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Friday, September 21, 2012

Lesser Blooms in our yard

I have not gone home to the property in the province for already two weeks! That means I missed taking the photos of the plants at the middle of the rainy season. But I know what are blooming there are still the same plants i already have, maybe just more blooms appeared, or some blooms already wilted. I also hope that those i pruned and severely cut are now growing luxuriantly and maybe also blooming again. I know the marigolds which are still at the vegetative stages when I left are now having the yellow blooms and the butterflies and bees now happy with their loots. Next week I promise i will go home. I also hope no typhoon will be visiting by then, so I and the butterflies will be happier roaming around.

I call these my lesser blooms because they are not as showy as other plants. These plants are also smaller in size, but they are lovely in their own ways. Some are also neglected by butterflies, but there are other insects which prefer them. I guess just like catterpillars which are very host specific, some insects are host specific too of their nectar sources.

 This Turnera subulata is laced with one hole in each petal. That is very unusual to see in a bloom. I wonder what insect punctured the bloom when it was still in the bud stage, producing the almost similar holes in it. I found it like an insect art! I always notice the very small bee-like insects here, there is one there almost invisible at the center because it is just ~3mm in length.

 The turnera flowers open only in the morning, and another set of flowers will bloom again the next day. The insect patrons are always in a hurry to take advantage of the short time they can avail of its nectar. The most often visitor here is the bumble bee, i wonder which flower they visit in the afternoon, after the Turnera closed.
 Pentas lanceolata also grows voluntarily in our yard. Sometimes, there are years when more colors appear. However, i realized the white doesn't appear often. I purposely planted one and it contributed to the appearance of pale pink and lavender blooms, however i don't have them now. They just were not able to tolerate the very long and hot dry season. Pentas are also loved much by butterflies.

 This is a Sansevieria bloom. It is not very attractive to humans and they are most often cultivated because of their variegated leaves. Since I am not very much attracted to it, I haven't seen any insects attracted to it too. Do you see the correlation with that? It is because i don't stay with it for a long time, so I don't see the insects which visit its blooms. I promise next time i will try to observe its visitors.


Above are the blooms together with the leaves. We use it as hedge in the sidewalk, and when growing profusely retains the soil from being eroded during heavy rains.

I also love the tubelike flowers of this Seemania sylvatica. However, it is easily affected during the dry season, and one of the first species to go to plant heaven!

Sanchezia speciosa is mainly grown for the very dramatic colors and patterns of the leaves. It produces tube-like blooms with very long filament. Taken singly they are lovely too, but when all the tops are producing these spikes, they look so disorganized. So, I pinch most of the inflorescence when they are still very young. 
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25 comments:

  1. Wonderful photos from this different flowers. Beautiful done. I use the normal lense 14 - 42 mm with the Olympus E 450. Best regards, Synnöve

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    1. Thanks Seraphina for the visit here. I guess my not so clear photos sometimes when using the same Olympus lens is due to either wind or unsteady hands!

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  2. Very lovely but unusual flowers pictures for me.
    Great pictures and information.
    Thank you for your visit,
    Gisela.

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    1. My appreciation too Gisela, i guess i showed something not yet in your gardens. Maybe these are really confined in the tropics.

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    2. That is exactly why visit other blogs. Seeing and learning about flowers and plants I haven't seen and will never been able to grow in my garden.
      Fall has arrived in Toronto and flowers fade away.

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  3. The orange flowers are beautiful. My Sanseverias flower in February.

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    1. Maybe we have a bit different climate. Our Sansevieria has wider range of flowering, maybe because they are neglected, haha!

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  4. nice to see your garden plants and lovely images

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  5. very beautiful pix of interesting blooms, and thanx for the informative narrative.....

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  6. nice set of flowers... uhhmmm never seen that Sanseveira bloom. There must be something to it that makes it unattractive. :(

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    1. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", many people find it unattractive, reasons why they plant it. I found it attractive in a different way though, and the dwarf varieties are lovelier for me, i actually have them in the office window!

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  7. I never know na meron palang mga ganyan bulaklak sa atin. well, lumaki kasi ako almost sa manila. Anyway, they are very nice and at least I am learning of our beautiful flowers.
    Anyway my entry for FFF is from willyouhearfromme.blogspot.com, but I mentioned you in my one year blog anniversary post in joysnotepad.blogspot.com as a nature lover and that is one of the blogs I visit:)
    Have a nice week end!

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    1. Hello Joy, these are very common flowers anywhere in the country. They are scattered even in Manila, you are just not very observant in your Manila days. Thanks for being a follower.

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  8. love the color of the pentas. i posted tiger's tail/sansevieria a few months ago--it was the first time that i saw the flowers. this plant was common in my elementary and high schools but i didn't notice the flower.:p

    Copper Leaf

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    1. Maybe its unattractiveness is due to its presence everywhere, something is attractive if we see it only in very few places.

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  9. Hi Aaron, you can blog again, good news. You are very right about the beauty contest for flowers. I don't give them attention or care, so i blog them to show a special attention once-in-a while. About your ficus instead of Sansevieria, which do you prefer?

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  10. Very vivid flowers. Like all the beauty. We rarely have the Mother in Laws tongue bloom and it's so nice to see the delicate flowers on this plant. Have a good weekend Andrea! Kreesh

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  11. Hi Andrea
    The Tunera remind me of Anemone here. And I do think the Sanchezia is sending out some sort of signals with those filaments-- like vegetative cell phone towers maybe. I love many plants with delicate (lesser) blooms, they are some of the best, and the ones you featured are so pretty!

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    1. Thanks Linnie, i love that description of the Sanchezia anthers, from now on I will think of them as such. Maybe the pollen and stigma compatibility is not very good, so they have to extend to other stigmas! What do you think, aside from being antenas? LOL.

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  12. Your flowers are gorgeous! Thank you for stopping by.

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  13. You have lovely blooms!

    Visiting from Today's flower. Come and see my Rose

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  14. You have some lovely blooms here, the first is new to me, very pretty.

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