Why Passion Flowers could Attract Butterfly? – Science 13

My neighbors call this flower “the last suffer,” and interestingly, its has many alternate names.

Image 1- Blooming of Passion flower.

Other common names, sure, depend very much on areas or regions, just few of them are:

- Holy-Trinity flower
- apricot vine
- maracock,
- white sarsaparilla
- molly-pop
- old field apricot
- granadilla

Image 2- Home décor, butterfly

Then, question: Why Passion Flowers could Attract Butterfly?

Image 3- Sunflower, just for illustration

The simple answer that it is because the plants could provide “specific” foods and fragrance to attract butterfly

Image 4- Walking path, illustration

In addition to butterflies, other critters that love to visit exotic purple passion flowers are:

- hummingbirds (the smallest bird in the USA)
- many other pollinators.

Image 5- Passion Flowers in the garden

Moreover, as reported by University of Florida (2012: Native Passionflower Vine Shares Special Relationship with Two Florida Butterfly Species) that at least two butterflies species depend on the flowers.

The butterfly are common, and easily observed in many places of the state of Florida, they are:

- the Zebra Longwing
- the Gulf Fritillary

Have you seen purple passion flowers?

Do you love it?

# Previous postings:

- Lord of the Ducks in the Garden – Part 2 – Nature 18
- May Smartphones Lead You Older Quickly? - Part 1 – Health Life 18
- How did Alzheimer find out the change in his patient's brain? - Part 2 - Alzheimer's 3
- Attractive Yellow Flowers at the Corner – Part 1 – Nature 19

Why are We Getting Obese Nowadays? - Part 2 – Healthy Life 20

You may read the previous posting (Part 1):

- The Rainbow Before Evening : Why are We Getting Obese Nowadays? - Part 1 – Healthy Life 20

Image 1- Sweet cookies sold in the market

Some experts suggested the following possible reasons (needed to be studied furthermore):

1) Due to life style or behaviors or habits

- Life style such as infant with less or without breast-fed are obese more than infants with breast-fed more than 3 months

- Increasing of drug using especially prescription drugs which in fact relate to obesity.

Image 2- Walking path in neighborhood, illustration only

Image 3- A cute cat, illustration

2) Due to environmental changes

- Changing of our microorganisms in our intestines. It is believed the current type of gut microorganisms are relate to weight gain.

- We probably expose to more chemical environments such as food processing and pesticides. These lead to disturbing of hormonal work in the body, then to cause obesity.

Should we back to old days?

What do you think?

# Previous postings:

- Lord of the Ducks in the Garden – Part 1 – Nature 18
- Corned Beef Harsh - The Popular Breakfast in Louisiana – Part 2 – Food 11
- How did Alzheimer find out the change in his patient's brain? - Part 1 - Alzheimer's 3
- Biscotti and “The Blissful Feast” by Teresa Lust – Part 2 – Reading 9

Purple Bell Peppers in the Farmer Market – Food 14

We visit nearby farmer market couple days ago. It was quite surprisingly, we saw first time the purple bell peppers.

You may see the photos that we took.

Image 1- Purple Bell Peppers

These purple peppers have the same shapes compared to other color of bell peppers like:

- green
- red
- or yellow peppers

Actually, the bell peppers not really “solid” purple, but kind of “stripes” purple.

Image 2- Three Purple Bell Peppers

Searching through internet, we found many source, one of them reported by Goldy, R (2012: Green bell pepper showing purple striping due to cool temperatures in September).

Image 3- Cutting one half of peppers

Two possibility cause of purple bell peppers:

- if temperature too hot, immature bell pepper to be purple (stripes or half purple)
- if temperature too cold, green bell pepper will develop stripes purple.

We thought, in case in Louisiana, the temperature quite hot nowadays, about F 88* (C 31*) degree. Hence, the bell pepper tends to be stripes or half purple.

The difference with other bell pepper is that the white color dominates the inside part of the peppers and the texture of its flesh.

The purple is not covering all the fruit of peppers, it is just one half of the fruits (just stripes), so the peppers are look cute in this half purple.

# Previous postings:

- The Early Person who Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Diseases - Part 2 – Alzheimer's 2
- Corned Beef Harsh - The Popular Breakfast in Louisiana – Part 1 – Food 11
- Reducing Number of Amazon River Pink Dolphin? - Part 2 – Nature 17
- Biscotti and “The Blissful Feast” by Teresa Lust – Part 1 – Reading 9

The Mutant Genes in the Early Onset Familial Alzheimer's – Part 1 - Alzheimer's 6

Previously, I posted about chromosomes related to the Alzheimer's disease and gene mutations as the genetic marker that believe to lead to this pathological disease.

Image 1- Simple talks of Alzheimer's patients

You may read previous postings (Part 1 and Part 2):

- In what chromosomes are the gene mutation related to Alzheimer's Disease? - Part 1 - Alzheimer's 5
- In what chromosomes are the gene mutation related to Alzheimer's Disease? - Part 2 - Alzheimer's 5

As we might know that the progressive declined in cognitive functions in Alzheimer's disease are associated with depositions of aggregated protein in form of extracellular plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain.

Image 2- Plants, just for illustration

Image 3- Dialogs of normal and Alzheimer’s person.

Early-onset Alzheimer's disease appears about in the thirties and mid-sixties of the age which are characterized by the mutation of single gene in any chromosome in chromosome 1, chromosome 14 and chromosome 21.

Long investigations about the mutant gene that causes abundance of amyloid plaques were conducted.

Then the scientists found that this gene, the gene encoding amyloid precursor protein (APP), sits in chromosome 21.

It's an autosomal dominant.

# To be continued to Part 2

## Previous postings:

- Take Care of Winter Storm in Early 2022 – Part 2 – Nature 16
- The Early Person who Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Diseases - Part 1 – Alzheimer's 2
- Sweet Chocolate Candies and a Yummy Book – Part 2 – Reading 8
- Reducing Number of Amazon River Pink Dolphin? - Part 1 – Nature 17

Have You Tried to Consume Any Forms of Coconut Products?

We talked about imported coconut in the USA market, please read at previous post:

- The Rainbow Before Evening : Countries which Export Coconut to America

Image 1- Coconut without shells, sold in the Mexican grocery

There are many products made of coconuts, include:

- oil
- milk
- milk beverages
- water (juicy)
- flakes
- flour
- butter
- sugar

Image 2- Coconut oil, sold in the Walmart groceries

Image 3- Coconut charcoal, sold in Amazon

Other well known coconut relate products are charcoal, vinegar, copra, cream, chips, candy and cakes.

I myself love to consume water (juicy) and meat of young coconuts, suitable during hot summer season.

Cans of juicy mixed with young coconut meats also available in many groceries, especially Asian shops.

I often use coconut oil and milk for cooking, especially for traditional foods. Smell good and tasty.

Have you tried to eat coconut? What products of coconut do you like most?

# Previous postings:

- Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to You and Yours
- “The Madness of Crowds” and Omicron – Reading 7
- Take Care of Winter Storm in Early 2022 – Part 1 – Nature 16
- Sweet Chocolate Candies and a Yummy Book – Part 1 – Reading 8

Tea Made of Hibiscus Flowers

We knew Hibiscus flowers could be processed to be tea, but we never seen its sold commercially in the market.

Image 1- A package of hibiscus tea

When we visit Mexican store a couple weeks ago, we saw the Hibiscus tea in the small plastic packages.

The waitress said that tea made of Jamaican flowers, flowers from a Caribbean country. So, it is mean the grocery imported those tea.

Price is quite cheap compare to other tea sold in other American groceries such as Walmart and Whole Foods Market.

Image 2- A pink Hibiscus flower in the garden

Image 3- Yellow flower at a yard

Image 4- Several packs of Hibiscus tea.

Just for comparison, price of teas per 8 oz (227 gram) in groceries of our city, Baton Rouge, Louisiana:

- Hibiscus tea is US$ 4.29 per 8 oz
- others tea is US$ 12.80 per 8 oz

We drink hot hibiscus tea, and love sweet cranberry flavor. Other flavors, just few are:

- spicy
- fruity
- and sour

# Previous postings:

- The Best Tacos which I Love to Consume in Louisiana – Part 2 – Food 10
- The signs of late stage of Alzheimer's Disease – Part 1 - Alzheimer's 1
- A Novel of Arian - Then The Fish Swallowed Him - Part 2 – Reading 6
- The signs of late stage of Alzheimer's Disease – Part 2 - Alzheimer's 1

Diet of Rose breasted grosbeak in Nature – Nature 25

We have talk about very rare visiting of Rose breasted grosbeak in our neighborhood:

- Rose breasted grosbeak Comes to Our Neighborhood – Nature 23

Image 1- Rose breasted grosbeak sitting on feeder.

As you might know that Rose breasted grosbeak has “quite big size of beak” compared to other birds with similar size. Hence, the birds have ability to consume larger food items.

Wild Bird Unlimited (2022) reported that more than 50% of Rose breasted grosbeak come from larger insects such as:

- crickets
- grasshoppers
- and other insects

Image 2- Pink Caladium in the pot

Image 3- Sunflower at the neighbor garden

Image 4- Rose breasted grosbeak at a neighbor’s feeder

Sure, in backyard of our neighborhood, this “big beak” bird love to eat seed, any kind of seeds.

In nature, in addition to insects, the bird consumes fruit and seed. The favorite seeds are:

- sunflower
- safflower seeds
- weed seeds and peanuts.

Have you ever feed Rose breasted grosbeak in your yards? What kind of food do you provide the bird?

# Previous postings:

- Changes of Parents Behaviors When Caring a Baby – Part 2 - Science 11
- The Best Tacos which I Love to Consume in Louisiana – Part 1 – Food 10
- Could Botulinum Toxin be Turned to Beneficial Substance? - Part 4 – Science 10
- A Novel of Arian - Then The Fish Swallowed Him - Part 1 – Reading 6