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Kokoona Zeylanica
''Kokoona zeylanica'', known in Sinhala as කොකුන් (Kokun) is a species of plant in the family Celastraceae. It is not to be confused with the similar sounding word කොකුම් which stands for the Kokum plant. The genus was formerly classified in the family Hippocrateaceae. It is endemic to Sri Lanka. It is extant at Adam's Peak and at Kanneliya. The species has been listed by the IUCN as threatened. Description The ''kokun'' is a large tree with a rough grey bark. It flowers from March to May. Uses The ''kokun'' is regarded as a medicinal plant Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against h ... traditionally used in a number of conditions. The seed oil from this plant is effective as a leech repellent. The inner bark has been used by jewellers as a polis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinhala Language
Sinhala ( ; Sinhala: , , ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. It is also the first language of about 2 million other Sri Lankans, as of 2001. It is written in the Sinhalese script, a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. The language has two main varieties, written and spoken, and is a notable example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia. Sinhala is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka. Along with Pali, it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhalese language are attested to as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi, a regional associate of the Middle-Indian Prakrits that had been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plant
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water, using the green pigment chlorophyll. Exceptions are parasitic plants that have lost the genes for chlorophyll and photosynthesis, and obtain their energy from other plants or fungi. Most plants are multicellular organism, multicellular, except for some green algae. Historically, as in Aristotle's biology, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi. Definitions have narrowed since then; current definitions exclude fungi and some of the algae. By the definition used in this article, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (green plants), which consists of the green algae and the embryophytes or land plants (hornworts, liverworts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celastraceae
The Celastraceae (staff-vine or bittersweet) are a family of 98 genera and 1,350 species of herbs, vines, shrubs and small trees, belonging to the order Celastrales. The great majority of the genera are tropical, with only ''Celastrus'' (the staff vines), ''Euonymus'' (the spindle (shrub), spindles) and ''Maytenus'' widespread in temperate climates, and ''Parnassia'' (bog-stars) found in alpine and arctic climates. Of the 98 currently recognized genera of the family Celastraceae, 19 are native to Madagascar and these include at least 57 currently recognized species. Six of these 19 genera (''Brexiella'', ''Evonymopsis'', ''Hartogiopsis'', ''Polycardia'', ''Ptelidium'', and ''Salvadoropsis'') are endemic to Madagascar. These genera each have distinctive traits and functions of their own. Genera 98 genera are accepted by Plants of the World Online : * ''Acanthothamnus'' * ''Allocassine'' * ''Anthodon (plant), Anthodon'' * ''Apatophyllum'' * ''Apodostigma'' * ''Arnicratea'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kokum
''Garcinia indica'', a plant in the mangosteen family (Clusiaceae), commonly known as ''kokum'', is a fruit-bearing tree that has culinary, pharmaceutical, and industrial uses. It grows primarily in India's Western Ghats: in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. It is considered as an endemic species to the Western Ghats and forests in India. Plant description Garcinia indica is a medium-sized evergreen tree. It grows to a height of about 18 m. The tree has drooping branches. The berries ripen in the summer. They are spherical with a diameter of about 5 cm. They have indentations on the top, on the stalk, and on the bottom. Each berry has 5 to 8 seeds surrounded by a sweet and sour pulp that contains some fibers. They are initially green, but turn red as they ripen. Taxonomy The genus ''Garcinia'', belonging to the family Clusiaceae, includes about 200 species found in the Old World tropics, mostly in Asia and Africa. ''Garcinia indica'' is an evergreen, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hippocrateaceae
Hippocrateaceae Juss. previously consisted of about 150 tropical and subtropical species of shrubs and lianes, and is now included in the family Celastraceae The Celastraceae (staff-vine or bittersweet) are a family of 98 genera and 1,350 species of herbs, vines, shrubs and small trees, belonging to the order Celastrales. The great majority of the genera are tropical, with only ''Celastrus'' (the staf .... Formerly it comprised the following genera: * '' Anthodon'' * '' Apodostigma'' * '' Arnicratea'' * '' Baequaertia'' * '' Campylostemon'' * '' Cheiloclinium'' * '' Cuervea'' * '' Elachyptera'' * '' Helictonema'' * '' Hippocratea'' * '' Hylenaea'' * '' Loeseneriella'' * '' Peritassa'' * '' Prionostemma'' * '' Pristimera'' * '' Reissantia'' * '' Salacia'' * '' Salacighia'' * '' Salaciopsis'' * '' Semialarium'' * '' Simicratea'' * '' Simirestis'' * '' Thyrsosalacia'' * '' Tontelea'' * '' Tristemonanthus'' Celastraceae Rosid families Historically recognized angiosperm familie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or, in scientific literature, as an ''endemite''. Similarly, many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. It shares a maritime border with the Maldives in the southwest and India in the northwest. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, while the largest city, Colombo, is the administrative and judicial capital which is the nation's political, financial and cultural centre. Kandy is the second-largest urban area and also the capital of the last native kingdom of Sri Lanka. The most spoken language Sinhala language, Sinhala, is spoken by the majority of the population (approximately 17 million). Tamil language, Tamil is also spoken by approximately five million people, making it the second most-spoken language in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a population of appr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam's Peak
Adam's Peak is a conical sacred mountain located in central Sri Lanka.Capper, Daniel (2022), ''Roaming Free Like a Deer: Buddhism and the Natural World,'' Cornell University Press. It is well known for the ''Sri Pada'' (; ), a rock formation near the summit whose name is also used for the mountain itself. In Buddhist tradition the print is held to be the footprint of the Buddha, in Sri Lankan Hindu tradition that of Hanuman or Shiva (its Tamil name, , ''Sivanolipaathamalai'', means 'Mountain of Shiva's Light'), and in some Islamic and Christian traditions that of Adam or St Thomas the Apostle. The mountain is also known as Mount Malaya in Buddhist sources, particularly the Mahayana ''Lankavatara Sutra'', which states that the Buddha preached this ''sutra'' on top of the mountain. According to this ''sutra'', the mountain was the abode of Ravana, overlord of the Rakshasas and ruler of Lanka. Other names in Sanskrit sources include Mount Lanka, Ratnagiri ("Mountain of Gems ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medicinal Plant
Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against herbivory, defense and protection against insects, fungi, Plant disease resistance, diseases, against parasites and herbivorous mammals. The earliest historical records of herbs are found from the Sumerian civilization, where hundreds of medicinal plants including opium are listed on clay tablets, . The Ebers Papyrus from ancient Egypt, , describes over 850 plant medicines. The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides, Dioscorides, who worked in the Roman army, documented over 1000 recipes for medicines using over 600 medicinal plants in , ; this formed the basis of pharmacopoeias for some 1500 years. Drug research sometimes makes use of ethnobotany to search for pharmacologically active substances, and this approach has yielded hundreds of use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of Sri Lanka
The wildlife of Sri Lanka includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of biological endemism (16% of the fauna and 23% of flowering plants are endemic). Ecological zones The mountains and the southwestern part of the country, known as the "wet zone", receive ample rainfall (an annual average of 2500 millimeters). Most of the southeast, east, and northern parts of the country comprise the "dry zone", which receives between 1200 and 1900 mm of rain annually. Forestry Faunal diversity Described species of fauna The most recent update on the Sri Lankan biodiversity was the 6th National Report of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This report provided an updated list of species as of the end 2018. However, in 2019, 54 new species were described: including 26 spiders, (14 cellar spiders, 7 jumping spiders, 4 crab spiders and 1 tarantula), 1 scorpion species, 5 mites and ticks, 14 reptiles (13 day geckos and 1 snake), 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
