The Four O'clock Flower

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The Four O'clock Flower (Mirabilis jalapa) is an example of awesome ornamental flower and available in a range of colors; red,white,yellow,pink and purple. Mirabilis in latin means wonderful and jalapa is a common place name in Central and North America.

The flowers usually open from late afternoon onwards,hence the first of its common names. They produce a strong,sweet-smelling fragrance throughout the night and close for good in the morning. New flowers open the following day.

Four o'clock flowers are plants whose leaves are not complete because they only consist of leaves and stalks. The edges of the leaves tend to be average or integer and face opposite each other. The leaves are classified as even pinnate compound leaves. The stalks are round and grow straight up. The roots are sole and white. Despite their appearance,the flowers are not formed from petals-----rather they are a pigmented modification of the calyx. Similarly,the 'calyx' is an involucre or covering of bracts.

The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued moths of the sphingidae family,such as the sphinx moths or hawk moths and other nocturnal pollinators attracted by the fragrance.

This flower hails from tropical South America,but has become naturalized throughout tropical and warm temperate regions.In cooler temperate regions,it will die back with the first frosts,regrowing in the following spring from the tuberous roots. The plant does best in full sun. It grows to approximately 0,9 m high. The single-seeded fruits are spherical,wrinkled and black upon maturity,having started out greenish-yellow.The plant will self-seed, often spreading rapidly if left unchecked in a garden.

Something About Elephants

Image Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

Elephant is the biggest animal in the world.There are two kinds of elephants,the Asians and Africans.The Asian elephants are slightly smaller than the Africans.They have smaller,rounded ears than the Africans. They always flap their ears to help keep these large animals cool. They are also fond of water. They suck water into their trunks and spray it all over their bodies.

Elephants don't only have big bodies,but they also have the longest noses,called trunks. They use their trunks for smelling,breathing,trumpeting,drinking,and also for grabbing things. Asian elephants have a fingerlike feature on the end of their trunks.They can use it to grab small items.

Elephants eat roots,grasses,fruit and bark and they eat a lot of these things. When these animals are hungry,they do not sleep much. Even they roam over great distances to find large quantities of food,to sustain their massive bodies.

Asian elephants have been domesticated for thousands of years. The powerful beasts have been employed to move heavy objects,such as logs,and to carry humans on their backs.

Something About Hercules Beetles

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Hercules beetles are found throughout tropical jungles and rain forests of Central and South America,where they spend the majority of their time foraging through the leaf-litter on the forest floor in search of food. Fallen debris also helps to hide these enormous insects as they move about.

There are 13 known species of Hercules beetles found in the jungles of South America and the Hercules beetle was named for its sheer size as a few males have been known to reach nearly 7 inc long. Although it's quite rare for these beetles to get quite so big,the average adult Hercules beetles are usually between 4 and 15 cm long depending on the species.

The most distinctive feature of the Hercules beetles has to be the enormous horn-like pincers which protrude from the forehead of the males.These horns can grow longer than the beetle's bodies and are mainly used for solving disputes with other male Hercules beetles.Female Hercules beetles don't have horns but their bodies are though to be larger,but shorter than their male counterparts.

The Hercules beetle is an omnivorous animal,but its diet both in its larvae and adult stages is primarily made up of decaying plant matter.Rotting wood is the favored meal of the Hercules beetles,
along with fruits and other plant matter and the occasional small insect.

Something About Ground Beetles

Image source : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Loricera_pilicornis_bl.jpg

Ground beetles are rather diverse in shape.Most adults are glossy and black,but others are iridescent,green,yellow or orange. Their bodies are usually flattened with grooves or of punctures running down the wing covers. They have long legs wich make them fast runners.

Ground beetles are found in just about any habitat that has other small animals for them to eat. They are most diverse and commo in forest,but can be found on high mountains,in deserts,even on the seashore.These beetles are only actove at night. They emerge from their hiding places under rocks and logs and search for prey,climbing onto vegetation. Larvae don't come out on the surface,but stay in dead leaves and the surface soil. They are solitary animals,only coming together to mate.

Surprisingly,ground beetle larvae and adults eat other small animals,or specialize on a particular group, other will eat all they can find. However,they may become other animal's prey.That's why,they are granted with ways to avoid being eaten.They have though beetle shells for protection.They run fast and only hunt at night.Many can give of bad-tasting chemicals.