“It’s All About the Nectar, Honey!”—A Sneak Peek into the Sweet and Sour Life of a Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)
The surprise package of your gourmet business are your kitchenettes, though—the underappreciated extrafloral nectaries found on the calyx and the pedicel (the flower stalk). Roughly equivalent to food trucks, they specialize in doling out sugary extrafloral nectar…
Windows and Crystals- The intrigue of the succulent Prayer Pepper, aka Peperomia dolabriformis
There is a window, or rather, a skylight, in the ceiling to let in the life-affirming sunlight. There are crystals scattered around, thoughtfully placed to reflect and disperse the warm rays of the sun. Am I talking about the interior design of my newly-opened wellness center? Hardly…Read on to figure out what it is!
A GPS system in the bird beak- would you like one for yourself?
A GPS system in the beaks of migratory birds—does it hold hope for directionally challenged people like me?
Meet the dinosaur nemesis—the 99 million-years-old blood-sucking ticks
You have a grand home, and are revered as a giant. You have two guests over for a visit. One pays for his food and accommodation by cleaning up after you. That’s symbiosis, and the guest is dermestid beetle larvae. The other not only refuses to pay, but also insists on sucking the lifeblood out of you. That’s parasitism, and the guest is the tick who, by the way, goes by the name of Deinocroton draculi (Greek word ‘deinos’–terrible, ‘kroton’–tick), or Dracula’s terrible tick.
The Avian Book of Flight Records-I
While astounding, the feat of the bar-tailed godwit would elicit a disapproving ‘Bah’ from the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea). A true-blue marathoner, this summer crazy bird migrates from its Arctic homeland to the Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean), a distance of nearly 35,000 kms (21,500 miles) (Tell me once again—what is your car’s annual mileage?)…