h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Aloe dichotoma - the Quiver Tree - A25793553
Author: The Return of The Unmentionable Marauding Pillowcase!!! (Visit U185434) - U168712

I offer this entry on Aloe dichotoma, the Quiver Tree of Southern Africa, for review. All comments welcome!

Hello Pillowcase!
Well done on this, it's a lovely Entry

It would benefit from an introduction before you start with the classification

This part:
Links


Information about Quiver Trees on PlantZAfrica


Wikipedia article, including some nice photos


A painting of a large Quiver Tree


The code is wrong, and we don't put in "Links" sections anymore - House style is the References tag between the close guide and close body tags thus:



Information about Quiver Trees on PlantZAfrica
Wikipedia article, including some nice photos
A painting of a large Quiver Tree




GB

Nice entry. Needs to be worked on as suggested by GB, though.

Hello Galaxy Babe! How are you doing these days?

Thanks for the help! I've made the changes you suggested! I hope the references are right now ...

It's looking good now.

The tags should all be changed to tags, and the colon at the end of each removed.

OK, done that ... why no subheaders?

Headers are the main tags for dividing an Entry into sections. If the amount of body text under a header is large, and it needs to be divided further, subheaders can be used.

I personally think that headers can sometimes be a bit too large and a bit too heavy, but there we are, that's what hootoo style requests.

Oh, I see ... just as a matter of how an entry looks, I still like subheaders better because they are a bit smaller. Anyways, live and learn!

I mean to say, I agree with you on that last point you made!

The smaller subheaders look better to me too.

I like the entry, particularly "Their collective nests look like huge haystacks somehow flung into the trees." ! An accurate description, having seen some photos. I suppose the haystack accumulates over quite a length of time.

Some house-style stuff I hope I'm remembering correctly - non-Latin species names are only capitalised when they're proper names, and all Latin names, even in titles, are italicised.

The plantzafrica site has a couple of extra facts, I don't know how substantiated they are though. They mention the dead tree being used as a natural fridge.

Neat Entry

The section heading 'Uses' is a bit of a stretch, though. You already did the quiver-thing, and all the other 'uses' there are relationships with other species.

So I'd rename that section 'Symbiosis'

Pin

Hello all, and thanks for the additional comments!

I've tried fixing all the instances of capital letters for non-names, and put in italics for the scientific names. Did I miss any? Except the title of the entry ... how do I get italics in there???

'Symbiosis' is strictly speaking a relationship between species where both sides benefit. This is not necessarily true of the things I mention under 'uses'. I think maybe a better heading would be 'Ecological Value'. How say you?

As for the uses and other things on PlantzAfrica ... I haven't heard of the 'natural fridge' use elsewhere ... and at any rate, I have to leave a bit more for the reader to go and learn about these trees elsewhere!

Ecological Value - yes, that's better

I've changed it to that! Anything more, anybody??

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

pillowcase!

well done.

Yay! Thanks everybody!

Dear Pillowcase Willem,

Your entry on the Quiver tree is fascinating. Hey but it took an old "tannie" to remind you of it. !!

Congratulations.

I am bouche0bee (open-mouthed) at your knowledge. You are extraordinary.
.

If K. and I come to S.A, for three months at the end of the year, you and your parents wi8ll have to come down and visit us. !!

Kind regards and go well.

Christiane and K.