Yellow joyweed (Alternanthera flavecens)

Benikan or yellow joyweed (Alternanthera flavecens) is a plant species in Amaranthaceae, perennial shrub, upright, 60-150 cm tall, rounded stems, long slender, spread upward, branching to form a trident, the tip ends with flowers, green with whitish scales.

A. flavecens have oval or lancet or elliptical or long leaves, in pairs, 1.8-8 cm long, 0.5-3 cm wide, herbaceous, hairless or hairy, a bone in the middle with several pulses, shiny, surface the top is dark green and the lower surface is pale green.

Flowers in the inflorescence and axillary terminals. Yellowish white head, subglobose to cylinder, length 0.9-2.5 cm, width 0.9-1 cm. Monomorphic tepal, green, lanceolate, 3.4-4.7 mm, acute peak, villi and non-thorny.

Yellow Joyweed has five stamens, pseudostaminodes ligulate and margin laciniate. Utrikel included in tepal, greenish yellow, ellipsoid and size 2.5 mm. The seeds are ovoid and 1.2-1.3 mm in size.

Benikan blooms throughout the year, grows into shrubs and spreads covering primary and secondary forest floors, waterways, roadside, agricultural land, abandoned lands and shady places.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Amaranthaceae
Subfamily: Gomphrenoideae
Genus: Alternanthera
Species: Alternanthera flavescens

Six new species forming the Sumbana species group in genus Nemophora Hoffmannsegg 1798 from Indonesia

NEWS - Sumbawa longhorn ( Nemophora sumbana Kozlov, sp. nov.), Timor longhorn ( Nemophora timorella Kozlov, sp. nov.), shining shade longhorn ( Nemophora umbronitidella Kozlov, sp. nov.), Wegner longhorn ( Nemophora wegneri Kozlov, sp. nov.), long brush longhorn ( Nemophora longipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.), and short brush longhorn ( Nemophora brevipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.) from the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia. The Lesser Sunda Islands consist of two parallel, linear oceanic island chains, including Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Sawu, Timor, Alor, and Tanimbar. The oldest of these islands have been continuously occurring for 10–12 million years. This long period of isolation has allowed significant in situ diversification, making the Lesser Sundas home to many endemic species. This island chain may act as a two-way filter for organisms migrating between the world's two great biogeographic regions, Asia and Australia-Papua. The recognition of a striking cli...

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Sembung rambat or bitter vine ( Mikania micrantha ) is a plant species in Asteraceae, crawling or wrapped around trees, perennial that grows up to 27 mm per day in tropical climates, branched stems where heart-shaped or triangular leaves are arranged in pairs and a plant can cover more than 25 square meters in a few months. M. micrantha has square-shaped stems or longitudinal bones, light green, many branches and has fine hairs. The stems have segments for lengths of 75-215 mm, each segment has a pair of leaves, new shoots and flowers. New roots grow when the segments come in contact with the soil. The leaves are in pairs and facing each other. Strands do not have hair, heart-shaped or triangular with jagged edges, length 30-125 mm, width 15-60 mm. Petiole is 1-6 cm long and has fine hairs. The flower panicle grows from the armpit of the leaf and the tip of the stem, having 3-15 mm long stems. Each flower head has 4 minor flowers. The crown is greenish-white, tubular and measures ...

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