Golden shower tree (Cassia fistula)

Tengguli or trengguli or kolobur or golden shower tree (Cassia fistula) is a species of plant in the Fabaceae, bright yellow flowers, dropping leaves, up to 20 meters high, branch-free stems about 5 meters, crown wide and spreading, bark pale gray and smooth when young, dark brown and rough when aged.

C. fistula has leaves arranged alternately, compound, even pinnate and 30-40 cm long. Leaf units have 3-8 pairs, 6-20 cm long, 3.5-9 cm wide, elongated ovate and short hairs.

The inflorescences are terminal bunches that hang and are 15-40 cm long. Fragrant flowers and 5 units of petals. The crown is 2-3.5 cm long and is bright yellow in color. The bottom three stamens are S-shaped and longer than the others.

The pods are cylindrical, 20-45 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, hanging, young dark green, dark black and cracked. The inside is divided by partitions into chambers containing 1 seed and each pod contains 25-100 seeds.

The seeds are flat and brown in color, transverse in space, separated by a bulkhead and a kind of sticky flesh and blackish brown in color.

Tengguli grows in tropical deciduous forests, is shade-tolerant, drought-resistant, tolerates rainfall of 480-2720 mm/year, annual temperature of 18-29C and soil pH of 5.5-8.7.

Kolobur is widely used for medicinal and ornamental trees. The pods, seeds, leaves, flowers and bark are used as a laxative, to clean wounds and ulcers, to clean skin fungus, to treat fever and diabetes.

The bark produces bright yellow tannins as a material for making horse shoes or clothing. Good quality wood, durable, strong, solid, heavy, hard, pale yellow to reddish in color and the inner wood is blackish gray. Wood has strong class II and durable class II.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Tribe: Cassieae
Subtribe: Cassiinae
Genus: Cassia
Species: Cassia fistula

Black potato (Coleus rotundifolius)

Black potato ( Coleus rotundifolius ) is a species of plant in Lamiaceae, herbaceous, fibrous roots and tubers, erect and slightly creeping stems, quadrangular, thick, and slightly odorous. Single leaves, thick, membranous, opposite and alternate. Leaves are oval, dark green and shiny on the upper side, bright green on the lower side. Up to 5 cm long, up to 4 cm wide, slightly hairy and pinnate leaf veins. Leaf stalks up to 4 cm long. Small, purple flowers. Star-shaped petals, lip-shaped crown, dark to light purple with a slightly curved tube shape. Flowering from February-August. Small tubers, brown and white flesh and tuber length 2-4 cm. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Lamiaceae Subfamily: Nepetoideae Tribe: Ocimeae Subtribe: Plectranthinae Genus: Coleus Species: Coleus rotundifolius

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 ...

Purwaceng (Pimpinella pruatjan)

Purwaceng or purwoceng or antanan gunung or Viagra of Java ( Pimpinella pruatjan or Pimpinella priatjan ) are small termas growing horizontally in Apiaceae, growing in villages on Dieng Plateau, Central Java Province, Indonesia, at 1,500 to 2,000 meters above sea level, the roots have medicinal properties for aphrodisiacs and are usually processed in powder form for a mixture of coffee or milk. P. pruatjan grows flat on the ground but does not propagate, small leaves are reddish green for 1-3 cm in diameter. This plant is only found in Java and grows in high mountain areas. A low population where industrial demand is very high results in increasingly scarce. Another place that is likely to become a purwaceng habitat is the Iyang Mountains and the Tengger Mountains in East Java Province. Efforts to multiply and cultivate have a big problem where these plants have difficulty producing seeds. In vitro propagation research through tissue cultivation has been carried out to overcome ...

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