Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)

Ubi jalar or sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a plant species in Convolvulaceae, perennial vines, leaves alternate, varying in shape from heart or curved to finger, medium sized simppetal flowers and trumpet-shaped.

I. batatas has a stem that crawls on the ground, is cylindrical, 0.5-4 meters long, some cultivars form shoots up to 16 meters long and form adventitious roots in knots. Leaves grow along the stem. The petiole is 5 to 20 inches long.

Leaf shapes vary widely, 5-13 cm in length, from liver or kidney to egg, round or triangular to spearhead, intact, toothed or often three to seven times curved, cut or divided with rounded to sharp ends, green to purple in color.

Hermaphrodite flower, 5 folds, short, zymous stalk that emerges from the axillary and stands upright. The sepals are small elongated, tapering to a point and 7-15 mm long, usually fine hair. The crown is trumpet-shaped, 4-7 cm long, folded with a shorter end.

Edible roots of tubers are elongated and tapered with smooth yellow or orange or red or brown or purple or cream skin. White or yellow cultivars have a less sweet and moist taste than red or pink or orange.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Solanales
Family: Convolvulaceae
Tribe: Ipomoeeae
Genus: Ipomoea
Species: Ipomoea batatas
Varieties: Ipomoea batatas var. apiculata, Ipomoea batatas var. batatas

Javan broadhead planarian (Bipalium javanum)

Cacing palu or Javan broadhead planarian ( Bipalium javanum ) is a species of animal in Geoplanidae, hermaphrodite, living on the ground, predators, often called only hammerhead or broadhead or shovel worms because of wide heads and simple copulatory organs. B. javanum has a slim stature, up to 20 cm long, up to 0.5 cm wide, head wide up to 1 cm or less, small neck, widening in the middle and the back end is rounded, all black and shiny. Javan broadhead planarians walk above ground level by raising their heads and actively looking left, right and looking up using strong neck muscles. Move swiftly, track meander, climb to get through all obstacles or make a new path if the obstacle is too high. Cacing palu track and prey on earthworms and mollusks. They use muscles and sticky secretions to attach themselves to prey to lock in. The head and ends of the body are wrapped around and continue to close the body to stop prey reactions. They produce tetrodotoxins which are very strong...

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

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