Cavendish banana (Musa acuminata)

Pisang or cavendish banana (Musa acuminata) is a plant species in the Musaceae, a banana with small or seedless seeds, a evergreen perennial plant, the stems are composed of a layer of leaf sheaths that are tightly closed and emerge from completely buried tubers.

M. acuminata is formed as a pseudostem with a pile of leaf sheaths and is watery, soft, upright, up to 3 meters high, white or green to black in color and dries to brown, forming dense colonies by producing shoots around it.

The leaves are elongated, 120 cm long, 45 cm wide, watertight, a midrib in the middle and light green, the upper surface is dark green, the lower surface is whitish green with a flour coating.

Inflorescences grow horizontally or obliquely from the ends of the stems. Individual flowers are white to yellowish in color and are negative geotropic. The female flowers are located near the base and develop into fruit, the male flowers are located at the very top and are bud-shaped between the coarse bracts.

The fruits grow in bunches of up to 20 groups and each group has up to 20 fruits. Each fruit is up to 23 cm long, up to 4 cm in diameter and weighs up to 200 grams. Each fruit contains up to 62 small seeds or no seeds at all depending on the cultivar via natural mutations resulting from vegetative propagation.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Musaceae
Genus: Musa
Species: Musa acuminata
Subspecies: Musa acuminata ssp. acuminata, Musa acuminata ssp. errans, Musa acuminata ssp. flava, Musa acuminata ssp. halabanensis, Musa acuminata ssp. malaccensis, Musa acuminata ssp. microcarpa, Musa acuminata ssp. siamea, Musa acuminata var. sumatrana, Musa acuminata var. zebrina

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...

Golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata)

Kepik emas or golden tortoise beetle ( Charidotella sexpunctata ) is a type of leaf beetle species in the Chrysomelidae family, up to 14mm long and bright golden in glass discs. These insects usually live on Ipomoea carnea trees that grow in environments close to water. C. sexpunctata takes refuge in a transparent disc consisting of three parts with four signs as fals legs, a pair of antennas and six legs. This beetle is able to change color if it feels threatened by flowing liquid between the cuticles and the glittering gold color turns into blood red or worn brown. Kepik emas usually lay eggs up to 20 items, white and attached to the branches or on the underside of the leaves. Yellowish or reddish brown larvae will appear from eggs that hatch within 5 to 10 days. Adults and larvae eat leaves which cause large holes. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Coleoptera Family: Chrysomelidae Subfamily: Cassidinae Tribe: Aspidimorphini Genus: Aspidimor...

Bitter vine (Mikania micrantha)

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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