| Actual Image
Tiny Grasshopper on Hottentot Fig (128)
RAP
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2524 W: 345 N: 2373]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (7405) | Tiny Grasshopper on Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis)
I have been absent some days enjoying the kindnesses of a tourist city of Uruguay, called Punta del Este, considered one of the most beautiful beach in South America.
There I had opportunity to capture some images that I will go sharing with all my friends and in this occasion, I present a tiny grasshopper (in opposition of my previous post of the giant grasshopper), inside a flower of Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis), where you can view the pollen of the flower and above the insect, grains of sand stuck to the same one that you give an idea of the size of the insect (aprox. 12mm.) and whose antennas exceed several times the longitude of the body.
I also publish as Workshop another image with the entirety of the flower and the Tettigoniidae specimen.
Description: A robust, flat-growing, trailing perennial, rooting at nodes and forming dense mats. The succulent horizontal stems curve upwards at the growing point. The leaves are succulent, crowded along the stem, 60–130 x 10–12 mm, sharply 3-angled and triangular in cross-section, yellowish to grass-green, and reddish when older.
Flowers are solitary, 100–150 mm in diameter, yellow, fading to pale pink, produced mainly during late winter–spring. They open in the morning in bright sunlight, and close at night. Look into the centre of the flower and you'll see many stamens surrounding a beautiful starfish-like stigma. This species is easily distinguished from the others as it is the only one with yellow flowers.
Fruit is fleshy, indehiscent and edible, 35 mm in diameter, shaped like a spinning top, on a winged stalk, becoming yellow and fragrant when ripe. The outer wall of the fruit becomes yellowish, wrinkled and leathery with age. The seeds are embedded in the sticky, sweet, jelly-like mucilage. The fruits can be eaten fresh and they have a strong, astringent, salty, sour taste.
Uses & cultural aspects: The leaf juice is astringent and mildly antiseptic. It is mixed with water and swallowed to treat diarrhoea, dysentery and stomach cramps, and is used as a gargle to relieve laryngitis, sore throat and mouth infections. Chewing a leaf tip and swallowing the juice is enough to ease a sore throat. Leaf juice or a crushed leaf is a famous soothing cure for blue-bottle stings—being a coastal plant it is luckily often on hand in times of such emergencies.
I hope you like it J
Source and more information Here |
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