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

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Takenoshin Nakai swallow-wort (Vincetoxicum nakaianum) replaces V. magnificum and C. magnificum

NEWS - Researchers reported an erect herbaceous species distributed in the eastern part of Honshu Island, Vincetoxicum magnificum (Nakai) Kitag. based on Cynanchum magnificum Nakai, nomen nudum. Therefore, they named this species Takenoshin Nakai swallow-wort ( Vincetoxicum nakaianum K.Mochizuki & Ohi-Toma). Vincetoxicum Wolf (Asclepiadeae) is the third largest genus in the Asclepiadoideae consisting of about 260 species geographically extending from tropical Africa, Asia and Oceania to temperate regions of Eurasia. A total of 23 species are known from Japan, including 16 endemic species. Molecular phylogeny divides Japanese Vincetoxicum into four groups: the “Far Eastern” clade consisting of 11 endemic species and 4 more widespread species, 1 sister species to the “Far Eastern” clade, the “subtropical” clade consisting of 2 species and the “Vincetoxicum s. str.” clade consisting of 5 species. V. magnificum (Nakai) Kitag. (Japanese: tachi-gashiwa) is closely related to V. macro...

Sweetpotato bug (Physomerus grossipes)

Kutu ketela or sweetpotato bug ( Physomerus grossipes ) is an insect species in Coreidae, brown with black legs, adults growing about 2 cm long, oval shaped, segmented antennas, heavily veined membranes, metathoracic odor glands and enlarged rear tibia. P. grossipes generally live in Leguminosae and Convolvulaceae especially sweet potato ( Physomerus grossipes ), pink morning glory ( Ipomoea carnea ), purple beans ( Vigna unguiculata ), Asian pigeonwings ( Clitoria ternatea ) and common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris ). Sweetpotato bugs suck liquid from the stem which causes plants to wither and disrupt fruit production. P. grossipes places eggs at the bottom of the leaves or stems or grass around them. Females are very protective of their children, keeping eggs and nymphs from predators as the most famous example of maternal care in Coreidae. Even so, about 20% of eggs are eaten by predators such as ants and 13% are lost by parasitoid predation by chalcid wasps which lay eggs in egg...

Dlium