Tongue fern (Pyrrosia adnascens)

Pakis lidah or tongue fern (Pyrrosia adnascens) is a plant species in the Polypodiaceae, a long creeping rhizome, up to 1 mm thick, in cross-section usually with a single central sclerenchyma strand, the distance between phyllopodia is 1-2 cm and lateral shoots alternate with phyllopodia.

P. adnascens has peltate scales, 3-5x1 mm, all over the base to the ciliate. Light brown tips, often with distinct hyaline and ciliate margins. Dimorphic midrib. The sterile frond has a stalk of 1-1.5 cm. Lamina 1-6x1-2 cm, cuneate base and rounded tip.

The fertile midrib gradually narrows at the base to the stem for a length of 5 cm. Lamina 8-25-0.45-0.8 cm, blunt tip to acute. Hydathodes appear rarely, few and are not clear. Monomorphic indumen but rarely, whitish to brown in color. Long hair 0.2-1.2 mm. Sori sinks with the central bundle of paraphyses.

Tongue fern grows on the trunks of living trees, dead trees and rocks at an altitude of 0-1300 m. Generally grows in humid areas and can withstand drought for up to 6 months. The whole plant is used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Subclass: Polypodiidae
Order: Polypodiales
Suborder: Polypodiineae
Family: Polypodiaceae
Subfamily: Platycerioideae
Genus: Pyrrosia
Species: Pyrrosia adnascens
Form: Pyrrosia adnascens f. adnascens, Pyrrosia adnascens f. calcicola

Javan broadhead planarian (Bipalium javanum)

Cacing palu or Javan broadhead planarian ( Bipalium javanum ) is a species of animal in Geoplanidae, hermaphrodite, living on the ground, predators, often called only hammerhead or broadhead or shovel worms because of wide heads and simple copulatory organs. B. javanum has a slim stature, up to 20 cm long, up to 0.5 cm wide, head wide up to 1 cm or less, small neck, widening in the middle and the back end is rounded, all black and shiny. Javan broadhead planarians walk above ground level by raising their heads and actively looking left, right and looking up using strong neck muscles. Move swiftly, track meander, climb to get through all obstacles or make a new path if the obstacle is too high. Cacing palu track and prey on earthworms and mollusks. They use muscles and sticky secretions to attach themselves to prey to lock in. The head and ends of the body are wrapped around and continue to close the body to stop prey reactions. They produce tetrodotoxins which are very strong...

Swietenia mahagoni and Swietenia macrophylla, the differences

SPECIES HEAD TO HEAD - To date, mahogany ( Swietenia Jacq.) is recorded as having four species: West Indian mahogany or small-leaved mahogany ( Swietenia mahagoni (L.) Jacq.), big-leaf mahogany ( Swietenia macrophylla King), Honduran mahogany ( Swietenia humilis Zucc.) and Swietenia × aubrevilleana Stehlé & Cusin. The debate over the number of taxa in the genus is still not resolved. Some researchers believe that there are only two species: S. mahagoni and S. macrophylla . I agree with that opinion and the two species can only be differentiated by the size of the leaves. All species in this genus have similar morphology except for leaf size. The following is the key to identifying these two species. S. mahagoni has a stalk length of around 37 cm with 5-6 pairs of strands. The strands are about 10 cm long and about 3.5 cm wide. S. macrophylla has a stalk length of up to 45 cm with 4-5 pairs of strands. The strands are up to 31 cm long and up to 8 cm wide. By Aryo Bando...

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

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