Northern wattle (Acacia crassicarpa)

Northern wattle (Acacia crassicarpa) is a species of plant in the Fabaceae, small or medium tree, up to 25 meters tall, upright trunk, up to 50 cm in diameter, bark brown or gray or dark red, hard, linearly fissured fibrous .

A. crassicarpa has crescent-shaped leaves, 8-27 cm long, 1-4.5 cm wide, grayish green or silvery green, pointed at the tip, has three main veins and is yellowish in color.

The inflorescences are grain-shaped, bright yellow and 4-7 cm long. The flower stalks are thick, 5-10 mm long, five-strand corolla 1.3-1.6 mm long and bisexual.

The pods are flat and wide. Seeds are round, flat and black.

Northern wattle easily adapts to the environment, tolerant of pH 3.5-6, grows at elevations of 200-700 meters and rainfall of 1000-2500 mm/year. Salt tolerant in soil, sandy, silt, poorly drained soil and near the sea. It grows in dry areas such as savanna and monsoon forests.

Wood is used as raw material for making pulp and paper, building construction, furniture and raw material for shipbuilding. Trees can be used as cover and shade plants, fix nitrogen free and prevent erosion.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Mimosoideae
Genus: Acacia
Subgenus: Juliflorae
Species: Acacia crassicarpa

Elephant bell gourd (Trichosanthes tricuspidata)

Elephant bell gourd ( Trichosanthes tricuspidata ) is a plant species in the Cucurbitaceae, stems grow elongated to propagate or climb, many branches, cylindrical in shape and green in color. T. cochinchinensis has stem tips or branches that twist to attach themselves to a support or other plant. It grows to climb to cover a support, usually on another plant, up to several meters and creeps along the ground to reach another support. Arrow-shaped leaves, split base, sharp apex and two wings at an acute angle, have many veins ending at a sharp edge, green and have a long petiole. Single flower is white. The fruit is round to oval, ends with a tail, young green and turns red with maturity, thin skin, thick flesh and reddish yellow, has a short stalk and hangs. The seeds are in the middle of the fruit. Seeds are white, oval and flat. Black coated seeds. Elephant bell gourd grows wild in primary and secondary forests, agricultural land, roadsides, watersheds, especially on slopes, damp a

Namib desert petal-bush (Petalidium namibense), previously confused with P. englerianum, P. rossmannianum and P. variabile

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NEWS - Matthias Asmuss pitcairnia ( Pitcairnia asmussii Gouda spec. nov.) discovered by Matthias Asmuss from Caracas, Venezuela, and cultivated at the Utrecht Botanical Gardens is similar to Pitcairnia xanthocalyx Martius (1848), but with shorter flower stalks with larger sepals and petals, and dimorphic, non-petiolate leaves. Pitcairnia L’Heritier (1788) is a mostly terrestrial genus widespread from Mexico to Argentina with a total of 217 species and about 52 species known from Venezuela. In 2015 Matthias Asmuss from Caracas collected a new Pitcairnia from Aragua, Venezuela. The specimen is kept in the VEN herbarium, but due to the chaotic period in the country, it may have been lost, only the photo remains. At Utrecht Botanic Gardens, Eric Gouda obtained a young specimen from the collection in November 2018 and it flowered in May (2024). This living specimen is next to the type specimen used for the description. Pitcairnia asmussii is an acaulescent or short caulescent plant, flow

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