Mile-a-minute weed (Persicaria perfoliata)

Mile-a-minute weed (Persicaria perfoliata) is a species of plant in the Polygonaceae, perennial shrub, growing vines with thorny stems, triangular leaves, fruits in dense clusters, growing wild in forests, farmlands and roadsides.

P. perfoliata has a cylindrical, branched, reddish stem with rows of strong, downward-pointing spines. The leaves have long stalks and rows of spines. Green or reddish surface, pointed tip, three main veins with many small pinnate veins and lower surface has rows of spines.

Flower buds, flowers and fruit emerge from within the ocreas. Flowers are small, white and generally inconspicuous. The fruits grow in clusters, are round, segmented, green or yellow or red or blue, each segment containing a black or reddish-black seed.

Mile-a-minute weed prefers warm open areas on riverbanks, parks, open spaces, road shoulders, forest edges to very wet with poor soil structure. The fruit can stay afloat for 7-9 days and spread seeds long distances in river environments. Long vines often hang over waterways.

The tender leaves and shoots can be eaten raw or cooked as a salad green or sweet and can be eaten fresh. The stem is used as a fiber or material in making rope.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Subfamily: Polygonoideae
Tribe: Persicarieae
Subtribe: Persicariinae
Genus: Persicaria
Species: Persicaria perfoliata

Pohpohan (Pilea melastomoides)

Pohpohan clearweed ( Pilea melastomoides ) is a species of plant in the Urticaceae, herbaceous perennial, erect stems, up to 100 cm tall, succulent, square or cylindrical, enlarged in the middle of the internodes, bright green in color and forming colonies in the shade. P. melastomoides has stipules that are immediately deciduous or subpersistent, green or brownish and oblong. The stalk is 2-9 cm long. The leaf blade is ovate or ovate-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate. The surface is wavy, pale green on the underside, dark green on the top. The three main veins are central and linear. Rounded base, tapered ends and serrated edges. The inflorescences are paired, the male is a dense cyme paniculata. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Urticaceae Genus: Pilea Species: Pilea melastomoides

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 ...

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Pisang mas or señorita banana ( Musa acuminata AA Group 'Señorita') is a cultivar in Musaceae, a banana with a cylindrical shape and bright yellow skin when ripe, one of the banana cultivars with the shortest fruit and has small seeds or no seeds. M. acuminata (AA Group) 'Señorita' emerged from a completely buried tuber. Stem formed as a pseudostem with heaps of leaf sheaths and succulent, soft, up to 2.5 m high, 42 cm girth at 1 m high. The pseudo stem is green and shiny with a pink-purple base color. The leaf blade is elongated, waxy with a stalk that is sometimes bordered from pink-purple to red, 120 cm long, 45 cm wide and impermeable. The inflorescences hang vertically with red-purple bracts which are yellow or green on the inner surface. Yellow male flowers. The plants start to flower about 231 days after planting. The period from flowering to harvest is 40 days. The fruit is 8.5 cm long, 3.4 cm wide, straight with rounded cross section and bottle-necked ape...

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