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

Black potato (Coleus rotundifolius)

Black potato ( Coleus rotundifolius ) is a species of plant in Lamiaceae, herbaceous, fibrous roots and tubers, erect and slightly creeping stems, quadrangular, thick, and slightly odorous. Single leaves, thick, membranous, opposite and alternate. Leaves are oval, dark green and shiny on the upper side, bright green on the lower side. Up to 5 cm long, up to 4 cm wide, slightly hairy and pinnate leaf veins. Leaf stalks up to 4 cm long. Small, purple flowers. Star-shaped petals, lip-shaped crown, dark to light purple with a slightly curved tube shape. Flowering from February-August. Small tubers, brown and white flesh and tuber length 2-4 cm. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Lamiaceae Subfamily: Nepetoideae Tribe: Ocimeae Subtribe: Plectranthinae Genus: Coleus Species: Coleus rotundifolius

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Matchbox bean (Entada phaseoloides)

Matchbox Bean ( Entada phaseoloides ) is a species in the Fabaceae family, a large woody liana with stems up to 18 cm in diameter, dark brown, rough bark, laterally flattened, and spirally twisted. The leaves are bipinnate, up to 25 cm long, with 1-2 pairs of minor leaflets, each divided into 1-2 pairs of pinnules. The pinnules are somewhat leathery, asymmetrical or oblique, up to 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. The inflorescence is a spike-shaped, about 25-30 cm long, bearing numerous sessile flowers. The individual flowers are very small, about 1.2 mm in diameter. The five petals, green with reddish bases, are 3-4 mm long, and the stamens are about 7 mm long. The fruit is a very large, flattened, woody pod or capsule, about 1-1.2 m long and 12 cm wide. It is usually slightly curved and linear, with about 12 segments, each containing a single seed. The seeds are lens-shaped, shiny brown, smooth, 5-6 cm wide and 1-1.5 cm thick. Filipinos used gugo before commercial shampoos were available ...

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