffered from Alzheimer's and later died from the disease.^[5] T.I. began rapping at age nine.^[5] He attended Douglass High School, but later dropped out. As a teenager, he was a drug dealer.^[6][7] He was once known as Rubber Band Man, a reference to the custom of wearing rubber bands around the wrist to denote wealth in terms of drugs or money.^[8] By age 14, he had been arrested several times.^[5] He was nicknamed "Tip" after his paternal great-grandfather.^[9] Kawan "KP" Prather, a record executive, discovered and signed T.I. when he was a teenager.^[10] Upon signing with Arista Records subsidiary LaFace Records in 2001, he shortened his name to T.I. out of respect for label mate Q-Tip.^[11]

[edit] 2001–02: I'm Serious

T.I. released his debut album, I'm Serious, in October 2001 through Arista Records.^[12] The album spawned the eponymous single, which featured Jamaican reggae entertainer Beenie Man. His debut single, "I'm Serious," was released on June 26, 2001. The single received little airplay and failed to chart. The album included guests appearances from Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes (who called him "the Jay-Z of the South"),^[13] Jazze Pha, Too Short, Bone Crusher, Lil Jon, Pastor Troy, P$C and YoungBloodZ. The album featured production from The Neptunes, DJ Toomp, Madvac, and The Grand Hustle Team. Despite the album's guests appearances and production team, the album peaked at number 98 and only sold 163,000 copies in the United States.^[14] Critics pointed to the fact that many of the tracks sounded the same and that a few were blatant rip-offs.^[15] Other critics commented saying, "T.I. claims to be the king of the South, but fails to show and prove. He does, however, have potential. If his talent ever matches his confidence, he may be headed for stardom."^[16]

Due to the poor commercial reception of the album, T.I. was dropped from Arista Records.^[12] He then formed Grand Hustle Entertainment and started releasing several mixtapes with the assistance of DJ Drama.^[12] He resurfaced in the summer of 2003 with fellow Atlanta rapper and former label-mate Bone Crusher's song "Never Scared." His mixtapes and mainstream exposure from "Never Scared" eventually recaptured major label attention and he signed a joint venture deal with Atlantic Records.^[17][18]

[edit] 2003–05: Trap Muzik and Urban Legend

T.I. released his second album Trap Muzik on August 19, 2003 through Grand Hustle Records; it debuted at number four and sold 109,000 copies in its first week.^[19] It spawned the singles "24s", "Be Easy", "Rubberband Man", and "Let's Get Away". The album featured guest appearances by 8Ball & MJG, Jazze Pha, Bun B and Macboney and was produced by Jazze Pha, Kanye West, David Banner, Madvac and DJ Toomp. In March 2004, a warrant was issued for T.I.'s arrest after he violated his probation of a 1997 drug conviction.^[20] He was sentenced to three years in prison.^[21] While imprisoned in Cobb County, Georgia, he filmed an unauthorized music video.^[22] One month later, he was allowed a work release program.^[23]

T.I. was on probation stemming from a 1998 conviction for violating a state controlled substances act and for giving false information. After being released on probation, he earned a litany of probation violations in several counties around Georgia for offenses ranging from possession of a firearm to possession of marijuana.^[21] In 2006, after appearing in an Atlanta court on (May 10) and having charges that he threatened a man outside a strip club last year dropped for lack of evidence, T.I. was arrested on an outstanding probation violation warrant from Florida. The warrant claimed that T.I. did not complete the required number of community service hours he was sentenced for a 2003 assault of a female sheriff deputy at University Mall in Tampa. T.I. was detained by several mall Security Guards at the time of the incident. According to WSB-TV Atlanta, the rapper’s attorney said that the problem was nothing more than a "technical matter" between Georgia and Florida. The confusion arose because T.I. was also sentenced to community service in Georgia for driving with a suspended license, for which he did complete 75 hours of community service in his home state. The rapper was released on bail shortly after being arrested, and was expected to surrender to Florida state authorities the following week to resolve the matter.^[24]

T.I. released his third studio album, Urban Legend, in November 2004. It debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, selling 193,000 copies in its first week.^[19] The album's official lead single, "Bring Em Out", was released in January 2005 and became his first top ten hit, peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, while the second single "U Don't Know Me" peaked at number twenty-three on the Billboard Hot 100. His third single "ASAP" reached number 75 on the U.S. charts,^[25] number 18 on the U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop charts^[25] and number 14 on the Rap chart.^[25] T.I. created a video for "ASAP"/"Motivation". However, "Motivation" only made it to number 62 on the U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop singles chart.^[25] He was featured in Destiny's Child's 2004 single "Soldier" along with Lil Wayne, peaking at number three on the U.S. Hot 100 and the U.S. R&B Charts.^[26]

In 2006, T.I. received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Song Collaboration ("Soldier" w/ Destiny's Child & Lil Wayne) and Best Rap Solo Performance for "U Don't Know Me" at The 48th Grammy Awards. That same year he won Rap Artist of the Year, Rap Album Of The Year, Rap Album Artist Of The Year, Rap Song Artist of the Year and Video Clip Artist of the Year on the Billboard Music Award and Best Male Hip-Hop Artist on the BET Awards.

[edit] 2006–07: King, T.I. vs. T.I.P. and federal weapons charges

T.I.'s fourth album, King, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the first half of 2006, selling 522,000 copies in its first week.^[27] T.I. released "Front Back" and "Ride with Me" as promotional singles prior to the release of the album. The singles garnered little attention, but helped to promote not only the album, but also ATL. The album also included the singles, "What You Know," "Why You Wanna," and "Live in the Sky," plus a remix of "Top Back." King earned numerous awards and nominations including a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album. He was also featured in the single "Shoulder Lean" by Young Dro reaching the top ten on the U.S. Hot 100 and #1 on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Tracks.

T.I. at the 2006 Summer Jam concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"What You Know" won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance and was nominated for Best Rap Song at the 49th Grammy Awards.^[28] Also that year, T.I. collaborated with Justin Timberlake for "My Love," which proved to be a worldwide hit, and won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Justin Timberlake at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards^[28] and also won Best Male Hip-Hop Artist at the BET Awards for the second straight time. He then served as a featured performer on "We Takin' Over" by DJ Khaled also featuring Akon, Fat Joe, Rick Ross, Birdman and Lil Wayne.

T.I. released his fifth album, T.I. vs. T.I.P., on July 3, 2007. The first single from the album was "Big Shit Poppin' (Do It)," which was produced by Mannie Fresh and was released to radio stations on April 17, 2007. The second single, "You Know What It Is" featuring Wyclef Jean, was released June 12, 2007. T.I. vs. T.I.P. sold 468,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It was T.I.'s second chart-topper in a row: King opened at number one on the Billboard 200 with 522,000 copies in late March 2006.^[29] The album included guest performances by Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Wyclef Jean, Nelly, and Eminem, and production by Eminem, Jeff Bass, Mannie Fresh, Grand Hustle, The Runners, Just Blaze, Wyclef Jean and Danja. Absent from this album's production lineup were T.I.'s longtime producer DJ Toomp and The Neptunes. In October 2007, T.I. released his third single, "Hurt," featuring Busta Rhymes and Alfamega.

On October 13, 2007, federal authorities arrested T.I. four hours before the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta.^[30] He was charged with two felonies — possession of three unregistered machine guns and two silencers, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. The arrest was made in the parking lot of a downtown shopping center, which a witness identified as the Walgreens drug store at the corner of North and Piedmont Avenues. T.I. was arrested after allegedly trying to purchase the guns from a "cooperating witness" with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to federal officials, the witness had been cooperating with authorities a few days prior to the T.I. arrest, when the cooperating witness was arrested on charges of trying to purchase guns from a federal agent. The witness had been working as T.I.'s bodyguard since July, authorities said.^[31][32] T.I. walked out of the Atlanta United States District Court after appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan J. Baverman on October 26, 2007. Judge Alan J. Baverman required T.I. post a $3 million bond, $2 million in cash and $1 million in equity on property he owns. The rapper was required to remain at home except for medical appointments and court appearances. The only people allowed to live with him were his girlfriend and children. Visitors were required to be approved by the court.

[edit] 2008–09: Paper Trail and prison sentence

T.I.'s suppression hearing was scheduled for February 19, 2008. The performer later pleaded guilty to U.S. federal weapons charges. He was sentenced to an undefined prison sentence, a year of house arrest and 1,500 hours of community service. In an interview with MTV about serving prison time, T.I. stated, "Presumably, while I'm there, I'll be able to strategize my comeback." He went on to say that he would not "just be sitting still doing nothing".^[33] At that time T.I. collaborated with Mariah Carey on the "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" remix, peaking at number 58 on the U.S. Hot 100 and number 36 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

	Whatever You Like (2008) noicon T.I.'s second single from his sixth studio album Paper Trail.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

While under house arrest, T.I. began writing lyrics down on paper for his following album.^[34] The first promotional single from the album, "No Matter What," was released in April 2008. The music video was released on June 2008 on MTV's FN Premieres. The second promotional single was "Swing Ya Rag" which was produced by and featured Swizz Beatz.^[35] The official lead single was "Whatever You Like," was released on July 2008, and became his most successful single of his career so far, breaking the record for the highest jump to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, jumping from number 71 to number one. Also becoming T.I.'s first solo number one on the chart. While "Whatever You Like" was number one, "Weird Al" Yankovic did a parody of T.I.'s song called "Whatever You Like", the same title as the song by T.I. He released his sixth album, Paper Trail, in September 2008. The title of the album refers to the lyrics he had written down on paper. Like many other rappers, T.I. abandoned this style of rapping after his debut album I'm Serious by just memorizing lyrics. His representative explain that T.I. wanted to "take more time to really put something down [this time]".^[36] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 selling 568,000 copies in the United States.^[37]

The second single from the album, "Swagga Like Us", featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100. With the third single "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna, T.I. broke his own record on the Billboard Hot 100 when it jumped from number 80 to the number one.^[37] The fourth single "Dead and Gone", featuring Justin Timberlake, peaked at number two for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually going on to be nominated during the 52nd Grammy Awards for both "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" and "Best Rap Song". During the 51st Grammy Awards, he was nominated for four Grammy Awards, eventually winning Best Rap Performance by a Duo Or a Group for "Swagga Like Us". "Remember Me", featuring Mary J. Blige, was released digitally on July 7, 2009. It was the planned first single from the re-release of T.I.'s sixth studio album, "Paper Trail", but the re-release was eventually shelved. The single peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100. On October 6, "Hell of a Life" was released digitally and went on to peak at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2009, T.I. appeared as himself on an episode of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. On the episode, he took the comedienne to Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in LA and gave her a lesson on how to "swagger."^[38]

On November 21, 2008, T.I. testified in the murder trial of a member of his entourage and a close friend, Philant Johnson (1980–2006), who was murdered in a shooting that occurred after a post-concert party at a club. T.I. has dedicated several songs to Johnson, from the single version of "Live in the Sky" to his more recent hit "Dead and Gone" where Johnson's grave can be seen in the video.^[39]

On March 27, 2009, U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell, Jr. sentenced T.I. to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $100,300 for federal weapons charges; T.I. had his sentence reduced from a maximum 10 years and a $250,000 fine with a plea bargain.^[40][41] On May 26, 2009, T.I. began serving his sentence in Forrest City, Arkansas.^[42] Two days prior to being imprisoned, T.I. performed a farewell concert at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.^[43] T.I. was released from FCC Forrest City on December 22, 2009^[44] and was moved into a halfway house in Atlanta.^[45] T.I. had the Federal Bureau of Prisons ID 59458-019 and was released from CCM Atlanta on March 26, 2010.^[46] After his release from prison, he was subjected to an audit of his finances, drug counseling, DNA testing, and random searches of his property.^[47]

[edit] 2010–2011: No Mercy and drug charges

On March 26, 2010, T.I. was released from the halfway house.^[48] He was in the studio working on his seventh studio album titled King Uncaged.^[49] Jim Jonsin, the producer who previously worked with him on his single, "Whatever You Like" and R&B singer Trey Songz, were scheduled to work on the project.

T.I. made his first public appearance since prison, stepping out with then fiancée Tameka "Tiny" Cottle in support of her Alzheimer's research fundraiser "For the Love of Our Fathers" at Atlanta's Opera venue. "I am very well, very happy to be seen," said T.I., who joined Cottle onstage at the end of the benefit.^[50] T.I. released a new street single titled "I'm Back" on March 8, 2010.^[51] The single peaked at #44 on Billboard's Hot 100 charts.^[52] Around this time, he made a featured guest appearance on Diddy-Dirty Money's single "Hello Good Morning" where the single peaked at #27 in US and charted internationally in eight other countries.^[53]

He also made a guest appearance on Larry King Live on May 13 to discuss with Larry King about his nine-month prison term on federal gun charges and other topics.^[54] T.I. released a promotional soundtrack single entitled, "Yeah Ya Know (Takers)" on May 24.^[55] It peaked at number forty-four on Billboard Hot 100 and number sixty-eight on Canadian Hot 100.^[52] T.I. released another promotional single entitled; "Got Your Back" which featured American R&B singer Keri Hilson and it peaked at number thirty-eight in the US.^[52] Later, T.I. made more featured single appearances such as Jamie Foxx's single "Winner" featuring Justin Timberlake and Drake's single "Fancy" which it featured Swizz Beatz. Both singles made an impact on the Billboard charts peaking at the top 50.

T.I. released a mixtape entitled "Fuck a Mixtape"; the move was somewhat controversial due to its title, with many feeling he was insulting the Mixtape format. T.I. has addressed the issue by stating that it was a response to all the people who told him to just focus on an album and not on a mixtape. T.I. further defended his decision to release a mixtape by saying: "I already have 60, 70 songs. A lot of these songs are period pieces that speak volumes to what's going on right now. If I hold onto them next year or the year after, they'll be dated, because my life will be in another direction. If I'm not gonna put it on the album — and they all can't make the album — then they might as well have another platform to present it to the world".^[56]

On September 1, T.I. and his wife Tiny were arrested on drug charges in Los Angeles.^[57] The arrest for drug charges led to T.I. being sentenced on October 15, 2010 to 11 months in prison for violating the terms of his probation, specifically for possessing ecstasy, testing positive for opiates and associating with a convicted felon. On October 25, the drug charges against T.I. were dropped.^[58]

T.I. changed the title of his seventh studio album and renamed it No Mercy due to his new prison sentencing. He then released the first single from the newly titled album, "Get Back Up" featuring Chris Brown on the same day that he was sentenced back to prison for violating the terms of his probation.^[59] "Get Back Up" peaked at number seventy in the US.^[52] On November 1, T.I. reported back to the Forrest City Federal Facility to serve his 11-month sentence.^[60] His date of release was set to be September 29, 2011.^[46]

No Mercy was released on December 7, 2010. The album peaked at number four in the US and it sold over 159,000 copies in its first week.^[61] RIAA certified No Mercy Gold with over 500,000 copies sold. His second and last single from the album "That's All She Wrote" featuring Eminem was released on December 19 and it peaked at number eighteen in the US.^[52]

T.I. was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Rap Solo Performance for "I'm Back" and Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (Fancy with Drake and Swizz Beatz) at the 53rd Grammy Awards. He was also nominated for a Soul Train Music Award for Best Hip Hop Song of the Year for "Got Your Back" and he earned three BET Hip Hop Awards nominations for Hustler of the Year, Made You Look Award, and Best Club Banger for "Hello Good Morning" w/Diddy-Dirty Money.

In early June 2011, T.I. said in a letter: "I’ll be releasing a record in the near future (couple of weeks tops) to hold y’all over til I get back in action." On June 30, 2011, a new song was released onto T.I.'s official website and on his official YouTube channel - titled "We Don't Get Down Like Y'all", which features fellow Grand Hustle rapper B.o.B on the hook. While commenting on the song, T.I. said in another letter; "It's a song that I did soon after my release last time. What inspired me to write this record was the differences in how we do us and how they do them suddenly became incredibly evident in just a very short period of time." It was originally only available on Atlantic Records's online store.^[62][63][64] The song was available on iTunes and other vendors, such as Spotify on August 9 and it peaked at number seventy-eight in the US.

On August 31, T.I. was released from Forrest City Correctional Facility in Arkansas at 7:29 a.m. and was sent to a community living facility to serve out the rest of his 11 month prison sentence. He then released a statement on Twitter saying: "The storm is over & da sun back out. IT'S OUR TIME TO SHINE SHAWTY!!!!! Welcome to the beginning of our Happy Ending!!!!"^[65] He recently inked a deal with VH1 for a new reality show that will follow him as he re-adjusts to life as a free man after the incarceration and he's also working on a book entitled, "Power & Beauty" which was set to be released in October.^[66] He was sent back to federal custody on September 1, less than 48 hours after his release due to a dispute involving T.I. taking a luxury bus from a prison in Arkansas to a halfway house facility in Atlanta. T.I.'s attorney, Steve Sadow, told the Associated Press that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has moved T.I. to a different facility and clarified that the dispute was not drug related.^[67] T.I. was later released from prison and was sent back to the halfway house, where he was released on September 29 at midnight.^[68]

[edit] 2011-present: Trouble Man and The Man and the Martian

On September 30, T.I. released "I'm Flexin'", the first promotional single from his upcoming eighth studio album. The song was produced and features Big K.R.I.T.. T.I. reunited with Young Jeezy on "F.A.M.E." for Jeezy's album TM103.^[69][70] "I'm Flexin" peaked at number sixty-six on Billboard Hot 100, while "F.A.M.E." peaked at number sixty-seven on Billboard Hip Hop/R&B. On October 18, T.I. made appearances on The Howard Stern Show and The View to promote his new novel, "Power & Beauty: A Love Story of Life on the Streets" and discuss other issues involving his time in prison. Later that day, he released the second promotional single "Here Ye, Hear Ye" featuring Pharrell Williams, under the alias Sk8brd. ^[71][72][73]

After his release from prison, T.I. appeared on several remixes such as; "Spend It" by 2 Chainz, "Sleazy" by Ke$ha", Niggas in Paris" with Jay-Z and Kanye West, "Hard White (Up in the Club)" by Yelawolf also featuring Slaughterhouse, "Ima Boss" by Meek Mill alongside a freestyle over Drake's "Headlines", and Lil Wayne's "She Will". He was also featured on Future's second single "Magic" taken from his debut studio album Pluto.

T.I. revealed the title of his eight studio album to be Trouble Man. The album was partly inspired by Marvin Gaye’s 1972 song of the same name, he revealed on Billboard. In a previous interview with Rolling Stone; he said he was debating between two titles, Trouble Man and Kill the King. The third promotional single "Pyro", was released on November 21.^[74] On December 5, his new reality show "T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle" premiered on Vh1 at 9p after the first full episodes were leaked onto the internet.^[75]

In preparation for the album, T.I. released a mixtape entitled, Fuck da City Up on New Year's Day. Two songs off the mixtape charted on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, "Popped Off", featuring and produced by Dr. Dre and "This Time of Night" featuring Nelly, respectively.^[76]

While on set for the "Strange Clouds" music video, MTV interviewed B.o.B and confronted him of a rumor that he and T.I. are working on a collaborative album, B.o.B responded: "The joint album, it actually started as a joke. Tip would always refer to me as 'the Martian', and in one of his lyrics, he said, ‘It’s the man and the Martian,’ and we said, ‘Man that could be an album title.’ We kinda just played around with it. But it seems to be taking form in a very organic way."^[77] On December 1, 2011, B.o.B appeared on New York City's Hot 97 radio station and confirmed that he and T.I. are indeed working on a collaborative album titled The Man and the Martian.^[78][79]

On March 1, 2012, T.I. announced he signed Iggy Azalea, Chip and Trae Tha Truth to Grand Hustle Records.^[80][81] He will act as executive producer on Azalea's debut studio album The New Classic and was featured on her debut single "Murda Bizness", which premiered March 26, 2012.^[82] On March 30, T.I. released a snippet of "Love This Life", Trouble Man's lead single, produced by Mars of 1500 or Nothin'. He also revealed that the song will be released on April 2, 2012.^[83]

Other ventures[link]

Acting career[link]

In 2006 T.I. starred in his first film, ATL, which was loosely based on the rapper's life growing up in Atlanta and attending a skating rink named "Jellybeans" (the name of the skating rink was changed due to "Jellybeans" not giving the movie rights to the name). The other cast members included Lauren London, Antwan Patton, Evan Ross, Mykelti Williamson, Jason Weaver, and Keith David. The movie was written by Tina Gordon Chism and Antwone Fisher, produced by Timothy M. Bourne, Tionne Watkins, and Will Smith, and directed by Christopher Robinson. T.I. played the character Rashad Swann, an orphaned 17-year-old senior in high school. In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of $11.5 million, ranking third in the United States box office, and went on to gross $21.2 million.^[84]

He also appeared in American Gangster as Stevie Lucas, Drug Kingpin Frank Lucas' nephew.^[85]

T.I. starred in the crime heist film Takers (originally called Bone Deep) as Ghost. The film was directed by John Luessenhop and was produced by William Packer, Michael Ealy, Tom Lassally, Jason Geter, Gary Gilbert and T.I. himself. The film was released on August 27, 2010 through Grand Hustle Films and Rainforest Films distributed by Screen Gems. The film also includes Chris Brown, Idris Elba, Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, and Zoe Saldana. Takers debuted at number one at the American box office at 20.5 million in its opening weekend.^[86]

Music and film producing[link]

T.I. was co-executive producer of B.G.'s upcoming album and making beats for artists like Mariah Carey, Cassidy, Rick Ross, Maino, B.o.B, Yung Joc, Young Dro, and himself.^[87] He also executive produced the soundtrack to the film Hustle & Flow and released the collection through his record label.^[88]

T.I. also a songwriter. He has credits from Diddy, Dr. Dre, and Bow Wow.

T.I. launched his film company, Grand Hustle Films. Late 2007, T.I. linked up with Los Angeles-based production company 828 Entertainment to executive produce a new reality show titled Life on Mars which chronicles the life of young prodigy music producer LaMar "MARS" Edwards.^[89][90] T.I. partnered 828 Entertainment with his company Grand Hustle Records to produce a slate of both television and film projects. He also created a reality show on MTV called "T.I.'s Road to Redemption".

Community work[link]

In addition to helping with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, T.I. worked with troubled youths at Paulding Detention Center in Atlanta, provided scholarships for single parent families at Boys and Girls Clubs, and headlined the Boost Mobile Rockcorps concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall, which featured such performers as Fat Joe, Slim Thug, and Kanye West, and was held exclusively for community service volunteers. As part of his community service time, T.I. has come to a number of middle-grade and high schools in Georgia, where he speaks with the students in an assembly holding a positive message, while maintaining a philathropic view about morals and growing up in the same areas as himself. In June 2005, The Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes Foundation, named for the deceased member of multi-platinum female group TLC, and Atlanta's V-103 honored T.I. with the 2005 Lisa Lopes Award for groundbreaking achievements in music and community service which was court ordered. With this steady list of growing accomplishments T.I. is being recognized as the "Jay-Z of the South," according to Pharrell Williams of multi-platinum production team The Neptunes.^[91]

T.I.'s night club, Club Crucial, hosted a giveaway of 200 bicycles to neighborhood children in the Boys and Girls Club with V-103 announcer Greg Street.^[92] Upon being asked his opinion on Obama supporting gay marriage, he responded that people should be free to do what they want to do.^[93]

Business ventures[link]

Forbes Magazine announced its first ever Hip-Hop Cash Kings list early 2007 with list of the top 20 hip-hop earning artists for the previous business year. T.I. was listed on their list three times.^[94][95][96]

T.I. opened his own nightclub, Club Crucial in Bankhead, Atlanta. It is considered one of the most popular clubs in Atlanta and features full entertainment centers with large flat screen TVs, pool rooms, VIP rooms, food, etc. Celebrities such as Monica, Big Boi, Mike Epps, Shawty Lo make appearances there. The club also hosts weekly events such as Monday night Open Mic Night, Free Fridays, and Celebrity Saturdays where local hip-hop artists are known to come perform their songs at the club.^[97]

Chevrolet secured an endorsement deal with T.I. earlier in 2007 to promote their line of cars, with a focus on the new Impala. Due to his arrest for federal gun charges, he was on the verge of losing his deal with the company.^[98]

T.I. had an endorsement with a social networking website focusing on the hip-hop culture named StreetCred. The website was founded in 2007 by investment banker Rocky Williform. Celebrities such as Diddy, Lil Kim, and Jeezy had accounts on the website. As of 2008, the website was temporarily shut down until further notice.

On June 29, T.I. was named Global Creative Consultant of Rémy Martin Cognac. XXL Magazine revealed that the partnership will include collaborative projects and a focus on continuing the philanthropic works of his K.I.N.G. Foundation. He also announced on Chelsea Lately that he will be releasing his own signature brand of the liquor.^[99]

T.I. lost his endorsement deal with Axe body spray after his arrest for drug possession.^[100]

Controversy[link]

Ludacris[link]

A dispute with Ludacris started when T.I. saw Disturbing tha Peace rapper I-20's video. In the video, a man wearing a shirt which said "Trap House" was being beaten. T.I. mistook the logo to refer to "Trap Muzik". Former G-Unit artist Young Buck asked fellow Southern rappers T.I. and Ludacris to appear on his new record on the track "Stomp". T.I. recorded a verse which contained a line that Young Buck considered to be an underhanded snub towards Ludacris: "Me gettin' beat down?/That's ludicrous/". Young Buck spoke to Ludacris about the verse, to maintain his neutrality in the controversy. Ludacris then recorded the verse that can be found on the album.^[101] T.I's record company wanted Ludacris to change his verse before they sanctioned it but Ludacris refused and T.I. was therefore replaced by Game on the album version.

On June 24, 2007 at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, California, T.I. was involved in a brawl. During a luncheon held by Kevin Liles of Warner Music Group (parent company of T.I.'s label, Atlantic Records), the MC got into a fight with Ludacris' manager Chaka Zulu. According to witnesses, T.I. punched Zulu in the face and choked him and a brief melee ensued.^[102]

T.I. brought home the award for Best Hip-Hop Artist at the BET Awards, and took the opportunity to apologize for his scuffle with Disturbing tha Peace executive Chaka Zulu earlier in the week. While accepting his award, he expressed regret over the situation. "They say it's a fine line between brilliance and insanity," he said, in an apparent reference to his troublesome alter ego, T.I.P. During the broadcast, cameras showed his onetime rival Ludacris smiling in the audience. The audience stood up and applauded T.I.^[103]

The two rappers have since resolved the dispute and have collaborated on two songs: "Wish You Would" on Ludacris's sixth studio album, Theater of the Mind, and "On Top of the World" on T.I.'s sixth studio album, Paper Trail. The original version of the latter had Kanye West.

Lil' Flip[link]

According to AllHipHop,^[104] T.I. and Lil' Flip had an altercation in Lil' Flip's neighborhood, the Cloverland section of Houston. It has been said that T.I. went there to create a DVD exposing Lil' Flip to be a fraud. When T.I. went to Cloverland with his entourage, he was met by Flip and his people. Then it was said a fight broke out with one of the members of Lil Flip's entourage started swinging on T.I. until one of T.I.'s bodyguards started shooting. The same day T.I. went on a Houston, Texas radio station talking about the altercation. He revealed that he had the tape and he was going to release it with an upcoming mixtape, but that did not happen because James Prince stopped him from distributing the tape. It is unknown whether T.I. still has the tape or not. The feud was squashed by Rap-a-Lot's Prince after having them sit down and resolve their feud. The feud was documented by the Houston Press.^[105]

Shawty Lo[link]

In 2008, T.I. was involved in a highly publicized feud with Shawty Lo. The feud was characterized by Shawty Lo's track Dunn Dunn, and T.I.'s reply in What Up, What's Haapnin. The song Dunn Dunn appears to question T.I.'s roots in Bankhead. The music video for What Up, What's Haapnin was shot in Shawty Lo's housing project Bowen Homes, an apparent insult towards Shawty Lo. In an interview, T.I. insisted that his song No Matter What was only partially aimed at Shawty Lo.^[106]

The feud reached its climax at the November 2008 Dirty Awards where the entourages of both artists clashed during the ceremony, forcing it to be shut down.^[107] Two incidents forced police to use pepper-spray and evacuate the audience.^[108]

The feud was publicly squashed on March 7, 2009, when Shawty Lo and T.I. appeared on-stage together at Club Crucial in Bankhead, for T.I.'s farewell concert.^[109][110] After this performance, T.I. gave an interview to MTV, in which he stated that the feud with Shawty Lo was exaggerated by the media, and was not a 'beef'.^[111]

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

T.I. has been in a relationship with former Xscape member Tameka "Tiny" Cottle since 2001.^[9] The couple married on July 30, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida.^[112][113] Together, they have two sons: Clifford "King" Joseph Harris III, born August 25, 2004,^[9][114] and Major Philant Harris, born May 16, 2008.^[115][116] Their daughter Lelah Amore Harris was stillborn on March 22, 2007, six months into a complicated pregnancy.^[117]

In addition, T.I. has two sons with ex-girlfriend Lashon Dixon: Domani Uriah, born in 2000, and Messiah Ya'Majesty, born in 2001. T.I. also has a daughter named Deyjah Imani, born in 2001, from another relationship.^[6][118]

Through his marriage to Cottle, T.I. has one stepdaughter, Zonnique Pullins, born in 1996 to Cottle and Zonnie Zebo Pullins.^{[119][119][120][121]}

Rescue of suicidal man[link]

T.I. has been praised for helping a twenty-four year old suicidal man in Atlanta named Joshua Starks, convincing the man not to go through with jumping from a 22-story building.^[122] On October 13, 2010, T.I. reportedly heard about the situation on the radio and drove to the scene at Atlanta's 400 Colony Square Building.^[123] He drove to the site, and asked the police if he could help Starks. T.I. then talked to the man, and convinced him not to jump. Afterwards, T.I. stated "For one, I'm not taking any credit. I didn't do it... I could've just as well came down there and it could have been resolved in another way. The fact of the matter is that God put me in a position to help, and I can't take any credit for that."^[124]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• I'm Serious (2001)
• Trap Muzik (2003)
• Urban Legend (2004)
• King (2006)
• T.I. vs. T.I.P. (2007)
• Paper Trail (2008)
• No Mercy (2010)
• Trouble Man (2012)

Collaborative albums

• The Man and the Martian (With B.o.B) (TBA)

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

	Book: T.I.
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• List of artists who reached number one in the United States
• List of awards and nominations received by T.I.

References[link]