Palm grass (Molineria capitulata)

Congkok or palm grass (Molineria capitulata) is a species of plant in the Hypoxidaceae, herbaceous annual, hairy or glabrous, thick rhizomes, growing on moist and shady slopes in primary and secondary forests at elevations up to 2000 meters.

M. capitulata has radical and elongated leaves up to 1.5 meters long, stalks up to 1 meter long, lined to nearly elliptical, elliptical blades, 30-150 cm long and 5-15 cm wide.

Inflorescence in racemus, 2.5-7 cm, peduncle 7-30 cm long and finely haired to glabrous when fruiting. Bractea 1-6 cm, brownish, when fruiting hairy to bald. Flowers yellow, hairy and subsessile. The length of the perianthium tube is 1-4 mm and the lobes are 6-8 mm long.

Fruit fleshy, berry and indehiscent or irregularly dehiscent, 10-15 mm long, whitish to green, pulp white, not so sweet. Seeds are few, black and slightly rounded.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Hypoxidaceae
Genus: Molineria
Species: Molineria capitulata

Wild durian (Cullenia exarillata)

Wild durian ( Cullenia exarillata ) is a species of plant in the Malvaceae, a tall tree with smooth, greyish-white bark, peeling on older trees, a straight trunk, horizontal branches and often with a series of knob-like tubercles for flower and fruit attachment. C. exarillata has young branches and the underside of the leaves is covered with golden brown peltate or shield-like scales. The leaves are single, alternate, glabrous, glossy green on the upper side and covered with silvery or orange peltate scales on the underside. Hermaphroditic flowers are tubular and also covered with golden brown scales, 4-5 cm long and cream or reddish brown in color. Flowers have no petals, formed of tubular bracteoles and tubular calyxes, 5-lobed. Fruit is round, 10-13 cm in diameter, covered with thorns and clustered along the branches. Many seeds, reddish brown, 4-5 cm long and 2-3 cm wide. The seeds are enclosed by a fleshy, whitish aril. The fruit splits open when ripe and dries to release the s...

Prof. Weiming Zhu ironwood (Xantolis weimingii) described with completely glabrous flower crowns

NEWS - Xantolis weimingii (Sapotaceae, Chrysophylloideae) is described from Yunnan, southwest China and can be easily distinguished from its relatives by the combination of densely covered plants with ferruginous arachnoid-lanate, oblong or obovate leaves and pendulous staminodes at the base. Xantolis Raf. 1838 (Sapotaceae, Chrysophylloideae) is a small genus of trees and shrubs containing about 14 species with a distribution from the eastern Himalayas to the Philippines in tropical Asia. The genus is morphologically characterized by distinct spines, a sharp anther appendage, lanceolate lobes on the calyx and corolla, and aristate staminodes. Molecular data suggest that the genus is sister to the entire subfamily Chrysophylloideae and is a very isolated and poorly understood genus. Specimens was first collected in the Luzhijiang Valley in August 2015, but only sterile or fruiting specimens were collected. In April 2022, a specimen with flowers was finally collected in Wadie, Yuanjiang...

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