Areca palm (Areca catechu)

Pinang or jambe or areca palm (Areca catechu) is a species of plant in the Arecaceae, monocots, straight stems, slender, up to 25 meters high, up to 15 cm in diameter, widely used for snacks, sweets, pharmaceuticals, household appliances and handicrafts.

A. catechu has a tubular leaf midrib with a length of 80 cm and a short petiole. Strands up to 80 cm long, leaflets 85x5 cm with torn and serrated ends.

Flower heads with elongated spathas, easy to fall off, appear under the leaves, about 75 cm long, short stalks and double branches, tip axis up to 35 cm long.

One female flower at the base, about 1.5 cm long, 6 stamens and green. The male flowers are arranged in 2 rows embedded in grooves, 4 mm long and white and yellow. Buni fruit is oval inverted, elongated, red-orange, 3.5-7 cm long and has fibrous fruit walls. A seed and egg-shaped.

Areca palm grows well on deep soil solum without rock layers, lateric soil types, red clay and alluvial. Rainfall 750-4,000 mm/year with wet months between 3-6 months or water available throughout the year. The optimum temperature is between 20-32C, air humidity is 50-90%, soil pH is 4-8 and sunlight is 6-8 hours/day.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Arecoideae
Genus: Areca
Species: Areca catechu

Korean mulberry (Morus indica)

Murbei or Korean mulberry ( Morus indica ) is a species of plant in Moraceae, shrub or small tree, up to 10 meters tall, slow growing, cylindrical stem, light brown with white nodules, M. indica has heart-shaped or oval-shaped leaves and sometimes three-lobed, 4-12.5 cm long, 2.5-7.5 cm wide, pointed tip, serrated margin, green and has a stalk. Monoecious inflorescences with male and female grow on the same tree, though often on different branches. Male flowers have a size of 9-11.5 mm and are covered with fine hairs. The female flowers are subglubose or only round in shape, measuring 6-9.5 mm. Stigma is 3.5 mm long with short, thick hair. The female flowers form compound fruit and are fleshy, green and white-haired to white, red and black when ripe. Korean mulberry is used in regulating blood glucose levels in diabetic patients. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Moraceae Genus: Morus Species: Morus indica

Swietenia mahagoni and Swietenia macrophylla, the differences

SPECIES HEAD TO HEAD - To date, mahogany ( Swietenia Jacq.) is recorded as having four species: West Indian mahogany or small-leaved mahogany ( Swietenia mahagoni (L.) Jacq.), big-leaf mahogany ( Swietenia macrophylla King), Honduran mahogany ( Swietenia humilis Zucc.) and Swietenia × aubrevilleana Stehlé & Cusin. The debate over the number of taxa in the genus is still not resolved. Some researchers believe that there are only two species: S. mahagoni and S. macrophylla . I agree with that opinion and the two species can only be differentiated by the size of the leaves. All species in this genus have similar morphology except for leaf size. The following is the key to identifying these two species. S. mahagoni has a stalk length of around 37 cm with 5-6 pairs of strands. The strands are about 10 cm long and about 3.5 cm wide. S. macrophylla has a stalk length of up to 45 cm with 4-5 pairs of strands. The strands are up to 31 cm long and up to 8 cm wide. By Aryo Bando...

Broad-handed carpenter bee (Xylocopa latipes)

Broad-handed carpenter bee ( Xylocopa latipes ) is an animal species in the Apidae, tropical wood bees, very large, strong, solitary lives and builds nests by burrowing into fallen trees to telephone poles in forests and cities with warm tropical climates. X. latipes is overall black and shiny with black wings that turn bluish or greenish or metallic purple in sunlight. A pair of large eyes and a pair of antennae have broad bases. The back has a horizontal line. The abdomen is oval in shape with segments, the margins are wide and the back has thick hair. The broad-handed carpenter bee produces a loud, distinctive low-pitched hum that can be heard in flight. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class: Insecta Subclass: Pterygota Order: Hymenoptera Suborder: Apocrita Infraorder: Aculeata Superfamily: Apoidea Epifamily: Anthophila Family: Apidae Subfamily: Xylocopinae Tribe: Xylocopini Genus: Xylocopa Subgenus: Platynopoda Species: Xylocopa latipes

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