Loop-root mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata)

Loop-root mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata) is a species of plant in the Rhizophoraceae, evergreen, 10-27 meters high, up to 70 cm in diameter, dark to black bark, cracked bark, horizontal, many large stilt roots with a height of up to 2 meters above mud and woody.

R. mucronata has leaves that sit opposite each other, collected at the ends of the twigs, the buds are covered in supporting leaves that are rolled up and pointed and are white or red in color, fall off quickly and leave scars similar to bulging rings. The leaves are elliptical, thick, smooth, green or yellowish, with a pointed tip, have a stalk, 12-24 cm long, 4-13 cm wide.

Flowers are grouped in additional umbrellas, stalked, forked in axils and 4-8 florets. The crown is white, with long hairs up to 9 mm. Flowers all year round. The fruit is egg-shaped, green-brown, 5-7 cm and viviparous. Cylindrical hypocotyl, large, rough, nodules and 36-70 cm long. The cotyledon neck is yellow when ripe.

This species tolerates hard and sandy substrates. More abundant in deeply flooded and humus-rich substrates in estuaries, tidal rivers, flat beaches which are exposed to tidal flooding every day. Sometimes it occurs as a pure stand or may grow with other species.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Rhizophoraceae
Genus: Rhizophora
Species: Rhizophora mucronata

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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Cogon grass (Imperata cylindrica)

Alang-alang or cogon grass ( Imperata cylindrica ) is a plant species in Poaceae, annual grass, sharp leaf, long buds and scaly, creeping under the ground, very adaptive and grows in all climates which often become weeds on agricultural land. I. cylindrica has a sharp pointed tip of the bud and emerges from the ground, height of 0.2-1.5 m but in other places it may be more, short stems, rising up to the ground and flowering white or purplish, often with wreath of hair under the segment. Leaf strands in the form of long ribbons, lancet-tipped with a narrow base and gutter-shaped, 12-80 cm long, very coarse edge and jagged sharply, long hair at the base with broad, pale leaf bones in the middle. The flowers are panicles, 6-28 cm long with long-haired and white-colored ears for 1 cm which are used as a tool to blow off the fruit when ripe. Cogon grass breeds quickly with seeds that spread quickly with the wind or through rhizomes that quickly penetrate the soil. Alang-alang does...

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