Merakan (Themeda arguens)

Rumput merak or Christmas grass or merakan (Themeda arguens) is a species of plant in Poaceae, annual grass, growing upright with a stem height of 20-120 cm, a single leaf shaped like a ribbon, flat and elongated with a pointed tip, 5-30 cm long, 4-7 mm wide and green.

T. arguens has white fibrous roots. Stems upright or somewhat lying, cylindrical, slippery, small, long, segmented, dense reed, reddish purple or sometimes yellowish or green and brown when dry.

Compound flowers are arranged in clusters at the ends or in the armpits, grains are protected by a lancet-shaped sheath, 2.5-3.5 cm long and purplish green. Androgynous flowers have 4 ears, 3 stamens and 2 pistil heads.

Elliptical fruit, almost round piston, solid hair, 8-10 mm, green and deciduous with a stalk. Seeds are round, small and black. This species has two varieties, Themeda arguens var. arguens and Themeda arguens var. balinensis.

Merakan feels fertile in open places, lots of sun and dry. Group in savanna forests, teak forests, secondary forests, road sides and dykes. Grows on various types of soil including clay and lime at altitudes up to 1,200 m.

T. arguens sometimes becomes weeds in fields and gardens. Often used for animal feed, treating back pain, roots for fertilizing hair or tonics and cleaning the blood.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Tribe: Andropogoneae
Genus: Themeda
Species: Themeda arguens
Varieties: Themeda arguens var. arguens, Themeda arguens var. balinensis

Black potato (Coleus rotundifolius)

Black potato ( Coleus rotundifolius ) is a species of plant in Lamiaceae, herbaceous, fibrous roots and tubers, erect and slightly creeping stems, quadrangular, thick, and slightly odorous. Single leaves, thick, membranous, opposite and alternate. Leaves are oval, dark green and shiny on the upper side, bright green on the lower side. Up to 5 cm long, up to 4 cm wide, slightly hairy and pinnate leaf veins. Leaf stalks up to 4 cm long. Small, purple flowers. Star-shaped petals, lip-shaped crown, dark to light purple with a slightly curved tube shape. Flowering from February-August. Small tubers, brown and white flesh and tuber length 2-4 cm. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Lamiaceae Subfamily: Nepetoideae Tribe: Ocimeae Subtribe: Plectranthinae Genus: Coleus Species: Coleus rotundifolius

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...

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...

Dlium