Scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea)

Lamber merah or tropical sage or scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea) is a plant species in Lamiaceae, a perennial shrub, upright, up to 122 cm tall, angular, multi-branched, green or blackish green in color, hairy and flowers at the end of the stem in successive bunches.

S. coccinea has leaves in the shape of a heart or arrowhead, up to 7.6 cm long, 5.1 cm wide, blunt base, sharp tip, jagged border, has a bone in the middle with many branching veins, green upper side , the underside is lighter green and has thick hair.

The flowers have a variety of colors, usually bright red or white, vary in size and have a stalk. Some varieties have a tube shape with a whitish red tongue, 3.2 cm long and a fin on the underside. Flowers are pollinated by birds and butterflies.

Scarlet sage grows wild in forests, agricultural areas, edge of waterways, edge of roads and neglected areas. Often cultivated in urban green areas and private gardens. Cultivated varieties include orange-red, pink, salmon, red, white, and dark red, as well as two-color varieties.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Subfamily: Nepetoideae
Tribe: Mentheae
Subtribe: Salviinae
Genus: Salvia
Species: Salvia coccinea
Varieties: Salvia coccinea var. coccinea, Salvia coccinea var. pseudo-coccinea

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...

Prof. Weiming Zhu ironwood (Xantolis weimingii) described with completely glabrous flower crowns

NEWS - Xantolis weimingii (Sapotaceae, Chrysophylloideae) is described from Yunnan, southwest China and can be easily distinguished from its relatives by the combination of densely covered plants with ferruginous arachnoid-lanate, oblong or obovate leaves and pendulous staminodes at the base. Xantolis Raf. 1838 (Sapotaceae, Chrysophylloideae) is a small genus of trees and shrubs containing about 14 species with a distribution from the eastern Himalayas to the Philippines in tropical Asia. The genus is morphologically characterized by distinct spines, a sharp anther appendage, lanceolate lobes on the calyx and corolla, and aristate staminodes. Molecular data suggest that the genus is sister to the entire subfamily Chrysophylloideae and is a very isolated and poorly understood genus. Specimens was first collected in the Luzhijiang Valley in August 2015, but only sterile or fruiting specimens were collected. In April 2022, a specimen with flowers was finally collected in Wadie, Yuanjiang...

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