Two years ago in May i planted a corm i got from my short hiking visit to our nearby mountain. I saw a familiar looking flower without any leaves yet. It could be a leftover by someone whose old house is just nearby. I looked for the corms and got one. Since i planted it during the dry season, it grows well to a lush foliage, then dried the next dry season. The corms overflown in the small metal can i used for planting, until i removed the remnants of the can. Then another dry season this year followed, drying all the leaves again.
My mother always tell me to transfer the invasive corms to a big container or destroy them, as they will cover all the plants nearby. But i hesitated as i want to see if it will produce flowers, and for how long. It hasn't been raining yet in April this year, but suddenly my mother told me to look at the flower. We were all surprised and happy to see the lovely inflorescence ahead of the leaves. Actually, there are two flower stalks, one ahead of the other. I joked to my mother that i will now be transferring all the corms, and she now bargained, because the flowers are so beautiful. Of course, i was just joking!
This is
Curcuma elata, which flower ahead of the leaves. The inflorescence grow from the ground and not from the top of the plant stalk. It is a member of the ginger family that includes the turmeric we are very familiar with. The pinkish purple flowerlike structures on top are the bracts, the true flowers are the yellow structures arising from the bract axils (below).
the real flowers
the bracts at the top are pinkish purple, while greenish yellow at the bottom
A previous post of my first encounter with this plant in 2010 is in
my other blogsite Andrea in this Lifetime..
Oh my gush this is beautiful!! Love your macro shots!
ReplyDeleteMary, MI
Your macro shots of this flower are stunning! I like to play with things I find in nature too, bring them home and see how they grow.
ReplyDeleteJudith
Very pretty, even if it is an invasive species.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I used an ultra-wide-angle lens to get the shot of the trees looking up, at 10mm. It exaggerates the perspective, making the tall trees look even taller.
oh thank you very much Al, i don't have that lens, but i will try with 12mm. Yes this is beautiful but invasive, in fact i have a problem how to contain it in seclusion!
DeleteThis is such an amazing plant! WOW! It is just so stunning!!! Beautiful photos as well!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I've seen this plant at the Botanic Garden.
ReplyDeleteSuch an exotic beauty you show us:) This one would not survive the winter in Norway.
ReplyDeleteWow beautiful!!! Your flowers would be a lovely addition to I Heart Macro tomorrow evening at my blog too!
ReplyDeleteHi Laura, thanks for the invite i hope i wont forget. If you will browse on the post previous to this and the current post on my other site, they are complementary posts for sunrises and sunsets. So i've just posted the whole view of the earth, haha!
DeleteYou are so right this plant is fabulous...you have the most fascinating plants I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this is Thailand but lighter in colour. Your curcuma has a richer colour. With such beauties, I won't mind the least if they are invasive.
ReplyDeleteI guess you saw a different species of Curcuma, the one you see in Thailand could be the Siam tulip, where the flowers grow at the top of the stem, very unlike this one. The blossoms of this one grow from the ground. I love this one better.
DeleteIn a just world all invasive plants would be ugly. Lovely photos!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful blooms! I'm still waiting for my Curcuma to send up leaves. I saw buds, so I know they're there. I think they bloom here in August. The Grumpy Gardener wrote once that his mother cut off some of the leaves when they bloom to see them better. I think this is not like the one I have.
ReplyDeleteHi NellJean, another Curcuma commonly called the Siam Tulip has almost the same blooms but they appear at the end of the stalks, very unlike this one. Maybe that is the one you have.
Deletei have seen this flower at my aunt's garden. she also has another ginger flower similar to this one, the flowers are white.
ReplyDeletethat probably is the real turmeric, Curcuma longa. Mine hasn't flowered yet.
DeleteWhat a very beautiful plant. Is any part of it edible? Quite spectacular to have in the garden.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks Arija. I searched on Curcuma and turned out that even morphologically the same, supposed to be only one plant are of different genus. Hence, Curcuma is studied more deeply and finger printing is a help because one has good medicinal value, but the other has toxic properties. Curcuma species have long been incorporated mostly in ayurvedic medicines, and also in Thai and Malaysian cuisine and medicines.
DeleteThank you for coming back to me. I asked because my garden gives preference to perfumed and/or edible plants. Unfortunately, due to our extremely hot, dry and windy summers, the only member of the ginger family we can keep alive is Yellow Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium sp.) I tried growing arrowroot in the shade-house but lost that too.
Deleteso lovely! :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this lovely post, thank you, and thank you for sharing such a beautiful flower and photographs with Today's Flowers.
ReplyDeleteYour mum should let you loose in the garden after that triumph!
ReplyDeletehahaha, b-a-g, i can't compete with my 83 yr-old mother because she stays in the house in the province, while i am in the big city and go home only once-in-a while.
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