Saluting every life with a flower each day! Flowers are soul of the planet, blooming to play music with silent notes. Smile at them as they are sweet hearted!! Only the photographs taken by me are uplinked. I lean heavily to http://www.flowersofindia for flower identification and descriptions. Looking forward to valuable comments and suggestions.
This plant is known by many common names, such as Ashanti Blood, Red Flag Bush, Red Mussaenda, Prophet’s Tears, Tropical Dogwood, Virgin Tree, etc. This is a shrub or tree, native to tropical West Africa can reach a height of 30 ft. most ideal as an ornamental plant in parks and public gardens or along roadsides. It flowers non-stop through the year with several flowers borne in branching terminal panicles. Each flower is composed of a small creamish white five-lobed funnel-shaped corolla, with a crimson-red felt center and pubescent beneath, together with a single roundish-ovate and enlarged bright red sepal (bract) measuring 2-5 inches. Mussaenda bracts may be seen in several colors including rose, white, red, pale pink and some mixtures. Attractive to butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and insect pollinators as a nectar plant. This flower i shot on 24th April 2011 while visiting Brindavan Gardens attached to the KRS Dam, Mandya district of Karnataka.
