prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: How are elephants connected to Gajabrishta?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals  Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant  They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea; extinct relatives include mammoths and mastodons  Distinctive features of elephants include a long proboscis called a trunk, tusks, large ear flaps, pillar-like legs, and tough but sensitive grey skin  The trunk is prehensile, bringing food and water to the mouth, and grasping objects  Tusks, which are derived from the incisor teeth, serve both as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging  The large ear flaps assist in maintaining a constant body temperature as well as in communication  African elephants have larger ears and concave backs, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears, and convex or level backs 
Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia and are found in different habitats, including savannahs, forests, deserts, and marshes  They are herbivorous, and they stay near water when it is accessible  They are considered to be keystone species, due to their impact on their environments   Elephants have a fission–fusion society, in which multiple family groups come together to socialise  Females (cows) tend to live in family groups, which can consist of one female with her calves or several related females with offspring  The leader of a female group, usually the oldest cow, is known as the matriarch 
Males (bulls) leave their family groups when they reach puberty and may live alone or with other males  Adult bulls mostly interact with family groups when looking for a mate  They enter a state of increased testosterone and aggression known as musth, which helps them gain dominance over other males as well as reproductive success  Calves are the centre of attention in their family groups and rely on their mothers for as long as three years  Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild  They communicate by touch, sight, smell, and sound; elephants use infrasound and seismic communication over long distances  Elephant intelligence has been compared with that of primates and cetaceans  They appear to have self-awareness, and possibly show concern for dying and dead individuals of their kind 
African bush elephants and Asian elephants are listed as endangered and African forest elephants as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)  One of the biggest threats to elephant populations is the ivory trade, as the animals are poached for their ivory tusks  Other threats to wild elephants include habitat destruction and conflicts with local people  Elephants are used as working animals in Asia  In the past, they were used in war; today, they are often controversially put on display in zoos, or exploited for entertainment in circuses  Elephants have an iconic status in human culture and have been featured in art, folklore, religion, literature, and popular culture 

Etymology
The word "elephant" is based on the Latin elephas (genitive elephantis) ("elephant"), which is the Latinised form of the Greek ἐλέφας (elephas) (genitive ἐλέφαντος (elephantos), probably from a non-Indo-European language, likely Phoenician  It is attested in Mycenaean Greek as e-re-pa (genitive e-re-pa-to) in Linear B syllabic script  As in Mycenaean Greek, Homer used the Greek word to mean ivory, but after the time of Herodotus, it also referred to the animal  The word "elephant" appears in Middle English as olyfaunt (c  1300) and was borrowed from Old French oliphant (12th century) 

Taxonomy
Elephants belong to the family Elephantidae, the sole remaining family within the order Proboscidea  Their closest extant relatives are the sirenians (dugongs and manatees) and the hyraxes, with which they share the clade Paenungulata within the superorder Afrotheria  Elephants and sirenians are further grouped in the clade Tethytheria Three species of living elephants are recognised; the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)  African elephants were traditionally considered a single species, Loxodonta africana, but molecular studies have affirmed their status as separate species  Mammoths (Mammuthus) are nested within living elephants as they are more closely related to Asian elephants than to African elephants  Another extinct genus of elephant, Palaeoloxodon, is also recognised, which appears to have close affinities with and to have hybridised with African elephants 

Evolution
Over 180 extinct members of order Proboscidea have been described  The earliest proboscideans, the African Eritherium and Phosphatherium are known from the late Paleocene  The Eocene included Numidotherium, Moeritherium and Barytherium from Africa  These animals were relatively small and some, like Moeritherium and Barytherium were probably amphibious  Later on, genera such as Phiomia and Palaeomastodon arose; the latter likely inhabited more forested areas  Proboscidean diversification changed little during the Oligocene  One notable species of this epoch was Eritreum melakeghebrekristosi of the Horn of Africa, which may have been an ancestor to several later species 
A major event in proboscidean evolution was the collision of Afro-Arabia with Eurasia, during the Early Miocene, around 18-19 million years ago allowing proboscideans to disperse from their African homeland across Eurasia, and later, around 16-15 million years ago into North America across the Bering Land Bridge  Proboscidean groups prominent during the Miocene include the deinotheres, along with the more advanced elephantimorphs, including mammutids (mastodons), gomphotheres, amebelodontids (which includes the "shovel tuskers" like Platybelodon), choerolophodontids and stegodontids  Around 10 million years ago, the earliest members of the family Elephantidae emerged in Africa, having originated from gomphotheres Elephantids are distinguished from earlier proboscideans by a major shift in the molar morphology to parallel lophs rather than the cusps of earlier proboscideans, allowing them to become higher crowned (hypsodont) and more efficient in consuming grass  The Late Miocene saw major climactic changes, which resulted in the decline and extinction of many proboscidean groups  The earliest members of modern genera of Elephantidae appeared during the latest Miocene-early Pliocene around 5 million years ago  The elephantid genera Elephas (which includes the living Asian elephant) and Mammuthus (mammoths) migrated out of Africa during the late Pliocene, around 3 6 to 3 2 million years ago Over the course of the Early Pleistocene, all non-elephantid probobscidean genera outside of the Americas became extinct with the exception of Stegodon, with gomphotheres dispersing into South America as part of the Great American interchange, and mammoths migrating into North America around 1 5 million years ago  At the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 800,000 years ago the elephantid genus Palaeoloxodon dispersed outside of Africa, becoming widely distributed in Eurasia  Proboscideans underwent a dramatic decline during the Late Pleistocene, with all remaining non-elephantid proboscideans (including Stegodon, mastodons, and the gomphotheres Cuvieronius and Notiomastodon) and Palaeoloxodon becoming extinct, with mammoths only surviving in relict populations on islands around the Bering Strait into the Holocene, with their latest survival being on Wrangel Island around 4,000 years ago Over the course of their evolution, probobscideans grew larger in size  With that came longer limbs and wider feet with a more digitigrade stance along with a larger head and shorter neck  The trunk evolved and grew longer to provide reach  The number of premolars, incisors and canines decreased and the cheek teeth (molars and premolars) became longer and more specialised  The incisors developed into tusks of different shapes and sizes  Several species of proboscideans became isolated on islands and experienced insular dwarfism, some dramatically reducing in body size, such as the 1 metre (3 3 ft) tall dwarf elephant species Palaeoloxodon falconeri 

Living species
Anatomy
Elephants are the largest living terrestrial animals  The skeleton is made up of 326–351 bones  The vertebrae are connected by tight joints, which limit the backbone's flexibility  African elephants have 21 pairs of ribs, while Asian elephants have 19 or 20 pairs  The skull contains air cavities (sinuses) that reduce the weight of the skull while maintaining overall strength  These cavities give the inside of the skull a honeycomb-like appearance  By contrast, the lower jaw is dense  The cranium is particularly large and provides enough room for the attachment of muscles to support the entire head  The skull is built to withstand great stress, particularly when fighting or when using the tusks  The brain is surrounded by arches in the skull which serve as protection  Because of the size of the head, the neck is relatively short to provide better support 
Elephants are homeotherms, and maintain their average body temperature at ~ 36 °C (97 °F), with minimum 35 2 °C (95 4 °F) during cool season, and maximum 38 0 °C (100 4 °F) during hot dry season 

Ears and eyes
Elephant ear flaps, or pinnae are 1–2 mm (0 039–0 079 in) thick in the middle with a thinner tip and supported by a thicker base  They contain numerous blood vessels called capillaries  Warm blood flows into the capillaries, freeing excess heat into the environment  This effect is increased by flapping the ears back and forth  Larger ear surfaces contain more capillaries, and more heat can be released  Of all the elephants, African bush elephants live in the hottest climates, and have the largest ear flaps  The ossicles are adapted for hearing low frequencies, being most sensitive at 1 kHz Lacking a lacrimal apparatus (tear duct), the eye relies on the harderian gland in the orbit to keep it moist  A durable nictitating membrane shields the globe  The animal's field of vision is compromised by the location and limited mobility of the eyes  Elephants are considered to be dichromats and they can see well in dim light but not in bright light 

Trunk
The elongated and prehensile trunk, or proboscis, consists of both the nose and upper lip, which fuse in early fetal development  This versatile appendage contains up to 150,000 separate muscle fascicles, with no bone and little fat  These paired muscles consist of two major types: superficial (surface) and internal  The former are divided into dorsals, ventrals, and laterals while the latter are divided into transverse and radiating muscles  The muscles of the trunk connect to a bony opening in the skull  The nasal septum consists of small elastic muscles between the nostrils which are divided by cartilage at the base  A unique proboscis nerve – a combination of the maxillary and facial nerves – lines each side of the appendage As a muscular hydrostat, the trunk moves by finely controlled muscle contractions, working both with and against each other  Using three basic movements: bending, twisting, and longitudinal stretching/retracting, the trunk has near unlimited flexibility  Objects grasped by the end of the trunk can be moved to the mouth by curving the appendage inwards  The trunk can also bend at different points by creating stiffened "pseudo-joints"  The tip can be moved in a way similar to the human hand  The skin is more elastic on the dorsal side of the elephant trunk than underneath; allowing the animal to stretch and coil while maintaining a strong grasp  The African elephants have two finger-like extensions at the tip of the trunk that allow them to pluck small food  The Asian elephant has only one and relies more on wrapping around a food item  Asian elephant trunks have better motor coordination 

The trunk's extreme flexibility allows it to forage and wrestle other elephants with it  It is powerful enough to lift up to 350 kg (770 lb), but also has the precision to crack a peanut shell without breaking the seed  With its trunk, an elephant can reach items up to 7 m (23 ft) high and dig for water in the mud or sand below  It also uses it to clean itself  Individuals may show lateral preference when grasping with their trunks: some prefer to twist them to the left, others to the right  Elephant trunks are capable of powerful siphoning  They can expand their nostrils 30% around, leading to a 64% greater nasal volume, and can breathe in almost 30 times faster than a human sneeze, at over 150 m/s (490 ft/s)  They suck up water which is squirted into the mouth or over the body  The trunk of an adult Asian elephant is capable of retaining 8 5 L (2 2 US gal) of water   They will also sprinkle dust or grass on themselves  When underwater, the elephant uses its trunk as a snorkel The trunk also acts as a sense organ  Its sense of smell may be four times greater than a bloodhound's nose  The infraorbital nerve, which makes the trunk sensitive to touch, is thicker than both the optic and auditory nerves  Whiskers grow all along the trunk, and are particularly packed at the tip, where they contribute to its tactile sensitivity  Unlike those of many mammals, such as cats and rats, elephant whiskers do not move independently ("whisk") to sense the environment; the trunk itself must move to bring the whiskers into contact with nearby objects  Whiskers grow in rows along each side on ventral surface of the trunk, which is thought to be essential in helping elephants balance objects there, whereas they are more evenly arranged on the dorsal surface  Number and patterns of whiskers are distinctly different between species Damaging the trunk would be detrimental to an elephant's survival, although in rare cases, individuals have survived with shortened ones  One trunkless elephant has been observed to graze using its lips with its hind legs in the air and balancing on its front knees  Floppy trunk syndrome is a condition of trunk paralysis recorded in African bush elephants and involves the degeneration of the peripheral nerves and muscles  The disorder has been linked to lead poisoning 

Teeth
Elephants usually have 26 teeth: the incisors, known as the tusks, 12 deciduous premolars, and 12 molars  Unlike most mammals, teeth are not replaced by new ones emerging from the jaws vertically  Instead, new teeth start at the back of the mouth and push out the old ones  The first chewing tooth on each side of the jaw falls out when the elephant is two to three years old  This is followed by four more tooth replacements at the ages of four to six, 9–15, 18–28 and finally in their early 40s  The final (usually sixth) set must last the elephant the rest of its life  Elephant teeth have loop-shaped dental ridges, which are more diamond-shaped in African elephants 

Tusks
The tusks of an elephant are modified second incisors in the upper jaw  They replace deciduous milk teeth at 6–12 months of age and keep growing at about 17 cm (7 in) a year  As the tusk develops, it is topped with smooth cone-shaped enamel that eventually wanes  The dentine is known as ivory and has a cross-section of intersecting lines, known as "engine turning", which create diamond-shaped patterns  Being living tissue, tusks are fairly soft; about as dense as the mineral calcite  The tusk protrudes from a socket in the skull and most of it is external  At least one-third of the tusk contains the pulp and some have nerves which stretch even further  Thus it would be difficult to remove it without harming the animal  When removed, ivory will dry up and crack if not kept cool and wet  Tusks function in digging, debarking, marking, moving objects and fighting Elephants are usually right- or left-tusked, similar to humans, who are typically right- or left-handed  The dominant or "master" tusk, is typically more worn down, as it is shorter and blunter  For the African elephants, tusks are present in both males and females, and are around the same length in both sexes, reaching up to 300 cm (9 ft 10 in), but those of males tend to be more massive  In the Asian species, only the males have large tusks  Female Asians have very small tusks, or none at all  Tuskless males exist and are particularly common among Sri Lankan elephants  Asian males can have tusks as long as Africans', but they are usually slimmer and lighter; the largest recorded was 302 cm (9 ft 11 in) long and weighed 39 kg (86 lb)  Hunting for elephant ivory in Africa and Asia has led to natural selection for shorter tusks and tusklessness 

Skin
An elephant's skin is generally very tough, at 2 5 cm (1 in) thick on the back and parts of the head  The skin around the mouth, anus, and inside of the ear is considerably thinner  Elephants are typically grey, but African elephants look brown or reddish after rolling in coloured mud  Asian elephants have some patches of depigmentation, particularly on the head  Calves have brownish or reddish hair, with the head and back being particularly hairy  As elephants mature, their hair darkens and becomes sparser, but dense concentrations of hair and bristles remain on the tip of the tail and parts of the head and genitals  Normally the skin of an Asian elephant is covered with more hair than its African counterpart  Their hair is thought to help them lose heat in their hot environments Although tough, an elephant's skin is very sensitive and requires mud baths to maintain moisture and protect it from burning and insect bites  After bathing, the elephant will usually use its trunk to blow dust onto its body and this dries into a protective crust  Elephants have difficulty releasing heat through the skin because of their low surface-area-to-volume ratio, which is many times smaller than that of a human  They have even been observed lifting up their legs, to expose their soles to the air  Elephants only have sweat glands between the toes, but the skin allows water to disperse and evaporate, cooling the animal  In addition, cracks in the skin may reduce dehydration and allow for increased thermal regulation in the long term 

Legs, locomotion, and posture
To support the animal's weight, an elephant's limbs are positioned more vertically under the body than in most other mammals  The long bones of the limbs have cancellous bone in place of medullary cavities  This strengthens the bones while still allowing haematopoiesis (blood cell creation)  Both the front and hind limbs can support an elephant's weight, although 60% is borne by the front  The position of the limbs and leg bones allow an elephant to stand still for extended periods of time without tiring  Elephants are incapable of turning their manus, as the ulna and radius of the front legs are secured in pronation  Elephants may also lack the pronator quadratus and pronator teres muscles or have very small ones  The circular feet of an elephant have soft tissues or "cushion pads" beneath the manus or pes, which allow them to bear the animal's great mass  They appear to have a sesamoid, an extra "toe" similar in placement to a giant panda's extra "thumb", that also helps in weight distribution  As many as five toenails can be found on both the front and hind feet Elephants can move both forwards and backwards, but are incapable of trotting, jumping, or galloping  They can move on land only by walking or ambling: a faster gait similar to running   In walking, the legs act as pendulums, with the hips and shoulders moving up and down while the foot is planted on the ground  The fast gait does not meet all the criteria of running, since there is no point where all the feet are off the ground, although the elephant uses its legs much like other running animals, and can move faster by quickening its stride  Fast-moving elephants appear to 'run' with their front legs, but 'walk' with their hind legs and can reach a top speed of 25 km/h (16 mph)  At this speed, most other quadrupeds are well into a gallop, even accounting for leg length  Spring-like kinetics could explain the difference between the motion of elephants and other animals  The cushion pads expand and contract, and reduce both the pain and noise that would come from a very heavy animal moving  Elephants are capable swimmers: they can swim for up to six hours while staying at the surface, moving at 2 1 km/h (1 mph) and traversing up to 48 km (30 mi) continuously 

Internal systems
The brain of an elephant weighs 4 5–5 5 kg (10–12 lb) compared to 1 6 kg (4 lb) for a human brain  It is the largest of all terrestrial mammals  While the elephant brain is larger overall, it is proportionally smaller than the human brain  At birth, an elephant's brain already weighs 30–40% of its adult weight  The cerebrum and cerebellum are well developed, and the temporal lobes are so large that they bulge out laterally  Their temporal lobes are proportionally larger than in other animals, including humans  The throat of an elephant appears to contain a pouch where it can store water for later use  The larynx of the elephant is the largest known among mammals  The vocal folds are anchored close to the epiglottis base  When comparing an elephant's vocal folds to those of a human, an elephant's are proportionally longer, thicker, with a greater cross-sectional area  In addition, they are located further up the vocal tract with an acute slope 

The heart of an elephant weighs 12–21 kg (26–46 lb)  Its apex has two pointed ends, an unusual trait among mammals  In addition, the ventricles of the heart split towards the top, a trait also found in sirenians  When upright, the elephant's heart beats around 28 beats per minutes and actually speeds up to 35 beats when it lays down  The blood vessels are thick and wide and can hold up during blood pressures  The lungs are attached to the diaphragm, and breathing relies less on the expanding of the ribcage  Connective tissue exists in place of the pleural cavity  This may allow the animal to deal with the pressure differences when its body is underwater and its trunk is breaking the surface for air  Elephants inhale mostly with the trunk, but also with the mouth  They have a hindgut fermentation system, and their large and small intestines together reach 35 m (115 ft) in length  Less than half of an elephant's food intake gets digested, despite the process lasting a day 

Sex organs
A male elephant's testes are located internally near the kidneys  The penis can be as long as 100 cm (39 in) with a 16 cm (6 in) wide base  It curves to an 'S' when fully erect and has an orifice shaped like a Y  The female's clitoris may be 40 cm (16 in)  The vulva is found lower than in other herbivores, between the hind legs instead of under the tail  Determining pregnancy status can be difficult due to the animal's large belly  The female's mammary glands occupy the space between the front legs, which puts the suckling calf within reach of the female's trunk  Elephants have a unique organ, the temporal gland, located in both sides of the head  This organ is associated with sexual behaviour, and males secrete a fluid from it when in musth  Females have also been observed with these secretions 

Natural history
Elephants are herbivorous and will eat leaves, twigs, fruit, bark, grass and roots  African elephants mostly browse while Asian elephants mainly graze  They can eat as much as 300 kg (660 lb) of food and drink 40 L (11 US gal) of water in a day  Elephants tend to stay near water sources  They have morning, afternoon and nighttime feeding sessions  At midday, elephants rest under trees and may doze off while standing  Sleeping occurs at night while the animal is lying down  Elephants average 3–4 hours of sleep per day  Both males and family groups typically move no more than 20 km (12 mi) a day, but distances as far as 180 km (112 mi) have been recorded in the Etosha region of Namibia  Elephants go on seasonal migrations in response to changes in environmental conditions  In northern Botswana, they travel 325 km (202 mi) to the Chobe River after the local waterholes dry up in late August 

Because of their large size, elephants have a huge impact on their environments and are considered keystone species  Their habit of uprooting trees and undergrowth can transform savannah into grasslands; smaller herbivores can access trees mowed down by elephants  When they dig for water during drought, they create waterholes that can be used by other animals  When they use waterholes, they end up making them bigger  At Mount Elgon, elephants dig through caves and pave the way for ungulates, hyraxes, bats, birds and insects  Elephants are important seed dispersers; African forest elephants consume and deposit many seeds over great distances, with either no effect or a positive effect on germination  In Asian forests, large seeds require giant herbivores like elephants and rhinoceros for transport and dispersal  This ecological niche cannot be filled by the smaller Malayan tapir  Because most of the food elephants eat goes undigested, their dung can provide food for other animals, such as dung beetles and monkeys  Elephants can have a negative impact on ecosystems  At Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda, elephants numbers have threatened several species of small birds that depend on woodlands  Their weight causes the soil to compress, leading to run off and erosion Elephants typically coexist peacefully with other herbivores, which will usually stay out of their way  Some aggressive interactions between elephants and rhinoceros have been recorded  The size of adult elephants makes them nearly invulnerable to predators  Calves may be preyed on by lions, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs in Africa and tigers in Asia  The lions of Savuti, Botswana, have adapted to hunting elephants, mostly calves, juveniles or even sub-adults  There are rare reports of adult Asian elephants falling prey to tigers  Elephants tend to have high numbers of parasites, particularly nematodes, compared to many other mammals  This is due to them being largely immune to predators, which would otherwise kill off many of the individuals with significant parasite loads 

Social structure
Elephants are generally gregarious animals  African bush elephants in particular have a complex, stratified social structure  Female elephants spend their entire lives in tight-knit matrilineal family groups  They are led by the matriarch which is often the eldest female  She remains leader of the group until death or if she no longer has the energy for the role; a study on zoo elephants found that the death of the matriarch led to greater stress in the surviving elephants  When her tenure is over, the matriarch's eldest daughter takes her place instead of her sister (if present)  One study found that younger matriarchs take potential threats less seriously  Large family groups may split if they cannot be supported by the local resources At Amboseli National Park, Kenya, female groups may consist of around ten members, including four adults and their dependent offspring  Here, a cow's life involves interaction with those outside her group  Two separate families may associate and bond with each other, forming what are known as bond groups  During the dry season, elephant families may aggregate together into clans  These may number around nine groups, which clans do not form strong bonds, but defend their dry-season ranges against other clans  The Amboseli elephant population is further divided into the "central" and "peripheral" subpopulations Female Asian elephants tend to have more fluid social associations  In Sri Lanka, there appear to be stable family units or "herds" and larger, looser "groups"  They have been observed to have "nursing units" and "juvenile-care units"  In southern India, elephant populations may contain family groups, bond groups and possibly clans  Family groups tend to be small, with only one or two adult females and their offspring  A group containing more than two cows and their offspring is known as a "joint family"  Malay elephant populations have even smaller family units and do not reach levels above a bond group  Groups of African forest elephants typically consist of one cow with one to three offspring  These groups appear to interact with each other, especially at forest clearings 

Adult males live separate lives  As he matures, a bull associates more with outside males or even other families  At Amboseli, young males may be away from their families 80% by 14–15 years of age  When males permanently leave, they either live alone or with other males  The former is typical of bulls in dense forests  A dominance hierarchy exists among males, whether they are social or solitary  Dominance depends on the age, size and sexual condition  Male elephants can be quite sociable when not competing for mates and form vast and fluid social networks  Older bulls act as the leaders of these groups  The presence of older males appears to subdue the aggression and "deviant" behaviour of younger ones  The largest all-male groups can reach close to 150 individuals  Adult males and females come together to breed  Bulls will accompany family groups if a cow is in oestrous 

Sexual behaviour
Musth
Adult males enter a state of increased testosterone known as musth  In a population in southern India, males first enter musth at 15 years old, but it is not very intense until they are older than 25  At Amboseli, no bulls under 24 were found to be in musth, while half of those aged 25–35 and all those over 35 did  In some areas, there may be seasonal influences on the timing of musths  The main characteristic of a bull's musth is a fluid discharged from the temporal gland that runs down the side of his face  Behaviours associated with musth include walking with a high and swinging head, nonsynchronous ear flapping, picking at the ground with the tusks, marking, rumbling, and urinating in the sheath  The length of this varies between males of different ages and conditions, lasting days to months Males become extremely aggressive during musth  Size is the determining factor in agonistic encounters when the individuals have the same condition  In contests between musth and non-musth individuals, musth bulls win the majority of the time, even when the non-musth bull is larger  A male may stop showing signs of musth when he encounters a musth male of higher rank  Those of equal rank tend to avoid each other  Agonistic encounters typically consist of threat displays, chases, and minor sparring  Rarely do they full-on fight 

Mating
Elephants are polygynous breeders, and most copulations occur during rainfall  An oestrus cow uses pheromones in her urine and vaginal secretions to signal her readiness to mate  A bull will follow a potential mate and assess her condition with the flehmen response, which requires him to collect a chemical sample with his trunk and taste it with the vomeronasal organ at the roof of the mouth  The oestrous cycle of a cow lasts 14–16 weeks with the follicular phase lasting 4–6-weeks and luteal phase 8- to 10-weeks  While most mammals have one surge of luteinizing hormone during the follicular phase, elephants have two  The first (or anovulatory) surge, appears to change the female's scent, signaling to males that she is in heat, but ovulation does not occur until the second (or ovulatory) surge  Cows over 45–50 years of age are less fertile Bulls engage in a behaviour known as mate-guarding, where they follow oestrous females and defend them from other males  Most mate-guarding is done by musth males, and females seek them out, particularly older ones  Musth appears to signal to females the condition of the male, as weak or injured males do not have normal musths  For young females, the approach of an older bull can be intimidating, so her relatives stay nearby for comfort  During copulation, the male rests his trunk on the female  The penis is mobile enough to move without the pelvis  Before mounting, it curves forward and upward  Copulation lasts about 45 seconds and does not involve pelvic thrusting or ejaculatory pause Homosexual behaviour is frequent in both sexes  As in heterosexual interactions, this involves mounting  Male elephants sometimes stimulate each other by playfighting and "championships" may form between old bulls and younger male  Female same-sex behaviours have been documented only in captivity where they engage in mutual masturbation with their trunks 

Birth and development
Gestation in elephants typically lasts between one and a half and two years and the female will not give birth again for at least four years  The relatively long pregnancy is supported by several corpus luteums and gives the foetus more time to develop, particularly the brain and trunk  Births tend to take place during the wet season  Typically, only a single young is born, but twins sometimes occur  Calves are born roughly 85 cm (33 in) tall and with a weight of around 120 kg (260 lb)  They are precocial and quickly stand and walk to follow their mother and family herd  A newborn calf will attract the attention of all the herd members  Adults and most of the other young will gather around the newborn, touching and caressing it with their trunks  For the first few days, the mother limits access to her young  Alloparenting – where a calf is cared for by someone other than its mother – takes place in some family groups  Allomothers are typically aged two to twelve years For the first few days, the newborn is unsteady on its feet and needs its mother's help  It relies on touch, smell, and hearing, as its eyesight is less developed  With little coordination in its trunk, it can only flop it around which may cause it to trip  When it reaches its second week, the calf can walk with more balance and has more control over its trunk  After its first month, the trunk can grab and hold objects, but still lacks sucking abilities, and the calf must bend down to drink  It continues to stay near its mother as it is still reliant on her  For its first three months, a calf relies entirely on its mother's milk, after which it begins to forage for vegetation and can use its trunk to collect water  At the same time, there is progress in lip and leg movements  By nine months, mouth, trunk and foot coordination are mastered  Suckling bouts tend to last 2–4 min/hr for a calf younger than a year  After a year, a calf is fully capable of grooming, drinking, and feeding itself  It still needs its mother's milk and protection until it is at least two years old  Suckling after two years may improve growth, health and fertility Play behaviour in calves differs between the sexes; females run or chase each other while males play-fight  The former are sexually mature by the age of nine years while the latter become mature around 14–15 years  Adulthood starts at about 18 years of age in both sexes  Elephants have long lifespans, reaching 60–70 years of age  Lin Wang, a captive male Asian elephant, lived for 86 years 

Communication
Elephants communicate in various ways  Individuals greet one another by touching each other on the mouth, temporal glands and genitals  This allows them to pick up chemical cues  Older elephants use trunk-slaps, kicks, and shoves to control younger ones  Touching is especially important for mother–calf communication  When moving, elephant mothers will touch their calves with their trunks or feet when side-by-side or with their tails if the calf is behind them  A calf will press against its mother's front legs to signal it wants to rest and will touch her breast or leg when it wants to suckle Visual displays mostly occur in agonistic situations  Elephants will try to appear more threatening by raising their heads and spreading their ears  They may add to the display by shaking their heads and snapping their ears, as well as tossing around dust and vegetation  They are usually bluffing when performing these actions  Excited elephants also raise their heads and spread their ears but additionally may raise their trunks  Submissive elephants will lower their heads and trunks, as well as flatten their ears against their necks, while those that are ready to fight will bend their ears in a V shape Elephants produce several vocalisations—some of which pass though the trunk—for both short and long range communication  This includes trumpeting, bellowing, roaring, growling, barking, snorting, and rumbling  Elephants can produce infrasonic rumbles  For Asian elephants, these calls have a frequency of 14–24 Hz, with sound pressure levels of 85–90 dB and last 10–15 seconds  For African elephants, calls range from 15 to 35 Hz with sound pressure levels as high as 117 dB, allowing communication for many kilometres, possibly over 10 km (6 mi) Elephants are known to communicate with seismics, vibrations produced by impacts on the earth's surface or acoustical waves that travel through it  An individual foot stomping or mock charging can create seismic signals that can be heard at travel distances of up to 32 km (20 mi)  Seismic waveforms produced by rumbles travel 16 km (10 mi) 

Intelligence and cognition
Elephants are among the most intelligent animals  They exhibit mirror self-recognition, an indication of self-awareness and cognition that has also been demonstrated in some apes and dolphins  One study of a captive female Asian elephant suggested the animal was capable of learning and distinguishing between several visual and some acoustic discrimination pairs  This individual was even able to score a high accuracy rating when re-tested with the same visual pairs a year later  Elephants are among the species known to use tools  An Asian elephant has been observed fine-tuning branches for use as flyswatters  Tool modification by these animals is not as advanced as that of chimpanzees  Elephants are popularly thought of as having an excellent memory  This could have a factual basis; they possibly have cognitive maps which give them long lasting memories of their environment on a wide scale  Individuals may be able to remember where their family members are located Scientists debate the extent to which elephants feel emotion  They are attracted to the bones of their own kind, regardless of whether they are related  As with chimpanzees and dolphins, a dying or dead elephant may elicit attention and aid from others, including those from other groups  This has been interpreted as expressing "concern"; however, the Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour (1987) said that "one is well advised to study the behaviour rather than attempting to get at any underlying emotion" 

Conservation
Status
African bush elephants were listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021, and African forest elephants were listed as Critically Endangered in the same year  In 1979, Africa had an estimated population of at least 1 3 million elephants, possibly as high as 3 0 million  A decade later, the population was estimated to be 609,000; with 277,000 in Central Africa, 110,000 in Eastern Africa, 204,000 in Southern Africa, and 19,000 in Western Africa  The population of rainforest elephants was lower than anticipated, at around 214,000 individuals  Between 1977 and 1989, elephant populations declined by 74% in East Africa  After 1987, losses in elephant numbers hastened, and savannah populations from Cameroon to Somalia experienced a decline of 80%  African forest elephants had a total loss of 43%  Population trends in southern Africa were various, with unconfirmed losses in Zambia, Mozambique and Angola while populations grew in Botswana and Zimbabwe and were stable in South Africa  The IUCN estimated that total population in Africa is estimated at around to 415,000 individuals for both species combined as of 2016 African elephants receive at least some legal protection in every country where they are found  Successful conservation efforts in certain areas have led to high population densities while failures have lead to declines as high as 70% or more of the course of ten years  As of 2008, local numbers were controlled by contraception or translocation  Large-scale cullings stopped in the late 1980s and early 1990s  In 1989, the African elephant was listed under Appendix I by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), making trade illegal  Appendix II status (which allows restricted trade) was given to elephants in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe in 1997 and South Africa in 2000  In some countries, sport hunting of the animals is legal; Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have CITES export quotas for elephant trophies In 2020, the IUCN listed the Asian elephant as endangered due to the population declining by half over "the last three generations"  Asian elephants once ranged from Western to East Asia and south to Sumatra  and Java  It is now extinct in these areas, and the current range of Asian elephants is highly fragmented  The total population of Asian elephants is estimated to be around 40,000–50,000, although this may be a loose estimate  Around 60% of the population is in India  Although Asian elephants are declining in numbers overall, particularly in Southeast Asia, the population in Sri Lanka appears to have risen and elephant numbers in the Western Ghats may have stablised 

Threats
The poaching of elephants for their ivory, meat and hides has been one of the major threats to their existence  Historically, numerous cultures made ornaments and other works of art from elephant ivory, and its use was comparable to that of gold  The ivory trade contributed to the fall of the African elephant population in the late 20th century  This prompted international bans on ivory imports, starting with the United States in June 1989, and followed by bans in other North American countries, western European countries, and Japan  Around the same time, Kenya destroyed all its ivory stocks  Ivory was banned internationally by CITES in 1990  Following the bans, unemployment rose in India and China, where the ivory industry was important economically  By contrast, Japan and Hong Kong, which were also part of the industry, were able to adapt and were not as badly affected  Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Malawi wanted to continue the ivory trade and were allowed to, since their local populations were healthy, but only if their supplies were from culled individuals or those that died of natural causes The ban allowed the elephant to recover in parts of Africa  In February 2012, 650 elephants in Bouba Njida National Park, Cameroon, were slaughtered by Chadian raiders  This has been called "one of the worst concentrated killings" since the ivory ban  Asian elephants are potentially less vulnerable to the ivory trade, as females usually lack tusks  Still, members of the species have been killed for their ivory in some areas, such as Periyar National Park in India  China was the biggest market for poached ivory but announced they would phase out the legal domestic manufacture and sale of ivory products in May 2015, and in September 2015, China and the United States said "they would enact a nearly complete ban on the import and export of ivory" due to causes of extinction Other threats to elephants include habitat destruction and fragmentation  The Asian elephant lives in areas with some of the highest human populations and may be confined to small islands of forest among human-dominated landscapes  Elephants commonly trample and consume crops, which contributes to conflicts with humans, and both elephants and humans have died by the hundreds as a result  Mitigating these conflicts is important for conservation  One proposed solution is the protection of wildlife corridors which give populations greater interconnectivity and space  Chili pepper products as well as guarding with defense tools have been found to be effective in preventing crop-raiding by elephants  Less effective tactics include beehive and electric fences 

Human relations
Working animal
Elephants have been working animals since at least the Indus Valley civilization over 4,000 years ago and continue to be used in modern times  There were 13,000–16,500 working elephants employed in Asia in 2000  These animals are typically captured from the wild when they are 10–20 years old when they are both more trainable and can work for more years  They were traditionally captured with traps and lassos, but since 1950, tranquillisers have been used  Individuals of the Asian species have been often trained as working animals  Asian elephants are used to carry and pull both objects and people in and out of areas as well as lead people in religious celebrations  They are valued over mechanised tools as they can perform the same tasks but in more difficult terrain, with strength, memory, and delicacy  Elephants can learn over 30 commands  Musth bulls are difficult and dangerous to work with and so are chained up until their condition passes In India, many working elephants are alleged to have been subject to abuse  They and other captive elephants are thus protected under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960  In both Myanmar and Thailand, deforestation and other economic factors have resulted in sizable populations of unemployed elephants resulting in health problems for the elephants themselves as well as economic and safety problems for the people amongst whom they live The practice of working elephants has also been attempted in Africa  The taming of African elephants in the Belgian Congo began by decree of Leopold II of Belgium during the 19th century and continues to the present with the Api Elephant Domestication Centre 

Warfare
Historically, elephants were considered formidable instruments of war  They were described in Sanskrit texts as far back as 1500 BC  From South Asia, the use of elephants in warfare spread west to Persia and east to Southeast Asia  The Persians used them during the Achaemenid Empire (between the 6th and 4th centuries BC) while Southeast Asian states first used war elephants possibly as early as the 5th century BC and continued to the 20th century  War elephants were also employed in the Mediterranean and North Africa throughout the classical period since the reign of Ptolemy II in Egypt  The Carthaginian general Hannibal famously took African elephants across the Alps during his war with the Romans and reached the Po Valley in 218 BC with all of them alive, but died of disease and combat a year later Their heads and sides were equipped with armour, the trunk may have had a sword tied to it and tusks were sometimes covered sharpened iron or brass  Trained elephants would attack both humans and horses with their tusks  They might have grasped an enemy soldier with the trunk and tossed him to their mahout, or pinned the soldier to the ground and speared him  Some shortcomings of war elephants included their great visibility, which made them easy to target, and limited maneuverability compared to horses  Alexander the Great achieved victory over armies with war elephants by having his soldiers injure the trunks and legs of the animals which caused them to panic and become uncontrollable 

Zoos and circuses
Elephants have traditionally been a major part of zoos and circuses around the world  In circuses, they are trained to perform tricks  The most famous circus elephant was probably Jumbo (1861 – 15 September 1885), who was a major attraction in the Barnum & Bailey Circus  These animals do not reproduce well in captivity, due to the difficulty of handling musth bulls and limited understanding of female oestrous cycles  Asian elephants were always more common than their African counterparts in modern zoos and circuses  After CITES listed the Asian elephant under Appendix I in 1975, imports of the species almost stopped by the end of the 1980s  Subsequently, the US received many captive African elephants from Zimbabwe, which had an overabundance of the animals Keeping elephants in zoos has met with some controversy  Proponents of zoos argue that they allow easy access to the animals and provide fund and knowledge for preserving their natural habitats, as well as safekeeping for the species  Opponents claim that animals in zoos are under physical and mental stress  Elephants have been recorded displaying stereotypical behaviours in the form of wobbling the body or head and pacing the same route both forwards and backwards  This has been observed in 54% of individuals in UK zoos  Elephants in European zoos appear to have shorter lifespans than their wild counterparts at only 17 years, although other studies suggest that zoo elephants live just as long The use of elephants in circuses has also been controversial; the Humane Society of the United States has accused circuses of mistreating and distressing their animals  In testimony to a US federal court in 2009, Barnum & Bailey Circus CEO Kenneth Feld acknowledged that circus elephants are struck behind their ears, under their chins and on their legs with metal-tipped prods, called bull hooks or ankus  Feld stated that these practices are necessary to protect circus workers and acknowledged that an elephant trainer was rebuked for using an electric prod on an elephant  Despite this, he denied that any of these practices hurt the animals  Some trainers have tried to train elephants without the use of physical punishment  Ralph Helfer is known to have relied on positive reinforcement when training his animals  Barnum and Bailey circus retired its touring elephants in May 2016 

Attacks
Elephants can exhibit bouts of aggressive behaviour and engage in destructive actions against humans  In Africa, groups of adolescent elephants damaged homes in villages after cullings in the 1970s and 1980s  Because of the timing, these attacks have been interpreted as vindictive  In parts of India, male elephants have entered villages at night, destroying homes and killing people  From 2000 to 2004, 300 people died in Jharkhand, and in Assam, 239 people were reportedly killed between 2001 and 2006 
Throughout the country, 1,500 people were killed by elephants between 2019 and 2022, which led to 300 elephants being killed in kind  Local people have reported their belief that some elephants were drunk during their attacks, though officials have disputed this  Purportedly drunk elephants attacked an Indian village in December 2002, killing six people, which led to the retaliatory slaughter of about 200 elephants by locals 

Cultural depictions
Elephants have a universal presence in global culture  They have been represented in art since Paleolithic times  Africa, in particular, contains many examples of elephant rock art, especially in the Sahara and southern Africa  In Asia, the animals are depicted as motifs in Hindu and Buddhist shrines and temples  Elephants were often difficult to portray by people with no first-hand experience of them  The ancient Romans, who kept the animals in captivity, depicted elephants more accurately than medieval Europeans who portrayed them more like fantasy creatures, with horse, bovine and boar-like traits, and trumpet-like trunks  As Europeans gained more access to captive elephants during the 15th century, depictions of them became more accurate, including one made by Leonardo da Vinci Elephants have been the subject of religious beliefs  The Mbuti people of central Africa believe that the souls of their dead ancestors resided in elephants  Similar ideas existed among other African societies, who believed that their chiefs would be reincarnated as elephants  During the 10th century AD, the people of Igbo-Ukwu, in modern day Nigeria, placed elephant tusks underneath their death leader's feet in the grave  The animals' importance is only totemic in Africa but is much more significant in Asia  In Sumatra, elephants have been associated with lightning  Likewise in Hinduism, they are linked with thunderstorms as Airavata, the father of all elephants, represents both lightning and rainbows  One of the most important Hindu deities, the elephant-headed Ganesha, is ranked equal with the supreme gods Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma in some traditions  Ganesha is associated with writers and merchants and it is believed that he can give people success as well as grant them their desires, but could also take these things away  In Buddhism, Buddha is said to have been a white elephant reincarnated as a human 

In Western popular culture, elephants symbolise the exotic, especially since – as with the giraffe, hippopotamus and rhinoceros – there are no similar animals familiar to Western audiences  As characters, elephants are most common in children's stories, where they are portrayed positively  They are typically surrogates for humans with ideal human values  Many stories tell of isolated young elephants returning to or finding a family, such as "The Elephant's Child" from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, Disney's Dumbo, and Kathryn and Byron Jackson's The Saggy Baggy Elephant  Other elephant heroes given human qualities include Jean de Brunhoff's Babar, David McKee's Elmer, and Dr  Seuss's Horton Several cultural references emphasise the elephant's size and strangeness  For instance, a "white elephant" is a byword for something that is weird, unwanted, and has no value  The expression "elephant in the room" refers to something that is being ignored but ultimately must be addressed  The story of the blind men and an elephant involves blind men touching different parts of an elephant and trying to figure out what it is 

See also
Animal track
Desert elephant
Elephants' graveyard
List of individual elephants
Motty, captive hybrid of an Asian and African elephant
National Elephant Day (Thailand)
World Elephant Day
Passage 2:
Gajabrishta
Gaja in Sanskrit means elephant  'Brishta' is the back or hip portion of a sitting elephant  The later Cholas of the Chola empire in the Indian subcontinent, especially the ones in Thondai Mandalam around the North Tamil Nadu area constructed temples which had vimanas in this style 
The sanctum sanctorum of these temples, especially Shiva temples, had this style of vimana 

See also
Shiva Temples of Tamil Nadu



ground_truth: Sanskrit

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What championship did the person who substituted for Simon Pagenaud secure a contract to drive in 2017?

The following are given passages.
Context 2: Passage 1:
2016 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
The 2016 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama was the 4th round of the 2016 IndyCar Series  The race was contested over 90 laps at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama  It was the 7th time that the IndyCar Series had raced on the circuit  In qualifying, Simon Pagenaud took pole position with a time of 1:06 7762, beating out his teammate Will Power  Sébastien Bourdais set a new track record during the second round of qualifications with a time of 1:06 6001, but was unable to match that pace in the third round of qualifying, relegating him to a fifth place start  Championship contender Juan Pablo Montoya struggled heavily in qualifying, placing 21st and last The race opened with an incident before it even started  As the field came off the final turn to prepare to take the green flag, Carlos Muñoz tipped Mikhail Aleshin into a spin, sending Aleshin and Jack Hawksworth off into the outside grass  All involved escaped major damage, while the rest of the field ran an extra lap under yellow before the start  It would be the only caution flag of the day  Simon Pagenaud held the lead when the race started, with Power slotting in behind him  Further back in the field, Sébastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon made contact in turn five, sending Dixon into a spin and causing front wing damage to Bourdais' car  Both would continue, but their races were both greatly hampered due to the incident Pagenaud dominated the majority of the race  However, in the closing laps, Pagenaud was held up in lap traffic, allowing Graham Rahal to catch up and set a thrilling duel for the lead  On lap 82, Rahal and Pagenaud made contact entering turn seven, sending Pagenaud off course and handing Rahal the lead  The lead would be short lived, as four laps later, Pagenaud caught back up and attempted to make a pass at the exit of turn six  In the middle of the move, Rahal made contact with back-marker Jack Hawksworth, damaging Rahal's front wing and ending any chance of holding off Pagenaud  Pagenaud would extend his lead and take victory by 13 7 seconds  It was Pagenaud second consecutive victory of the season  Despite his damaged wing, Rahal managed to hang on and finish second  Josef Newgarden finished third  Despite his terrible starting position, Juan Pablo Montoya was able to charge through the field and finish in a respectable fifth place  The highest finishing rookie was Alexander Rossi, who came across the line in 15th, the last car on the lead lap 
For the second year in a row, there were no DNFs 

Report
Qualifying
Source for individual rounds:

Race Results
Notes
1 Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position 
Source for time gaps:

Championship standings after the race
Note: Only the top five positions are included 
Passage 2:
2016 IndyCar Series
The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series was the 21st season of the IndyCar Series and the 105th season of American open wheel racing  It included the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500  Scott Dixon entered as the reigning Drivers' Champion, while Chevrolet entered the season as the reigning Manufacturer's Champion   Upon season's end, Simon Pagenaud was crowned Drivers' Champion, while Chevrolet retained the Manufacturer's Championship  
Pagenaud was the first European driver to win IndyCar Series driver's title since British driver Dario Franchitti in 2011 season 

Entries
Notes
Bryan Clauson ran the Indianapolis 500 for the 3rd and final time for Jonathan Byrd's Racing  Clauson would attempt to race in more than 200 races in 2016 among IndyCar, sprint cars and midgets but would tragically fall short of that because on August 6, 2016, Clauson was involved in a midget car crash at Belleville High Banks Speedway in Belleville, Kansas, and died the following night 
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Carlos Muñoz and Marco Andretti signed with Andretti Autosport for the 2016 and 2017 seasons  The team confirmed Townsend Bell for the Indianapolis 500 
Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing became Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2016 season  Both Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter remained with the team, with only Newgarden running the full schedule  The team confirmed J  R  Hildebrand for the GP of Indy and the Indianapolis 500  ECR would add Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot to drive the No  20 for the road/street courses beginning at Detroit 
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing ran only one car full-time in 2016 with Graham Rahal, but ran Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot in three races (St  Petersburg, GP of Indy, and Indianapolis 500) 
Team Penske returned with the same four drivers as the 2015 season 
Chip Ganassi Racing retained Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball, but neither Sage Karam nor Sebastián Saavedra returned to the team  The team later confirmed former Manor Marussia driver Max Chilton, who drove a partial Indy Lights schedule in 2015, as their fourth driver 
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports confirmed the return of James Hinchcliffe to the team  Mikhail Aleshin returned to the team for the full season, replacing James Jakes  Oriol Servià drove the team's third entry in the Indianapolis 500 with support from Marotti Racing 
PIRTEK Team Murray confirmed that the team would race the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 with driver Matthew Brabham  The team had support from KVSH Racing 
KVSH Racing confirmed the return of Sébastien Bourdais with the team  Stefano Coletti did not return for the team  Stefan Wilson drove the No  25 for the Indianapolis 500 
Dale Coyne Racing confirmed that Conor Daly and Luca Filippi would run the full season  Pippa Mann returned to the team for the Indianapolis 500  The team confirmed Gabby Chaves for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 
A  J  Foyt Enterprises confirmed the return of Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth to the team  The team confirmed Alex Tagliani for the Grand Prix of Indy and the Indianapolis 500 
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing reunited with Sage Karam for the Indianapolis 500 
Lazier Partners Racing confirmed the return of Buddy Lazier to the Indianapolis 500 
On February 18, Bryan Herta Autosport confirmed their alliance with fellow Honda team Andretti Autosport  The team was run out of Andretti's shop in Indianapolis  Separately, due to a sponsor default, the team was unable to retain 2014 Indy Lights Champion Gabby Chaves  The team would confirm former Caterham and Manor Racing driver Alexander Rossi to drive the No  98 for the season 
IndyCar announced on February 24, 2016, the hiring of three race stewards; former drivers Arie Luyendyk and Max Papis and longtime motorsports executive Dan Davis 
On May 15, 2016, information was revealed that Charlie Kimball would be using car number 42 instead of his usual 83 for the Indianapolis 500  This came as a promotion by Novo Nordisk and Chip Ganassi Racing that also involved Kyle Larson and Ganassi's NASCAR team  The official announcement came May 16, 2016
On June 12, 2016, Josef Newgarden suffered a fractured clavicle and wrist in an accident during the Firestone 600  Ed Carpenter Racing announced the following day that J  R  Hildebrand would fill in for Newgarden until he recovered from his injuries  However, Newgarden recovered enough from his injuries that he was able to compete in the following race at Road America 
On July 21, 2016, Dale Coyne Racing announced that R  C  Enerson would make his IndyCar debut driving for the team at Mid-Ohio  The team later signed Enerson to drive the final two races of the season 

Schedule
The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule was announced on October 27, 2015  All rounds were held in the United States, except the Toronto round 

 O  Oval/Speedway
 R  Road course/Street circuit

Schedule changes and notes
The Grand Prix of Boston was announced in late May 2015  The race was scheduled to be run on Labor Day Weekend on September 4, 2016  The proposed street circuit was based in the Boston Seaport District  On April 29, 2016, Boston newspapers reported that the race had been canceled 
Grand Prix of St  Petersburg was run on March 11–13 
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was also rumored to start the 2016 season with a race in February, but did not materialize 
IndyCar did not return to NOLA Motorsports Park, Auto Club Speedway, and the Milwaukee Mile in 2016 following financial difficulties exposed shortly after the 2015 running of the former event 
Toronto returned to its original July date as a single race weekend 
Road America's return to an open-wheel calendar was announced on August 8, 2015  The race was run on June 26, 2016 
IndyCar returned to Phoenix International Raceway for the first time since 2005 
IndyCar officials explored the possibility of returning to Gateway Motorsports Park; a deal was eventually reached for the track to return for the 2017 season 
Texas Motor Speedway confirmed that the Verizon IndyCar Series would run on June 11, 2016  However, the race was postponed to the following afternoon due to persistent rain  It was further halted after 71 laps due to more rain and the rest of the race was postponed until August 27  The 248 lap race resumed starting at lap 72  This would lead to updates for the track regarding drainage and repaving in time for 2017's events 
IndyCar returned to Pocono Raceway on August 21 
In an interview with Mark Miles, Iowa Speedway was said to be set for July 10 
In a November 2 press release, IndyCar announced a two-day promoter test at Phoenix International Raceway, scheduled for February 26–27, in preparation for the series’ return to the 1-mile oval  The Phoenix promoter test in February was the only one not in conjunction with a typical race weekend schedule  The other promoter test days were: March 11 at St  Petersburg, April 22 at Barber Motorsports Park, May 12 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, June 24 at Road America, July 29 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and September 16 at Sonoma Raceway 
IndyCar CEO Mark Miles said in an interview that IndyCar was working on replacing the Boston race on Labor Day and specifically stated that Gateway Motorsports Park and Watkins Glen International were being considered as replacement venues  On May 13, 2016, IndyCar announced that Watkins Glen would replace Boston 

Results
Points standings
Ties are broken by number of wins, followed by number of 2nds, 3rds, etc , then by number of pole positions, followed by number of times qualified 2nd, etc 

Driver standings
One championship point is awarded to each driver who leads at least one race lap  Two additional championship points are awarded to the driver who leads most laps during a race 
At all races except the Indy 500, the number 1 qualifier earns one point 
Entrant-initiated engine change-outs before the engines reach their required distance run will result in the loss of ten points 

Entrant standings
Based on the entrant, used for oval qualifications order, and starting grids when qualifying is cancelled 
Only full-time entrants, and at-large part-time entrants shown 
Passage 3:
Simon Pagenaud
Simon Pierre Michel Pagenaud (born 18 May 1984) is a French professional racing driver  He is contracted to drive the No  60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing in the IndyCar Series  After a successful career in sports car racing that saw him taking the top class championship title in the 2010 American Le Mans Series, he moved to the Indycar Series where he became the 2016 IndyCar champion and the 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner, becoming the first French driver to win the Indianapolis 500 since Gaston Chevrolet in 1920 and the first polesitter to have won the race since Helio Castroneves in 2009 Simon Pagenaud won both the 2022 24 Hours of Daytona and 2023 24 Hours of Daytona with Meyer Shank Racing 

Early years
Born in Montmorillon, Pagenaud first worked at age 14 in the family's supermarket, eventually managing the video game department  After he attended business school, he returned to the supermarket  His family established a driving school that provided the funds for Pagenaud to begin his racing career 

Career
Pagenaud competed in 2002 and 2003 in French Formula Renault and in 2002 and 2004 competed in Formula Renault Eurocup  He then moved up to the Formula Renault 3 5 Series in 2005 where he finished 16th  In 2006 he went to the United States and won the Champ Car Atlantic with Team Australia in his rookie season by just a few points over Graham Rahal 
With his Atlantic championship, Pagenaud won US$2 million to apply towards a ride in Champ Car in 2007  On 13 February 2007 Pagenaud and Team Australia confirmed that he would be staying with the team, moving up to the Champ Car program  Pagenaud finished 8th in the points standings in what was a very consistent debut season, with three consecutive 4th-place finishes in the Canadian rounds of the championship 
After the demise of the Champ Car World Series, Pagenaud in 2008 moved to the American Le Mans Series co-driving the De Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-01b LMP2 with former CART champion Gil de Ferran  He finished 14th in the driver's standings 

2009
In 2009, Pagenaud and de Ferran Motorsports took huge steps forward, with the duo taking second place overall in the American Le Mans Series LMP1 class, only 17 points behind drivers David Brabham and Scott Sharp of champions Highcroft Racing  The duo of Pagenaud and de Ferran drove the ARX-01 to three wins over a total of ten races and three pole positions, turning the fastest lap of the ALMS weekend 6 times 
Also during 2009, Pagenaud drove in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP1 for the privateer Pescarolo Sport team in the Peugeot FAP 908  The team did not finish the race, completing 210 laps  The race was won by David Brabham, driving in the factory Peugeot Sport Total No  9 FAP 908 along with former Formula One drivers Alexander Wurz and Marc Gené 

2010
For the 2010 ALMS season, Pagenaud moved over to the Patrón Highcroft racing team, replacing Scott Sharp to co-drive with Brabham in the ARX-01c in LMP1 after Sharp vacated the seat to jump to the ALMS GT2 class with his own Ferrari team  Through four rounds in the 2010 ALMS series, the team of Pagenaud and Brabham lead the LMP1 class with three wins and 91 points 
Pagenaud also earned a seat driving for the Peugeot factory team in 2010 in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans on the renown Circuit de la Sarthe in the Peugeot FAP 908 No  3 with Pedro Lamy and Sébastien Bourdais 
While the No  3 Peugeot started from pole, it retired early before nightfall after a mere 38 laps when a suspension mount sheared from the car's tub  The same fate eventually befell the no 1 Peugeot car of Anthony Davidson/Gene/Wurz while in second place with mere hours left to go in the race, as Audi reclaimed the 24 Hours of Le Mans title it had retained for five years before Peugeot's 2009 win 
During the race, Pagenaud found himself competing against his Highcroft Racing team which traveled to Le Mans for the first time in its history  With Brabham driving the Acura in LMP2 alongside Marino Franchitti and Marco Werner, Highcroft maintained second through most of the race until a cooling issue sidelined the car for much of the race's final four hours 

2014
He won the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis on 10 May  This was the first time his father watched him race at the venue 

2015
Pagenaud moved from Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to Team Penske in 2015  Pagenaud nearly won the 2015 Indianapolis 500, leading with less than 30 laps to go and engaging most of the race in a 3-way battle between Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan  Pagenaud ended up being overtaken by the field and went on to finish 10th, while teammate Juan Pablo Montoya won the race  Pagenaud didn't win a race in 2015 but renewed his deal with TEAM Penske in 2016 

2016
Pagenaud got off to the best start of his IndyCar career with five consecutive podiums, including three wins in a row  As the season progressed, Pagenaud and his teammate Will Power became the primary contenders for the championship  With a strong run at the end of the season, Pagenaud took his first IndyCar Series championship victory, giving Team Penske another championship victory in its 50th year of racing  He finished the season with five race victories and a total of eight podiums 

2017–2019
Pagenaud would go winless throughout 2018 
Pagenaud won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he would also win the 2019 Indianapolis 500 from pole position  Pagenaud took the championship lead from Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, however Newgarden would retake the championship lead one race later in Detroit  Pagenaud would take pole and the win at the 2019 Honda Indy Toronto and took pole at the 2019 Iowa 300, though the win would go to Newgarden  
Pagenaud is currently 3rd in the points standings, one point behind Andretti Autosport driver, Alexander Rossi and 34 points behind points leader Newgarden 

2020
During the 2020 iRacing virtual Indy 500 event, Pagenaud was accused of deliberately crashing into leading driver Lando Norris, which led to his being accused of bad sportsmanship Pagenaud finished 2nd in the first race of the 2020 season at Texas Motor Speedway  Pagenaud finished 3rd at the IndyGP after starting in 20th 
Due to a fuel pump issue, Pagenaud's Iowa IndyCar 250 at Iowa Speedway race 1 entry failed to make qualifying and started the race at the back of the grid in 23rd  By lap 178, Pagenaud took the lead and held on to win the 250 lap race 

2021
Pagenaud would enter 2021 as a contract year  2021 was a difficult year for Pagenaud and Team Penske in general, as the team only recorded three wins of the season with Pagenaud scoring none of them  Pagenaud's best results of the season were two third-place finishes, one at St  Petersburg and the other at the 2021 Indianapolis 500  Outside of those finishes, he would frequently be beset by poor luck and on-track confrontations with his teammates  By the end of the season the racing press reported Pagenaud did not intend to re-sign with Team Penske 

2022
After a difficult 2021 campaign, Pagenaud left the Penske team & joined Meyer Shank Racing alongside former Penske teammate, Helio Castroneves 

2023
In 2023, Pagenaud returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking part in the LMP2 class for Cool Racing  It would be the first time Pagenaud competed in the race since 2011, where he finished second overall driving for the Peugeot Sport factory team 

Motorsports career results
Career summary
* Season still in progress 

Formula Renault 3 5 Series results
(key)

American open-wheel racing results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

Champ Car Atlantic
Champ Car
IndyCar Series
1 The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11 

Indianapolis 500
Sports car racing
Le Mans 24 Hours results
American Le Mans Series results
1 Driver competed for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, no points awarded for the American Le Mans Series 

IMSA SportsCar Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

* Season still in progress 

Le Mans Series results
1 Driver competed for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, no points awarded for the Le Mans Series 

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup results
1 Driver did not run for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup 

Touring car racing
Complete V8 Supercar results
+ Not Eligible for points
Passage 4:
2017 Honda Indy Toronto
The 2017 Honda Indy Toronto was an IndyCar Series event held on July 16, 2017 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada  The race served as the 12th round of the 2017 IndyCar Series season  Frenchman Simon Pagenaud qualified on pole position, while American Josef Newgarden took victory in the race 

Pre-Race
Prior to the race, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports elected to replace Mikhail Aleshin in the No  7 car, instead opting for veteran driver Sebastián Saavedra  The reasons for the change were undisclosed by the team 

Qualifying
Qualifying was held on Saturday, July 15  Simon Pagenaud secured pole position, setting a new track record time of 58 9124 at an average speed of 109 14 mph (175 64 km/h)  Alongside him on the front row was Graham Rahal  The remained of the top six was rounded out by Hélio Castroneves, Will Power, Scott Dixon, and James Hinchcliffe 
Qualifying saw two incidents during the course of its several sessions  During the second group of round 1 qualifying, Esteban Gutiérrez suffered a heavy crash in turn 11 that placed doubt on his participation in the race, both due to damage to the car and due to Gutiérrez displaying concussion-like symptoms  However, the car was repaired, and Guitérrez was cleared by IndyCar's doctors, allowing him to participate in the race  A second, more minor incident occurred in round 2 qualifying, when J  R  Hildebrand made contact with the wall in turn 8 

Race
The race was held on Sunday, July 16  At the start, Hélio Castroneves managed to pass both Simon Pagenaud and Graham Rahal going into turn 1, giving him the lead of the race  Behind them, Scott Dixon managed to get to the inside of Will Power to move to third  However, as cars approached turn 3, Dixon moved wide to avoid hitting the back of Rahal, in the process making contact with Power and forcing him into the outside wall  Power's car suffered terminal suspension damage, relegating him to a last place finish  Dixon limped around the track with a flat tire, which, after repairs, dropped him to the tail-end of the field  He would then be assessed a drive-through penalty for entering a closed pit-lane  The incident brought out the race's first caution period 
Racing resumed on lap 6, with Castroneves leading Pagenaud, Rahal, Josef Newgarden, and James Hinchcliffe  The top five remained unchanged until lap 20, when Spencer Pigot, who had charged through the field, managed to move around Hinchcliffe  Shortly thereafter, drivers began making their first pit stops, including Hinchcliffe, Alexander Rossi, and Josef Newgarden  Just as Newgarden entered the pits, Tony Kanaan nosed into the wall in turn 1, bringing out the race's second caution, forcing the leaders and anyone else who had not pitted to make their first stop under caution and secede track position  Newgarden proved the biggest beneficiary of the caution, moving into the lead once the leaders came into pit lane  Behind him were Ed Jones, who had not yet pitted, Charlie Kimball, Rossi, and Hinchcliffe 
Racing resumed on lap 27 with the top five remaining intact  Further back, Takuma Sato suffered front wing damage and a punctured tire, forcing him to pit again  On lap 29, Jones began to fall back in the field due to his worn tires, losing position first to Kimball, then to Rossi, Hinchcliffe, and Marco Andretti before finally coming in to pit on lap 33  Several drivers began to make their second pit stops shortly thereafter, including Carlos Muñoz, Scott Dixon, and second-place running Kimball  This promoted Rossi to second, but Newgarden continued to extend his lead 
The running order remained the same until the leaders made their pit-stops at lap 54, when Newgarden led the entire top five into the pits  Max Chilton briefly inherited the lead before handing the lead over to Pagenaud with his stop on lap later  Pagenaud led until lap 57 when he pitted, allowing Newgarden to return to the lead of the race  The order now ran Newgarden, Rossi, Hinchcliffe, Dixon, Andretti, though Dixon would pit for the final time on lap 61, promoting Ryan Hunter-Reay into the top 5, though with heavy pressure from Pagenaud behind  The top five remained the same until lap 81, when Hunter-Reay ran wide at turn 7, allowing Pagenaud to move ahead for position  Up front, despite dealing with traffic from a dueling Takuma Sato and Conor Daly, Josef Newgarden held on to take his second victory of the 2017 season by a comfortable margin of 1 87 seconds over Alexander Rossi, while James Hinchcliffe came across the line third  Marco Andretti secured his first top 5 finish in IndyCar since the 2015 MAVTV 500 with his fourth-place finish 
In the point standings, Scott Dixon remained in the lead of the championship, but his lead dropped to only three points over Hélio Castroneves  Simon Pagenaud remained in third place, while Newgarden moved past his teammate Will Power thanks to his victory 

Results
Qualifying
Source for individual rounds:

Race results
Notes
1 Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position 
Source for time gaps:

Championship standings
Note: Only the top five positions are included 
Passage 5:
2011 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
The 2011 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma was the seventh running of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma and the fourteenth round of the 2011 IndyCar Series season  It took place on Sunday, August 28, 2011  The race contested over 75 laps at the 2 303-mile (3 706 km) Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California  Will Power led 71 of 75 laps, as Team Penske swept 1st–2nd–3rd on the podium  It was the first 1–2–3 finish in an Indycar race for Penske since Nazareth in 1994  Power closed to within 26 points of championship leader Dario Franchitti  Power also closed within 7 points of Franchitti for the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy  Simon Pagenaud substituted for Simona de Silvestro after she had complications renewing her visa, and U S  Customs would not allow her into the country 

Classification
Race
1 Penalty for blocking, moved to end of lead lap

Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standingsNote: Only the top five positions are included 
Passage 6:
2009 Monterey Sports Car Championships
The 2009 Monterey Sports Car Championships presented by Patrón was the tenth and final round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series season   It took place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, California on October 11, 2009   The race was won by the Acura of de Ferran Motorsports, driven by Simon Pagenaud and retiring driver Gil de Ferran, which wore a tribute livery based on Jim Hall's Chaparrals   Adrian Fernández and Luis Díaz won the LMP2 category in the Fernández Racing Acura while only six tenths of a second behind the overall winning de Ferran car   The GT2 class was won by the #45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche after contact with the #3 Corvette Racing while approaching the finish line on the final lap   Guy Cosmo and John Baker of Orbit Racing won their first race in the ALMS Challenge category after the Velox Motorsport entry was disqualified 

Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold 

Race result
Class winners are marked in bold  Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance are marked as Not classified (NC) 
Passage 7:
Simona de Silvestro
Simona de Silvestro (born 1 September 1988) is a Swiss-Italian racing driver, who is currently employed by Porsche as a factory driver  She has previously driven for Amlin Andretti in the 2015/16 season of the FIA Formula E Championship as well as several years competing in the IndyCar Series  Her nicknames are the "Iron Maiden" and "Swiss Miss" 

Racing career
Junior formulae
She raced for Newman Wachs Racing's Nuclear Clean Air Energy-Entergy team in the Atlantic Championship in 2008 and for Team Stargate Worlds in 2009   She won the Atlantic race at the 2008 Grand Prix of Long Beach, making her the second woman to win in that series – after Katherine Legge – and providing NWR with its first win  She won four times during the 2009 season and led in points for most of the season, but ultimately finished third in the standings after retiring on the first lap during the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca 
De Silvestro participated in an IndyCar Series test over 8–9 December 2009 at Sebring International Raceway, a joint effort between HVM Racing and Team Stargate Worlds 

IndyCar
De Silvestro competed full-time in the IndyCar Series for HVM Racing for the 2010 season  On 22 May 2010, she qualified in the 22nd position for the 2010 Indianapolis 500  She finished the race in 14th position, and earned Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors  She suffered a burned right hand after a fiery crash at the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway on 5 June 2010  Her team strongly criticized IndyCar Series safety officials for their response to that accident  For the season, de Silvestro started 17 races, finished ten, and recorded two top-10 finishes, with a best finish of eighth at Mid-Ohio   She finished 19th overall in the series standings and was runner-up to Alex Lloyd for rookie of the year honors 
The 2011 season began with fourth- and ninth-place finishes at St  Petersburg and Barber; however the next race, at Long Beach, was not as successful: she started 18th and finished 20th  At the next race, the São Paulo Indy 300, an accident between her and Hélio Castroneves put her nine laps down, after the race was postponed to the next morning due to severe rain conditions  She started 13th and finished 20th, nine laps down, but recorded the fastest lap of the race 
She received second degree burns on her right hand and superficial burns on her left hand in a crash during practice for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 on 19 May  The crash, which sent her car sailing into the catch fence before flipping and landing on its left tires, was caused by a mechanical failure in the left rear of her No  78 Dallara-Honda  On 21 May, using her backup car, she qualified 24th for the race with a four-lap average of 224 392 mph 
After a crash at the Milwaukee Mile during qualifying, de Silvestro was cleared to drive in the race, but withdrew after experiencing dizziness and impaired vision  At the next race, in Iowa, she was not cleared to compete, due to continuing dizziness De Silvestro missed round 13 of the season at Sonoma, after being refused entry to the United States  De Silvestro said she did not know why she was turned away  She finished 20th overall in the 2011 series standings 
De Silvestro returned to HVM Racing for the 2012 IndyCar Series season, piloting the No  78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy sponsored Dallara-Lotus   The entry was one of five cars to start the season powered by the new Lotus engine   The Lotus proved to be significantly underpowered compared to the Chevrolet and Honda engines used by the rest of the field   By the end of May, all entrants other than de Silvestro's No  78 had abandoned the Lotus powerplant and switched to either Chevy or Honda   De Silvestro was saddled for the entire season with the inferior Lotus   The underpowered engine made it impossible for de Silvestro to be competitive, resulting in consistently poor qualifying and race results   On several occasions the car was black flagged for failing to maintain the minimum safe speed, including the 2012 Indianapolis 500   For the season, de Silvestro qualified for all 15 races on the schedule, started 14, and finished 6   Her best finish was 14th at Detroit and Iowa   She finished 24th overall in the series standings 
On 30 October 2012, de Silvestro signed on with KV Racing Technology for the 2013 IndyCar Series season, driving the No  78 Dallara-Chevrolet with sponsorship from Nuclear Clean Air Energy  De Silvestro joined veteran driver Tony Kanaan to make KV Racing Technology a two-car team for the 2013 season  On 5 October 2013 at the Grand Prix of Houston, de Silvestro finished second in the first race for her first podium finish, joining Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher as the only women in IndyCar history to record a podium finish On 2 April 2015, de Silvestro announced she would drive the Andretti Autosport No  29 Honda in the 2015 IndyCar Series season in an attempt to make the Indianapolis 500   De Silvestro finished fourth in the second race of the season, the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana 
On 19 January 2021, Paretta Autosport announced they would make their Indycar debut at the 2021 Indianapolis 500 with de Silvestro as the driver in the no  16 Rocket Pro Chevrolet 

Formula One
In February 2014, Formula One team Sauber announced that de Silvestro would join the team as an "affiliated driver" and would undergo a year-long training programme with the team, with the ultimate objective of racing in 2015  De Silvestro began testing with the team at the end of April 2014 at Fiorano Circuit  She had her first drive in the 2012 Sauber on 26 April, and completed 112 laps during the test  However, in October 2014, Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn stated that the team had suspended de Silvestro's driving chances due to contractual troubles 

Formula E
On 15 June 2015, it was announced de Silvestro would drive for Andretti's Formula E team at the championship's double-header finale in London  She was confirmed with the team full-time for the 2015-16 season opposite Formula Renault 3 5 champion Robin Frijns 
In 2016, de Silvestro became the first female driver to score points in Formula E with a 9th place in the 2016 Long Beach ePrix  She finished the championship in 18th place with 4 points 

V8 Supercars
It was announced on 19 August 2015 that she would partner Renee Gracie at Prodrive Racing Australia in the Bathurst 1000 for V8 Supercars  Following an impact with the wall at Forrest's Elbow on lap 15 for Gracie, the car underwent extensive repairs before being sent back out to finish 21st and 40 laps down – one more lap lost and the car would not have been classified 
On 5 September 2016 it was announced that she had signed a three-year contract as a full-time driver for Nissan Motorsport in the Australian Supercars Championship, beginning from the 2017 Series  This followed another appearance at Bathurst alongside Gracie, this time with the Nissan squad, where the pair managed to stay out of trouble amid the chaotic final laps and finish in 14th place and two laps down 

GT3
In 2020, De Silvestro returned to Europe as a factory Porsche GT driver; contesting the 2020 ADAC GT Masters for Timo Bernhard's Team75 with Klaus Bachler  She finished 23rd in the championship with 41 points  The duo switched to Herberth Motorsport for the 2021 ADAC GT Masters 

Racing record
Career summary
† As de Silvestro was a guest driver, she was ineligible to score points 

American open-wheel racing results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Atlantic Championship/Champ Car Atlantic
* Podium (non-win) indicates second and third place finishes
** Top 10s (non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes

IndyCar Series
1 The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11 

Indianapolis 500
Complete Formula E results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Supercars Championship results
Complete Bathurst 1000 results
Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Notes
Passage 8:
2003 Formula Renault 2000 Masters
The 2003 Formula Renault 2000 Masters season was the thirteenth Eurocup Formula Renault 2 0 season  The season began at Brno on 24 May and finished at the Donington Park on 26 October, after eight races  Cram Competition's Esteban Guerrieri who is also Argentine Formula Renault champion won three races on his way to the championship by a 36 point margin over Danish driver Robert Schlünssen, who won abandoned race at Assen  ASM's Simon Pagenaud was two points behind Schlünssen  Pagenaud also won second races on TT Circuit Assen  Other wins were scored by Paul Meijer, Ryan Sharp and Reinhard Kofler 

Driver Lineup
Calendar
Championship standings
Drivers
Points are awarded to the drivers as follows:

‡ Points were not awarded in the first race at Assen as race was abandoned after three laps due to massive crash 

Teams
Passage 9:
2006 Atlantic Championship
The 2006 Champ Car Atlantic season was the 33rd season of the Champ Car Atlantic Championship  It began April 9 at Long Beach and concluded September 24 at Road America  The Yokohama Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda Drivers' Champion was Simon Pagenaud driving for Team Australia 

Teams and drivers
Schedule
(O) Oval/Speedway

Season Summary
Race results
Final driver standings
See also
2006 Champ Car season
2006 Indianapolis 500
2006 IndyCar Series season
2006 Indy Pro Series season

External links
ChampCarStats com
Passage 10:
2014 Grand Prix of Houston
The 2014 Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston was the second doubleheader of the 2014 season, hosting Rounds 9 and 10 of the 2014 IndyCar Series season  Carlos Huertas won Race 1, and Simon Pagenaud won the second race 

Classification
Context 3: Passage 1:
Mimosa
Mimosa is a genus of about 590 species of herbs and shrubs, in the mimosoid clade of the legume family Fabaceae  The generic name is derived from the Greek word μῖμος (mimos), an "actor" or "mime", and the feminine suffix -osa, "resembling", suggesting its 'sensitive leaves' which seem to 'mimic conscious life' Two species in the genus are especially notable  One is Mimosa pudica, commonly known as touch-me-not, which folds its leaves when touched or exposed to heat  It is native to southern Central and South America but is widely cultivated elsewhere for its curiosity value, both as a houseplant in temperate areas, and outdoors in the tropics  Outdoor cultivation has led to weedy invasion in some areas, notably Hawaii  The other is Mimosa tenuiflora, which is best known for its use in shamanic ayahuasca brews due to the psychedelic drug dimethyltryptamine found in its root bark 

Taxonomy
The taxonomy of the genus Mimosa has gone through several periods of splitting and lumping, ultimately accumulating over 3,000 names, many of which have either been synonymized under other species or transferred to other genera  In part due to these changing circumscriptions, the name "Mimosa" has also been applied to several other related species with similar pinnate or bipinnate leaves, but are now classified in other genera  The most common examples of this are Albizia julibrissin (Persian silk tree) and Acacia dealbata (wattle) 

Description
Members of this genus are among the few plants capable of rapid movement; examples outside of Mimosa include the telegraph plant, Aldrovanda, some species of Drosera and the Venus flytrap  The leaves of the Mimosa pudica close quickly when touched  Some mimosas raise their leaves in the day and lower them at night, and experiments done by Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan on mimosas in 1729 provided the first evidence of biological clocks Mimosa can be distinguished from the large related genera, Acacia and Albizia, since its flowers have ten or fewer stamens  Botanically, what appears to be a single globular flower is actually a cluster of many individual ones  Mimosas contain some level of heptanoic acid 

Species
There are about 590 species including:
Mimosa aculeaticarpa Ortega
Mimosa andina Benth 
Mimosa arenosa (Willd ) Poir 
Mimosa asperata L 
Mimosa borealis Gray
Mimosa caesalpiniaefolia Benth 
Mimosa casta L 
Mimosa cupica Gray
Mimosa ceratonia L 
Mimosa diplotricha C Wright ex Sauvalle
Mimosa disperma Barneby
Mimosa distachya Cav 
Mimosa dysocarpa Benth 
Mimosa emoryana Benth 
Mimosa grahamii Gray
Mimosa hamata Willd 
Mimosa hystricina (Small ex Britt  et Rose) B L Turner
Mimosa invisa Martius ex Colla
Mimosa latidens (Small) B L  Turner
Mimosa laxiflora Benth 
Mimosa loxensis Barneby
Mimosa malacophylla Gray
Mimosa microphylla Dry 
Mimosa nothacacia Barneby
Mimosa nuttallii (DC ) B L  Turner
Mimosa ophthalmocentra Mart  ex Benth  1865
Mimosa pellita Kunth ex Willd 
Mimosa pigra L 
Mimosa polycarpa Kunth
Mimosa pudica L 
Mimosa quadrivalvis L 
Mimosa quadrivalvis var  hystricina (Small) Barneby
Mimosa quadrivalvis var  quadrivalvis L 
Mimosa roemeriana Scheele
Mimosa rubicaulis Lam 
Mimosa rupertiana B L  Turner
Mimosa scabrella Benth 
Mimosa schomburgkii Benth 
Mimosa somnians Humb  & Bonpl  ex Willd 
Mimosa strigillosa Torr  et Gray
Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd ) Poir  (= Mimosa hostilis)
Mimosa texana (Gray) Small
Mimosa townsendii Barneby
Mimosa turneri Barneby
Mimosa verrucosa Benth 
Passage 2:
Mimosa somnians
Mimosa somnians, commonly known as dormideira, is a species of woody shrub in the genus Mimosa and the family Fabaceae  It is native to the Caribbean, Central America and South America  It is a short, low-lying shrub with minuscule thorns lining its stem-like hairs Mimosa somnians is notable for exhibiting rapid plant movement  Its leaves are sensitive to tactile stimulus, folding quickly when touched, similar to Mimosa pudica  It can be differentiated from Mimosa pudica in that its leaves are bipinnate, there are more than four subbranchlets and these originate from more than one point on the branch Mimosa somnians's leaflets are 4–5 mm long  The flowers form pink balls  It propagates by seeds 

Forms, subspecies and varieties
Mimosa somnians f  viscida
Mimosa somnians subsp  longipes 
Mimosa somnians subsp  viscida
Mimosa somnians var  aquatica
Mimosa somnians var  deminuta
Mimosa somnians var  diminuta
Mimosa somnians var  glandulosa
Mimosa somnians var  lasiocarpa
Mimosa somnians var  leptocaulis
Mimosa somnians var  longipes
Mimosa somnians var  lupulina
Mimosa somnians var  possensis
Mimosa somnians var  somnians
Mimosa somnians var  velascoensis
Mimosa somnians var  viscida

Uses
In Guyana, it is used to calm down irritable children via washing 

Chemical constituents
Mimosa somnians contains (whole plant) about 0 029% tryptamine and about 0 029% methyltryptamine 
Passage 3:
Mimosa turneri
Mimosa turneri, the desert mimosa, is a perennial small- to medium-sized shrub native to the Southern United States and particularly abundant in Texas  It grows between 3 5 and 10 feet (1 1 and 3 0 m) tall and produces pink flowers  In many places it is considered a weed because it can grow invasively in moist soils 

Habitat and ecology
This species grows as a small to medium-sized shrub that is localized on limestone soil that can range from 2200 feet to 4000 feet above sea level in the desert  This plant is deciduous and has a very high heat tolerance, allowing it to grow in very hot deserts  This plant species was a contained species that escaped and became invasive in the Florida, Texas and Mexico regions  These plants live in soil with high alkalinity 

Morphology
The leaves of the desert mimosa resemble the fronds of a fern and consists of many leaflets that grow opposite of each other along the stem  The leaves are known as bipinnate  Leaflets can range from 9 mm to 12 mm and be 1 5 mm wide at its widest point  Each leaf has about 12- 25 leaflets  Flowers are globe like clusters of thin petals  They contain stamens that are double the number of petals or equal which are often twice the lengths of the corolla  Anthers are small and the ovary is sessile 

Usage
The desert mimosa is often used as food for cattle and livestock, as fuel, construction material as well as living fences that grow into barriers in the wild and can be used as decorative fences 
Passage 4:
Mimosa aculeaticarpa
Mimosa aculeaticarpa is a species of woody shrub in the family Fabaceae  It is commonly known as the catclaw mimosa or the wait-a-minute bush, and is endemic to upland regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, particularly Arizona, New Mexico and Texas 

Description
The catclaw mimosa is a straggling thicket forming shrub, usually growing to about one metre tall but occasionally double that height  The twigs are hairy and armed with backward pointing spines that easily catch in clothing  The alternate leaves are bi-pinnate with a varying number of small oblong leaflets  The flowers are white or pale pink, bunched together in globular heads  The fruits are flat pods up to four centimetres long, flattened between the seeds and splitting open when ripe  There are recurved prickles on the edges of the pods 

Distribution
This species grows in upland areas of central and southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, western and central Texas and northern Mexico 

Ecology
This species occurs as scattered individual plants in oak, oak-pine, and evergreen woodlands, pinyon-juniper woodland and mixed with other shrubs in grassland and shrub-steppe communities  It grows on mesas, rocky slopes and gravel deposits  It is commonly found growing in chaparral and is spreading into desert and semi arid areas  This may be because the seed pods are eaten by cattle and the seeds are deposited in the dung, giving them a rich environment for germination  The plant is fire tolerant and sprouts readily after bushfires  In upland areas of west Texas, the redberry juniper (Juniperus pinchotii) acts as a nurse plant for the seedlings   They benefit from the shade and leaf litter associated with the juniper which seems to provide a favourable microclimate for the establishment of the seedlings 
Passage 5:
Mimosa invisa
Mimosa invisa is a species of leguminous woody shrub or vine native to South America  Mimosa invisa includes two subspecies, each with two varieties:  The species is considered to be noxious and invasive in much of the United States 
Mimosa invisa Martius ex CollaMimosa invisa invisa BarnebyMimosa invisa invisa var  invisa Barneby - native to Brazil and Paraguay
Mimosa invisa invisa var  macrostachya (Bentham) Barneby - native to Brazil and ParaguayMimosa invisa spiciflora (Karsten) BarnebyMimosa invisa spiciflora var  spiciflora Barneby - native to northern South America
Mimosa invisa spiciflora var  tovarensis (Bentham) Barneby - native to Venezuela
Passage 6:
Mimosa rubicaulis
Mimosa rubicaulis is a shrub belonging to the family Fabaceae and subfamily Mimosoideae  It is bipinnately compound, each leaf having 8–12 pairs of pinnae, each with 16–20 pairs of pinnules, unlike Mimosa pudica which has at most two prickly pairs of leaflets  It is found across India 

Description
Mimosa rubicaulis is a large, straggling, very prickly shrub  It flowers from June to September, sporting long clusters of many pink spherical flower heads 1–1 5 cm across  The flowers fade to white, so the clusters sport both pink and white flower-heads most of the time  Leaves are double-compound, 8–15 cm long, with thorny rachis  Leaves have 3–2 pairs of side-stalks, each with 6–15 pairs of tiny oblong leaflets 4–8 mm  Pods are thin, flat, curved, 8–13 cm long, 1 cm wide, breaking into 4–10 rectangular single-seeded units, leaving the remains of the pod attached to the shoot It is considered useful for hedges  The wood is suitable for tent pegs and for making gunpowder charcoal  Roots and leaves are used medicinally  Himalayan Mimosa is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to Bhutan, at altitudes of 300–1900 m  It prefers forest edges and boundaries of fields and gardens 
Passage 7:
Mimosa hamata
Mimosa hamata (Hindi:Alāy shrub (अलाय) is a species of flowering shrub in the family Fabaceae, that is native to the countries of India and Pakistan 

Uses
This plant has been used for animal feed 
Passage 8:
Cryptocoryne
Cryptocoryne is a genus of aquatic plants from the family Araceae  The genus is naturally distributed in tropical regions of India, Southeast Asia and New Guinea The typical habitats of Cryptocoryne are mostly streams and rivers with not too rapidly flowing water, in the lowland forest  They also live in seasonally inundated forest pools or on river banks submerged only at high water  Although the proper scientific name of the genus is Cryptocoryne, they are commonly referred to as crypts  The English name "water trumpet" refers to their inflorescence, a spadix enclosed by a spathe (typical for the whole family), which resembles a trumpet 
The first Cryptocoryne species was described in 1779 as Arum spirale by Retzius  The genus was described by Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer in 1828  However, the scientific classification of Cryptocoryne species is very complicated and there are different opinions about it  Lagenandra is another genus closely related to the genus Cryptocoryne  The two can be easily told apart since the leaves of Cryptocoryne species exhibit convolute vernation whereas Lagenandra species exhibit involute vernation 

The name Cryptocoryne is derived from the Greek crypto, hidden, and koryne, meaning club  The common name (water trumpet) refers to the shape of its inflorescence, which is typical of the Araceae family 

Cultivation and uses
Some Cryptocoryne are popular commercially cultivated aquarium plants  Submerged plants reproduce vegetatively, emerse plants may flower and reproduce sexually  Many species are cultivated only by dedicated experts and are very hard to grow, or are not present in a culture at all  Some species are endangered because their natural habitats are disappearing  On the other hand, some water trumpets (e g  Cryptocoryne beckettii) are very hardy aquarium plants, easy to grow to the point that they have become an invasive species after being introduced in Florida in North America Cryptocoryne is either found in peat bogs or on limestone; the latter do well in most aquaria, the former must have soft water to survive and need decomposing beech leaf litter to do well  C  striolata, while found primarily in peat bogs, has also been found growing on limestone  Borneo is home to many endemic crypts previously thought to grow only in tea-colored soft acid water emulating peat bogs but exploration of habitats from 2005 to 2010 showed about half grew on limestone as well  These hardwater Cryptocorynes are generally the easier ones to keep (in fact, some species, such as Cryptocoryne wendtii are said to be among the most versatile of aquarium plants); they tolerate low or bright light but grow faster in more intense light  This water plant's range is around 12 to 33 °C, and slightly alkaline to neutral pH 
Plants of the genus Cryptocoryne, which range from India to New Guinea are found in very diverse conditions  Some are true acid loving plants such as C  pallidnerva, found in peat bogs in Borneo, while others such as C  crispatula var  balansae and C  pontiderifolia are found in streams with limestone beds—hard alkaline water  One species, C  ciliata is even found in semi-brackish water in some areas  It is one of the few aquarium plants that tolerates salt concentrations



ground_truth: Australian Supercars Championship

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Which is a shrub, Mimosa or Cryptocoryne?

The following are given passages.
Context 3: 
Cryptocoryne plants have been in cultivation in the aquarium hobby since the late 18th century, although it was not until the 1960s that more than a handful of species was known and became more common in the hobby  New species still regularly crop up as interest in these plants widens and more collecting expeditions by private parties are carried out 

Crypt melt
A phenomenon often encountered when planting new crypts in an aquarium is commonly called Crypt melt, whereby the plant loses all its leaves  There seem to be two possible causes for this 
Rapid environmental change is thought to trigger this, as these plants do not seem to adapt well to transplantion, and may need 30 days or so to become established and for the leaves to regrow  Experienced growers report that it is better to plant crypts in aquariums that have been established for at least three months In the wild, crypts can grow fully submerged underwater, but in some plant nurseries they are often grown emersed and crypt melt could then be triggered by the change from emerse to submerse conditions 
There is lately a trend for such nurseries to send crypts as just a rootstock (i e  without the leaves) to reduce shipping costs and because the leaves will be lost anyway once planted in an aquarium 
Other reports emphasise the need to change the aquarium water regularly to prevent the buildup of nitrates which are thought to trigger this condition (often referred to as a disease) 

Species
Cryptocoryne affinis N E Br  in J D Hooker - Thailand, Malaysia
Cryptocoryne alba de Wit - Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne albida R Parker - southern China, eastern India, Bangladesh, Indochina
Cryptocoryne annamica Serebryanyi - Vietnam
Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia Merr  - Philippines
Cryptocoryne aura  - West kalimantan
Cryptocoryne auriculata Engl  - Sarawak, Philippines
Cryptocoryne bangkaensis Bastm  - Sumatra
Cryptocoryne beckettii Thuill  ex Trim  - Sri Lanka; naturalized in Texas
Cryptocoryne bogneri Rataj - Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne bullosa Becc  - Sarawak
Cryptocoryne ciliata (Roxb ) Schott - India, Bangladesh, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Philippines
Cryptocoryne cognata Schott - India
Cryptocoryne consobrina Schott - India
Cryptocoryne cordata var  cordata Griff  - Malaysia
Cryptocoryne cordata var  siamensis Griff  - Thai
Cryptocoryne cordata var  diderici Griff  - Sumatra
Cryptocoryne cordata var  grandis Ridl  - Northeast Borneo
Cryptocoryne cordata var  grabowskii Engl  - South Kalimantan
Cryptocoryne cordata var  zonata de Wit  - Sri Aman
Cryptocoryne coronata Bastm  & Wijng  - Philippines
Cryptocoryne crispatula var  crispatula Engl  - Southeast Asia
Cryptocoryne cruddasiana Prain - Myanmar
Cryptocoryne decus-silvae de Wit - Johor
Cryptocoryne dewitii N Jacobsen - Papua New Guinea
Cryptocoryne purpurea nothovar  edithiae de Wit  - South Kalimantan
Cryptocoryne elliptica N E Br  - Malaysia
Cryptocoryne ferruginea Engl  - Sarawak
Cryptocoryne fusca de Wit - Borneo
Cryptocoryne griffithii Schott - Kalimantan, Peninsular Malaysia
Cryptocoryne hudoroi Bogner & N Jacobsen - Kalimantan
Cryptocoryne ideii Budianto - Kalimantan
Cryptocoryne jacobsenii de Wit - Sumatra
Cryptocoryne joshanii Naive & Villanueva - Philippines
Cryptocoryne keei N Jacobsen - Sarawak
Cryptocoryne lingua Becc  ex Engl - Sarawak
Cryptocoryne loeiensis  Bastm , T Idei & N Jacobsen - Laos, Thailand
Cryptocoryne longicaudaBecc  ex Engl  - Borneo, Malaysia, Sumatra
Cryptocoryne mekongensis T Idei, Bastm  & N Jacobsen - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand
Cryptocoryne minima Ridl  - Malaysia, Sumatra
Cryptocoryne moehlmannii de Wit - Sumatra
Cryptocoryne nevillii Trimen - Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne noritoi Wongso - Kalimantan
Cryptocoryne nurii var  nurii Furtado - Peninsular Malaysia
Cryptocoryne nurii var  raubensis N Jacobsen - Peninsular Malaysia
Cryptocoryne pallidinervia Engl  - Borneo
Cryptocoryne parva de Wit- Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia Schott - Sumatra
Cryptocoryne purpurea nothovar  purpurea Ridl  - Peninsular Malaysia
Cryptocoryne purpurea nothovar  sarawakensis Yosuke Kobayashi - sarawak
Cryptocoryne purpurea nothovar  borneoensis  N Jacobsen , Bastm  - Central Kalimantan
Cryptocoryne pygmaea Merr  - Philippines
Cryptocoryne retrospiralis  (Roxb ) Kunth - Bangladesh, India, Myanmar
Cryptocoryne schulzei de Wit - Johor
Cryptocoryne scurrilis de Wit - Sumatra
Cryptocoryne sivadasanii Bogner - southern India
Cryptocoryne spiralis (Retz ) Fisch  ex Wydler - Bangladesh, India
Cryptocoryne striolata Engl  - Borneo
Cryptocoryne thwaitesii Schott - Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne timahensis Bastm  - Singapore   (C  cordata × C  nurii)
Cryptocoryne uenoi Yuji Sasaki - Sarawak
Cryptocoryne undulata Wendt - Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne usteriana Engl   - Philippines
Cryptocoryne versteegii Engl  - New Guinea
Cryptocoryne vietnamensis I Hertel & H Mühlberg - Vietnam
Cryptocoryne villosa N Jacobsen - Sumatra
Cryptocoryne walkeri Schott - Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne wendtii de Wit - Sri Lanka
Cryptocoryne × willisii Reitz - Sri Lanka   (C  parva × C  walkeri)
Cryptocoryne yujii Bastm  - Sarawak
Cryptocoryne zaidiana Ipor & Tawan - Sarawak
Cryptocoryne zukalii Rataj - Peninsular Malaysia
Passage 9:
Mimosa tenuiflora
Mimosa tenuiflora, syn  Mimosa hostilis, also known as jurema preta, calumbi (Brazil), tepezcohuite (México), carbonal, cabrera, jurema, black jurema, and binho de jurema, is a perennial tree or shrub native to the northeastern region of Brazil (Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia) and found as far north as southern Mexico (Oaxaca and coast of Chiapas), and the following countries: El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela   It is most often found in lower altitudes, but it can be found as high as 1,000 m (3,300 ft) 

Description
The fern-like branches have leaves that are Mimosa like, finely pinnate, growing to 5 cm (2 0 in) long   Each compound leaf contains 15–33 pairs of bright green leaflets 5–6 mm (0 20–0 24 in) long   The tree itself grows up to 8 m (26 ft) tall and it can reach 4–5 m (13–16 ft) tall in less than 5 years   The white, fragrant flowers occur in loosely cylindrical spikes 4–8 cm (1 6–3 1 in) long  In the Northern Hemisphere it blossoms and produces fruit from November to June or July   In the Southern Hemisphere it blooms primarily from September to January   The fruit is brittle and averages 2 5–5 cm (0 98–1 97 in) long   Each pod contains 4–6 seeds that are oval, flat, light brown and 3–4 mm (0 12–0 16 in) in diameter   There are about 145 seeds/1 g (0 035 oz)   In the Southern Hemisphere, the fruit ripens from February to April 

The tree's bark is dark brown to gray   It splits lengthwise and the inside is reddish brown 
The tree's wood is dark reddish brown with a yellow center   It is very dense, durable and strong, having a density of about 1 11 g/cm3 Mimosa tenuiflora does very well after a forest fire, or other major ecological disturbance   It is a prolific pioneer plant   It drops its leaves on the ground, continuously forming a thin layer of mulch and eventually humus   Along with its ability to fix nitrogen, the tree conditions the soil, making it ready for other plant species to come along 

Medicinal uses
A tea made of the leaves and stem has been used to treat tooth pain   For cases of cough and bronchitis, a water extract (decoction) of Mimosa tenuiflora is drunk   A handful of bark in one liter of water is used by itself or in a syrup   The solution is drunk until the symptoms subside One preliminary clinical study found Mimosa tenuiflora to be effective in treating venous leg ulcerations Aqueous extracts of Mimosa are widely used for wound healing and burns in Middle and South America  Consequently, the products of the plant (generally grouped under the term "Tepezcohuite") have become a popular and easily produced cosmetic ingredient in commercial skincare products, used and marketed by celebrities including Kylie Jenner and Salma Hayek 

Other uses
The tree is an acceptable source of forage or fodder for animals, providing vital protein and other nutrients   It does well in the dry season and in drought, while providing life saving food for local livestock and animals   Cows, goats and sheep eat the pods and leaves   There seems to be evidence that Mimosa tenuiflora forage or fodder cause development defects to pregnant ruminants in Brazil The tree is an important source of forage for bees, especially during the dry season and in the beginning of the wet season 
Like most plants in the family Fabaceae, Mimosa tenuiflora fertilizes the soil via nitrogen fixing bacteria   The tree is useful in fighting soil erosion and for reforestation 

Mimosa tenuiflora is a very good source of fuel wood and works very well for making posts, most likely because of its high tannin content (16%), which protects it from rot   Due to its high tannin content, the bark of the tree is widely used as a natural dye and in leather production   It is used to make bridges, buildings, fences, furniture and wheels   It is an excellent source of charcoal and at least one study has been done to see why this is the case The healing properties of the tree make it useful in treating domestic animals   A solution of the leaves or bark can also be used for washing animals in the prevention of parasites   Because the tree keeps most of its leaves during the dry season, it is an important source of shade for animals and plants during that time 

Chemistry
The bark is known to be rich in tannins, saponins, alkaloids, lipids, phytosterols, glucosides, xylose, rhamnose, arabinose, lupeol, methoxychalcones, and kukulkanins   Additionally, Mimosa hostilis contains labdane diterpenoids 

Entheogenic uses
Mimosa tenuiflora is an entheogen used by the Jurema Cult (O Culto da Jurema) in northeastern Brazil  Dried Mexican Mimosa tenuiflora root bark has been recently shown to have a dimethyltryptamine (DMT) content of about 1-1 7%   The stem bark has about 0 03% DMT The parts of the tree are traditionally used in northeastern Brazil in a psychoactive decoction also called Jurema or Yurema  Analogously, the traditional Western Amazonian sacrament Ayahuasca is brewed from indigenous ayahuasca vines 
However, to date no β-carbolines such as harmala alkaloids have been detected in Mimosa tenuiflora decoctions, yet the Jurema is used in combination with several plants This presents challenges to the pharmacological understanding of how DMT from the plant is rendered orally active as an entheogen, because the psychoactivity of ingested DMT requires the presence of a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), such as a β-carboline  If an MAOI is neither present in the plant nor added to the mixture, the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO) will metabolize DMT in the human gut, preventing the active molecule from entering the blood and brain 
The plant is also used in clandestine manufacture of crystalline DMT  In this form, it is psychoactive by itself when vaporized and inhaled 
The isolation of the chemical compound yuremamine from Mimosa tenuiflora as reported in 2005 represents a new class of phytoindoles, which may explain an apparent oral activity of DMT in Jurema 

Cultivation
For outside planting, USDA Zone 9 or higher is recommended In nature, Mimosa tenuiflora "[   ] fruits and seeds are disseminated by the wind in a radius of 5–8 m (16–26 ft) from the mother plant; rain carries them from slopes to lower plains and human activities contribute to their dissemination "For cultivation, the seed pods are collected once they start to spontaneously open on the tree   The collected pods are laid out in the sun so that the pods open up and release their seeds   The seeds can then be planted in sandy soil with sun exposure 
Scarification of the seed via mechanical means or by using sulfuric acid greatly increases the germination rate of the seeds over non-treatment   The seeds can be sown directly into holes in the ground or planted in prepared areas 
The seeds can germinate in temperatures ranging from 10 to 30 °C, but the highest germination rate occurs at around 25 °C (about 96%), even after four years of storage   Germination takes about 2–4 weeks 
It is also possible to propagate Mimosa tenuiflora via cuttings Trimming adult Mimosa tenuiflorae during the rainy season is not recommended as it can kill them 

Legal status
United Nations
See also
Dimethyltryptamine
Psychedelic plants
Passage 10:
Mimosa texana
Mimosa texana is a shrub in the family Fabaceae  It is commonly known as the Texas mimosa, the Texas catclaw or the Wherry mimosa and is endemic to upland regions of Mexico and Texas  This species used to be classified as Mimosa biuncifera but it was found that phenotypic variations occurred across its range and a new taxonomy was proposed by Rupert C  Barneby in 1986, splitting the species into Mimosa aculeaticarpa var  biuncifera and Mimosa texana 

Distribution
Texas mimosa is found on alkaline soils in Mexico and Zapata and Starr counties in the state of Texas  It is uncommon and grows on caliche and gravelly hillsides 

Description
This species is a straggly, much branched, deciduous shrub of up to two metres tall  It has slender, zigzag, dark coloured twigs clad in backward pointing prickles  The alternate bi-pinnate leaves have medium-sized leaflets  The globular flowers are creamy-white and cover the bush in the spring  They are intensely fragrant and attract numerous insects  The seed pods are brick red and flattened, with prickly edges 



ground_truth: Mimosa