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From today's featured article

Dracophyllum fiordense, the Fiordland grass tree, is a tree or shrub endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. A heath, it is 1.5–5.0 metres (5–16 feet) tall and has tufts of distinctive long leaves at the ends of its branches. It has pyramidal flower spikes hidden under each clump of leaves, with over 100 pink flowers on each spike that later produce reddish-brown fruit. It inhabits shrubland, forests, and tussock grassland. Its range is mainly within Fiordland, Aoraki / Mount Cook and Westland Tai Poutini National Parks. D. fiordense was first described by the New Zealand naturalist Walter Oliver in 1928 and placed by him in the subgenus Dracophyllum, in a group with D. menziesii, which genetic sequencing later confirmed. In 2017, it was classed as a declining species. The kākāpō, a flightless bird, feeds on the bases of the leaves by making incisions in new shoots. D. fiordense is likely pollinated by insects and its seeds are dispersed by the wind. (Full article...)

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Hebetica sylviae

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In the news

Typhoon Rai

Typhoon Rai (pictured) results in at least 169 deaths in the Philippines.
A building fire in Osaka, Japan, kills 24 people.
Siaosi Sovaleni is elected as prime minister by the Legislative Assembly of Tonga.
A fuel tanker truck explodes in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, killing at least 75 people.
In Canadian football, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to win the Grey Cup.

On this day

December 19

Andrei Karlov

1154 – Henry II was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
1675 – King Philip's War: The colonial militia of New England and their Pequot allies attacked a Narragansett fort in Rhode Island, killing many warriors and hundreds of non-combatants.
1956 – British physician and suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams was arrested in connection with the death of Edith Alice Morrell.
1985 – Aeroflot Flight 101/435 was hijacked by the co-pilot and landed in a rice field in China, where he was apprehended.
2016 – Andrei Karlov (pictured), Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated at an art gallery in Ankara.

J. M. W. Turner (d. 1851)
Mileva Marić (b. 1875)
Ashfaqulla Khan (d. 1927)

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Today's featured picture

The common house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) is a species of lizard native to southern and southeastern Asia. The undersides of this mating pair are viewed through the glass of a window. The male has inserted one of his two intromittent organs, the hemipenis, into the cloaca of the female. The adhesive lamellae with setae on the underside of the feet adhere to the glass and allow the reptiles to maintain traction on the smooth surface.

Photograph credit: Basile Morin

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