Bright smiles ...

Spiny smiles ....

Botanical name: Echinops niveus

Snow-White Globe Thistle is a spiny herb with simple stem, densely cottony. Leaves are up to 20 cm long, bipinnately cut, divided into linear spiny segments, margins recurved, densely cottony beneath. Flower-heads are spherical, 6-8 cm across, spines not projecting. Outer involucre bracts are few, spoon-shaped, spine-tipped, inner fused when mature, 2-3 cm long. This was photographed at the foothills of Chamundi Hills, Mysore in the morning of 5th October, 2011 during my morning ride in search of flowers.

Lasting fore ever .....

Botanical name: Bracteantha bracteata

Paper daisy or strawflower is an upright, warm-weather annual or short lived perennial with daisy-like flowerheads in yellow, pink, bronze, cream, purple or white. Strawflower has thin, lance shaped, grayish green leaves up to 5 in long, and sandpapery, hollow, branching stems that may reach 3-4 ft in height. From late spring until fall, strawflower bears flowerheads about 2 in across singly or in few-flowered clusters on the ends of the branches. What look like ray flowers or petals are actually bracts (modified leaves) surrounding the central corolla. The bracts are papery with a straw-like, crackly texture, hence the common name. The corolla is like the disc of more typical daisies, composed of many tiny florets. I took this photograph on 19th May 2010, while on a family trip to Ooty.

Pleasing in the hot sun ...

Botanical name: Gliricidia sepium 

Tree from Mexico and South America that is used both to provide shade to chocolate trees and also enrich the soil; hence the common name meaning "mother of cocoa." The wood is durable and useful for posts and railway ties. It is a small to medium-sized, thornless tree which usually attains a height of 10-12 m. Branching is frequently from the base with basal diameters reaching 50-70 cm. The bark is smooth but can vary in colour from whitish grey to deep red-brown. The stem and branches are commonly flecked with small white lenticels. Infloresences appear as clustered racemes on distal parts on new and old wood, 5-15 cm long, flowers borne singly with 20-40 per raceme. Flowers bright pink to lilac, tinged with white, usually with a diffuse pale yellow spot at the base of the standard petal, calyx glabrous, green, often tinged red. The best time for the flowers is February to April. The fruit is a 2-valved long pod. In various parts of America, the bark is used as rat poison. This photograph was taken on 16th February, 2012, just outside my lab.

Brightly and always ...

Botanical name: Dianthus caryophyllus

Carnation or 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 honeysuckle 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. I am an ardent admirer of this flower, as it has attracted my attention quite often. This photograph was taken on 1st October, 2011 at the Mysore Dussehra flower show.

Morning glows ...

Botanical name: Asclepias curassavica

Scarlet milkweed is an erect, evergreen perennial subshrub, often grown as an annual. Like most milkweeds, it has opposite leaves and milky sap. The blossoms of scarlet milkweed are are red and orange, less than an inch across, and appear in clusters at the top of 2 to 4 ft. stalks. It is the best milkweed species for the home garden. Scarlet milkweed gets about 3-4 ft tall and usually has a few pairs of symmetrical branches. The leaves are about 5 in long, narrowly elliptic, and pointed at both ends. It blooms continuously from spring until autumn. The fruits are spindle shaped pods, 3-4 in long, that eventually split open to release little flat seeds that drift away on silky parachutes. Scarlet milkweed is native to South America but has become a naturalized weed in tropical and subtropical pastures, fields and disturbed areas throughout the world. I took this photograph on 29th January 2012 during a visit to Pandavapura with my friend Dr A.M. Babu.