November 6, 2011

Mystery Colors in My Garden

We recently moved houses and that, of course, meant we got a new garden. One morning shortly after a rainfall, I explored the grounds and found a lot of colorful flowers I could not name. Maybe you can help me.

PS. I have added the scientific names below as they were identified with a little help from my blogger friends. Thank you! The names link to sites with more information and, when available, I've linked to a site that describes the plant's medicinal values. 


Ochna thomasiana (Mickey Mouse plant)


This next photo is added after many comments to show the fruit of this bilimbi plant. One of the English common names is cucumber tree. As you can read in the comments or the linked page, the fruit is sour and is used in sinigang (a very sour Filipino soup) and bagoong (shrimp paste). Also go visit fellow blogger Andrea, a Filipina horticultural expert, where her post today elucidates on the properties of this sour fruit. And no, I have not yet tasted this fruit from our tree.

Manila, 2011

 

I'm joining the blogging communities at Today's Flower, Weekend Flowers, Macro Flower Saturday, Flowers on Saturday, Macro Monday and Mosaic Monday. Do check out these meme for awesome flowers, macros and mosaics.

49 comments:

cieldequimper said...

I'm no good at identifying anything here but what a feast for the eyes!

Kay L. Davies said...

Wow, Francisca, they're all beautiful! Is the second-last one some kind of bromeliad?
You know what kinds of flowers I'm familiar with, so I'm not much help, but I certainly enjoyed looking at these. The second one, with the big green knob is amazing, and I love the blossoms growing out from the trunk in the next collage.

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

tapirgal said...

What amazing things you found in your garden! I love your layout with colored borders.

EG CameraGirl said...

You must be very pleased to find these gorgeous flowers blooming in your new gardens!

Tina´s PicStory said...

wonderful flowers. some of them i have never seen! thanks for sharing with weekend flowers :)

jennyfreckles said...

Haven't a clue what these exotics are but they must brighten your garden. The one with the pea thing in the middle is very unusual, to my eyes.

Vicki/Jake said...

Who could even guess at these masterpieces of the Universe? Beautiful..........

Kim, USA said...

Hi Francesca, I like to guess. The 1st collage is Santan, 2nd collage no idea, 3rd collage looks like a fruit/tree we call Iba or Eba, 4th collage on the left looks like birds of paradise and in the right side I forgot the name but this is gorgeous flower too. Beautiful flowers!

Red Mums

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

welcome to this meme, I love this.

Your first flower is IXORA. Common in South East Asia. We used to pull the flower and suck the sweet nectar.

Lui said...

Hi Francisca!
Are you back in Manila?
The first flower is Santan, the next is the Mickey Mouse plant (it has yellow flowers, I'm not sure about the next but the orange one is Birds of Paradise and the last is Adelfa!

Wow, you have quite a garden!

enzo said...

These simple flowers become majestically beautiful in your cam...I love them. I suddenly miss my sweet home Philippines.

Andrea said...

Hahaha, i didn't come here at once you should have told me to! I am amused at some comments to, you might end up having more problems.

1. Santan or Ixora coccinea - check
2. Micky mouse,Ochna thomasiana-check
3. kamyas or kalamyas, Averrhoa bilimbi - used in sinigang as souring agent. I love your photos comp here
4. Heliconia (definitely not bird of paradize which is Strelitzia reginae), i don't know the species but i have it at home invading large area
5. Mussaenda 'Dona Aurora', we have lots of colors of that here named after the wife of presidents

Francisca said...

@Andrea, LOL... I just knew you'd come to my rescue! There are a gazillion species of heliconia, but wading through the photos I can still not identify the right one! Now I'll find some reference sites and update my post. Thanks, expert pal!

Luna Miranda said...

i love to walk in the garden after the rain...you would feel things growing.:p

i love the Micky Mouse flower. they're strange and beautiful. and you have kamias! it's perfect with bagoong. LOL

Maia said...

Exploring a new garden is quite an adventure.
These exotic flowers are all lovely.
They don't grow in our parts so I can't help with the names.
Beautiful photos and mosaics.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

The mango is my favourite, when I say miserable, I mean the spike has about 50 flowers, and only one fruit.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

Averrhoa bilimbi

does it have a small finger size very sour fruit. Used to love eating them but now, it is too sour for me.

Kaori said...

You know, Francisca, I don't think I've seen ANY of these gorgeous flowers! They must be very tropical. I loved learning about them :D

Francisca said...

@Ann... yes it does. They look like tiny cucumbers and one of the common English names is cucumber tree. I should have added a shot of them in my montage. And yes, as Andrea mentioned, it's sour and used in sinigang, a very sour Filipino soup.

Anonymous said...

Hello Andrea..
I have enjoyed your very beautiful pictures.
You live in a wonderful country with rain forests and ocean coastlines. Home to a diverse range of birds, plants and animals I will never see in person.
But finding your blog will allow me a glimpse in this beautiful country.
Here is a link you may want to visit:
http://philippinefloraandfauna.org/
Cheers Gisela.

Indrani said...

I like these details, thanks for the names. :)

DeniseinVA said...

Our blogging friends are always so generous with the help they give in identifying our flowers. My knowledge of such things has greatly improved thanks to them. Your flowers are beautiful!

Romina said...

Nice entry, the first photo we called it Santan flower in the Phils. they come on different colors. I like the photo of Balimbi, it's really tastes very sour, your face will really frown if you try to eat it, you can preserve it and make pickles. Just put on a jar with water and some salt or sugar then preserve it. We use to have that tree on my grandparents house. We like to pick and eat or dip on salt.

Enjoy your photos here.

Al said...

I like the kamias flower! Gorgeous series of flowers thank you for sharing!

Personalized Sketches and Sentiments said...

Beautiful blooms! Especially sweet are the plump petals of the Mickey Mouse plant :o)

Blessings & Aloha!
...catching up on some blog reading :o)

Kay L. Davies said...

Just as beautiful but a little more interesting with the names, as you mentioned, Francisca. The cucumber tree is fascinating.

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

Unknown said...

Fantastic set of gorgeous flora shots!

Carver said...

I can't help with I.D's but they are beautiful flowers.

Rajesh said...

Very lovely flowers.

Unknown said...

What beauties!

Maude Lynn said...

They certainly are lovely!

Chubskulit Rose said...

We call that "Iba" in Bicol term but it is commonly called Kamias in tagalog. Lovely shots Francesca.

Christmas Cactus, have a blessed Sunday!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Love this example of the blogging community at work! Wonderful pictures -- you sure made it easy for the experts to ID these lovely plants.

Pondside said...

What a wonderful world we live in, that such exotic and fabulous plants need the same air and water as their more prosaic cousins!

Andrea said...

I returned here to look for your reply to my comment, LOL. I also saw Gizela's comment and maybe thought it is my post, she also commented in my site. And I am further inspired by this post that I even made longer post on kamyas today, we call it kalamyas in Batangas and Quezon.

Francisca said...

@Andrea... I've added a link to your superb post in mine. :-)

Arija said...

Congratulations on having acquired a garden with so many beautiful and useful plants. Lovely photos of the different phases of the cucumber tree.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful variety of flowers. Just lovely!

I'll e-mail you my thoughts on Red Bubble.

Karen said...

A gorgeous new garden!

Lowell said...

You're so funny. You said you couldn't name them but you got names for most of them. I call them pretty pink and red and green flowers.

By the way, I had to put word verification back. I was swamped with spam!

Veronica said...

Ohhhh these are all quite wonderful. Great shots.

Veronica
Tassels Twigs and Tastebuds

genie said...

With mosaics of flowers like these, you are in the park with Bush Bernie and all of her fab shots. These are all gorgeous. Such beautiful reds. genie

H said...

I don't recognise any of these, but I love the Heliconia!

Ida said...

How wonderful to have so many beautiful plants and flowers in your garden. Your photo's were lovely.

Pat Tillett said...

I'm terrible at plants. The Averrhoa Bilimbi looks like it might be some kind of fuchsia. Sorry, that's all I have!

Anita Johnson said...

So beautiful! I love the tropical look to these plants. Today was beautiful here, but cold and snow flurries are expected. Soon the color will be gone and the natural sepia filter will be applied to my world. NOvember is NO fun! (0:

Kala said...

Gorgeous photos and I love the collages you've created with them!

Happy MM

Andrea said...

you might want to read this about the Philippine Mussaenda, just an additional reference:
http://admin.uplb.edu.ph/photos.php?a=1&i=4&s= .

Unknown said...

so many beautiful things here :)