Surusono (Piper ribesioides)

Surusono (Piper ribesioides) is a plant species in Piperaceae, evergreen, grows from roots in the soil and climbs with aerial roots, woody and strong stems, tubular, spreads using seeds, fruit has a spicy flavor used as food flavoring and drug.

P. ribesioides has a sturdy and woody old trunk that climbs by sticking very strongly and wrapped around a large tree, shaped like a pipe, branching in an irregular direction, having broad columns, rough bark and slightly reddish brown.

The young stem is very long, shaped like a small pipe, segmented with varying distances, forming branches on a segment, brown, hanging, moving freely and generally downward.

A single leaf grows at each end of a long, brownish-green stem that appears on each of the young stem segments. The leaves are heart shaped or oval or elongated, symmetrical or asymmetrical and green. Rounded base and pointed tip. A main bone in the middle and several minor bones are linearly pinned.

The fruits are in panicles and have branch supports that grow on young stem segments and upright or downward directions. Each panicle has dozens of fruits, has long stems, is perfectly round in shape and is dark green and shiny.

Fruits contain a number of active medical compounds including essential oils, cubebin, piperidin and resins. The fruit contains oil which is used as a spice, the stem is used as a spice and has a spicy taste.

Essential oils have a diuretic and expectorant effect. Dried and immature fruits to treat coughs, bronchitis, sinusitis, throat and genito-urine infections, poor digestion and amoebic dysentery.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Piperales
Family: Piperaceae
Genus: Piper
Species: Piper ribesioides

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 ...

Pink trumpet tree (Tabebuia heterophylla)

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