Part B: Diversity of Flora and Fauna

Pong Pong (Cerbera Odollam)

Pong Pong is commonly known as Cerbera Odollam,Suicide Tree and Othalanga. It is a species of tree native to India and other parts of Southern Asia. It grows preferentially in coastal salt swamps and in marshy areas. It grows wild along the coast in many parts of Kerala, India and has been grown as a hedge between home compounds. It yields a potent poison, often used for suicide or murder.

Ixora (Ixora coccinea)

Ixora is a genus of 529 species in the family Rubiaceae, consisting of tropical evergreen trees and shrubs. Though native to the tropical and subtropical areas throughout the world, its centre of diversity is in tropical areas in Asia, especially India, Ixora now grows commonly in subtropical climates in the United States, such as Florida. Ixora is also commonly known as West Indian Jasmine. Other common names include rangan, kheme, ponna, chann tanea, techi, pan, santan. jarum-jarum, jungle flame, jungle geranium, and many more. Plants possess leathery leaves, ranging from 3 to 6 inches in length, and produce large clusters of tiny flowers in the summer. Members of Ixora prefer acidic soil, and are suitable choices for bonsai.
Coconut Tree

The coconut (Cocos nucifera) is an important member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long, and pinnae 60–90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word.

Sealing Wax Palm (Cyrtostachys Renda) This is an attractive palm coming from peat swamps of Malaysia and Indonesia. It grows in clumps, the younger palms developing from the base of the older ones. The attractiveness of the palm is in the bright scarlet leaf sheaths.

Royal Palm (Oreodoxa Regia)

It is commonly known as the Cuban Royal Palm, Florida Royal Palm, Roystonea Regia and Oreadoxa Regia. Royal palm is a species of palm which is native to Southern Florida, Mexico and parts of Central America and the Northern Carribean. It ranged into central Florida in the eighteenth century but in modern times it is only known from tropical parts of south Florida. A large and attractive palm, it has been planted throughout the tropics and subtropics as an ornamental tree. Although is is sometimes called R.elata,the conserved name R.regia is now the correct name for the species. Populations in Cuba and Florida were long seen as separate species, but are now considered to belong to a single species.

Pond skater
Pond skater is from the family Gerridae and it contains insects commonly known as water striders, water bugs, magic bugs, skaters, skimmers, water scooters, water skaters, water skeeters, water skimmers, water skippers or Jesus bugs. There are around 500 known species, commonly placed in around 60 genera
Snail
Snail is a common name for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in a general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails, and freshwater snails. Otherwise snail-like creatures that lack a shell (or have only a very small one) are called slugs.
Snails can be found in a very wide range of environments including ditches, deserts, and the abyssal depths of the sea. Although many people are familiar with terrestrail snails, land snails are in the minority. Marine snails constitute the majority of snail species, and have much greater diversity and a greater biomass. Numerous kinds of snail can also be found in fresh waters. Many snails are herbivorous, though a few land species and many marine species are omnivorous or predatory carnivours. Snails that respire using a lung belong to the group Pulmonata, while those with gills form a paraphyletic group; in other words, snails with gills are divided into a number of taxonomic groups that are not very closely related. Snails with lungs and with gills have diversified widely enough over geological time that a few species with gills can be found on land, numerous species with a lung can be found in freshwater, and a few species with a lung can be found in the sea.
Caterpillar Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, with some species being insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered pests in agriculture. Many moth species are better known in their caterpillar stages because of the damage they cause to fruits and other agricultural produce.
Bird Species not known due to distance of animal from photographer.
Tadpole Please look carefully at the picture and you will see a tadpole swimming. A tadpole, polliwog (also pollywog, polliwig, polwig, or purwiggy), or pollywiggle (also polliwiggle, polwiggle, or porwiggle) is the wholly aquatic larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian, particularly of a frog or toad.

Fern A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem (making them vascular plants). They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants. Ferns do not have either seeds or flowers (they reproduce via spores).
By far the largest group of ferns are the leptosporangiate ferns, but ferns as defined here (also called monilophytes) include horsetails, whisk ferns, marattiod ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns. The term pteridophyte also refers to ferns.

AlgaeAlgae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multi-cellular forms. The largest and most complex marine forms are called seaweeds. They are photosynthetic, like plants, and "simple" because they lack the many distinct organs found in land plants.
FungusFungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom. It is separate from plants, animals and bacteria. One major difference is that fungal cells have cell walls that contain chitin, unlike the cell walls of plants, which contain cellulose. These and other differences show that the fungi form a single group of related organisms, named the Eumycota.