Cardinal's guard (Pachystachys coccinea)

Lollipop merah or Cardinal's guard (Pachystachys coccinea) is a species of plant in Acanthaceae, a perennial shrub, up to 2 meters tall, dark green leaves ovate to elliptical and red flowers on terminal spikes, growing wild under the shady canopy of primary and secondary forests.

P. coccinea has stems upright, straight, branching symmetrically and dark green. The leaves have a dark green stalk and appear in pairs at a point of the stem and arranged against each other.

Single leaf oval, wavy surface, rounded base, pointed or rounded tip and crisp like paper. A large, bright green bone in the center with several pinnate veins and a shiny surface.

Each stem has a flower and appears in large dark green terminal clusters with long dark green stalks. Bright red flowers that form circular tendrils with thick yellow threads and do not fall off easily.

Cardinal's guard grows in colonies in the shade under the canopy of primary and secondary forest, plantation lands and abandoned places on loam and sandy soils with medium temperature.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Acanthaceae
Subfamily: Acanthoideae
Tribe: Justicieae
Subtribe: Tetrameriinae
Genus: Pachystachys Nees in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 9: 99 (1847)
Species: Pachystachys coccinea (Aubl.) Nees in A.P.de Candolle, Prodr. 11: 319 (1847)

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS

Dianthera coccinea (Aubl.) Salisb. in Prodr. Stirp. Chap. Allerton: 102 (1796)
Jacobinia coccinea (Aubl.) Hiern in Vidensk. Meddel. Naturhist. Foren. Kjøbenhavn 1877: 84 (1877)
Justicia coccinea Aubl. in Hist. Pl. Guiane: 10 (1775)
Thyrsacanthus coccineus (Aubl.) T.Anderson in J. Agric. Soc. India, n.s., 1: 284 (1868)

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS

Jacobinia coccinea f. latior (Nees) Voss in Vilm. Blumengärtn., ed. 3. 1: 810 (1894)
Pachystachys latior Nees in A.P.de Candolle, Prodr. 11: 320 (1847)

PUBLICATIONS

Boggan, J. Funck, V. & Kelloff, C. (1997). Checklist of the Plants of the Guianas (Guyana, Surinam, Franch Guiana) ed. 2: 1-238. University of Guyana, Georgetown.

Brako, L. & Zarucchi, J.L. (1993). Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Gymnosperms of Peru. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 45: i-xl, 1-1286. Missouri Botanical Garden.

Lianah, Lianah; Kusumarini, Niken; Rochmah, Fitriana; Orsida, Fadla; Mukhlisi, Mukhlisi; Ahmad, Milya Ulfa; Nadhifah, Ainun (2021-06-01). "Bryophyte Diversity in Mount Prau, Blumah Village, Central Java". Jurnal Biodjati. 6 (1): 23–35. doi:10.15575/biodjati.v6i1.11693. ISSN 2548-1606.

VERNACULAR NAME

English: Cardinal's guard
Indonesian: Bunga lolipop merah, Lollipop merah
Javanese: Pronojiwo

Aryo Bandoro
Dlium TheDlium
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dlium

Black jumping spider (Hyllus diardi)

Black jumping spider ( Hyllus diardi ) is an animal species in the Salticidae, black and white spiders, long hair, round head, elongated belly, relatively small, arboreal, perched on leaves in bushes and low trees in forests and agricultural lands. H. diardi has black and white color, shiny surface and white hair all over the body. The head is round, shiny black with a linear white line in the middle. Black eyes on the front of the head. The stomach has an elongated, jointed, black cylindrical shape with black plots at the top of each segment. The legs are long, segmented, shiny black or brownish in color and hairy. Black jumping spiders live arboreal, perch on leaf surfaces, low bushes, trees in forests, agricultural land, roadsides and shade. Very sensitive to human presence and will hide behind leaves to avoid sight. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Chelicerata Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Suborder: Araneomorphae Infraorder: Entelegynae Superfamily: Salticoi...

Hairy senna (Senna hirsuta)

Hairy senna ( Senna hirsuta ) is a species of plant in the Fabaceae family. It is an upright shrub, growing up to 2.5 meters tall. The leaves are compound on petioles up to 13 cm long. They usually have 2-6 pairs of leaflets, are egg-shaped, and have white hairs, up to 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. The flowers are yellow and arranged at the tips of branches and in the upper leaf axils in clusters of 2-5. The petals are 12-16 mm long, have 6 stamens, 3-8 mm long anthers, and 4 staminodes. Flowering occurs almost monthly. The pods are cylindrical, up to 15 cm long, 4-6 mm wide, and curved. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Fabales Family: Fabaceae Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae Tribe: Cassieae Subtribe: Cassiinae Genus: Senna Mill. in Gard. Dict. Abr., ed. 4.: [s.p.] (1754) Species: Senna hirsuta (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby in Phytologia 44: 499 (1979) Variety: Senna hirsuta var. acuminata (Benth.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby, Senna ...

A deep-sea isopod Bathyopsurus nybelini adapted to feed submerged Sargassum algae

NEWS - Incredible footage shows a marine species, Bathyopsurus nybelini , feeding on something that sinks from the ocean’s surface. Researchers using the submersible Alvin found the isopod swimming 3.7 miles down using its paddle-like legs to catch an unexpected food source: Sargassum. Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the University of Montana, SUNY Geneseo, Willamette University and the University of Rhode Island found the algae sinking, while the isopod waited and adapted specifically to find and feed on the sinking nutrient source. The Sargassum lives on the surface for photosynthesis. The discovery of a deep-sea animal that relies on food that sinks from the waters miles above underscores the close relationship between the surface and the deep. “It’s fascinating to see this beautiful animal actively interacting with sargassum, so deep in the ocean. This isopod is extremely rare; only a handful of specimens were collected during the groundbreaking Swedis...

Dlium