Stars of the mid day ...

Hoty hoty ...

A light in the sun ...

Botanical name: Pachystachys spicata

Cardinal's Guard is a shrub, growing up to 2 m tall, native to South America. Oppositely arranged leaves are elliptic to inverted-lanceshaped, 10-30 cm long. Stunning red flowers are borne in a dense spike, at the end of the branches, with a green overlapping bract below each flower. Flowers are tubular, curved, strongly 2-lipped, 5-6 cm long, with 2 protruding long stamens. Upper lip is narrow and the lower one is deeply 3-lobed. This plant is propagated by cuttings. I took this snap on 25th December, 2011 at my native place.

A day after ...

Botanical name: Mimosa diplotricha

An erect, climbing, ascending or prostrate biennial or perennial shrub. Leaflets 12-30 pairs, sessile, opposite, lanceolate, acute, 6-12 mm long, 1.5 mm wide; inflorescence a head, one to three in the axils of leaves, on stalks 1 cm long, hairy, about 12 mm in diameter; corolla united at least at the base (gamopetalous), pale pink; stamens twice as many as the petals; fruit a pod, spiny, three- to four-seeded, borne in clusters, linear, flat, 10-35 mm long, splitting transversely into one-seeded sections which separate at grooves or seams (sutures); seeds flat, ovate, 2 to 2.5 mm long, light brown. I took this photo on 20th December 2011 in my native place.

Inscribed in the heart ...

Botanical name: Cardiospermum halicacabum

Balloon Vine is a woody perennial vine distributed almost globally in the tropics. It is a fast growing vine up to 10 feet. Leaves are trifoliate, up to 4 inches long, with highly lobed leaflets. The plant climb with tendrils and needs some form of support. The small white flowers bloom from summer through fall, flowers are not very showy. The fruit is more interesting, from which the plant gets its common name. It is a brown, thin-shelled, inflated angled capsule up to 3 cm across, containing 3 black seeds each, with a white heart-shaped scar. On this valentin's day, it would be appropriate to uplink this flower, wherein the heart (symbol of love) is inscribed into the seeds. I took this photograph on 5th February, 2012, near my lab.

 

Gladfully ....

Botanical name: Gladiolus communis

Gladiolus (from Latin, the diminutive of gladius, a sword) is a genus of perennial bulbous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae). Sometimes called the sword lily, the most widely used English common name for these plants is simply gladiolus. The genus is distributed in Mediterranean Europe, Asia, Tropical Africa and South Africa. Gladiolus is one of the most widely cultivated cut flowers across the globe. They are available in so many colours and varieties. This has immensely attracted my attention and i had a variety of them in my garden while residing in Bangalore. This photograph was taken during the Dussehra flowers show in Mysore during 1st October 2011.