Balbis banana (Musa balbisiana)

Seedy banana or balbis banana (Musa balbisiana) is a plant species in the Musaceae, arising from a completely buried tuber, stems formed as pseudostems with heaps of leaf sheaths, succulent, erect, very large and strong, green and black in color and produce shoots in surrounding.

M. balbisiana has elongated leaves, 120 cm long, 45 cm wide, impermeable, a midrib, dark blue and green with a powdery coating.

Inflorescences grow horizontally or obliquely from the end of the stem. The female flowers are near the base and develop into fruit, the male flowers are on the uppermost bud and form buds between the leathery bracts. The fruits grow in a bunch.

The fruit is square with 3-5 corners, 5-13 cm long and 2.5-5.5 cm in diameter. The skin is very thick, strong and flexible like rubber. The flesh is white and starchy. The seeds are very large and very numerous.

This species grows best in fertile, well-drained soil with full sun exposure, tolerates dry soils and cooler temperate climates, minimum rainfall and survives long dry seasons.

The fruit has a sweet taste but is rarely eaten because of the many seeds. The fruit is often used as animal feed. All bananas contain natural sources of three sugars namely sucrose, fructose and glucose.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Musaceae
Genus: Musa
Species: Musa balbisiana
Subspecies: Musa balbisiana ssp. bakeri, Musa balbisiana ssp. brachycarpa
Variety: Musa balbisiana var. balbisiana, Musa balbisiana var. liukiuensis

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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