Really smiling ...

Why this wind...?

Where are you ...?

Botanical name: Coleus blumei
This attractive foliage plant is great for containers and underplanting. Most annuals are grown for the color their flowers provide. Instead of colorful flowers, coleus offers incredibly colorful foliage in a variety of interesting shapes and sizes. Although coleus will usually survive in sun, the color of the leaves is enhanced in the shade. Small, insignificant flowers will appear late summer. This photograph was taken on 15th December, 2007 in Mysore.

A day of waiting ...

Botanical name: Cucurbita maxima

Giant Pumpkin is an annual climber growing up to 5 m at a fast rate. The flowers are monoecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but both sexes can be found on the same plant) and are pollinated by Insects. The plant is self-fertile. Fruit is cooked and eaten. A delicious flavour when baked, rather like a sweet potato. The flesh can be dried, ground into a powder and used with cereals in making bread, cakes etc. Some varieties can be stored for up to 9 months. Seed - raw or cooked. The seed can also be ground into a powder and used with cereals in making breads etc. Young flowers are eaten raw or cooked. They are often dipped in batter and fried. Young leaves and stems are cooked and eaten. This photograph was taken on 15th December 2007 from the compound of the house in Mysore, where i was staying then.

On a satisfying note ...

Botanical name: Crossandra infundibuliformis

In South India, Kanakambaram is the favourite flowers of ladies to put in their hair. It competes strongly with jasmine to adorn the south-Indian hair-do's. The crossandra is in the family with Mexican petunias, or ruellias, and the Mississippi Medallion award-winning yellow shrimp plant. This tropical from India and Sri Lanka offers a welcome orange, salmon or yellow to the filtered-light area. In addition to the flowers that are practically non-stop for the entire season, the foliage also offers added interest. The leaves are glossy and most striking. Choose a site with well-drained, fertile soil with perhaps a little morning sun. If you have tight, heavy clay soil, the crossandra will reward you for incorporating 3 to 4 inches of organic matter. As the plant grows, keep it deadheaded and pinched back; it will maintain a bushy shape and keep blooming with each new flush of growth. This photograph was taken in 15th December, 2007 in Mysore, just in front of my house, where i was residing.

Waiting for rain ...

Botanical name: Senna spectabilis
Spectacular Cassia is a medium to large tree from tropical America and reaches 60 feet in height, but is often much smaller. The pinnately compound leaves have 4-15 pairs of leaflets, which have fuzzy undersides and are up to 3 inches long. Leaflets have pointed tips. The bright yellow flowers are 1.5 inches wide but appear in dense racemes up to two feet long. Sepals are orange-yellow, unequal, ovate to circular, 5-7 mm long. Petals are yellow, spoon shaped, unequal, broadly to narrowly obovate, 2-3.5 cm long, anthers opening by apical pores and a slit. Stamens are 7 large and 3 small sterile. Pistil slender, curved, hairless.

Hovering around ...

Botanical name: Callaeum macropterum

Yellow butterfly vine, yellow orchid vine, gallinita or hillyhock is native to Mexico. It is a pretty twinning herb which produces beautiful orchid-like flowers. This evergreen tropical vine is easily trained on a fence. If left unsupported, this plant will twine on itself to produce a mounding shrub or ground-cover. The smooth green leaves are 2 inches long by 1 inch wide. Bright yellow, 5-petaled orchid-like flowers adorn the plant in spring and summer. Flowers are about 1 inch across. The common name comes from the butterfly-like seed pods, turning to brown. The clusters of showy yellow orchid-shaped flowers appear in spring and again in fall. I could locate this plant in Lalbagh, Bangalore on 27th May 2012. Many honey bees were hovering around this plant!