24/03/2021
SPRING SAKURA MALAYSIA is back!!!
Let's talk more in science perspective!
Malaysia not included in Spring equinox line of the Earth equator but we still got chance to view the floral bloom panorama in our environmental culture version. Haha.
Malaysia's sakura or cherry blossom flower has its scientific name 'tabeuia rosea' and also known by local people as 'tecoma'.
This 'tecoma' bloom its flower every year.
In Malaysia, we have varities of tecoma that would produce either pink or white colour flower.
It is logic that this plant species bloom so densely because its inflorescence season may reach during March until April due to temperature and weather factors. Tecoma needs distinct dry season in order to burst the blooming flower and pollination happened. However, climate change has made it difficult to predict the blooming time in certain area.
In last previous years, the phenomenon of the appearance of cherry blossoms after the monsoon season and extreme heat in Malaysia happened beyond expectations.
This only happen when there is disruption in metabolic regulation process that may switch "on" and "off" the gene expression in the plant's inflorescence system. The blooming of T. rosea depended on the time of in-season rainfall ended. It also required a certain continuous dry period. It is believed to be approximately 60 days, depending on the rate of water evaporation.
This genus of plant may produce phytochemical or natural phenolic compound known as lapachol. Lapachol can be isolated from the bark of the tree. It might be use for some type of cancer treatment, antimalarial agents and antipanasomal effects. However, study not recommend due to high toxicity.
For those who are interested to pursue Master (Research) or PHD in science biology, I guess it is very interesting to study deeply this MALAYSIA'S SAKURA in aspect of "plant inflorescence system", "epigenetic", "enzyme-inhibitor" and "gene expression" in this plant species!
Cuti-cuti Malaysia by Cik Helper.
Please share with us your sakura photo in comment box ya. ✌️😉
Credit photo: paris ,