Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii)

Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) is a species of plant in the Araucariaceae, a large tree, can live up to 450 years, up to 60 meters tall, cylindrical and straight trunk, brown bark, easy to peel, naturally split, widely grown in dry rainforests.

A. cunninghamii has young leaves shaped like awls, 1-2 cm long, about 2 mm thick at the base, like scales and curved. Adult leaves are 1-2 cm long and 4 mm wide.

The fruit is oval, 8-10 cm long, 6-8 cm in diameter and takes about 18 months to mature. The fruit disintegrates when ripe to release edible seeds like nuts.

High quality wood that is very important for the plywood industry and is also used for furniture, veneer, joinery, paneling, particle board, flooring and boats.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Araucariaceae
Genus: Araucaria
Section: Eutacta
Species: Araucaria cunninghamii
Variety: Araucaria cunninghamii var. cunninghamii, Araucaria cunninghamii var. papuana

Temulawak (Curcuma zanthorrhiza)

Temulawak or Java ginger or Javanese ginger or Javanese turmeric or Curcuma xanthorrhiza ( Curcuma zanthorrhiza ) is a plant species in Zingiberaceae, grows well in loose soil in tropical forests in the lowlands to an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level and tubers are used for medicinal herbs and drinks. C. zanthorrhiza has pseudo stems up to 2 m tall. The stem is a midrib of upright, overlapping leaves, green or dark brown in color. Rhizomes are perfectly formed, large, branched and reddish brown, dark yellow or dark green. Each bud forms 2-9 leaves with a circular shape extending to lancet, green or light purple to dark brown, leaves 31-84 cm long and 10-18 cm wide, stems 43-80 cm long and each strand is connected with a midrib. Flowers are dark yellow, uniquely shaped and clustered with lateral inflorescences. The stems and scales are in the form of lines, 9-23cm long and 4-6cm wide, having protectors with comparable crowns. Petals are white, hairy and 8-13mm long. The...

Matchbox bean (Entada phaseoloides)

Matchbox Bean ( Entada phaseoloides ) is a species in the Fabaceae family, a large woody liana with stems up to 18 cm in diameter, dark brown, rough bark, laterally flattened, and spirally twisted. The leaves are bipinnate, up to 25 cm long, with 1-2 pairs of minor leaflets, each divided into 1-2 pairs of pinnules. The pinnules are somewhat leathery, asymmetrical or oblique, up to 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. The inflorescence is a spike-shaped, about 25-30 cm long, bearing numerous sessile flowers. The individual flowers are very small, about 1.2 mm in diameter. The five petals, green with reddish bases, are 3-4 mm long, and the stamens are about 7 mm long. The fruit is a very large, flattened, woody pod or capsule, about 1-1.2 m long and 12 cm wide. It is usually slightly curved and linear, with about 12 segments, each containing a single seed. The seeds are lens-shaped, shiny brown, smooth, 5-6 cm wide and 1-1.5 cm thick. Filipinos used gugo before commercial shampoos were available ...

Bright white flat-backed millipede (Trichopeltis jiyue) like moon emerging from behind dark rain clouds

NEWS - Bright white flat-backed millipede ( Trichopeltis jiyue sp. nov.) from Ailaoshan National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province, is the second recorded epigean species of Trichopeltis Pocock 1894 in China. Jiyue (Chinese spelling) refers to the bright white appearance of the animal, like the moon emerging from behind dark rain clouds. Polydesmida is one of the most diverse orders of Diplopoda (millipedes) with about 5000 species in 30 families and is widely distributed worldwide. All Polydesmida are blind, eyeless and metaterga usually show small to prominent lateral paranota or paraterga. Cryptodesmidae Karsch 1880 is a family Polydesmida with about 40 genera and 130 species distributed in the Neotropics (Mexico to Argentina), Afrotropics (continental sub-Saharan Africa) and Asia-Australasia (Central Asia and the Himalayas to Japan and Papua New Guinea). In tropical or subtropical Asia and Australasia, 12 genera and 36 species have been documented in Cryptodesmidae. Trichopeltis P...

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