Amazing Strength of Trees!

Those cool trees looks weird, the shapes which it took during the time. As you can see those trees had merged with some objects and now it presents a wonderful pictures, worth a thousands words. Take a look at those cool pictures of those cool and weird trees with objects which were owned by trees.

 

 

 

 

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Kacang Panjang a.k.a Yardlong Bean

So, the picture above is a common sight of the yardlong beans being sold in fresh market in almost around the world. This beans really is quite a popular delicacy in some places such as my hometown which is Taiping.  If you've never eat yard-long green beans, you're missing a real treat. I've been eating them since I was a child and never loathe with it. They are actually among the sweetest and most tender of the bean varieties. You can pick them, wash them, put them in a pot of boiling water and add some seasoning, and 10 minutes later serve them to your family. Yard-long green beans grow from 30 to 36 inches long but are best at about 12 inches. They are also call asparagus green beans or Chinese green beans.

Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis is a legume cultivated to be eaten as green pods. It is also known as the yardlong bean, bora, long-podded cowpea, asparagus bean, snake bean, Chinese long bean or Kacang Panjang if it's in Malaysia. Despite common name, the pods are actually only about half a yard long; the subspecies name sesquipedalis (one-and-a-half-foot-long) is a rather exact approximation of the pods' length.

This plant is of a different genus than the common bean. It is a vigorous climbing annual vine. The plant is subtropical/tropical and most widely grown in the warmer parts of South Asia, Southeastern Asia, Malaysia, and Southern China. It prefer hot and humid surroundings but some species can thrive in colder climate yet still sensitive to frost. A variety of the cowpea, it is grown primarily for its strikingly long (35-75 cm) immature pods and has uses very similar to that of the green bean. The many varieties of yardlong beans are usually distinguished by the different colors of their mature seeds. Some are cream colored while others are dark purple like a species that I've plant on my yard on following pictures.

 Wrinkled mature beans which are no longer tasty to eat but suitable to be used as seeds supply. At this stage, you can actually see the seeds inside it when exposed to the sunlight.

Some newly collect 'Kacang panjang' seeds that I don't know exactly which species does it belongs.

Notice the difference between newly picked seeds on the left and dried seeds on the others.

The pods, which can begin to form just 60 days(or less based on climate and soil condition) after sowing, hang in groups of two or more. They are best for vegetable use if picked before they reach full maturity; however, overlooked pods can be used like dry beans in soups. When harvesting, it is important not to pick the buds which are above the beans; since the plant will set many more beans on the same stem. This plant takes longer time to reach maturity than bush beans; but once producing, the beans are quick-growing and daily checking/harvesting is often a necessity. The plants will produce beans until frost in 4 climate zone and continue throughout the year in tropical climate(with intensive care).

Four days after sowing in polystyrene cup.



After about 2 weeks, the plants are well-established and climb rapidly on that blue 'tali rafia'. In this picture, I've actually plant 2 individual plant in each hole for better bean produce.

Approximately 5-6weeks after sowing, I was impressed by the amount of 'kacang panjang' it produces but quite frustrated with pests invasion that happens occasionally(like in that pic).

Uses
The crisp, tender pods are eaten both fresh and cooked. They are at their best when young and slender. They are sometimes cut into short sections for cooking uses. As a West Indian dish it is often stir-fried with potatoes and shrimp. They are used in stir-fries in Chinese cuisine. In Malaysian cuisine they are often stir-fried with chillies and shrimp paste (sambal), used in cooked salads (kerabu) mix in curry dish or cooked in endless variation of recipes. Another popular and healthful option is to chop them into very short sections(like the picture below), then fry them in an omelette. maybe you can eat it raw just like I always did with rice and other side dishes. Sometimes, I prefer to eat it with dippings like budu, cencaluk or sambal belacan to add more flavour to it.

Chopped long beans ready to be cooked.

Nutrition
They are a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganese.

In a serving size of 100 grams of yardlong beans there are 47 calories, 0 grams of total fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 4 mg sodium (0% daily value), 8 grams of total carbohydrates (2% daily value), and 3 grams of protein (5% daily value). There is also 17% DV vitamin A, 2% DV iron, 31% DV vitamin C, and 5% DV calcium. (Percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Individual daily values may be higher or lower depending on individual calorie needs.)

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Why You Should Eat Mango Often?

As one of the most celebrated tropical fruits out there, mangoes are characterized by its juicy, fibrous flesh and an oblong pit in the center which are so refreshing and delicious. The mango is actually distantly related to the cashew, pistachio, poison ivy, and poison oak; native to southern Asia and there are over 1,000 known cultivars of mangoes available. Mangoes are a good source of vitamins and minerals essential for the human body. It is an affordable and seasonal fruit. In India mangoes are grown widely in the southern belt. ‘Alphonso’ variety of mango which is exported world wide is cultivated in ‘Ratnagiri’ in the southern part of India. Mango is a popular garden fruit tree in Malaysia and is propagated commercially in small orchards. In most of Malay rural or sub rural areas, a mango tree is usually planted in lawn because it is such a tradition to plant tropical fruit tree around the house in Malaysia. More than that, its fruit and leaves are ritually used as floral decorations at weddings, public celebrations and religious ceremonies in several cultures.

Mangoes can be eaten both raw and ripe. Raw mangoes have a sharp sour taste, while the ripe mangoes are juicy and sweet to eat. A ripe mango will also have a full, fruity fragrance that tingles ones taste buds and they're ready to eat when slightly soft to the touch and yielding to gentle pressure, like a ripe peach.

 

To accelerate ripening, place your mangoes in a paper bag overnight. Once the mangoes are ready to eat, you can store them in the refrigerator for up to three days. To prepare a mango for eating, wash thoroughly, slice in half lengthwise, avoiding the pit in the center. Hold one mango half skin side down and score into 1/2 inch squares. Then, using your thumbs, push the mango inside-out, and you have ripe and delicious squares to eat out of hand or use in recipes.

Unripe mango

Mango pickle made from unripe mango 

  

Vitamin Content: Mango is rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin A. Vitamin C content is more in raw mango as compared to that in ripe mango. It also has traces of Vitamin E, Vitamin B and Vitamin K. The dulcet, juicy insides of the mango pack a nutritional punch. Its characteristic orange color is a clue to its storehouse of beta carotene (Vitamin A). Ripe mangos hold the highest levels of beta carotene, while green mangos are higher in Vitamin C. These antioxidant carotenoids are known for their protective power against certain cancers. Mangos also supply ample potassium, making them ideal for hypertensive patients or anyone looking to replenish energy after physical activity. 

 

Cross section of a fully ripe mango

 



Mangoes are high in antioxidants, low in carbohydrates (although they are about 15% sugar – but good sugar!) and like other yellow/orange fruit such as pumpkin and carrot, they are an excellent source of beta-carotene (Vitamin A). They also contain Vitamin E and selenium which help protect against heart disease and cancer. You can obtain 40% of your daily fibre intake from a mango.

 

We all know the importance of fiber in our diets. If you are eating your mango-a-day, irregularity is not a problem for you and so we’ll spare the gruesome details regarding constipation, piles and spastic colon. Research has shown that dietary fiber has a protective effect against degenerative diseases, especially with regards to the heart; may help prevent certain types of cancer, as well as lowering blood cholesterol levels.

Semi-ripe mango (sweet sour)

 

The nutritional value of mango makes it good for weight gain, eye disorders, hair loss, heat stroke, prickly heat, diabetes, bacterial infections, sinusitis, piles, indigestion, constipation, morning sickness, diarrhea, dysentery, scurvy, spleen enlargement, liver disorders, menstrual disorders, leucorrhea, and vaginitis.

Mango, being high in calories and carbohydrates, is good for those who are trying to gain weight. The phenolic compound found in mangoes has been found to have powerful antioxidant and anticancer properties. Being high in iron, mango is said to be very good for pregnant women as well as for people suffering from anemia. Mango is believed to be effective in relieving clogged pores of the skin.

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15 Rare, Exotic & Amazing Plant Species

Plants that eat rats, slimy alien-looking fungi, leaves that dance all by themselves and flowers that smell like the rotting corpse of a horse: all of these wonders of nature are among the most rare, exotic and unusual plant species in the world. Some are astonishingly beautiful despite the foul odors they emit, while others look like they emerged from the mind of a horror writer, but they’re all fascinating examples of the diversity of Earth’s flora.

1) Rat-Eating Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes attenboroughii)

Even the most benign of pitcher plants is strange and amazing, but the species discovered in August 2009 may just be the weirdest carnivorous plant yet. It’s believed to be the largest meat-eating plant in the world, and is capable of digesting rats. Scientists found it on Mount Victoria in the Philippines and named it after famed nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

2) The String of Hearts (Ceropegia woodii)

This houseplant looks like an artist’s rendering of extraterrestrial flora come to life: a bizarre flower with fused petals and what looks like a hairy lollipop coming out of it. The flower forms a tube lined with small hairs that point downward, so that insects attracted to the plant’s foul smell get trapped inside. The flower doesn’t consume the flies, though – it holds onto them until its hairs wither, and when the insects escape, they’re covered in the flower’s pollen.

3) Stinkhorn Mushroom (Mutinus Caninus)

Could these be the ugliest fungi ever? Stinkhorn mushrooms pop up out of the ground in all their creepy, stinking glory, distributing their spores through the malodorous, muddy-looking slime found at their tips. This particular variety, mutinus caninus, is so named because it resembles a certain unmentionable body part of dogs.

4) Dancing Plant (Desmodium Gyrans)

Have you ever watched a plant move all by itself? The “dancing plant”, also known as the telegraph plant, actually moves its leaves in jerky motions when exposed to direct sunlight, warmth or vibration – hence their reaction to music. Its leaflets, each of which is equipped with a hinge at the base that allows it to move, rotate along an elliptical path. This plant is famous for being a favorite of Charles Darwin, and is featured in depth in his book The Power of Movement in Plants.

5) Pelican Flower (Aristolochia grandiflora)

These flowers are almost beautiful in their strangeness, with big inflated chambers instead of petals and intricate, colorful patterns of veins. But don’t get too close, or you won’t be able to get the dead mouse smell out of your nose for hours. No, this plant isn’t a carnivorous rat-eater like the Nepenthes attenboroughii – it just uses a decaying rodent smell to attract pollinators.

6) Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica)

You might say this pretty little plant with its starry pink blossoms and fern-like leaves is shy. Reach out and touch it, or even just blow on it, and its leaves will close up as if startled or protecting themselves. When it’s disturbed, the stems release chemicals that force water out of the cells, which makes the leaves appear collapsed. It’s not known exactly why the plant has evolved to possess this trait, but scientists think it may be to scare off predators.

7) Hydnora africana

This plant isn’t just unattractive, rising out of the ground like the head of a blind sea snake and opening its jaws to the world. It smells like feces, too. A parasitic plant that attaches itself to the roots of other species, Hydnora africana emits its pungent odor to attract carrion beetles and dung beetles, its natural pollinators.

8) Cycad (Encephalartos woodii)

It’s one of the rarest plants in the world: a tall palm with dark, glossy leaves, once found only on a single south-facing slope on the edge of the Ngoye forest in Southern Africa. It’s extinct in the wild and produces no seeds – the only plants ever found were males. People have begun crossing it with its closest relative to produce ‘pups’ that, after 3 generations, are almost pure E. woodii again.

9) Dead Horse Arum Lily (Helicodiceros muscivorus)

When a plant’s name has the words ‘dead horse’ in it, you know it’s bad news. H. muscivorus is a giant flower bearing the distinct scent of rotting meat, meant to draw in female blowflies which it captures inside its swollen cavity and holds there through its first night after flowering. It releases the flies, now covered in pollen, the following day to move on to neighboring H. muscivorus plants.

10) Flypaper Plant (Pinguicula gigantea)

Call them opportunists, but butterworts – also known as flypaper plants – will grab hold of anything that lands on their leaves and immediately start digesting it. The upper surface of the plant is covered in sticky digestive enzymes to trap victims like mosquitoes and gnats, but it can also absorb nutrients from pollen.

11) Welwitschia mirabilis

If this desert plant looks like it came straight out of the age of dinosaurs, that’s because it did. Two succulent leaves continuously grow from the short, thick trunk, splitting over time into strap-shaped sections. The leaves can reach twelve feet in length. These odd plants are considered living fossils and can live up to 2,000 years.

12) Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum)

It’s the biggest flower in the world, and also the smelliest. The corpse flower, indigenous to the tropical forests of Sumatra, emits a pungent odor reminiscent of rotting flesh. Its central, phallus-shaped spadix warms to human body temperature during bloom to attract pollinators. The leaf structure of the flower can reach up to 20 feet tall and 16 feet wide.

13) Waterwheel Plant (Aldrovanda Vesiculosa)

Closely related to the Venus flytrap, the aquatic, free-floating waterwheel plant has similar snap-traps on the end of each ‘spoke’ emerging from the main stem. Each trap is covered in ‘trigger hairs’ that cause the trap to close when stimulated.

14) Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis)

Wollemi pines have been around for at least 200 million years, but weren’t known to science until 2004, when a field officer at Wollemi National Park in Australia noticed what he thought was an ‘unusual specimen’. Fewer than 100 trees are known to be growing in the wild, but a propo

15) Snowdonia Hawkweed

It may not be smelly, oversized or weird looking, but Snowdonia Hawkweed may just be the rarest plant in the world. Botanists thought it had gone extinct decades ago, but in 2002 it was rediscovered growing on a mountain slope in Wales. “We were literally capering about for joy on the mountain ledges like lunatics when we found it,” said Tim Rich, head of vascular plants at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales.

All credits goes to webecoist.com for paragraphs in this post.

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