Java olive (Sterculia foetida)

Kepuh or Java olive (Sterculia foetida) is a species of plant in the Malvaceae, tree with large habit, cylindrical trunk, growing up to 40 meters high, wide crown, many branches, tall buttress roots, grayish bark.

S. foetida has compound leaves, fingers, stalks 12.5-23 cm long and gathered at the ends of the twigs. The strands have 7-9 lobes, are oval in shape with a pointed tip and base and are green.

The flowers are compound in panicles near the tip of the twig, 10-15 cm long and green or purple in color. The fruit is a large capsule, oval, fat, 7.6-9 cm long, 5 cm wide, woody, thick, bright red and brown, gathered in a star-shaped arrangement.

Each fruit contains 10-15 seeds, blackish in color, attached with yellow arils and 1.5-1.8 cm long.

The sapwood is white, while the heartwood is striped, yellow and has a fine texture. Wood is used as a light construction material in houses including curtains, ceiling frames, risplang and cast boards. Wood is also used to make boats, coffins and furniture.

Leaves to treat fever, wash hair, relieve pain in the feet and hands that are sprained or broken bones. Bark for abortivum. The skin of the fruit is burned to ashes and used to solidify the dye.

The seeds are roasted to eat or make chili sauce. The seeds contain 40% non-drying light yellow oil for bio-diesel, lamp oil, cooking oil and candles.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Subfamily: Sterculioideae
Genus: Sterculia
Species: Sterculia foetida

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

Wild durian (Cullenia exarillata)

Wild durian ( Cullenia exarillata ) is a species of plant in the Malvaceae, a tall tree with smooth, greyish-white bark, peeling on older trees, a straight trunk, horizontal branches and often with a series of knob-like tubercles for flower and fruit attachment. C. exarillata has young branches and the underside of the leaves is covered with golden brown peltate or shield-like scales. The leaves are single, alternate, glabrous, glossy green on the upper side and covered with silvery or orange peltate scales on the underside. Hermaphroditic flowers are tubular and also covered with golden brown scales, 4-5 cm long and cream or reddish brown in color. Flowers have no petals, formed of tubular bracteoles and tubular calyxes, 5-lobed. Fruit is round, 10-13 cm in diameter, covered with thorns and clustered along the branches. Many seeds, reddish brown, 4-5 cm long and 2-3 cm wide. The seeds are enclosed by a fleshy, whitish aril. The fruit splits open when ripe and dries to release the s...

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...

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