Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake beneath eastern Taiwan.

The Taiwan Central Weather Bureau reported a Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake at a depth of 18.8 km roughly 10.6 km to the northeast of the city of Hauling in eastern Taiwan slightly after 1.00 pm local time (slightly after 5.00 am GMT) on Wednesday 3Friday 18 April 2019. Fifteen injuries have been reported following this event, including two tourists hit by a rockfall while hiking in the Taroko Gorge National Park, and minor damage was reported in a number of locations, including burst water pipes near Hualing rail station and minor structural damage to buildings in Taipei. The quake was felt across Taiwan, and in parts of the Chinese mainland.

Damage to a private apartment in Taipei caused by an Earthquake on 18 April 2019. AP.

Taiwan has a complex tectonic setting, lying on the boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Plates, with the Eurasian Plate being subducted beneath the Philippine Plate in the South and the Philippine Plate being subducted beneath the Eurasian in the East. Subduction is not a smooth process even in simple settings, with plates typically sticking together as pressure from tectonic expansion elsewhere builds up, then suddenly breaking apart and shifting abruptly, causing Earthquakes.

 The motion of the tectonic plates beneath Taiwan. The University of Memphis.

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.

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A new species of Chicory from Taiwan.

Living in limestone habitats requires special adaptations from plants; as such areas tend to have thin layers of alkaline soil over porous bedrock, leading to frequent periods of aridity. Since exposed limestones are most frequently found in upland areas surrounded by areas of lowlands with different environmental conditions, the plants found in them are often highly endemic (have very localized distributions).

In a paper published in the journal PLoS One on 8 October 2014, KohNakamura of the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica, Shih-Wen Chung of the Botanical Garden Division of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Yoshiko Kono and Meng-Jung Ho, also of the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica, Tian-Chuan Hsu, also of the Botanical Garden Division of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and Ching-I Peng, again of the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica, describe a new species of Chicory from the Taroko National Park in northeast Taiwan.

The new species is placed in the genus Ixeridium, and given the specific name calcicola. It is dwarfed compared to closely related species (a common adaptation to limestone environments), reaching only 10-30 cm tall, with oblong or lance-shaped leaves and yellow flowers.

Ixeridium calcicola in the wild. Nakamura et al. (2014).

Most members of the genus Ixeridiumhave seven pairs of chromosomes, whereas Ixeridium calcicola was found to have eight, causing Nakamura et al. to consider placing it in the related genus Ixeris, where eight chromosomes is more usual. However a full genetic analysis suggested strongly that the new species belonged within Ixeridium rather than Ixeris, the additional chromosome being due to the splitting of one of the longer chromosomes. This is also likely to have led to the species becoming reproductively isolated, as it is very difficult for plants to hybridize with even closely related species if they have different numbers of chromosomes.

Ixeridium calcicola was found growing only on moist rocky ridges and limestone cliffs at altitudes of 1150-2250 m. A total of five populations were discovered, three of them within the Taroko National Park. Since even the sites within the park are vulnerable to human disturbance, and the areas where the plant grows are naturally prone to landslides, particularly after Earthquakes of periods of heavy rainfall, Nakamura et al. suggest that the plant should be considered vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of ThreatenedSpecies.

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A new species of Hydrangea from Mexico and Central America.

Hydrangeas are perennial woody plants related to Dogwoods and Silkleafs. Most species form small shrubs, but some grow to tree sizes, and there are some lianas (woody vines) in the group. Hydrangeas are most abundant and diverse in eastern Asia, but they are found as far west as the Himalayas, and also throughout the Americas. Most Hydrangeas have white flowers, but some species produce pink or blue flowers in response to...

A new species of Hawkweed from Bulgaria.

Hawkweeds (Hieracium spp.) are herbaceous flowering plants in the Aster Family (Asteraceae), closely related to Dandelions. There are numerous species in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America, though the precise number of species is open to dispute, as most Hawkweeds are triploid (have three sets of chromosomes, which means that they cannot reproduce sexually (which requires an even number of chromosomes sets, which can then...

New species of Daisy from Brazil.                 Daisies of the genus Trichocline are found across southern South America, with a single species from Australia. They are small perennial herbs with red, yellow, orange, or rarely white flowers found on sandy or rocky grasslands, shrublands, or human-modified areas such as roadsides with exposed soil, mostly at high...

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