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.
The thorn apple, Indian apple or moon flower is native to Central and South America. It is an annual shrub, reaches upto a height of 1.5 m. Stems and leaves are covered with short and greyish hairs. The flowers are white, trumpet shaped and 12-19 cm long. The beautiful and attractive flowers bloom in the night. The plant is considered to be poisonous. I took this photograph on 30th August, 2011 near the institute where i am working presently.
Wild plumeria, bridal bouquet, white frangipani or fiddle leaf plumeria is an evergreen species of plumeria native to Panama, Columbia and Venezuela. It is an easy to grow plant. Leaves are dark green and fiddle shaped or spoon shaped. They bloom very heavily. Large clusters of bright white flowers with yellow centre form a bouquet shape and hence the name bridal bouquet. On several occasions i had photographed this flower in the past, but this snap i liked the most as i snapped it immediately after a brief drizzle in the morning of 16th September, 2011 in the home of the uncle in Mysore. I dedicate this flower to my dear Manikkutty, my daughter, today being her birthday!
Lemonia is a rare and beautiful large shrub. It grows to a height of 5 m, but in gardens it can be shaped into a shrub. The flowers are bright dark pink. The petals have a graining and hard texture and has a curious flattened appearance. This plant is beautifully maintained in the Sericulture Engineering Division of CSRTI, Mysore. I am thankful to my friend and colleague for introducing me to this plant. It was photographed on 16th September, 2011.
Glory bower, Indian privet, seaside cleodendrum, wild jasmin or sorcerers bush is native to India. This is a highly branching and straggling shrub, growing 1-2 m tall. Terminal branches are slender, twining and forms a dense bush. Often it is maintained as a hedge. Cymes or umbels comprise of 3 flowers, which join at a common base point. Flowers are white with 3.5 to 5.5 cm long narrow tubes having 5 petals. Stamens are purple and protrude out of the flowers. I saw this plant being maintained around the Crawford Hall of University of Mysore, Mysore. I took this photograph on 11th September while roaming around with an aim of photographing flowers.
Dutchman's pipe, Orchid cactus or Night blooming cereus is one of the most popular and widely cultivated species of cacti. It blooms at night and the flowers are large, white and star like. The fragrance of the flowers are well known. The flowers are pollinated by bats and large moths. Usually the bloom is closed at the rise of the sun, but this photograph was taken in the afternoon at 4.20 pm on 27th April 2011 at Ooty, just outside a hotel, perhaps the Nilgiri climate has preserved this flower for me!
The wood sorrel, garden pink sorrel, broad leaf sorrel or Mexican oxalis is a perennial herb. It has no stem, but grows via stolons. The leaves arise on long petioles from ground level, each made up of three widely heart shaped leaflets. Leaf petioles and flower pedicels arise from the rootstock. Flowers are pink, five petaled and funnel shaped. The inner funnel is fluorescent yellow green, which surrounds the beautiful set of stamens are observed. The flower is very simple and lovable ones. On this special day of my little sister's birthday i dedicate this flower to her. I took this photograph on October 3rd, 2011 during the Dussehra flower show at Mysore.
Colville's glory, colvillia or whip tree is a rare, beautiful flowering tree native of Madagascar. This spectacular flowering tree is a fast growing and can reach up to 50 ft. It has fine leaves like ferns. The long and conspicuous cylindrical or cone shaped clusters bear bright orange flowers that are bright red in bud. The grape like clusters of velvety buds vary in colour from green to blood orange, which are a wonderful sight. The sighting of this tree in full bloom was a pleasant surprise to me in the morning of 10th September, 2011, in a park opposite to the district court, Mysore. As i was busy shooting, i could see a large number of beetles flocking around the flowers and the tree waving its head, as if welcoming the friends!
