NASA RECOMMENDED PLANT

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                         Thunbergia grandiflora

Thunbergia grandiflora is a long-lived (perennial), vigorous, climbing plant that can grow up to 15 m in height when supported by a host tree.

Younger stems are green, hairy (pubescent), and square in cross-section (quadrangular). The older climbing stems are quite thick when mature, and they usually turn brown in colour and become somewhat rounded in shape.

The oppositely arranged leaves are borne on hairy stalks (pubescent petioles) 4-12 cm long. These leaves are variable in shape (8-22 cm long and 3-15 cm wide) and may have broad heart-shaped (cordate) bases, be somewhat triangular in shape, or be roughly egg-shaped in outline with broad end at base (ovate). Their margins are also quite variable, and can range from being almost entire, to being irregularly toothed (crenated) or have several irregular, pointed lobes. The leaves are bright green in colour and somewhat hairy (pubescent).

The trumpet-shaped (tubular) flowers are borne in elongated clusters (racemes) on long, drooping (pendent) branches. They are large and showy (3-8 cm long and 6-8 cm across) with five pale blue, violet or mauve coloured petal lobes and a pale yellow or whitish coloured throat. Each flower is borne on a stalk (pedicel) 4-5 cm long and has two leafy bracts (bracteoles) at its base. These bracts (15-40 mm long and 10-20 mm wide) are oblong or ovate and have pointed tips (acuminate apices). The flowers also have hairy (pubescent) sepals that are fused together and reduced to a ring-like structure (calyx tube) that is greenish-coloured and may sometimes be streaked with purple or red. Flowering occurs throughout the year, in the plants around Nairobi.

The fruit is a capsule with a rounded (spherical) base (about 18 mm long and 13 mm across) and a long tapered beak (2-5 cm long and about 7 mm wide). These fruits are only produced in the warmer climates. The large, flattened (compressed), seeds (up to 10 mm across) are smooth on one side and warty on the other side. Seeds (5-10mm wide) contained in seed pods .

T. grandiflora is a woody vine included in the Global Compendium of Weeds and it is listed as a very aggressive weed impacting tropical and subtropical ecosystems (Randall, 2012). This species has been repeatedly introduced as an ornamental plant in many countries around the world, but it has become a serious environmental problem when it has escaped from cultivated areas and rapidly colonized natural habitats (ISSG, 2012). The rapid colonization of new habitat by this vine is mainly due to its capability to reproduce sexually by seeds and vegetatively by cuttings, fragments of stems and roots (USDA-NRCS, 2012). Once established, T. grandiflora completely smothers native vegetation by killing host-trees, out-competing understory plants, and negatively affecting the germination and establishment of seedlings of native species (Starr et al., 2003). Currently, T. grandiflora is classified as a “noxious weed” in Australia (Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, 2007), and as an invasive species in Central America, the West Indies, Africa, and numerous islands in the Pacific including Hawaii, Fiji, French Polynesia, Palau, and Samoa (see distribution table for details; Acevedo-Rodríguez and Strong.

                                                                                     MUSA ORNATA 

Every part of the banana is packed with nutrition and health benefits. This humble plant, with its flower, stem, fruit and leaf, can be consumed in different ways for overall wellness. Also, it is easily accessible and cheap all over India, so you’ve got yourself a practical superfood! Let’s take a look at why you should be eating it.Consumed with fibre, banana stem slows down the release of sugar and fats stored in the body’s cells. The juice of the banana stem helps in flushing out toxins from the body. It is a diuretic, and one of the most effective ways to cleanse your system from ailments. Drinking a glass of banana stem juice mixed with a few drops of lime juice every day prevents the formation of kidney stones and relieves Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). If you’ve got frequent problems with acidity, banana stem juice helps in regulating the acidic levels in your body and restoring balance. It provides relief from heartburn and discomfort and burning in the tummy. pH of the solution has remarkable role in both metal and nonmetal adsorption process clearly revealed that F removal remarkable elevated with changing pH from 2.0 to 4.0. However, after pH 4, the removal of F adsorption sharply declines with increasing alkalinity of the fluoride solution. This phenomenon nicely interpreted with the help of ZPC of NBP. From the Fig. 1, it is clear that the ZPC of NBP is 5.63 and maximum F adsorption occurs at pH 4 which is below the pH zpc of NBP. That means the main driving force of F adsorption is purely electrostatic in nature