Blooms in Rainy September

 August/September is the height of our rainy months. Our Rainy Season is also the typhoon months, when the letters of the alphabet are not enough to name them. We repeat the alphabet letters when approaching the end of the year. Last July we already finished 10 letters for the typhoons that passed our Philippine Area of Responsibility. At the moment there is a looming Super Typhoon with the strength of Yolanda looming at the Pacific Ocean. It is said to be at our Philippine Area of Responsibility thip afternoon. Those in Northern Philippines are already preparing, classes are already suspended there, but still we are praying for it to divert its path away from our PAR!

Low Pressure Areas (LPA) are common with us. These LPAs strongly attracts the Southwest Monsoon rains that eventually got many areas to flooding situations. Until now there still are flooded low-lying areas even if the rains happened weeks ago. It is a big problem for health and sanitation. Fortunately, our area in the province is in the uplands, and my area in the city is the same as well. At least going home from the office is not at bad as others experience, as in going through floodied streets. '

Plants in the province are now luxuriously growing, blooming as much as they can to produce seeds before the dry season comes again.

 One of the lilies that started blooming in July still has some scapes till now. This Crinum zeylanicum gives a strongly sweet scent that serves as air freshener near the gate.

The hoyas are confined in an enclosure near the terrace, and early afternoons are laden with scents that nobody will ignore. Even just an opening umbel from one plant will already get your attention. Imagine the fragrance from the lots of umbels of different species in my garden! A visitor will just say OMG or Whew! A scent will prod a visitor to locate where that is coming from, and they will learn the characteristics of that hoya! Sometimes they really get hooked! HUH.

 Hoya celata (formerly called Hoya pubicalyx White Dragon) is a prolific bloomer whenever it starts blooming. New buds immediately develop as the previous buds drop. 

 Another form of Hoya pubicalyx but is not as famous as the common one. This has longer internodes and roundish, clear green leaves. The chimera flowers look like that of the 'Royal Hawaiian Purple', but the umbels are bigger. It now has 4 umbels at different stages of maturity.

 Hoya buotii (purple) is also a floriferous species. A bigger plant produces a lot of umbels that bloom at almost the same time making a wonderful sight. Once-in-a while it produces some flowers with 6 corollas, and that makes us hoya hobbyists very glad. Can you see it at the rightmost side?

 Hoya mariae grows profusely with vines facing everywhere, that you need immediate attention. A week you forgot to guide the shoots and you will end up with a very difficult situation, it will deliberately embrace a nearby stem to cling on. Removing twining stems often break the younger portions that earlier attention to unwind them will be better.

 Hoya buotii (yellow) 

Hoya multiflora is known for its floriferousness, sometimes with an umbel in every node. However, mine is not growing nicely and suffered much during last dry season. It needs a good Relative Humidity in the surrounding air to grow healthily.

 Hoya ilagiorum, also flowers consecutively after every flower drop, but vegetative growth is not as fast as other species. My plant is a bit lanky with lesser leaves.

This Hoya pubicorolla ssp. anthracina is producing a few umbels, and they are all big and beautiful. Can you visualize it. 

 Hoya lacunosa is one of the small-umbelled hoyas, with also small leaves. But the size is compensated with the very lovely sweet scent, which everybody likes.  Sometimes it has a lot of simultaneous umbels open at the same time. 

Please bear with me in posting a lot of hoyas, i am a hoya addict, i confess! I always tell new hobbyists that it is addictive and contagious, so they must decide immediately before they are hooked. They are what use most of my time in the province during my weekends, the reason i always go home on Saturdays. I am sure you will understand. And i also warn you, if you are just starting to appreciate them, or starting to buy the first one! 

The most loyal orchid in my garden, despite neglect it still produce flowers looking very elegant and standing high among the rest of them, a Vanda orchid. It really is the Queen of the Flowering Plants!

And another loyal and self-supporting orchid with very subtle, cool color is this vanda.

 A lavender Pentas lanceolata is much loved by this Common Mormon. We have lots of butterflies, but this one never forgets to visit this pentas. 

 Another nectar plant in my garden is this Ixora javanica. It actually becomes a tall bush, like a small tree. It suffered setback because the original tree was killed to give way to the garage. This new plant is just starting, but already giving the characteristically very big umbels, also loved by butterflies.

 an introduced species, now relegated near the dump

Caladiums respond favorably to the wet environment. I already took the picture as more leaves enlarge because in a little while the hawkmoths will fully devour their leaves.

 This caladium variety is lovely too in that area with very thin topsoil. It covers the not so nice area there. I planted it there specifically because they produced so very big aand tall leaves when planted in richer soils. In this area they are shorter and narrower, producing more compact growth.

 Look at the caladium when planted in rich soil. That big leaf at the left is more than 2 ft wide. Other leaves are following that size. Eventually i will get some corms and plant them too in nutrient deprived soils to produce more compact growth.

Thunbergia erecta 

 Caesalpinia pulcherrima, planted at the edge of the property, as a hedge. It is also host for the yellow butterflies.

Lastly, the Queen of the Night, Epiphyllum oxypetalum was not able to wait for me before it bloomed. Some bloomed in July which i did not see also. I always go home a few days after their big event. They open before midnight with strong fragrance, and they are already closed in the morning. Last week they opened on Thursday while this picture was taken Saturday. There still are a lot of them in many stems. A bit disappointing but we don't seem to have very good communication lines. Or i was not able to send a very exact instruction. The next blooming season will still be next year, that seems to be a long time. 

GBBD

Endemic Plant Pandakaki

A plant with white small flowers, scattered in our fallowed areas or in little thickets under coconut trees are these shrubs we locally call pandakaki, Tabernaemontana pandacaqui. It is native to the Philippines and other neighboring Asian countries. It is very resistant to drought that we can see them leafless during dry seasons, but eventually grow again with the coming rainy months. I observed that in drier patches they do not grow as tall as this picture, some are just about a foot tall. The stems specially the base of the plant are strong and cannot just be cut or pulled off by hands. We have a lot of this plants in our area and around the surrounding localities. It is reported to be common in Asia, and the Pacific Islands including Australia.

The flowers are white with a bit wavy petals. They do not open simultaneously in big clusters unlike the umbels of some plants in the Apocynaceae family. 

 Flowers are just a little over 1 centimeter in diameter, but they are cute, don't you think so?

It looks like a spinning wheel, and it is loved also by some butterflies.

 The fruits are technically called follicles, and normally emerge as a pair like above. They start as green which changes color as it ripens.

color already turning orange

The follicles eventually become orange as they ripen. 

The black seeds are enclosed in red pulps, seemingly very attractive to eat. These pictures are just as i see them in the wild normal habitat. With those lots of seeds inside a folicle, i can imagine why there are lots of plants i see all around our area in the province. 

Extracts of all parts of the pandacaqui plant is reported to have alkaloids and triterpenoids. It is also known to have medicinal properties. The internet is full of reports on its uses and concoctions and plants are being sold online. 

In my area, i haven't known any use for medicinal purposes, but it is commonly used as landscape materials. It is not very difficult to grow and very tolerant to drought, which probably made it good in ornamental industry. I also observed it to be good nectar plants for some butterfy species, so it can be both used in landscaping and in butterfly gardening. 

Nature Notes

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