BIOLOGY books

Portulaca laljii √Botanists have discovered a new species of wild sun rose from the Eastern Ghats in India. √The new species, named Portulaca laljii was discovered from Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh.  √It has unique features such as a tuberous root, no hair in its leaf axils, a reddish pink flower, prolate-shaped fruits, and copper brown seeds without lustre. √The flowers are very attractive and bloom for months from June to February. √The plant bears beautiful, tiny pink flowers for eight months.  √It is because of the succulent nature of tuberous roots that the plant can survive on rocky crevices.

Sunflower sea star now ‘Critically Endangered’, says IUCN: Pycnopodia helianthoides (Sunflower sea star): 1. It has been listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ by the IUCN after a new population study by Oregon State University in the United States. 2. There has here had been a 90.6 per cent decline in the species’ population between 2013 and 2020. 3. It was found all along the western coast of North America in the past, from Alaska to the tip of Baja California. 4. They are now nearly absent in Mexico as well as the continental United States. 5. The year 2013 was when a marine wildlife epidemic known as seas star wasting syndrome began. 6. It is a large sea star found in the northeast Pacific. 7. It is second-biggest sea star in the world, only second to the poorly known deepwater Midgardia xandaros. 8. It can reproduce sexually through broadcast spawning

The Devil's Cigar (Chorioactis) – world's rarest fungi A star-shaped mushroom, called the Devil's Cigar (Chorioactis geaster) is one of the world's rarest fungi. It's also known as the Texas star. These fungi had been detected only in central Texas, two remote locations in Japan, and most recently in the mountains of Nara. The Devil's Cigar is a dark brown cigar-shaped capsule that transforms into a tan-coloured star when it splits open to release its spores. It is also one of only a few known fungi that produce a distinct whistle sound when releasing its spores.

Welwitschia belongs to the group of gymnosperm plants This unusual plant is sometimes called "living fossil" because it exists on the planet for millions of years. Welwitschia is also known as "onion of desert" because indigenous people eat core of the plant. Welwitschia is very old plant.It originates from Jurassic period when the gymnosperms were the most dominant plants on the Earth.

Smallest gymnosperm is Zamia pygmea which reaches a height of 25 cm This species of plant belongs to the Zamiaceae family. It is an endemic plant of the western Cuban region

Gnetum is a genus of gymnosperms, the sole genus in the family Gnetaceae and order Gnetales. They are tropical evergreen trees, shrubs and lianas. Unlike other gymnosperms, they possess vessel elements in the xylem.

The dodo bird, a relative of the pigeon, was a famous flightless bird that was driven to extinction by humans 175 years after its discovery on the island of Mauritius. The last dodo recorded alive was in 1681. Dodos were thought to lay and hatch a single egg at a time each season.

The psilophytes, Psilotum and Tmesipteris (pronounced mezip-teris), are unique among vascular seedless plants. They constitute the only phylum of vascular plants that—like the nonvascular liverworts, hornworts, and mosses—lack both roots and leaves

Psilotum is the only living vascular plant to lack both leaves and roots, hence the generic name that derives from the Greek word for bare or smooth.  Psilotum was long considered a 'fern ally', a surviving remnant of an extinct Devonian flora (because of its apparent similarities to the fossil plant Rhynia).

Palaeoaldrovanda splendens is an extinct species of carnivorous plant. Palaeoaldrovanda is only known from fossils of the late Turonian–Santonian Klikov beds of the Czech Republic.