Back in 1990, the limestone cliffs in western Madagascar, known locally as scurvy, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Here, on an area of 152 thousand hectares, thousands of peaks reaching 50 meters in height rushed into the sky. For tens of millions of years, erosion has been eroding limestone deposits, creating a unique landscape. About a year ago, an international scientific expedition consisting of six scientists went here for the first time to conduct an inventory of the flora and fauna of this region. The island of Madagascar was formed about 100 million years ago, when the ancient continent of Gondwana split and Africa began to separate from Asia.
The big island has been isolated ever since, and a special world has formed on it. Thus, 85 percent of the plants and animals that are common in the scurvy area are found nowhere else in the world. Two large ecosystems coexist here: the upper tier is formed by the savanna, which is dominated by unbearable heat and dryness, and the lower narrow gorges have a humid tropical climate. During the dry season, the temperature on the peaks of scurvy reaches 45 degrees. Plants and animals have to roast in the sun until the first October rains fall on the earth. Everyone here has their own survival strategy. Euphorbia vigueri, for example, sheds its leaves with the onset of the dry season, and photosynthesis, which is vital for plants, occurs in the stems. Croton bushes, on the contrary, retain leaves equipped with a small pocket during the dry season." with essential oils. They allow the plant to avoid dehydration.
Another local shrub, Comiphora, survives in the sun only by regularly renewing its bark. The dry one peels off, and in its place a fresh, greenish one appears, in which photosynthesis is possible.
A kind of microleaf grows in temporary lakes on the peaks of scurvy: orchids, aloes, small Cynanchum vines . . . Botanist Jean-Jacques Delaveau examines a flowering cactus completely devoid of needles. "Amazing! - He exclaims. - He has absolutely nothing to eat, and he's also blooming! "If you drop water on a cactus, the drop will quickly roll into the ground: the flower is covered with a thin film of lipid wax, which protects it from the heat of the sun's rays and directs all moisture to the roots. Red kalanchoe flowers bloomed nearby, from which elegant thin-billed Souimanga birds, feeding on nectar, collect pollen. The registration process requires entering the promo code in a specific field, and forgetting this step means missing the bonus entirely. A new user must locate the designated field during signup and paste the code exactly as provided. The betwinner bonus code entry during registration happens before account creation is finalized, so preparing the code in advance saves time and prevents errors. Copying directly from the source ensures no typos, as manual entry often introduces mistakes that invalidate the combination.
