~ World Of Flowers ~

[MysteRy]

Common name: Magnolia, Southern magnolia
Botanical name: Magnolia grandiflora
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: Parrot's Beak
Botanical name: Gmelina philippensis
Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Synonyms: Gmelina hystrix

Parrot's Beak is an extraordinary round and spiny shrub, or a small tree, 3-8 m tall, with pendant branches. Rhomboid-elliptic leaves are 5-7.5 cm long, 3-4 cm broad, entire or slightly lobed, smooth. Exotic flowers comprised of yellow blossoms which emerge from a pendant structure of overlapping bracts. The flower resembles parrot's beak. The fruit is fleshy, smooth, yellow, pear-shaped, and about 2 centimeters long. Parrot's Beak is a native of Philippine islands, India and S.E. Asia.
Medicinal ues: In the Philippines it is said that the juice of the fruit is externally applied to portions of the feet affected by “alipuñga,” a kind of eczema. The juice of the fruit is also considered anti “limatik,” (limatik is a species of leech of the genus Haemadipsa).

[MysteRy]

Common name: Crown Flower
Botanical name: Calotropis gigantea
Family: Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed family)

This large shrub, which looks like a small tree, sports clusters of waxy flowers that are either white or lavender in color. Each flower consists of five pointed petals and a small, elegant "crown" rising from the center, which holds the stamens. The plant has oval, light green leaves and milky stem. The flowers last long, and in Thailand they are used in various floral arrangements. They were also supposed to be popular with the Hawaii queen Liliuokalani, who considered them as symbol of royalty and wore them strung into leis. In India, the plant is common in the compounds of temples. The fruit is a follicle and when dry, seed dispersal is by wind. The seeds with a parachute of hairs, is a delight for small children, who like to blow it and watch it float in the air. This plant plays host to a variety of insects and butterflies

[MysteRy]

Common name: Mountain Ebony
Botanical name: Bauhinia hookeri
Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)
Synonyms: Lysiphyllum hookeri

Native to Australia, Mountain Ebony is a rounded shrub or small open tree, up to 5m high, with an irregular habit. Leaves are silver to grey green, held in small delicate pairs up to 2.5 cm across, looking just like hundreds of butterfly wings. Plants are semi-deciduous with most leaves falling immediately before flowering then replaced with the flowers. Plants flower in spring to early summer and dot the canopy with large pure white orchid-like five petal flowers up to 7 cm in diameter, with a number of long spidery brilliant red stamens protruding out.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Prickly Paperbark, Prickly-leaf Teatree
Botanical name: [Melaleuca styphelioides Sm.] Melaleuca styphelioides
Family: Myristicaceae (Nutmeg family)

Prickly Paperbark is a small to medium sized tree up to 20 m tall, with a dense, rounded canopy and drooping branchlets. The spongy bark is white or light brown and peels of in large strips. The stalkless leaves are 7-15 mm long and 2.5-6 mm wide, ovate to broad-ovate. These are slightly twisted, have sharply-pointed tips, and are arranged alternately on the branchlets. Flowers appear in summer in cream or white cylindrical bottlebrush-like spikes which are 2-5 cm long and 1-2 cm in diameter. Often new growth appears at the end of the spikes. Following flowering, grey-brown, woody capsules appear in clusters along the branchlets. These are ovoid, stalkless and 3-4 mm in diameter. Prickly Paperbark is native to eastern Australia.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Silk floss tree
Botanical name: Ceiba speciosa
Family: Bombacaceae (baobab family)
Synonyms: Chorisia speciosa

Floss Silk Tree is often rated among the most beautiful trees in the world. Also called Silk Floss Tree, this deciduous tropical from Brazil and Argentina is a large tree rated to over 40 feet. Floss Silk Tree is also well known for the large spikes protecting the trunk and limbs. It has pale green leaves palmately divided into 5-7 pointed leaflets. The young trees start out growing fast, straight, and narrow, then slowly develop broadly spreading umbrella canopies as they age. Silk floss trees typically drop their leaves just before they put on their spectacular autumn display of large five-petaled flowers. The petals vary from pale pink to rose to purple or burgundy at the tips and grade into ivory with brownish spots or blotches at the base. After blooming, pear shaped fruits appear which have a silky floss on the seeds, hence the name.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Weeping Bottle brush
Botanical name: Callistemon viminalis
Family: Myrtaceae (Bottlebrush family)

The flower spikes of bottlebrushes form in spring and summer and are made up of a number of individual flowers. The pollen of the flower forms on the tip of a long coloured stalk called a filament. It is these filaments which give the flower spike its colour and distinctive 'bottlebrush' shape. The filaments are usually yellow or red, sometimes the pollen also adds a bright yellow flush to the flower spikes. Each flower produces a small woody fruit containing hundreds of tiny seeds. These fruits form in clusters along the stem, and are usually held on the plant for many years. The seeds are usually not released from the fruits for several years, but in some species the fruits open after about a year. Fire also stimulates the opening of the fruits in some bottlebrushes.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Formosa Acacia, Small Philippine Acacia
Botanical name: Acacia confusa
Family: Mimosaceae (Touch-me-not family)

Formosa Acacia is a small tree native to Northern Philippines. Adult plants show leaf-like phyllodes, while the juvenile one have foliage of bipinnate leaves. The trunk can grow up to 1 m thick in very old trees, however, generally it is smaller. Phyllodes are alternate, leathery, parallel-curving-veined, 8-10 cm long, narrowed at both ends. Yellow flowers arise in small spherical heads 6-8 mm in diameter. The flowers heads occur singly or in twos in axil of phyllodes. Pods are borne few together, linear or somewhat curved, flat or slightly twisted, brown, 5-10 cm long, 1 cm broad, with about 8 seeds.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Elephant Creeper, Hawaiian baby woodrose
Botanical name: Argyreia nervosa
Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)
Synonyms: Argyreia speciosa, Convolvulus nervosus, Lettsomia nervosa

Elephant Creeper is a vigorous vine native to India, introduced world-wide. It has large, leathery heart-shaped leaves, which are white on the underside due to hairs. It is called elephant creeper because of the large leaves which look like elephant ears. Leaf blades are 15-25 cm long, and 13-20 cm wide, heart-shaped. Trumpet-shaped flowers are borne in cymes, on long, white-velvety stalks. Sepals are 1.3-1.5 cm long, velvety like the leaves. Flower-stalks are up to 15 cm long. Flowers are 5-7.5 cm long, with a short tube and bell-shaped limb, lavender to pink, the throat being of a darker shade. The flowers are followed by hard, woody capsules, which when they ripen break open to resemble miniature roses. The toxic seeds should not be eaten as they contain alkaloids. Flowering: July-December, March-April.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Common Morning Glory, Purple Morning Glory
Botanical name: Ipomoea purpurea
Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)

Common Morning Glory is a morning glory vine native to Mexico and Central America, but widely naturalized in India. Like all morning glories the plant entwines itself around structures with its viny stems, growing to a height of 2-3 m tall. The stems are covered with brown hairs, which is an identifying feature. Leaves are heart-shaped, 4-15 cm long. Flowers are borne on 1-5 flowered stalks in leaf axils. The flowers are funnel-shaped, 4-6 cm long diameter. The flower color varies from purple, pale blue to white. On the average, the leaves are much larger than the flowers. In the Blue Dawn Flower, leaves are smaller than, or of the same size as, the flowers. The habitats of morning glories are landscapes, fences and crops. The plant is predisposed to moist and rich soil, but can be found growing in a wide array of soil types. Although it is often considered a noxious weed, Common Morning Glory is also grown for its beautiful purple, pink and white flowers and has many cultivars.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Pink Morning Glory
Botanical name: Ipomoea barlerioides
Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)

Pink Morning Glory is a slender trailing herb. Alternately arranged leaves are oblong lanceshaped, with a point tip and base somewhat heart-shaped, hairy, 2-5 cm long, 0.5 cm wide. Leaves are carried on 2-3 cm long stalks. Flowers are pink, funnel-shaped, 2 inches long, arising singly in leaf axils, on 5-6 cm long stalk. Sepals are 5, nearly equal, lanceshaped, 1.5-2.2 cm long, hairy. Fruit is an ovoid capsule, with the persistent sepals, up to 0.5 cm in diameter. Flowering: September-October.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Ivy-leaved Morning Glory, Railway creeper, Mile a Minute Vine
Botanical name: Ipomoea cairica
Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)

One of the commonest yet most useful of the evergreen creepers, refreshing the eve in the hottest weather with its clear, green leaves and delicate, mauve blooms, the Railway Creeper is found in gardens, villages, and on practically every railway station, thus earning for itself its nickname. This morning glory vine is beautiful, climbing on to whatever it finds - the purple flower studded vine wrapped around bending bamboo stems, is a pleasing sight. Its stem is hairless, readily set roots when in touch with the earth. This species can be identified by its leaves which are hairless to 9cm long with 5-7 lobes, middle lobe the largest. Flowers purple, pink or rarely pinkish white, to 8cm across, solitary or in groups of 2-3. Fruit a 4-valved capsule, about 1cm across, each valve with 1 seed. Seed with wispy hairs attached. Spread by wind, water and humans.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Yellow-Throated Morning Glory, Yellow-throated Ipomoea
Botanical name: [Ipomoea parasitica (Kunth) G. Don] Ipomoea parasitica
Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)
Synonyms: Convolvulus parasiticus, Ipomoea perlonga, Convolvulus circinnatus

Yellow-Throated Morning Glory is an ornamental climber. It is native to the American continents, but is well naturalized as an escape from cultivation in many parts of the world, including India. Stems are trailing for several metres and climbing over low bushes, reddish, muriculate, hairless or velvety. Leaves are ovate, 5-15 × 5-15 cm, blunt or long-pointed at the tip, heart-shaped. Upper surface is covered with prostrate velvety hairs, smooth and scarcely pubescent on the nerves beneath. Leaf-stalks are 5-24 cm long, velvety or smooth, sometimes rough. Beautiful funnel-shaped flowers are borne in several-flowered cymes. The cyme is carried on a stalk 5-25 cm long. Flower-stalks are 0·7-1.5 cm long, enlarged at the tip. Bracts are lanceshaped, 4-7 mm long, velvety, falling off. Sepals are nearly equal, lanceshaped-oblong, 5 mm long, with a short point at the tip, velvety outside. Flower are funnel-shaped, blue with purplish tinge, 3·5-4·5 cm long, with a yellow center, velvety at the midpetaline areas. Capsule is ovoid to globose, hairless. Seeds are trigonous, brownish, hairless or very shortly velvet-hairy. — with Mega Raj, Subasree Mohan, Geeta Ilangovan and 46 others.

[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

[MysteRy]

Common name: Ruffled Yellow Begonia
Botanical name: Begonia tuberosa 'Ruffled Yellow'
Family: Begoniaceae (Begonia family)

Ruffled Yellow Begonia is a cultivaer of Begonia with vivid, large, fully-double flowers. The flowers provide a strong contrast with deep green leaves for an eye-catching display. Flowers are big, sunny 5-9 inch yellow blooms. Blooms from mid summer through entire season. It is a long, heavy bloomer.