Cockscomb or Celosia cristata
Do you like this flower?
Celosias are very hardy and easy plants to grow in the tropics. This plant is just one of the 3 seedlings i pulled from a roadside, planted here in a pot and watered only when seen to be too wilted. The original soil moisture allowed it to grow this tall even without rain or watering. I but a bamboo trellis at the main branch because the bloom has got too heavy and will break the stem.
Look at its habit, every leaf axil produce a flower shoot, which will eventually become combs. The apical comb is already big in the above photo that this branch may also need a supporting trellis.
Sometimes, a branch even produce a twin comb like the above. And at this stage they are still growing, and eventually will break the stem. The other two plants i mentioned already broke their neck and the blooms wilted. Look at those necks full of the tiny black seeds. They are ready to disperse and grow when the rains come, and with such numbers, i consider them already as weeds.
This bloom is from another side branch. It has a small neck with too fast growing comb. And there are also several small growths still growing into combs. Can you imagine what will happen to this branch!
This is the close up of the main branch in the first photo. The convolutions look like a brain or a marine coral rather than a comb. I wonder why the predecessors who named this didn't call it a brain-flower, or a garden coral. The undulations are so thickly packed too. Sometimes i see very small insects or spiders safely hiding inside those convolutions.
This is a close-up of another flower which broke its neck and produced more spacious convolutions. Broken neck or not, it is still a very chaotic, maze-like arrangement. I wonder how those small insects were able to get out of this world. Despite its propensity to invade and colonize, it is still very beautiful. Do you agree?
On another note, this plant is an amaranth and the leaves and flowers are eaten in some parts of Africa, India and South America. I think i need to learn eating this as vegies so I can have use for all those seeds that will eventually sprout in our garden.
