Chinese banyan (Ficus microcarpa)

Kimeng or Chinese banyan (Ficus microcarpa) is a species of plant in Moraceae, a tropical tree, large trunk and strong wood, wide canopy like an umbrella, aerial roots to the ground to grow into a trunk, bright round fruit, widely planted as shade trees and bonsai.

F. microcarpa has a height of up to 76 meters, horizontal branching, smooth, light gray bark and many long aerial roots that touch the ground to form new tree trunks that remain connected to the main tree.

Leaves oblong, 5-6 cm long, blunt or sharp tip, thickened edge, a bone in the middle and several sideways veins. The upper surface is dark green and shiny, the lower surface is lighter and the stalk is short.

The fruit is about 1 cm in size and is oval in shape with a slightly sharp base. The surface has raised white spots, light green when young, reddish white when ripe and black to dry out.

The Chinese banyan as a tropical and subtropical species requires a warm and humid climate in rainforests, river banks, beaches, swamps and mangroves. In cities it grows wild in cracks, walls, buildings and other masonry elements. This species is tolerant of soil moisture and urban pollutants.

Kimeng is widely used as a shade tree in gardens or monumental areas and as an object of experimentation by bonsai hobbyists. The bark, aerial roots and dried leaves are used to fight pain and fever, flu, malaria, bronchitis and rheumatism.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
Genus: Ficus
Species: Ficus microcarpa
Varieties: Ficus microcarpa var. hillii, Ficus microcarpa var. latifolia, Ficus microcarpa var. microcarpa, Ficus microcarpa var. saffordii

Laniger bat tick (Ixodes lanigeri), new hard tick species (Ixodidae) from mouse-eared bats (Myotis) in Vietnam

NEWS - Researchers have identified Ixodes ticks from Vietnam based on morphological and molecular characteristics of females, nymphs and larvae as a new species, laniger bat tick ( Ixodes lanigeri ), which like other members of the Ixodes ariadnae complex appears to show a preference for vesper bats as a typical host. Historically, for more than a century and a half, only one species has been called the “long-legged bat tick”: Ixodes vespertilionis Koch. However, over the past decade, it has been molecularly recognized that long-legged ixodid ticks associated with bats may represent at least six species. Host associations and geographic separation may explain the evolutionary divergence of the new species from its closest living relative Murina hilgendorfi Peters in East Asia, Japan, as no Myotis or Murina spp. have overlapping distributions between Vietnam and the Japanese mainland. On the other hand, assuming that I. lanigeri may be present in other myotine bats and knowing that s...

Giant golden spider (Nephila pilipes)

Kemlanding or giant golden orbweaver ( Nephila pilipes ) is an animal species in the Araneidae, a web spider with a vertical and asymmetrical mesh, sexually dimorphic with elongated females up to 20 cm in size and has a large investment in egg production and web construction, whereas males only a few millimeters. N. pilipes displays female gigantism and male dwarfism. Females usually have a body size of 30-50 mm, the cephalothorax is 15 mm long and 10 mm wide. The stomach is 30 mm long, 15 mm wide and is mostly tawny with yellow stripes. The female has black or brown, covered in thick hairs. The two rows of eyes stick out towards the back. Plastron is mostly black and brown. The legs are very long, stick-shaped with several joints, black and yellow, lacking of hairs. Males are 5-6.5 mm in size, cephalothorax is 2.5 mm long and 2 mm wide. The stomach is 4 mm long and 1.5 mm wide. The front eye is bigger than the back eye. The legs are light brown with some hair. Yellow carapace with ...

Tekijem (Cyperus cyperoides)

Tekijem ( Cyperus cyperoides ) is a plant species in Cyperaceae, annual grasses that grow in seasonal wetlands, open or shaded fields, swamps, ponds, rice fields, roadsides, open forests, secondary forests and shrubs at altitudes up to 1,800 m in the tropics. C. cyperoides has an upright, triangular shape, 20-75 cm tall from a very short rhizome and has no stolon. The lanceolate-shaped leaves are narrow and long, the tips are pointed, slippery, shiny, green and grow at the bottom and at the top of the stem. The terminal flower appears on the tip of the stem, cylindrical spiklet shaped and green. Each stem has two to seven flowers, each of which has a short or long stem that grows at the end of the stem together with the leaves. Tekijem grows solitary or in small groups at a distance. Propagating using vegetative and generative methods using seeds. At least three sub-species are Cyperus cyperoides cyperoides , Cyperus cyperoides flavus and Cyperus cyperoides pseudoflavus . Th...

Dlium