Macadamia Integrifolia Nuts

I get to hold a box of Macadamia Integrifolia Nuts, freshly flown from Hawaii. Would you believe it? Macadamia Integrifolia Nuts in Malaysia. And no, the nuts will not be roasted but destined to a nursery. Hawaii is the largest producer of Macadamia nuts.



Macadamia nuts (Macadamia integrifolia) are dry drupes containing a very hard seed-bearing endocarp. According to most botanical references, the outer husk represents part of the ovary wall or pericarp.



They are small to large evergreen trees growing to 2–12 m tall. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six, lanceolate to obovate or elliptical in shape, 6–30 cm long and 2–13 cm broad, with an entire or spiny-serrated margin. The flowers are produced in a long slender simple raceme 5–30 cm long, the individual flowers 10–15 mm long, white to pink or purple, with four tepals. The fruit is a very hard woody globose follicle with a pointed apex, containing one or two seeds.



The nuts are a valuable food crop. Only two of the species, Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla, are of commercial importance. The remainder of the genus possess poisonous and/or inedible nuts, such as M. whelanii and M. ternifolia; the toxicity is due to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides.



Macadamia tree cultivation and processing

The macadamia tree is usually propagated by grafting, and does not begin to produce commercial quantities of nuts until it is 7–10 years old, but once established, may continue bearing for over 100 years. The macadamia nut has an extremely hard shell, but can be cracked using a blunt instrument, such as a hammer or rock applied with some force to the nut sitting in a concave surface, or a custom made macadamia nutcracker can be used.

Macadamia Nuts in the Diet Lower Cholesterol

How many times have you said, "nuts to the diet." Well now perhaps it should be "nuts in the diet." It seems that macadamia nuts may be a good addition to the daily diet, particularly if you want to reduce blood cholesterol levels. Macadamia nuts like all non-animal foods contain no cholesterol. But they are remarkable in the fact that their fat contains over 86% monounsaturated fatty acids. The average macadamia nut will also add about 18 calories to your diet. Oil from the macadamia nut is used in the cosmetic industry because of similarities between the nut oil and human skin.

Recommended link:
* Fruits Called Nuts
* HAWAII MACADAMIA NUT ASSOCIATION

Agarwood Aquilaria Crassna Saplings

Young Agarwood saplings between 3 to 4 inches in height and about one month old. The Agarwood species is of Aquilaria crassna, a resinous heartwood, used for perfume and incense. The resin is produced by the tree in response to infection by a parasitic ascomycetous mould, Phaeoacremonium parasitica, a dematiaceous (dark-walled) fungus.



When the Agarwood saplings reach the height of 3 to 4 inches, it can be transplanted into bags.



Photo taken at a nursery at 13th Mile Kuching-Serian road, just after the rain.

Agarwood is also locally known as Gaharu.

Tallest Bougainvillea In Miri

Photo of the tallest Bougainvillea (pokok bunga kertas) plant in full bloom. The photo was taken from a room at Park Hotel, Miri. The tall Bouganinvillea used a pine tree as a support. The pine tree could be over 100ft tall. From far, the pine tree look like it was infest with a blooming parasite plant. Above: Shot taken from underneath the plant. About Bougainvillea Bougainvillea (pronounced /ˌbuːɡɨnˈvɪliə/) is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina (Chubut Province). Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus. The plant was discovered in Brazil in 1768, by Philibert Commerçon, French Botanist accompanying French Navy admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville during his voyage of circumnavigation. They are thorny, woody vines growing anywhere from 1-12 meters tall, scrambling over other plants with their hooked thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance. They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4-13 cm long and 2-6 cm broad. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colors associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as "paper flower" because the bracts are thin and papery. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene.

Lady's finger - Okra

Photo of water droplets on an Okra, or Lady's finger.



Okra (pronounced US: /ˈoʊkrə/, UK: /ˈɒkrə/), known by many others names, is a flowering plant in the mallow family (along with such species as cotton, cocoa, and hibiscus), valued for its edible green fruits. Okra's scientific name is Abelmoschus esculentus; it is occasionally referred to by the synonym, Hibiscus esculentus L.

Okra is often known as Lady's Fingers outside of the United States, and gumbo in parts of the United States and English-speaking Caribbean, based on a corruption of the Portuguese word "quingombo," which is in turn a corruption of the word "quillobo," the word for the plant in some parts of eastern Africa.

The name "okra" is of West African origin and is cognate with "ọ́kụ̀rụ̀" in Igbo, a language spoken in Nigeria. In various Bantu languages, okra is called "kingombo" or a variant thereof, and this is the origin of its name in Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French. The Arabic "bāmyah" is the basis of the names in the Middle East, the Balkans, Iran, Afghanistan, Greece, North Africa and Russia. In Southern Asia, its name is usually a variant of "bhindi" or "vendi."

In Borneo, the Malay called Okra as Kacang Mior or Kacang Bendi or simply Kacang Lendir (slime).

Photo of Dillenia Suffroticosa - Simpoh Air

Dillenia Suffroticosa (Wormia suffruticosa), known as Simpoh Air in Bahasa Malaysa and Buan in Bidayuh. This distinctive shrubby tree grows vigorously on eroded soil, wasteland, forest edges and swampy areas. Everything about it is large. It has large leaves, and large yellow flowers. Dillenia, is a name derived from the personal name Dillenius, a German botanist (1684-1747).

Dillenia Suffroticosa bloom


Dillenia Suffroticosa fruits or flower buds


Dillenia Suffroticosa fruits or flower buds

The unopened fruits are surrounded by thick red sepals. To distinguish them from flower buds, the fruits face upwards while flower buds face down. The ripe fruit splits open also at 3 am, into pinkish star-shaped segments to reveal seeds covered in red arils. The plant blooms from age 3-4 and can live for 50-100 years! Plants in the Simpoh family (Dilleniaceae) hiss when the trunk or a branch is cut (you have to put your ear to the cut to hear it). The sound comes from the air that is sucked into the cut vessels.

Uses of Dillenia Suffroticosa's Leave

The large leaves of the Simpoh Air were used to wrap food such as tempeh (fermented soyabean cakes), or formed into shallow cones to contain traditional "fast food" such as rojak as well as being used to wrap cooked rice.

The Simpoh Air sends out very deep tap roots to reach underground water sources. So much so that their presence suggests an underground water source, and some people use the plant as a guide to decide where to dig a well. The timber is not useful because it is twisted and very hard.

Traditional medicinal uses of Dillenia Suffroticosa

Simpoh Air is used to staunch bleeding wounds, and the fruit pulp may be used to wash the hair (Brunei).


SEO: Bunga Simpor | Dillenius | Simpor Bini (Dillenia suffruticosa) | River Simpor (Dillenia beccariana) | Ayer Muleh | Family Dilleniaceae

Freak Banana With Long Fruit Bunch (Trunk)

Photo of a freak banana with trunk. Or rather, a very long bunch. No exact measurement was given by the original photographer.


Photo by: by Thong Weng Kwong, TheStar

Related posts:
* Freak papaya from Borneo

Tropical Venus Flytrap in Borneo

The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves comes into contact with one or more of the hairs twice in succession, the trap closes. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against the spurious expending of energy toward trapping other, non-living things which may not reward the plant with similar nutrition.





The Venus Flytrap is a small plant, forming a rosette of four to seven leaves, which arise from a short subterranean stem that is actually a bulb-like object. Each steam reaches a maximum size of about three to ten centimeters, depending on the time of year; longer leaves with robust traps are usually formed after flowering. Flytraps that have more than 7 leaves are colonies formed by rosettes that have divided beneath the ground.

The leaf blade is divided into two regions: a flat, heart shaped photosynthetic capable petiole, and a pair of terminal lobes hinged at the midrib, forming the trap which is the true leaf. The upper surface of these lobes contains red anthocyanin pigments and its edges secrete mucilage. The lobes exhibit rapid plant movements, snapping shut when stimulated by prey. The trapping mechanism is tripped when prey items stumble against one of the three hair-like trichomes that are found on the upper surface of each of the lobes.

The trapping mechanism is so specialized that it can distinguish between living prey and non-prey stimuli such as falling raindrops; two trigger hairs must be touched in succession or one hair touched twice, whereupon the lobes of the trap will snap shut in about 0.1 seconds. The edges of the lobes are fringed by stiff hair-like protrusions or cilia, which mesh together and prevent large prey items from escaping. (These protrusions, and the trigger hairs, are probably homologous with the tentacles found in this plant’s close relatives, the sundews.) The holes in the meshwork allow small prey to escape, presumably because the benefit that would be obtained from them would be less than the cost of digesting them. If the prey is too small and escapes, the trap will reopen within 12 hours. If the prey moves around in the trap, it tightens and digestion begins more quickly.

Speed of closing can vary depending on the amount of humidity, light, size of prey, and general growing conditions. The speed with which traps close can be used as an indicator of a plant's general health. Venus Flytraps are not as humidity dependent as are some other carnivorous plants, such as Nepenthes, Cephalotus, most Heliamphora, and some Drosera.

Photo location: Jln Stakan, Kuching

Platycerium - Pokok Tanduk Rusa - Gold Fish Tail Plant

This post showcases a Platycerium plant from the fern species in the Polypod family, locally known as "Pokok Tanduk Rusa" or Deer's Horn (or Staghorn Fern) plant. In addition, Chinese called this plant as 金鱼尾巴厂 or Gold Fish Tail Plant.

This special plant is an air-plant, i.e. it does grow on the ground and it the wild, it can only be found on top of high trees. It squat on tree but it's not a parasitic plant. The interesting thing about this Platycerium sporophytes (adult plants) is that it have tufted roots growing from a short rhizome that bears two types of fronds, basal and fertile fronds. Basal fronds are sterile, shield or kidney shaped and laminate against the tree and protect the fern's roots from damage and desiccation.

In some Platycerium species the top margin of these fronds forms an open crown of lobes and thereby catches falling forest litter and water. Fertile fronds bear spores on their undersurface, are dichotomous or antler shaped (deer's horn) and jut out or hang from the rhizome (gold fish tail).


Water droplets dangling on the Deer's Horn (pokok tanduk rusa) plant.


See the tail? Gold Fish Tail plant. From Deer's Horn is grow into Gold Fish Tail.


Fresh Deer's Horn off-shoot emerging from the plant cluster.

Reference:
* Botany.com: Platycerium - Staghorn Fern


SEO: Staghorn Fern | Platycerium | Tanduk Rusa | Gold Fish Tail Plant

White Spider Lily - Hymenocallis Caroliniana

Hymenocallis means "beautiful membrane" which refers to the the corona that connects the stalks of the stamens for a portion of their length. This is a large spectacular flower that is exciting to find unexpectedly.

Similar Species: There are several species in other areas which may be distinguished by minor details, some by range. Shinners Spring Spiderlily, perhaps better known as Texan Spider Lily (Hymenocallis liriosme has a distinct yellow center). Alligator Lily (Hymenocallis palmeri) is found in southern Florida and has a yellow center. Crinum Lily has purplish/violet flower. Higanbana Lycoris radiata is the Red Spider Lily.


Photo of tropical White Spider Lily - Hymenocallis Caroliniana

Tropical plant - Mimosa Pudica - Sensitive plant

This entry is about a special plant called Mimosa Pudica that is able to folds its leaves when touched or exposed to heat. When touched, the leaves folds as if it alive.

Common name for this plant is "Sensitive plant" or "Shy plant". In Malaysia, it is called "Semalu". Based on the common name, the impression is that the plant is "shy" because of its folding capability when touched.


Mimosa Pudica shrub


Mimosa Pudica bloom


More about Mimosa

Mimosa is a genus of about 400 species of herbs and shrubs, in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the legume family Fabaceae. The most curious plant in the genus is Mimosa pudica because of the way it folds its leaves when touched or exposed to heat; many others also fold their leaves in the evening. It is native to southern Mexico, Uruguay and Central America but is widely cultivated elsewhere for its curiosity value, both as an indoor plant in temperate areas, and outdoors in the tropics. Outdoor cultivation has led to weedy invasion in some areas, notably Hawaii.

Members of this genus are among the few plants capable of rapid movement; examples outside of Mimosa include the Telegraph plant, and the Venus Flytrap.

The genus Mimosa has had a tortuous history, having gone through periods of splitting and lumping, ultimately accumulating over 3,000 names, many of which have either been synonymized under other species or transferred to other genera. In part due to these changing circumscriptions, the name "Mimosa" has also been applied to several other related species with similar pinnate or bipinnate leaves but now classified in other genera, most commonly to Albizia julibrissin (Silk Tree) and Acacia dealbata (Silver Wattle).

The plant can be found in many parts of Bengal, where it is known as lajjabati (literally a shy female).

Mimosa Pudica

Mimosa pudica is well known for its rapid plant movement. In the evening the leaflets will fold together and the whole leaf droops downward. It then re-opens at sunrise. This type of motion has been termed nyctinastic movement. The leaves also close up under various other stimuli, such as touching, warming, or shaking. The stimulus can also be transmitted to neighbouring leaves. These types of movements have been termed seismonastic movements. The movement is caused by "a rapid loss of pressure in strategically situated cells that cause the leaves to droop right before one’s eyes". This characteristic is quite common within the Mimosaceae family.


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