~ World Of Flowers ~

[MysteRy]

Common name: Bush Lily, Fire Lily
Botanical name: Clivia miniata
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family )
Synonyms: Imantophyllum miniatum

Native to South Africa, Bush Lily is a clump forming perennial bulbous plant with strap-like leaves and beautiful orange-red flowers. The genus Clivia was named after the Duchess of Northumberland, Lady Charlotte Clive who first cultivated and flowered the type specimen in England. The species name miniata means color of red lead oxide, referring to the flower color. In Victorian times this beautiful plant was very popular for indoor use in England and Europe. Bush lily has strap shaped leaves which arise from a fleshy underground stem. The flowering heads of brilliant orange (rarely yellow), trumpet shaped flowers appear mainly in spring but also sporadically at other times of the year. Bush lily can be propagated by seed or by removing sorryers. The fruits are bright orange when ripe (or golden in the case of the yellow flowered plants) All parts of Bush lily are somewhat poisonous and may cause mild upset stomach if ingested. Sap from the leaves or roots may irritate sensitive skin. Probably no plant rewards more beauty for less care than the Bush lily. A great house-plant because of its meagre requirements for light, water and fertilizer.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Rain Lily Rose
Botanical name: Zephyranthes rosea
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family )

Rose Rain Lily are small flowers that are rose in color with a green base. The flowers are much smaller that of Rain Lily pink, and the throat is distinctly green. Leaf blades are dull green, to 5 mm wide. Spathe is 2–2.8 cm. Flowers are erect to slightly bent, rose pink in color, funnel-shaped, 2.7–2.8 cm. Flower tube is green, 0.2–0.3 cm, increasing in diamter. Tepals are spreading, but not reflexed. Stamens are diverging, filaments filament like, 1–1.7 cm; anthers small 3–6 mm. Style is 1.8–2.7 cm, longer than perianth tube. Stigma is divided into 3, protruding out, 1–5 mm beyond anthers. Flowering: March-July.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Handsome Flowered Dendrobium
Botanical name: Dendrobium formosum
Family: Orchidaceae (orchid family)

Handsome Flowered Dendrobium was discovered by William Roxburgh in north-east India. He came to India in 1776 as an Assistant Surgeon with the East India Company and later became the Company’s botanist in the subcontinent. Handsome Flowered Dendrobium occurs in the Eastern Himalayas, from Nepal to Manipur, Myanmar. It is a bulky species with large , aureate flowers . Its erect , thickly foliaged pseudobulbs are up to 18 in long and typically covered with conspicuous black protuberances in the upper part . The snow -white flowers measure 3.8 in /8 cm in diameter. The lip has a 2 cm long spur and has orange yellow decoration inside. Pseudobulbs erect, Easy to grow, it is suitable for the home or a greenhouse.

[MysteRy]

Common name: White Water Lily, White Lotus
Botanical name: Nymphaea pubescens
Family: Nymphaeaceae (Waterlily family)
Synonyms: Nymphaea lotus var. pubescens, Nymphaea purpurea, Nymphaea esculenta

This is a beautiful white waterlily, native to India and South-east Asia. The toothed floating leaves vary from being elliptic-oval to almost circular, and are 15-26 cm across. The leaves are papery and have fine hair on them. White flowers are 5-15 cm in diameter, with 12-14 shiny petals, and rise above the water. There are red and pink varieties too. This flowered is reverred in ancient Hindu literature.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Clasping-Leaf Borage
Botanical name: Trichodesma inaequale
Family: Boraginaceae (Forget-me-not family)
Synonyms: Trichodesma amplexicaule

Clasping-Leaf Borage is an erect hairy herb with scattered hairs. Lower leaves are oppositely arranged, stalkless. linear-oblong. Upper ones are alternately arranged, heart-shaped, stem-clasping, broadly ovate, long pointed. Flowers appear singly, laterally on branches or opposite the leaves. Sepals are shortly and obtusely eared. Flowers are pale blue with rounded petals which are flat, with a point at the tip. Flower throat is hairy. Clasping-Leaf Borage found in Mumbai and neighbouring area. This flowers is closely similar to Indian Borage, but can be distinguished by two features - one, leaves are stem-clasping, they are only half-clasping in Indian Borage; two, the stamens do not protrude out, whereas in Indian Borage they protrude out.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Duck Lettuce, Water-plantain ottelia
Botanical name: Ottelia alismoides
Family: Hydrocharitaceae (Tape Grass family)
Synonyms: Stratiotes alismoides

Duck Lettuce is a fresh-water plant with leaves arising from root. Leaf blades are submerged, sometimes partly emergent in shallow water, broadly ovate to circular, thin and translucent. A closely related species Swamp Lily differs in that it has elliptic to ovate, thick and opaque leaves. Leaf stalks are 3-sided, 8-50 cm long. Leaves are 7-22 cm x 4.5-21 cm. Flowers are 3-petalled, white. Sepals are 1-1.5 cm long. Petals are white with yellow-spotted base, 2-3 cm long. Fruits are enclosed in spathe.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Wax Begonia, Fibrous Begonia, bedding begonia, perpetual begonia
Botanical name: Begonia x semperflorens-cultorum Family: Begoniaceae (Begonia family)

Wax Begonia are tough little compact garden plants, growing barely a foot high. However, they provide almost continuous color in full sun or partial shade locations for many months, and can easily be grown as a houseplant. The single or double flowers are available in various shades of red, pink, or white, and the shiny, large, succulent leaves are either green, variegated, or bronze-colored. It is the leaf coloration which attracts many people to Wax Begonia. The bronze-leaved begonias are better suited to full sun locations and plants will flower from spring. These kinds are seen more often in the warmer regions of India. Plant 12 inches apart in a bed to form a solid mass of color. If desired, plants can be dug up and potted, cut back by one-third, and will continue to bloom indoors. Wax Begonaias are a group of cultivars developed from hybridization of several species, especially B. cucullata and B. schmidtiana — with Anku Kumari.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Calla lily, Arum Lily
Botanical name: Zantedeschia aethiopica
Family: Araceae (arum family)
Synonyms: Calla aethiopica, Richardia africana

Calla Lily is an old-fashioned, but very elegant garden plant, native to South Africa. These elegant flowers have graced many bridal bouquets in Europe, in old times. Calla lily is a clump forming herbaceous plant, arising from tubers, with large arrow shaped leaves. It grows to about 2 ft in height. The flower consists of a orange-yellow finger-like spathe surrounding a white spadix. Pink and yellow varieties of Zantedeschia are also available. Golden calla has elongated oval shaped leaves, dotted with small white splotches, and bright, gleaming golden yellow spathes. All are strikingly beautiful, and even when not in flower, the large, tropical looking, spear shaped leaves make a lush statement, like bananas, cannas or ginger.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Scarlet Runner Bean, Runner bean
Botanical name: Phaseolus coccineus
Family: Fabaceae (Pea family)

Scarlet Runner Bean is a twining perennial vine, native to South America. It is widely cultivated world over, for it showy red flowers, and their edible pods and seeds. It has thick stocky roots and the vine can reach 12 ft or more. Leaves are trifoliate and each leaflet is broad-oval and 4-5 in long. Flowers in most cultivars are bright scarlet red, and shaped like typical bean family flowers with the two lowermost petals united into a "keel", the uppermost petal modified into a hoodlike "standard", and the lateral petals modified into spreading "wings." The flowers are about an inch long and clustered on many-flowered racemes up to 10 inches long. There can be as many as 20 flowers on a single flowering stalk. The pods are 6-12 inches long, and the seeds are about an inch long, with 6-10 seeds per pod. The green pods are edible whole but in some varieties (the scarlet runner) tend to become fibrous early, and only the seeds within are eaten. The seeds can be used fresh or as dried beans. The starchy roots are still eaten by Central American Indians.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Peruvian lily, Lily-of-the-Incas, Parrot lily, Parrot flower
Botanical name: Alstroemeria spp.
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family)

Alstroemeria, commonly called the Peruvian Lily or Lily of the Incas, is a South American genus of about 50 species of flowering plants, mainly from cool, mountainous regions in the Andes. It was named after the Swedish baron Clas Alströmer (Claus von Alstroemer) by his close friend Carolus Linnaeus. People often think they are orchids (which they are not) They grow from clusters of white peanut-sized tubers arranged like the spokes of a wagon wheel. In the spring, they send up 8-12 in stalks that have the general character of an upright Solomon's seal with the foliage clustered in a little umbrella at the top of the stem. Although the stem is arrow-straight and the foliage is held in a horizontal position, the glistening parallel-veined pale green leaves tend to curl under at the edges and droop at the ends and always look a bit limp. As the season progresses, the stem elongates to 18-30 in and the leaves (now looking more twisted than limp) appear to spread out along its length in a stretched out spiral arrangement. Early in the summer, clusters of red flowers appear at the stem tips. The tubular 1-2 in flowers look like distorted azalea blossoms that are struggling to open. The ragged uneven petal edges curl slightly inward instead of flaring outward.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Beach Moonflower, sea moonflower
Botanical name: Ipomoea violacea
Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)
Synonyms: Convolvulus tuba, Ipomoea macrantha, Ipomoea tuba

Beach Moonflower is creeping vine found on the sea-across the tropical world. Plant is woody, twining, and hairless, with the stems growing to 5 m, often longitudinally wrinkled. Leaf stalks are 3.5-11 cm. Leaves are circular or ovate, 5-16 X 5-14 cm, base deeply heart-shaped, with rounded lobes, and a sharp tip. Lateral veins are 7 or 8 pairs. Flowers occur either singly or in bunches of few. The stalk carrying the bunch is often 2.5-4.5 cm. Flowers stalk is 1.5-3 cm, thickened in fruit. Flowers open at night, hence the common name Moonflower. Sepals are circular, equal or outer 2 shorter, 1.5-2.5 cm, thinly leathery, tip blunt, enlarged in fruit and turned back. Flowers are white, with greenish midpetaline bands. They have a narrow tube which flares open into a flat flower, 9-12 cm long. Limb is 8-10 cm in diameter. Flowering: August-September.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Blue Golden-Eyed Primrose
Botanical name: [Primula strumosa]
Family: Primulaceae (Primrose family)
Synonyms: Primula calderiana subsp. strumosa

Blue Golden-Eyed Primrose is a beautiful primrose with blue flowers which look quite similar to Purple Golden-Eyed Primrose. It can be identified from the characteristic that the clusters of flowers are borne on stems that are not much longer than the deep green leaves. The flowering stem in Purple Golden-Eyed Primrose is much taller than the leaves. Each flower is wide open, deep blue with a small ring of orange near the centre, but the species includes yellow-flowered plants. Flower tube is 1.1-1.3 cm, limb 1.5-2.5 cm wide. Petals are round, not notched. Leaf-stalks are broadly winged, concealed by basal bud scales at anthesis, becoming diffuse, about as long as leaf blade. Leaf blade is oblanceolate to obovate or oblong, 5-20 X 1-2.5 cm at anthesis. Flowering stems are 7-19 cm, yellow powdery towards the top, elongating to 35 cm in fruit, with umbels of 4- to many flowers. Sepal cup is bell-shaped, 5-7.5 mm, densely yellow powdery, with ovate to ovate-oblong sepals with blunt tips. Blue Golden-Eyed Primrose is found in Eastern Himalayas, in Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, and China, at altitudes of 3500-4300 m. Flowering: May-June. — with Vashanthi KM.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Magnolia, Southern magnolia
Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia family)

Magnolia, a native of the southeastern US, is one of the most magnificent of the fragrant trees. It's trunk is typically straight and erect with spreading branches that form a dense, broadly pyramidal crown. It has large, thick, leathery dark green leaves which are up to 10 inches long. In the spring, they have a golden to rust color on their undersides. The large evergreen trees may grow to 90 ft tall, and the fragrant white blossoms that have smooth, almost velvet-looking petals, are 8-12 inches across. The snow white flowers are huge, and cup-shaped when young. The fruits are reddish-brown conelike structures, 2-4 in long, with bright red kidney shaped seeds that hang from little threads when fully mature in autumn. In the US, the magnolia is used as a street tree, a free standing specimen, a framing tree, or shade tree. In most parts of India, magnolias are grown only in select well-maintained gardens. In Manipur, magnolias are commonly grown - the Manipuri name ootahmbal means "tree lotus" - flowers are used as offering in puja.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Aztec Arrowhead, Giant Arrowhead, Tropical Arrowhead, Ruby-Eyed Arrowhead
Botanical name: Sagittaria montevidensis
Family: Alismataceae (Water Plantain family)

Aztec Arrowhead is an aquatic herb, considered native to South America, possibly Brazil. Leaf stalks are thick, cylindrical, spongy, mostly erect but also reclining, up to 75 cm. Leaves are arrow-shaped, hairless. Inflorescence is typically shorter than leaves, prostrate. Flowers arise in whorls or pairs at nodes. Flowers have 3 white petals with yellow base. Sepals are 3, green. Flower stalks are thick, up to 5 cm long. Flowering: June-September.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Carnation
Botanical name: Dianthus caryophyllus
Family: Caryophyllaceae (Carnation family)

Dianthus, its botanical name, means divine flower. Carnation was the flesh-pink colour Elizabethan portrait painters used as a background wash. Available in a huge range of colours, almost all except blue. Carnation blooms are edible. With petals pulled apart, they can be used to sprinkle color & spicy scent over the surface of a leafy salad, perhaps also with the addition of a few honeysorryle trumpets & nasturtiums. There are folklores associated with carnations, and one is supposed to be making a statement by the color of carnation one is wearing: