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

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...

Pink poui (Tabebuia rosea)

Pink poui ( Tabebuia rosea ) is a species of plant in the Bignoniaceae, a small neotropical tree, growing up to 30 meters tall and up to 100 cm in diameter. It has layered and irregular branches, with gray to brown bark and vertical fissures. The leaves are compound, finger-shaped, five-petaled, length up to 33 cm, width up to 15 cm and long stalk up to 9 cm. The flowers are large, bright red or purple or white, fan-shaped, up to 9 cm long, up to 8 cm wide. The fruit capsule is slender and up to 35 cm long. The fruit dries and dehisces, producing anemochorous seeds with hyaline membrane wings. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Bignoniaceae Genus: Tabebuia Gomes ex DC. in Biblioth. Universelle Genève, n.s., 17: 130 (1838) Species: Tabebuia rosea (Bertol.) DC. in Prodr. 9: 215 (1845) HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS Couralia rosea (Bertol.) Donn.Sm. in Bot. Gaz. 20: 9 (1895) Sparattosperma roseum (Bertol.) Miers in Proc....

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 ...

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