Merakan (Themeda arguens)

Rumput merak or Christmas grass or merakan (Themeda arguens) is a species of plant in Poaceae, annual grass, growing upright with a stem height of 20-120 cm, a single leaf shaped like a ribbon, flat and elongated with a pointed tip, 5-30 cm long, 4-7 mm wide and green.

T. arguens has white fibrous roots. Stems upright or somewhat lying, cylindrical, slippery, small, long, segmented, dense reed, reddish purple or sometimes yellowish or green and brown when dry.

Compound flowers are arranged in clusters at the ends or in the armpits, grains are protected by a lancet-shaped sheath, 2.5-3.5 cm long and purplish green. Androgynous flowers have 4 ears, 3 stamens and 2 pistil heads.

Elliptical fruit, almost round piston, solid hair, 8-10 mm, green and deciduous with a stalk. Seeds are round, small and black. This species has two varieties, Themeda arguens var. arguens and Themeda arguens var. balinensis.

Merakan feels fertile in open places, lots of sun and dry. Group in savanna forests, teak forests, secondary forests, road sides and dykes. Grows on various types of soil including clay and lime at altitudes up to 1,200 m.

T. arguens sometimes becomes weeds in fields and gardens. Often used for animal feed, treating back pain, roots for fertilizing hair or tonics and cleaning the blood.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Tribe: Andropogoneae
Genus: Themeda
Species: Themeda arguens
Varieties: Themeda arguens var. arguens, Themeda arguens var. balinensis

Purhepecha oak (Quercus purhepecha), new species of shrub oak endemic to the state of Michoacán, Mexico

NEWS - In Mexico, several Quercus shrubby species are taxonomically very problematic including 8 taxa with similar characteristics. Now researchers report the purhepecha oak ( Quercus purhepecha De Luna-Bonilla, S. Valencia & Coombes sp. nov.) as a new tomentose shrubby white oak species with a distribution only in the Cuitzeo basin in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB). Quercus Linnaeus (1753) subdivided into 2 subgenera and 8 sections of which section Quercus (white oaks) has the widest distribution in the Americas, Asia and Europe. This section is very diverse in Mexico and Central America with phylogenomic evidence indicating recent and accelerated speciation in these regions. The number of shrubby oak species in Mexico is still uncertain. De Luna-Bonilla of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and colleagues found at least 3 taxa in the TMVB, specifically Quercus frutex Trelease (1924), Quercus microphylla Née (1801) and Quercus repanda Bonpland (1809). In 2016,...

Javan mocca or Javan slender caesar (Amanita javanica)

OPINION - Javan mocca or Javan slender caesar ( Amanita javanica ) is a mysterious fungus species and has been enigmatic since it was first reported by Boedijn in 1951 and after that no explanation or reporting of specimens is believed to be the same as expected. Boedijn (1951) described A. javanica which grew on Java island as having the characteristics covered in the Amanita genus. Corner and Bas in 1962 tried to describe Javan mocca and all species in Amanita based on specimens in Singapore. Over time some reports say that they have found A. javanica specimens in other Southeast Asia including also China, Japan, India and Nepal. But there is no definitive knowledge and many doubt whether the specimen is the same as described by Boedijn (1951). I was fortunate to have seen this species one afternoon and soon I took out a camera for some shots. In fact, I've only met this mushroom species once. Javan mocca is an endangered species and I have never seen in my experience in...

Tekijem (Cyperus cyperoides)

Tekijem ( Cyperus cyperoides ) is a plant species in Cyperaceae, annual grasses that grow in seasonal wetlands, open or shaded fields, swamps, ponds, rice fields, roadsides, open forests, secondary forests and shrubs at altitudes up to 1,800 m in the tropics. C. cyperoides has an upright, triangular shape, 20-75 cm tall from a very short rhizome and has no stolon. The lanceolate-shaped leaves are narrow and long, the tips are pointed, slippery, shiny, green and grow at the bottom and at the top of the stem. The terminal flower appears on the tip of the stem, cylindrical spiklet shaped and green. Each stem has two to seven flowers, each of which has a short or long stem that grows at the end of the stem together with the leaves. Tekijem grows solitary or in small groups at a distance. Propagating using vegetative and generative methods using seeds. At least three sub-species are Cyperus cyperoides cyperoides , Cyperus cyperoides flavus and Cyperus cyperoides pseudoflavus . Th...

Dlium