Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus)

Madagascar periwinkle or tapak dara (Catharanthus roseus L. G.Don) is an annual shrub that lives wild or cultivated in open places in various tropical regions, but can also grow in a rather shady place. Shrub habitus grows sideways and is 0.2 meters to 1 meter high.

This beautiful plant in Indonesia is called tapak dara, Malaysians know it as kemunting cina, in the Philippines as tsitsirika, in Vietnam as hoa hai dang, in China known as chang chun hua, in England as rose periwinkle, and in the Netherlands as a soldaten bloem.

C. roseus has a beautiful flower appearance and is similar to frangipani flowers, round and diameter shaped stems are small, branched, woody stems and downy leaves. Flowers have red, pink, blue, white and others.

These plants can live wildly on any land including clay, sand and rocks. It grows and spreads rapidly during the rainy season where the wake flowers bloom on dewy mornings. This flower plant bursts and appears to be striking between the surrounding grasses.

The leaves are ovoid, about 2 cm to 6 cm long, 1 cm to 3 cm wide, green, and pinned pinned together. The leaves are about 2-6 cm long, 1-3 cm wide. The stalk is very short and the leaves contain white latex.

Flowers grow axially or arise from the armpit of leaves, flower petals and nail-shaped. Trumpet shaped crowns, widened ends, white, blue, pink or purple depending on the cultivar. The fruit is cylindrical with a pointed tip, hairy, 1.5 cm to 2.5 cm long, and has many seeds.

Flowers and leaves contain vincristine, vinblastine, reserpine, ajmalicine, and serpentine. Other contents are catharanthine, leurosine, norharman, lochnerine, tetrahydroalstonine, vindoline, vindolinine, akuammine, vincamine, vinleurosin, and vinrosidine.

Kingdom: Plantae
Kingdom: Embryophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Apocynaceae
Genus: Catharanthus
Species: C. roseus

Six new species forming the Sumbana species group in genus Nemophora Hoffmannsegg 1798 from Indonesia

NEWS - Sumbawa longhorn ( Nemophora sumbana Kozlov, sp. nov.), Timor longhorn ( Nemophora timorella Kozlov, sp. nov.), shining shade longhorn ( Nemophora umbronitidella Kozlov, sp. nov.), Wegner longhorn ( Nemophora wegneri Kozlov, sp. nov.), long brush longhorn ( Nemophora longipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.), and short brush longhorn ( Nemophora brevipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.) from the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia. The Lesser Sunda Islands consist of two parallel, linear oceanic island chains, including Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Sawu, Timor, Alor, and Tanimbar. The oldest of these islands have been continuously occurring for 10–12 million years. This long period of isolation has allowed significant in situ diversification, making the Lesser Sundas home to many endemic species. This island chain may act as a two-way filter for organisms migrating between the world's two great biogeographic regions, Asia and Australia-Papua. The recognition of a striking cli...

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Ranti or black nightshade ( Solanum nigrum ) is a species of plant in the Solanaceae, shrub and short-lived, stems erect or lying on the ground, berries have a black color when ripe, grows in forests, agricultural land and disturbed habitats. S. nigrum has stems erect or lying at ground level, 30–120 cm (12 to 47 in) long, branched, tubular with several linear grooves forming a cone, green and white-haired. Leaves are elliptical to heart-shaped, 4-7.5 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, pinnate base, pointed or blunt tip, wavy edge or large toothed, dark green upper side, pale underside, hairy or hairless and has a stalk with a length of 1-3 cm. Flowers have greenish to whitish petals, curved when old and surrounded by bright yellow anthers. The berries are mostly 6-8 mm in diameter and are green then turn dull black or black purple or red. Black nightshade grows well with a soil pH of 5.5-6.5 and is rich in organic matter. It is difficult to grow under conditions of high temperature and high hum...

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