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Palawan Rain Forests
The Palawan rain forests ecoregion (WWF ID:IM0143) covers the Palawan Island Archipelago, centered on Palawan Island, the sixth largest island in the Philippines. The islands act as an ecological bridge between Borneo and the main islands of the Philippines, even though there were channels between the islands through the last ice age when sea levels were low. Biodiversity is high in the islands, with many endemic species, and with many genera shared with Borneo to the south. Pressure from logging is a concern for the forests of this region. Location and description In addition to the main island of Palawan Island, the ecoregion includes Balabac Island to the south, Ursula Island, and the Calamian Islands to the north. Palawan Island is 260 km long and averages only 25–30 km wide. A mountain range runs up the middle of the island, with almost half of the slopes averaging over 30 degrees. The highest point is at Mount Mantalingajan. The islands are relatively y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indomalayan
The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to lowland southern China, and through Indonesia as far as Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Borneo, east of which lies the Wallace line, the realm boundary named after Alfred Russel Wallace which separates Indomalaya from Australasia. Indomalaya also includes the Philippines, lowland Taiwan, and Japan's Ryukyu Islands. Most of Indomalaya was originally covered by forest, and includes tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, with tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests predominant in much of India and parts of Southeast Asia. The tropical forests of Indomalaya are highly variable and diverse, with economically important trees, especially in the families Dipterocarpaceae and Fabaceae. Major ecolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ficus
''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig (''F. carica'') is a temperate species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region (from Afghanistan to Portugal), which has been widely cultivated from ancient times for its fruit, also referred to as figs. The fruit of most other species are also edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are extremely important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of considerable cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses. Description ''Ficus'' is a pantropical genus of trees, shrubs, and vines occupying a wide variety of ecological niches; most are evergreen, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indomalayan Ecoregions
The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to lowland southern China, and through Indonesia as far as Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Borneo, east of which lies the Wallace line, the realm boundary named after Alfred Russel Wallace which separates Indomalaya from Australasia. Indomalaya also includes the Philippines, lowland Taiwan, and Japan's Ryukyu Islands. Most of Indomalaya was originally covered by forest, and includes tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, with tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests predominant in much of India and parts of Southeast Asia. The tropical forests of Indomalaya are highly variable and diverse, with economically important trees, especially in the families Dipterocarpaceae and Fabaceae. Major ecolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park
The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is a protected area in the Philippines. The park is located in the Saint Paul Mountain Range on the western coast of the island of Palawan, about north of the city of Puerto Princesa, and contains the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River (also known as the Puerto Princesa Underground River). It has been managed by the Puerto Princesa city government since 1992. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, and voted as a New7Wonders of Nature in 2012. It also became a Ramsar Wetland Site in 2012. A major tourist destination, it is mostly accessed through road trips to the seaside village of Sabang from where one of the many Bangkas (Kayaks) take visitors to the park History In 2010, a group of environmentalists and geologists discovered that the underground river has a second floor, which means that there are small waterfalls inside the cave. They also found a cave dome measuring above the undergr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sundaland
Sundaland (also called Sundaica or the Sundaic region) is a biogeographical region of South-eastern Asia corresponding to a larger landmass that was exposed throughout the last 2.6 million years during periods when sea levels were lower. It includes Borneo, Java, and Sumatra in Indonesia, and their surrounding small islands, as well as the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland. Extent The area of Sundaland encompasses the Sunda Shelf, a tectonically stable extension of Southeast Asia's continental shelf that was exposed during glacial periods of the last 2 million years. The extent of the Sunda Shelf is approximately equal to the 120-meter isobath. In addition to the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, it includes the Java Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, and portions of the South China Sea. In total, the area of Sundaland is approximately 1,800,000 km2. The area of exposed land in Sundaland has fluctuated considerably during the past recent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casuarina
''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the family, but has since been split into four genera (see: Casuarinaceae).Flora of Australia''Casuarina''/ref> They are evergreen shrubs and trees growing to tall. The slender, green to grey-green twigs bearing minute scale-leaves in whorls of 5–20. The apetalous flowers are produced in small catkin-like inflorescences. Most species are dioecious, but a few are monoecious. The fruit is a woody, oval structure superficially resembling a conifer cone, made up of numerous carpels, each containing a single seed with a small wing. The generic name is derived from the Malay word for the cassowary, ''kasuari'', alluding to the similarities between the bird's feathers and the plant's foliage, though the tree is called ''ru'' in Modern Malay. Kare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultramafic
Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed of usually greater than 90% mafic minerals (dark colored, high magnesium and iron content). The Earth's mantle is composed of ultramafic rocks. Ultrabasic is a more inclusive term that includes igneous rocks with low silica content that may not be extremely enriched in Fe and Mg, such as carbonatites and ultrapotassic igneous rocks. Intrusive ultramafic rocks Intrusive ultramafic rocks are often found in large, layered ultramafic intrusions where differentiated rock types often occur in layers. Such cumulate rock types do not represent the chemistry of the magma from which they crystallized. The ultramafic intrusives include the dunites, peridotites and pyroxenites. Other rare varieties include troctolite which has a greater percenta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gomphandra
''Gomphandra'' is a genus of plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ... in family Stemonuraceae. The genus contains over 40 different species. They are dioecious trees or shrubs.Barlow, B.A. (1984) in George, A.S. (edFlora of Australia. Volume 22. Rhizophorales to Celastrales Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. Species *''Gomphandra andamanica'' King, 1895 *''Gomphandra apoensis'' (Elmer) Merr., 1923 *''Gomphandra australiana'' F.Muell., 1867 *''Gomphandra camchayensis'' Gagnep., 1947 *''Gomphandra capitulata'' (Jungh. & de Vriese) Odoardo Beccari, Becc., 1877 *''Gomphandra comosa'' King, 1895 *''Gomphandra coriacea'' Wight, 1840 *''Gomphandra crassipes'' Mast., 1875 *''Gomphandra cumingiana'' (Miers) Fern.-Vill., 1880 *''Gomphandra dolichocarpa'' Merr., 1937 *''Gomp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drypetes
''Drypetes'' is a plant genus of the family Putranjivaceae, in the order Malpighiales. It was previously in the family Euphorbiaceae, tribe Drypeteae, and was the sole pantropical zoochorous genus of the family. The genus comprises about 200 species, found in Africa, southern Asia, Australia, Central America, the Caribbean, southern Florida, Mexico, and various oceanic islands. They are dioecious trees or shrubs. Along with ''Putranjiva'', also in the Putranjivaceae, ''Drypetes'' contains the only plants outside the Brassicales known to contain mustard oils. Species The Kew ''World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP)'' lists: # ''Drypetes acuminata'' – Queensland # '' Drypetes aetoxyloides'' – Sabah # '' Drypetes aframensis'' – W Africa # '' Drypetes afzelii'' – W Africa # '' Drypetes alba'' – West Indies # '' Drypetes amazonica'' – Ecuador, NW Brazil # '' Drypetes ambigua'' – Madagascar # '' Drypetes andamanica'' – Myanmar, Andaman Is # '' Drypetes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antidesma
''Antidesma'' is a genus of tropical plant in the family Phyllanthaceae formally described by Linnaeus in 1753. It is native to tropical Africa, S + E + SE Asia, Australia, and various oceanic islands. The greatest diversity occurs in Southeast Asia. Description ''Antidesma'' is a variable genus which may be short and shrubby or tall and erect, approaching 30 metres in height. It has large oval shaped leathery evergreen leaves up to about 20 centimetres long and seven wide. The flowers have a strong, somewhat unpleasant scent. The staminate flowers are arranged in small bunches and the pistillate flowers grow on long racemes which will become the long strands of fruit. The fruits are spherical and just under a centimeter wide, hanging singly or paired in long, heavy bunches. They are white when immature and gradually turn red, then black. When they are still white they have sour and astringent taste, sour taste when they are red and have sweet and sour taste when they are bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aglaia Argentea
''Aglaia argentea'' is a species of plant in the family Meliaceae. It is a tree found in Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Thailand. Description Aglaia argentea is an evergreen tree. It has a spiral leaf arrangement and pinnately compound leaves with leaflets that are elliptical or oblong. Once it has reached a height of about 4.5 meters they begin to flower and fruit. It is a dioecious species so there are male and female plants. The flowers on both are similar, having 5 petals each. The male flowers have 5 stamen and the female flowers have superior ovaries. The fruit are small (between 30 and 35 mm in diameter) oval and fleshy, each containing anywhere from one to three seeds. The tree can grow up to 98ft (30m) and the leaves typically range in size from 17 – 112 cm long and 14 – 75 cm wide. The flowers have a complex inflorescence that can grow up to 60cm long and 60cm wide, with radial s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphorbia Trigona
Euphorbia trigona, the African milk tree,Timothy K. Broschat, Alan W. Meerow. ''Betrock's Reference Guide to Florida Landscape Plants''. Betrock Information Systems, 1991. p. 123. cathedral cactus, or Abyssinian euphorbia, is a species of flowering plant that originates from Central Africa. Somewhat common in cultivation as a houseplant or as a hedge, the species is one of the euphorbias with succulent stems and branches as an adaptation to arid climates. Description This succulent shrub has an upright stem and many branches that also grow upward. The stem and branches can have two or three sides. The stem itself is dark green with V-shaped light green patterns. The thorns occur in pairs on the stem's ridges. The drop shaped leaves grow from between the two thorns on each ridge. The plant has never been known to flower,''Medicinal Plants, Volume 1''. PROTA, 2008. p. 260. and is possibly a hybrid. Cultivation ''Euphorbia trigona'' can withstand brief cold temperatures of down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
