Sleeping hibiscus (Malvaviscus penduliflorus)

Kembang payung or sleeping hibiscus (Malvaviscus penduliflorus) is a plant species in Malvaceae, shrubs up to 4 m high, hard woody stems with brown bark and green young branches, hairy or hairless branchlets, stipules shaped like threads for 4 mm and drooping down.

M. penduliflorus has a leaf stalk for a length of 1-2 cm and hair, leaves are ovoid to pointy, 6-12 cm long and 2.5-6 cm wide, a wedge-shaped base wide to almost rounded and a pointed tip, serrated edge, colored upper surface dark green and shiny, the lower surface is brighter and both surfaces are hairless.

Solitary flowers, hanging from axils on the stem 1.5 cm long, red, tubular and 5 cm long. Has 8 fake sepals, spoon-shaped, 1-1.5 cm and ciliate margins. The sepal cup is slightly longer than the epicalyx and has long hair, a 7 cm long column of stamens protruding from the flower.

Sleeping hibiscus are always green, very rare to bear fruit, grow to an altitude of 1000 m, lots of sunlight in open forests, road sides and untreated areas. Many are cultivated for ornamental plants in the yard of the house and open places.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Subfamily: Malvoideae
Tribe: Hibisceae
Genus: Malvaviscus
Species: Malvaviscus penduliflorus

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...

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Cogon grass (Imperata cylindrica)

Alang-alang or cogon grass ( Imperata cylindrica ) is a plant species in Poaceae, annual grass, sharp leaf, long buds and scaly, creeping under the ground, very adaptive and grows in all climates which often become weeds on agricultural land. I. cylindrica has a sharp pointed tip of the bud and emerges from the ground, height of 0.2-1.5 m but in other places it may be more, short stems, rising up to the ground and flowering white or purplish, often with wreath of hair under the segment. Leaf strands in the form of long ribbons, lancet-tipped with a narrow base and gutter-shaped, 12-80 cm long, very coarse edge and jagged sharply, long hair at the base with broad, pale leaf bones in the middle. The flowers are panicles, 6-28 cm long with long-haired and white-colored ears for 1 cm which are used as a tool to blow off the fruit when ripe. Cogon grass breeds quickly with seeds that spread quickly with the wind or through rhizomes that quickly penetrate the soil. Alang-alang does...

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