Bougainvillea Flower

Bougainvillea is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina (Chubut Province). Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus. The name comes from Louis Antoine de Bougainville, an admiral in the French Navy who discovered the plant in Brazil in 1768.

They are thorny, woody, vines growing anywhere from 1-12 meters tall, scrambling over other plants with their hooked thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance. They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4-13 cm long and 2-6 cm broad. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colors associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as "paper flower" because the bracts are thin and papery. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene.

Bougainvillea are relatively pest-free plants, but may suffer from worms and aphids. The larvae of some Lepidoptera species also use them as food plants, for example the Giant Leopard Moth. Read more on this article...

KALATSUTSI

Kalatsusi is a small, deciduous tree with crooked trunk, thick fleshy branches and sticky, milky juice. The bark has a smooth, papery outer layer which is grey, shining and constantly exfoliating in small flakes. The wood is yellowish, white and soft. The branches are swollen and leafy at the tips. The leaves are alternate, oblanceolate, 20-40 cm long, pointed at the both ends and spirally arrange at the ends of the branch. The flowers are numerous, fragrant and they vary in color. The fruit has two follicles, cylindrical, with pointed tip, 15-20 cm long. Read more on this article...

Blanket Flower

Gaillardia (Blanket flower) is a genus of drought-tolerant annual and perennial plants from the sunflower family (Asteraceae), native to North America. It was named after M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name refers to the inflorescence's resemblance to brightly patterned blankets made by native Americans.

These plants form wiry, branched stems with lanceolate to linear basal leaves. The plant grows to 1 1/2 to 2 ft (45 - 60 cm) tall, with bright daisy-like single color and bi-color blooms in shades from buff to red to brown. The flowers bloom in the summer. There are more than two dozen known species of Gaillardia.

They will grow under very harsh and dry conditions, forming mounds, 8 - 18 inches (20 - 45 cm) high, and will even bloom in sand along a seashore.

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Salvia Flower

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Astilbe

Astilbe is a genus of 18 species perennial, herbaceous flowering plants, within the family Saxifragaceae. Some species are commonly known as False Goat's Beard, and False Spirea. Astilbe species are native to Asia and North America.

They are cultivated by gardeners as hardy herbaceous perennials, for their large handsome, often fern-like foliage, and dense, feathery plumes of flowers. Astilbes are most widely recognized for their profuse blooms in full shade. They require a peaty soil for their successful cultivation. Numerous hybrids have been raised. Astilbe is a tall feathery flowered plant popular as a pond side feature.

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asiatic lily

The genus Lilium are herbaceous flowering plants normally growing from bulbs. They comprise a genus of about 110 species in the lily family, Liliaceae. They are important as large showy flowering garden plants. They are important culturally and in literature in much of the world.

Some species are sometimes grown or harvested for the edible bulbs.

The species in this genus are the true lilies. Many other plants exist with "lily" in the common English name, some of which are quite unrelated to the true lilies.

Range:

The range of lilies in the Old World extends across much of Europe, the north Mediterranean region, across most of Asia to Japan, south to the Nilgiri mountains in India, and south to the Philippines. In the New World they extend from southern Canada through much of the United States.

They are commonly adapted to either woodland habitats, often montane, or sometimes to grassland habitats. A few can survive in marshland and a single one is known to live as an epiphyte (L. arboricola). In general they prefer moderately acidic or lime-free soils. Read more on this article...

Adenium

Adenium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae, containing a single species, Adenium obesum, also known as Sabi Star, Kudu or Desert-rose. It is native to tropical and subtropical eastern and southern Africa and Arabia.
Close-up of a flower

It is an evergreen succulent shrub in tropical climates and semi-deciduous to deciduous in colder climates, is also dependent on the subspecies or cultivar. Growing to 1-3 m in height, with pachycaul stems and a stout, swollen basal caudex. The leaves are spirally arranged, clustered toward the tips of the shoots, simple entire, sexy in texture, 5-15 cm long and 1-8 cm broad. The flowers are tubular, 2-5 cm long, with the outer portion 4-6 cm diameter with five petals, resembling those of other related genera such as Plumeria and Nerium. The flowers tend to red and pink, often with a whitish blush outward of the throat.

Cultivation and uses: Adenium is a popular houseplant in temperate regions. It requires a sunny location and a minimum indoor temperature in winter of 10 °C. It thrives on a xeric watering regime as required by cacti. Adenium is typically propagated by seed or stem cuttings. The numerous hybrids are propagated mainly by grafting onto seedling rootstock. While plants grown from seed are more likely to have the swollen caudex at a young age, with time many cutting-grown plants cannot be distinguished from seedlings.

The plant exudes a highly toxic sap which is used by some peoples, such as the Akie in Tanzania, to coat arrow-tips for hunting.

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