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

Javan broadhead planarian (Bipalium javanum)

Cacing palu or Javan broadhead planarian ( Bipalium javanum ) is a species of animal in Geoplanidae, hermaphrodite, living on the ground, predators, often called only hammerhead or broadhead or shovel worms because of wide heads and simple copulatory organs. B. javanum has a slim stature, up to 20 cm long, up to 0.5 cm wide, head wide up to 1 cm or less, small neck, widening in the middle and the back end is rounded, all black and shiny. Javan broadhead planarians walk above ground level by raising their heads and actively looking left, right and looking up using strong neck muscles. Move swiftly, track meander, climb to get through all obstacles or make a new path if the obstacle is too high. Cacing palu track and prey on earthworms and mollusks. They use muscles and sticky secretions to attach themselves to prey to lock in. The head and ends of the body are wrapped around and continue to close the body to stop prey reactions. They produce tetrodotoxins which are very strong...

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...

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