From today's featured articleBanksia canei, the mountain banksia, is a shrub of the subalpine areas of Australia's Great Dividing Range, between Melbourne and Canberra. First described in 1967, it superficially resembles B. marginata, but is more closely related to another subalpine species, B. saxicola. Although no subspecies are recognised, four geographically isolated populations have been described. There is significant variation in the shape of the leaves between populations. B. canei is generally encountered as a shrub that grows up to 3 m (10 ft) high, with many branches and narrow leaves, and with yellow inflorescences (flower spikes) from late summer to early winter. Old flowers fall off the spikes, and up to 150 seed-bearing follicles develop, which mostly remain closed until burnt in a bushfire. Birds such as the yellow-tufted honeyeater and various insects forage among the flower spikes. B. canei is frost tolerant in cultivation, but copes less well with aridity or humidity, and is often short-lived in gardens. (Full article...)
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The Counting of the Omer is a commandment in Judaism of counting the days that pass between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks). This mitzvah (commandment) derives from a commandment in the Torah to count 49 days beginning from the day on which the Omer, a sacrifice containing an omer-measure of barley, was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, up until the day before an offering of wheat was brought to the Temple on Shavuot. The Counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover (the 16th day of Nisan) for Rabbinic Jews (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform), and after the weekly Shabbat during Passover for Karaite Jews, and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot, which is the 'fiftieth day'. This image depicts an Omer calendar for 1904 produced by Baruch Zvi Ring with ink, paint, pencil, and watercolor on cut-out paper. It is in the collection of the Jewish Museum in New York. Artwork credit: Baruch Zvi Ring
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