Ficus religiosa and Ficus rumphii, the differences

SPECIES HEAD TO HEAD - More than 850 species in the genus figs (Ficus) have been documented, ranging from large trees to climbing herbs, and to date there are still many species that have not been comprehensively described. Many of them are confused considering what they have in common at first glance. Two species that have similarities and are often confused are sacred fig or Ficus religiosa L and mock bodh tree or Ficus rumphii Blume. Below is the key to identifying these two species.

F. religiosa has cordate leaf bases, while F. rumphii has attenuate leaf bases.

Dlium Ficus religiosa and Ficus rumphii leaf

F. religiosa has fruit with wider and thicker sepals, while F. rumphii has fruit with smaller or no sepals.

Dlium Ficus religiosa and Ficus rumphii fruit

Ficus religiosa
Ficus rumphii

By Aryo Bandoro
Founder of Dlium.com. You can follow him on X: @Abandoro.

Yellow garden spider (Argiope appensa)

Yellow garden spider ( Argiope appensa ) is a species of spider in Araneidae that lives on the coast to forests on islands in the western Pacific Ocean. Black and yellow females are striking and have a length of 5.1-6.4 cm including long legs, while males are brown and have a length of about 1.9 cm. A. appensa lives on cliffs in the hills at 600 m above sea level in Kewu plain to rice fields in the lowlands. They make nests at a height of 1.5 meters from the ground between teak ( Tectona grandis ), sonokeling ( Dalbergia latifolia ), sonosiso ( Dalbergia sissoo ), crown flower ( Calotropis gigantea ) and various grasses. Yellow garden spiders grow in large sizes, but are not toxic to humans. Advanced builds ball-shaped nets and most of them make stabilizers which are zigzag-shaped lines in nets made of thicker bands. This species spends more time in stationary and sits in the middle of the net with its head down to wait for insects to be entangled in fine silk thread. Unli...

Serrated pimpernel (Lindernia glandulifera)

Serrated pimpernel ( Lindernia glandulifera ) is a species of plant in the Linderniaceae family, erect, 8-9 cm long.and white roots. The stems are cylindrical or angular or curved inward. The stems green or dark red or reddish brown. The leaves are opposite, green or dark red or brown, oval or oblong, up to 3 cm long, up to 1 cm wide and serrated margins. The flowers are white and blue, 0.6-0.7 cm wide. This plant grows in colonies in karst areas, clay soils, and areas that are sometimes flooded. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Linderniaceae Genus: Lindernia All. in Auct. Syn. Meth. Stirp. Hort. Regii Taur. 3: 178 (1766) Species: Lindernia glandulifera (Blume) Backer in Onkruidfl. Jav. Suikerrietgr.: 616 (1930) VERNACULAR NAME English: Serrated pimpernel Indonesia: Tapak gergaji Java: Tapak graji Aryo Bandoro Dlium TheDlium Web: https://www.dlium.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dlium

Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum)

Rumput gajah or elephant grass or napier grass or Cenchrus purpureus ( Pennisetum purpureum ) is a plant species in Poaceae, a large and highly nutritious grass that is usually used for animal feed including cattle, goats, elephants, has resistance in the sun, has many varieties and cultivars. P. purpureum grows upright like sugar cane and is up to 5 m high, 3 cm in diameter and easy to breed. The round stems, woody and hard, covered with leaf shields and haired, have up to 20 segments to grow new shoots that will become new stems. Ribbon-shaped leaves, length 30-120 cm, width less than 3 cm, thin as paper. The upper surface is green, the lower surface is pale green, both surfaces and margins are rough by hair. A single bone in the middle, large and white. Flowers grow in long bunches and erect with a golden color, grow at the tip of the uppermost stem, the seeds will have contents when growing at an altitude of more than 1000 meters. Leaves and stems contain 19.9% dry matter, ...

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