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Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month
June 2007
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Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps
This month's featured note
is from the Comoro Islands (Comoros).
The denomination is 500 Francs and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money
(SCWPM) Number is P-15.
The note is dated 2006.
(front)
The banknote is dark red, red and green on multicolored underprint. A
Lemur is at center.
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The following information
was obtained from:
Smithsonian National Zoological Park
Lemurs
(For the full article, please refer to
the link above.)
Taxonomy
Order: Primates
Suborder: Strepsirhini
Infraorder: Lemuriformes
Family: Lemuridae
Distribution and Habitat
Lemurs survive only on the island of Madagascar off the southeast coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean (shown in green), and on the neighboring Comoros islands. The various species of lemurs can be found in habitats as different as the lush, wet, rainforest of eastern Madagascar and the very dry spiny desert in the southwest.
Physical Description
Lemurs are primates. The species living today are small to medium-size mammals ranging from the smallest of all primates, the tiny pygmy mouse lemur (Microcebus myoxinus), which weighs only 30 grams (1 ounce), to the largest lemurs, the indri (Indri indri) and the diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema diadema), which weigh slightly over 7 kg (15 pounds) and can reach 4 feet (1.2 m) tall.
Lemurs like all, primates have binocular vision and grasping hands. However, unlike most other primates, lemurs and other prosimians have a rhinarium, a moist, very sensitive nose.
With the exception of the indri, lemurs have long furry tails. They use these tails for balance when leaping through the forest canopy, but unlike some New World monkeys, these tails are not prehensile, and lemurs cannot hang from them.
Conservation
Several species of lemur are endangered, largely due to deforestation. They are also hunted and trapped for the pet trade and food.----------
(back)
A few representative species of orchids found on the Comoros at right center.
The following information
was obtained from:
Wikipedia the on line
Encyclopedia
Orchids
(For the full article, please refer to
the link above.)
Orchids (Orchidaceae family) are the largest and most diverse of the flowering plant (Angiospermae) families, with over 800 described genera and 25,000 species. Some sources give 30,000 species, but the exact number is unknown since classification differs greatly in the academic world. There are another 100,000+ hybrids and cultivars produced by horticulturists, created since the introduction of tropical species in the 19th century. The Kew World Checklist of Orchids includes about 24,000 accepted species. About 800 new species are added each year. Orchids, through their interactions with pollinators and their symbiosis with orchid mycorrhizal fungi, are considered by some, along with the grasses, to be examples of the most advanced (derived) floral evolution known.
All orchid species are protected for the purposes of international commerce under CITES as potentially threatened or endangered in their natural habitat, with most species listed under Appendix II. A number of species and genera are afforded protection under Appendix I, including all Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium, and Selenipedium species. Many other species are protected by both international and national legislation, and while hybrids are supposed to be specifically exempted, hybrid orchids are not allowed into the United States without a CITES permit. The reason that is given is that the authorities cannot distinguish the difference between hybrids and species.
Orchid flowers
There are many types of specializations within the Orchidaceae. Best known are the seemingly endless structural variations in the flowers that encourage pollination by particular species of insects, bats, or birds.
Most African orchids are white, while Asian orchids are often multicolored. Some orchids only grow one flower on each stem, others sometimes more than a hundred together on a single spike.
The typical orchid flower is zygomorphic, i.e. bilaterally symmetric. Notable exceptions are the genera Mormodes, Ludisia and Macodes.
The flowers grow on racemes or panicles. These can be :
* basal (i.e. produced from the base of the pseudobulb, as in Cymbidium)
* apical (i.e. produced from the apex of the orchid, as in Cattleya)
* or axillary (i.e. coming from a node between the leaf axil and the plant axis, as in Vanda).
The basic orchid flower is composed of three sepals in the outer whorl, and three petals in the inner whorl. The medial petal is usually modified and enlarged (then called the labellum or lip), forming a platform for pollinators near the center of the corolla. Together, except the lip, they are called tepals.
Sepals form the exterior of the bud. They are green in this stage, but sometimes, if the orchid blossom is, for example, purple, the buds can show a purple tint. When the flower opens, the sepals become intensely colored. Sepals may mimic petals such as in some phalaenopsis or be completely distinct. In many orchids, the sepals are mutually different and generally resemble the petals. It is not always easy to distinguish sepals and petals. The normal form can be found in Cattleya, with three sepals forming a triangle. But in Venus Slippers (Paphiopedilum) the lower two sepals are concrescent (fused together into a synsepal), while the lip has taken the form of a slipper. In Masdevallia all the sepals are fused into a calyx. In an example like this the sepals are very prominent, especially in lycaste orchids, the actual petals become diminished and inconspicuous.
The reproductive organs in the center (stamens and pistil) have adapted to become a cylindrical structure called the column or gynandrium. On top of the column lies the stigma, the vestiges of stamens and the pollinia, a mass of waxy pollen on filaments. These filaments can be a caudicle (as in Habenaria) or a stipe (as in Vanda). These filaments hold the pollinia to the viscidium (sticky pad). The pollen are held together by the alkaloid viscine. This viscidium adheres to the body of a visiting insect. The type of pollinia is useful in determining the genus. On top of the pollinia is the anther cap, preventing self-pollination. At the upper edge of the stigma of single-anthered orchids, in front of the anther cap, is the rostellum, a slender beaklike extension.
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For more information about the Comoros visit:
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