~ World Of Flowers ~

[MysteRy]

Common name: Hugel's Gentian
Botanical name: [Gentiana hugelii Griseb.] Gentiana hugelii
Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian family)
Synonyms: Qaisera hugelii, Gentiana marginata var. hugelii

Hugel's Gentian is a beautiful deep blue gentian
named after Baron Karl von Hügel, 19th century Austrian naturalist. It is an annual herb up to 8 cm tall, branched above. Lower leaves are elliptic to oblong, 2-3 cm long, with cartilaginous margin. Stem leaves are smaller, fused at base, obovate, tip rounded, slightly mucronate and recurved, margin cartilaginous. Flowers are blue, 1-1.5 cm across, congested in cluster at branch ends. Sepal tube is up to 1.2 cm long some what transparent especially portion below the sinus of sepals, sepals 3-4 mm long, oblong, blunt. Flowers are 0.8-1.8 cm long, tube almost twice as long as spreading petals. Throat has several threadlike objects, inside of tube is whitish. Petals are oblong-obovate, rounded at tip, plicae, slightly shorter and narrower than lobes, irregularly split at tip. Capsule is obovoid, slightly exserted with many seeds. Hugel's Gentian is found in the Himalayas.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Blue Nettle, Nettle Leaved Strobilanthes
Botanical name: [Strobilanthes urticifolia Wall. ex Kuntze] Strobilanthes urticifolia
Family: Acanthaceae (Barleria family)
Synonyms: Strobilanthes attenuata, Strobilanthes alatus, Pteracanthus urticifolius

Blue Nettle is an erect shrub up to 1.2 m, with round to 4-angled,sticky hairy branches. Flowers are dark-blue, about 2 cm across, in lax, glandular-pubescent panicle-like clusters. Bracts are narrowly lanceshaped-oblong, shorter than calyx, early falling off; bracteoles narrowly oblong, 4-5 mm long, caducous. Sepals are 5, unequal, ligulate, 8-12 mm long, glandular hairy, blunt, enlarged and accrescent in fruit, one much larger than the rest. Flowers 3-4 cm long, tube cylindrical below, as long as calyx, curved above, within, limb petals open. Upper leaves are stalkess. Lower stem leaves are carried on 2.5-8.5 cm long, apically winged hairy stalks. Leaves are ovate, 8-16 x 4.5-8 cm, hairy on both sides to becoming hairless, basally heart-shaped or rounded, toothed, long-pointed. Capsule are narrowly elliptic-oblong, 1.5-1.7 cm long, glandular-pubescent to glabrescent, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate, c. 3 mm long, hairy. Blue Nettle is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to Nepal, at altitudes of 2000-3500 m. Flowering: June-October.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Showy Inula
Botanical name: Inula orientalis
Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
Synonyms: Inula grandiflora

The Showy Inula, a member of the Sunflower family, is found from Kashmir to Nepal at altitudes of 1,800 to 3,600 meters. It is a stout, hairy perennial herb, 45 to 125 cm. tall, with aromatic roots, and sessile, serrulate, glandular, elliptic-oblong to subcordate leaves, 5 to 11 cm. long. The orange-yellow flowers measures 12 cm across, and are rarely borne in profusion in June. A postal stamp was issued by the Indian Postal Department to commemorate this flower.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Tulip Tree, American tulip tree
Botanical name: [Liriodendron tulipifera L.] Liriodendron tulipifera
Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia family)

Tulip Tree is a deciduous tree native to North America, that can grow to heights of over 30 m with trunk diameters of 4-6 ft. It sometimes takes a conical form, but when grown in the open tends to assume a broad columnar shape that is its signature form. The distinctive cup-shaped flowers are 1.5 in across and about 2-2.5 in length and look like tulips growing on a tree. The handsome flowers are greenish-yellow with orange markings, borne at the branch tips. Stamens are long, and are arranged in many ranks - when the petals fall off, a cup of these stamens still remains on the tree. Alternately arranged leaves are 5-6 inches long, as much broad, four-lobed, heart-shaped or truncate or slightly wedge-shaped at base, entire, and the tip cut across at a shallow angle, making the upper part of the leaf look square. Flowers are followed by brown scaly cone-shaped fruit. Flowering: March-April.

[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: 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: Freesia
Botanical name: Freesia spp.
Family: Iridaceae (Iris family)

Native to Africa, Freesia is a genus of 14-16 species of flowering plants in the Iris family. Freesias are strongly scented so they make a nice addition to any area. They have five to 10 single or double flowers. Stems are usually 10 to 18 inches long with little or no foliage. The bell-shaped freesia blooms up to seven days and comes in white, golden yellow, orange, red, pink, mauve, lavender, purple and bicolors. They are herbaceous plants which grow from a corm 1-2.5 cm diameter, which sends up a tuft of narrow leaves 10-30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10-40 cm tall bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Daffodil, Lent lily
Botanical name: Narcissus tazetta
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family)

Commonly known in India as Nargis, daffodils are lilylike perennials with numerous narrow, straplike leaves, and a single flowering stalk, all arising from a subterranean bulb. Leaves grow upward, then droop out and down, and range from 6-30 inch in length. Flower stalks range from 4 in tall in the miniature varieties, up to 24 in tall in standard varieties. There can be from one to a dozen or more flowers per stalk. Flower colors are mostly white and yellow, but some kinds have orange, pink or red coronas. There are about 50 species of daffodils, and many thousands of named cultivars and hybrids of garden origin. Daffodils originated in Portugal, Spain, the southern coast of France and the northern coast of Morocco. Medieval Arabs used juice of the wild daffodil, N. pseudonarcissus as a cure for baldness.
The name Narcissus has it origin in the famous Greek myth about Narcissus, the handsome youth who was granted his great good looks by the Gods. However, his beauty was permanent and he was immortal, "If he never knows himself". Many nymphs fell in love with him, but he did not respond. A nubile wood nymph named Echo fell desperately in love, but Narcissus spurned her. She was so devastated by his rejection that she wept and wailed, and was ultimately consumed by her love. But the Gods were not pleased. The goddess, Nemesis, heard about poor Echo, and lured Narcissus to a shimmering lake. There in his vain state, he was unable to resist gazing at his own reflection, and fell in love with himself! As he gazed, the divine penalty took effect, and he simply faded away. In his place sprang up the golden flower that bears his name today. Now you know how Nargis came to be, and also why psychologists warn vain patients about the "Narcissus complex."