Description

Sunflower

Common names: sunflower Description: These large field-grown flowers have 2- to 8-inch diameters. Short petals surround a large disc. Petal colors are pale or golden yellow, orange, red or bronze; discs are brown, black, or green. Thick stems support single- and double-flower varieties. Special care: Keep sunflowers hydrated to help stems support heavy head weight. Place sunflowers in tall containers to provide adequate support for their height.    Tulip Flowers Common names: tulip Description: Single flowers have six petals. Flower variations include lily-flowering types, double flowers, fringed petals and ruffly parrot varieties. Colors include white, yellow, pink, peach, orange, red, lavender, purple and bi-colors. Vase life is up to seven days.   Roses  Common names: tea rose, sweetheart rose, spray rose Description: With almost 120 varieties available, roses are a classic favorite. Roses span the color spectrum with varieties available in all shades of reds, pinks, purples, oranges, corals, peaches and whites. Tea roses open 3 to 4 inches. Stems can be 12 — 30 inches. Spray roses can have several flowers on one stem. Depending on the variety, roses typically last 4 — 7 days. Bird of Paradise Flowers     Common names: bird of paradise Description: Named for their similarity in shape to the heads of tropical birds, these have multicolored 6-inch flowers held inside green, pointed bracts. Their blooms are bright orange with purple and live one to two weeks. Daffodil Flowers       Common names: Daffodil, narcissus, jonquil Description: Six outer petals surround a cup creating a trumpet-style look of this cut flower. Some stems produce one flower; others produce clusters. The outer petals are yellow or white; cups may be white, yellow, orange or salmon, and some have an orange edge. Special care: Daffodils secrete a sap that can harm other flowers if not properly conditioned. If mixed with other flowers, do not recut as you will cause sap to be released again. Orchid Flowers       Common names: orchid, cymbidium, dendrobium, oncidium, cattleya, phalaenopsis Description: Throughout the world, more than 17,000 species are known, and varieties vary in size and shape. Oncidium blossoms are 1 1/2 to 1 inch and are usually yellow with orange-red markings. Cymbidium and dendrobium flowers have a butterfly-like shape and are 3 to 4 inches acress. The larger of the two, cymbidiums are white, yellow, green or lavender with pink or red lips, while dendrobiums are often white or lavender. Cattleya blossoms are large, ruffled and usually 5 to 6 inches across in white or purple with contrasting throats. Phalaenopsis have moth- or butterfly-shaped flowers in colors such as white, pink, purple and bicolors. Lily Common names: lily, Asiatic lily, Oriental lily   Description: Trumpet-shaped flowers grow to a 6-inch diameter. Stems grow to 3 feet long, carrying four to eight blossoms. Sparse foliage is dark green. Because blooms open at various times, most lilies live one to two weeks. Colors include white, yellow, pink, red and orange; many have a deeper color (freckles) on the inner petal. Special care: To prevent pollen from staining petals or clothing, remove stamens. Attention Cat Lovers: According to the ASPCA, lilies are considered to be highly toxic to cats. While the poisonous component has not yet been identified, it is clear that with even ingestions of very small amounts of the plant, severe kidney damage could result. The Society of American Florists recommends keeping lilies out of the reach of cats. It is important to note that lilies do not pose a problem for other pets or humans. Delphinium Flowers       Common names: delphinium Description: Delphiniums provide some of the best cut flowers with a color range including blue, lavender, purple, pink, salmon, rose, red, white, and bi-colors. Flowers grow along spikes with stems that are 1 to 6 feet long. Flowers are either single or double, and foliage is medium green and leafy. Vase life ranges from four to 12 days.

Fragrant Flowers Part-III

Common name: Hyacinth, Dutch hyacinth, Roman hyacinth Botanical name: Hyacinthus orientalis    Family: Asparagaceae (Asparagus family) The hyacinth is a bulbous perennial herb in the lily family, grown for its showy and fragrant springtime flower display. Four to six shiny narrow straplike leaves and a central flower stalk emerge from the squat subterranean bulb in early to mid spring. The 12 in (30.5 cm) stalk is crowded with colorful flowers that, depending on cultivar, may be red, orange, pink, yellow, white, lavender or blue. The individual flowers are funnel shaped, single or double, and the six lobes may be strongly reflexed to merely spreading. Many have intensely sweet fragrances. There are more than 60 cultivars available. Those in the Multiflora Group have several flowering stalks. Roman hyacinth (H. orientalis var. albulus) is smaller than the typical form, and has blue or white flowers that aren't as crowded on the stalk. The hyacinth hails originally from the Mediterranean region, from North Africa, through Greece, to Asia Minor and Syria. According to Homer, the hyacinth first grew from where the blood of Hyakinthos, the youthful warrior accidentally killed by Apollo, was shed upon the ground.     Common name: Red Ginger Lily • Manipuri: তখেললৈ অঙাঙ্বা Takhellei angangba Botanical name: Hedychium marginatum    Family: Zingiberaceae (Ginger family) Red Ginger Lily is a very uncommon ginger with beautiful bright red flowers. In form, the flowers look similar to those of Butterfly Ginger Lily. Flowers appear in spikes. It is found in NE India, particularly Manipur. Medicinal uses: Decoction of rhizomes is given in bronchitis and stomach complaints.         Common name: Fragrant Panama rose, Sweet Smelling Rondeletia Botanical name: Rondeletia odorata    Family: Rubiaceae (coffee family) Originally from Panama and Cuba, Fragrant Panama rose is an evergreen shrub, commonly cultivated in gardens in India. It grows up to 6-10 feet tall, with opposite sessile, ovate to oblong leaves with wavy margins, 2 inches long. From summer to fall, it blooms with beautiful, fragrant reddish orange, tubular flowers with yellow throats. Flowers occur in many-flowered cymes at the end of branches, up to 5 inch across. The Fragrant Panama rose was first collected by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in "Mexico: Guerrero: inter Alto del Peregrino et Río Papagallo", 'between loft of the wanderer (or peregrine's nest?) and the River Papagayo (parrot)'. The botanical name was published by Kunth in 1818 in the fourth edition of Nova Genera et Species Plantarum. The name honored Guillaume Rondelet, a natural historian, physician, and botany instructor at the university in Montpellier, France in the 16th century.     Common name: Confederate jasmine, Star jasmine Botanical name: Trachelospermum jasminoides    Family: Apocynaceae (oleander family) This beautiful and energetic evergreen vine creates a special scene all through the year as clambers 40 ft up tree trunks using its holdfast roots to pull itself almost to the top. During April and May the plant goes two-tone as it flushes light green with new growth. Shortly thereafter the scene transforms again when the delicate 1 in white pinwheel flowers delicately breathe enchanting fragrances into the spring air. Confederate jasmine grows as a neat tangle of slender wiry stems that exude white latex when cut. These are covered with thick glossy evergreen leaves that are 2 in long, oval shaped, and pointed at both ends. The stems will twine and clamber over supports and cling to walls and hard surfaces with great ease and abandon. It should be noted that Confederate jasmine is not a "true" jasmine. Confederate jasmine comes from China, but has been a popular garden plant in Europe and the U.S. for centuries.     Common name: Honeysuckle, Dutch Honeysuckle, Madhumati (Manipuri) Botanical name: Lonicera periclymenum 'Serotina'    Family: Caprifoliaceae (honeysuckle family) The gorgeous flowers of Dutch honeysuckle are extremely fragrant and well-loved by hummingbirds. The natural form has white flowers, but Serotina is white and dark red. As nice as the individual flower is though, it is the overall effect of the flowering vine with it's cascading layers of flowers that make it such a sight.

Fragrant Flowers Part-II

Common name: Dwarf Ylang Ylang Botanical name: Cananga odorata var. fruticosa    Family: Annonaceae (Sugar-apple family) Synonyms: Cananga fruticosa, Cananga kirkii Dwarf Ylang Ylang is a compact shrub, growing to 2 m tall, with highly scented yellowish flowers, probably native to Thailand. It is a dwarf form of the Ylang Ylang tree. However, it flowers much more profusely, and the flowers have curled petals. The flowers are used in the perfume industry. It can be grown in the garden or will do well in a container. It blooms profusely during the spring and summer months.                   Common name: Kewda, Fragrant Screw Pine, Umbrella tree, Screw pine, Screw tree • Assamese: কেতেকী ketaki • Bengali: কেতকী ketaki • Gujarati: કેતક ketak • Hindi: गगण धूल gagan-dhul, जम्बाला jambala, जम्बूल jambul, केओड़ा keora, केतकी ketaki, केंवड़ा kevara, पांशुका panshuka, पांसुका pansuka, पुष्प चामर pushp-chamar, तीक्ष्ण गन्धा tikshna-gandha • Kannada: ಕೇದಗೆ kedage, ಕೇದಗಿ kedagi, ಕೇದಿಗೆ kedige, ಕೇತಕೆ ketake, ತಾಳೇ ಹೂ taale hu • Konkani: बोन्नोंग bonnong, केगदी kegdi, खेवडा khevada • Malayalam: കൈനാറി kainaari, കൈത kaitha • Manipuri: কেতেকী ketaki • Marathi: केगद kegad, केतकी ketaki, केवडा kevada • Oriya: Kia • Sanskrit: हनीलः hanilha, जम्बूल jambul, केतकी ketaki, पांशुका panshuka, पांसुका pansuka, सुगंधिनी sugandhini • Tamil: கேதகை ketakai, தாழை talai • Telugu: గేదగ gedaga, గొజ్జంగి gojjangi, కేతకి ketaki • Urdu: جمبالا jambala, جمبول jambul, کيتکی ketaki, کيوڙا kevara, پانشکا panshuka Botanical name: Pandanus odorifer    Family: Pandanaceae (Screw pine family) Synonyms: Keura odorifera, Pandanus odoratissimus, Pandanus fascicularis Fragrant Screw Pine is a small branched tree or shrub with fragrant flowers, found wild in southern India, Burma and the Andamans. it is a small, slender, branching tree with a flexuous trunk supported by brace roots. With rosettes of long-pointed, stiffly leathery, spiny, bluish-green, fragrant leaves, it bears in summer very fragrant flowers. It is used as perfume. aromatic oil (kevda oil) and fragrant distillation (otto) called "keorra-ka-arak". Used plant part - male flowers. They are almost exclusively used in the form of a watery distillate called kewra water. Flowers have a sweet, perfumed odor that has a pleasant quality similar to rose flowers, but kewra is more fruity. The distillate (kewra water, pandanus flower water) is quite diluted; it can be used by the teaspoon, often even by the tablespoon. Most delightful, richest, and powerful of perfumes even when dried.       ative Photo: Jis Sebastian Common name: Clustered Coelogyne Botanical name: Coelogyne corymbosa    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Pleione corymbosa Clustered Coelogyne is an epiphytic orchid distinguished by its small pseudobulbs, and its erect clusters of only 2-4 white fragrant flowers each up to 5 cm across. Sepals and petals are white, broadly lanceshaped, lip oblong with broad blunt erect lateral lobes, the central lobe triangular-ovate, brown at base with two yellow blotches and with a white terminal part. Leaves are oblong-elliptic, 10-18 cm long. Pseudobulbs are 2.5-4 cm, borne on a thick rhizome. Clustered Coelogyne is found in Eastern Himalayas, from C. Nepal to NE India and SW China, at altitudes of 2200-3300 m. Flowering: April-June.               Common name: Freesia Botanical name: Freesia spp.    Family: Iridaceae (Iris family) Native to Africa, Freesia is a genus of 14-16 species of flowering plants in the Iris family. Freesias are strongly scented so they make a nice addition to any area. They have five to 10 single or double flowers. Stems are usually 10 to 18 inches long with little or no foliage. The bell-shaped freesia blooms up to seven days and comes in white, golden yellow, orange, red, pink, mauve, lavender, purple and bicolors. They are herbaceous plants which grow from a corm 1-2.5 cm diameter, which sends up a tuft of narrow leaves 10-30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10-40 cm tall bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers.         Common name: Milk and Wine Lily, Ceylon swamplily, Pink striped trumpet lily • Hindi: सुदर्शन Sudarshan • Marathi: Gandani-kanda, Gadambhikanda, Golkamdo • Tamil: Vishamungil • Kannada: Vish mungli • Bengali: Sukhdarshan • Konkani: Golkando • Sanskrit: मधुपर्णिका Madhuparnika, Vrishakarni Botanical name: Crinum latifolium    Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family) Synonyms: Crinum cochinchinense, Crinum longistylum, Crinum esquirolii This old fashioned crinum lily is a low maintence plant that produces lovely, large, striped, lily-like flowers. The stripes are alternately wine pink and white. The flowers also have a wonderful faintly sweet fragrance. The tall bloom stalk stands about 18-24 inches above the abundant foilage and hold 5+ blooms at a time! These will produce several flower stalks during the warmer months with the majority of blooms coming in the spring and fall. These lilies will multiply by producing bulbs underground as well as from the seeds that form after the blooms. You'll have a lovely large group of these in no time. Milk and Wine Lily is native to India. Flowering: June-August. Medicinal uses: Bulbs are extremely acrid. When roasted, they are used as a rubefacient in rheumatism. Crushed and toasted bulb is applied to piles and abscesses to cause suppuration. The juice of the leaf is used in earache.           Common name: Woodrow's Crinum Lily • Marathi: रोवी कर्णफुल Rowi karnaphul Botanical name: Crinum woodrowii    Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family ) Woodrow's Crinum Lily is a rare and critically endangered bulbous plant, which was thought to be extinct, but was rediscovered in 2004, after a gap of about 100 years! G. M. Woodrow first collected this species from Mahabaleshwar. Several bulbs of this were sent to Kew (England) supposing them to be C. brachynema, but when they flowered at Kew the plant proved to be a new species. It is a large perennial herb, growing up to 50-70 cm tall. Strap-like bright green leaves, 30 cm long, 7-10 cm wide, arise directly from the root. Large fragrant white flowers arise on a scape about a foot tall, arising from the bulb outside the tuft of leaves. Flowers are fragrant, 6-7 in an umbel on top of the scape. Flower tube is 7-10 cm, cylindric, petals are are 7-10 cm long, lancelike. The six stamens have red filaments, and are shorter than the petals. Anthers are yellow. Woodrow's Crinum Lily is endemic to Satara District, Mahabaleshwar and Kates Point in Maharashtra. Flowering: May–July.

Fragrant Flowers

Common name: Champa, Joy Perfume Tree • Hindi: चम्पा Champa • Manipuri: লৈহাও Leihao • Marathi: Son Champa • Tamil: Sambagan • Telugu: Champangi • Kannada: Sampige • Bengali: চম্পা Champa • Oriya: Chompa • Konkani: Pudchampo • Urdu: Champa چمپا • Assamese: Tita-sopa • Sanskrit: Champaka Botanical name: Magnolia champaca    Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia family) Synonyms: Michelia champaca Champa is native to Indonesia, India and other neighbouring areas. It occurs naturally in the eastern Himalayan region. It is a large evergreen tree with a long straight bole of 18-21 m with a close tapering crown composed of ascending branches. The most interesting part of the tree are its flowers which are not very showy with few narrow yellowish white petals, but have an extremely heady fragrance. This fragrance has made Champa flowers very popular and they have been part of the culture in India from time immemorial. They are used in religeous offering in various parts of India. On a warm humid night, the scents can easily be enjoyed several hundred feet away. Champa flowers are used to make the world's most expensive perfume 'Joy' in America.   Common name: Joy Perfume Tree, Champa चम्पा (Hindi), Leihao (Manipuri), Sambagan (Tamil), Sampige (Kannada), Sachochampo (Gujarati), Tita-sopa (Assamese), Pivaluchampa (Marathi), Champa (Bengali), Champakah (Sanskrit), Pudchampo (Konkani) Botanical name: Magnolia champaca    Family: Magnoliaceae (magnolia family) Synonyms: Michelia champaca This variety of Champa produces golden yellow flowers. Champa is native to Indonesia, India and other neighbouring areas. It occurs naturally in the eastern Himalayan region. It is a large evergreen tree with a long straight bole of 18-21 m with a close tapering crown composed of ascending branches. The most interesting part of the tree are its flowers which have an extremely heady fragrance. This fragrance has made Champa flowers very popular and they have been part of the culture in India from time immemorial. They are used in religeous offering in various parts of India. On a warm humid night, the scents can easily be enjoyed several hundred feet away. Champa flowers are used to make the world's most expensive perfume 'Joy' in America.        Common name: Magnolia, Southern magnolia • Hindi: हिम चम्पा Him champa • Manipuri: ঊথম্বাল Oothambal Botanical name: Magnolia grandiflora     Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia family) Magnolia, a native of the southeastern US, is one of the most magnificent of the fragrant trees. It's trunk is typically straight and erect with spreading branches that form a dense, broadly pyramidal crown. It has large, thick, leathery dark green leaves which are up to 10 inches long. In the spring, they have a golden to rust color on their undersides. The large evergreen trees may grow to 90 ft tall, and the fragrant white blossoms that have smooth, almost velvet-looking petals, are 8-12 inches across. The snow white flowers are huge, and cup-shaped when young. The fruits are reddish-brown conelike structures, 2-4 in long, with bright red kidney shaped seeds that hang from little threads when fully mature in autumn. In the US, the magnolia is used as a street tree, a free standing specimen, a framing tree, or shade tree. In most parts of India, magnolias are grown only in select well-maintained gardens. In Manipur, magnolias are commonly grown - the Manipuri name ootahmbal means "tree lotus" - flowers are used as offering in puja.         Common name: Dwarf Magnolia, Cempaka Telur, Cempaka Gondok, Coconut Magnolia Botanical name: Magnolia coco      Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia family) Native to China, magnolia coco is a wonderful plant which captures the beauty of magnolias (normally big trees) in a flower pot. The flowers are small and very fragrant. They usually last only a day and open in the evening, the tepals falling by morning. This species is a good houseplant, the most suitable magnolia for indoors, thanks to its small size and slow growth rate. Its long flowering period provides indoor fragrance and color about nine months of a year. Most of magnolias lack nectaries, but the Magnolia coco is a nice exception. It secrets a nectar-like substance at the base of the tepals and between the stigmas. Indoors it can be grown as a small house plant in a pot where it gets only 2-3 ft tall and blooms in young age. Fragrance is outstanding especially in early morning, and reminds one of champaka. This probably inspired its other names, Michelia coco and Michelia pumila. This is a true magnolia - the blooms are at the ends of the branches, rather than from the leaf axils as they are in the Michelia group.          Common name: Ylang Ylang Vine, Climbing lang-lang, Tail grape, Ilang-ilang • Hindi: Hari champa हरी चम्पा, Madanmast मदनमस्त, Manorangini मनोरंगिनी • Manipuri: চীনী চম্প্ৰা Chini champra • Oriya: Kalomuro • Bengali: Kanthalichampa কাঁঠালী চাঁপা • Kannada: Manoranjanihu balli • Marathi: हिरवा चाफा Hirva chapha • Tamil: மனோரஞ்ஜிதம்Manoranjitham Botanical name: Artabotrys hexapetalus      Family: Annonaceae (sugar apple family) Synonyms: Annona hexapetala, Artabotrys odoratissimus Also known by its common name in India as "Manorangini", Hari Champa has absolutely intoxicating fragrance! This species is native to India and tropical Asia. A medium size climbing shrub 8-10 ft, producing flowers that are greenish in color and fade to yellow with age, and are extremely fragrant. Once picked they are very long lasting and hold their scent for days, if kept in water, permeating an entire room. Flowers have three outer and three inner greenish yellow petals - hence the name hexapetalus. It is a fruity sweet smell - the Manipuri name Chini Champra, meaning sugar lemon, is indicative of that. Narrowly elliptical leaves, 6-15 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide, are usually 3-4 times as long as wide, acute or almost so at base, short-acuminate at the tip, not glossy. Lateral veins are 8-16 pairs. Fruits are 3-4 cm long when ripe, ovoid and smooth. When young, this climber grows just like a regular shrub but at 5-6 ft, will start to vine. It is not an aggressive vine.         Common name: Ylang Ylang • Marathi: Chape • Tamil: க்ட்டு சம்பகம் Kattu chempakam • Telugu: Apurva champakame, Chettu sampangi • Kannada: ಅಪೂರ್ವ ಚಮ್ಪಕ Apurva champaka Botanical name: Cananga odorata    Family: Annonaceae (Sugar-apple family) Synonyms: Uvaria odorata The ylang-ylang (pronounced ee-lang ee-lang) is a large tree, to 10-15 m tall, which produces highly fragrant flowers. It is native to Indo-Malaysia. Leaves are dark green, up to 20 cm (8 in) in length, alternate, simple, entire, elliptic-oblong, slightly pubescent, and with a prominent midrib and drip tip. It flowers throughout the year in axillary, umbellate hanging clusters of 4–12 flowers.The flower has three sepals and six petals up to 8 cm long. The petals are twisted when young, then limp and drooping when mature. Flowers are very fragrant, greenish yellow at first, then turning a deep yellow/yellow brown when mature. The essential oil of the flower is obtained through steam distillation of the flowers and separated into different grades according to when the distillates are obtained.

ORCHIDS OF INDIA

Common name: Small Warty Acampe • Sanskrit: Gandhanakuli, Rasna Botanical name: Acampe papillosa    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Acampe carinata Small Warty Acampe is a clump-forming orchid found in the Eastern Himalayas, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanamar, up to an altitude of 200 m. It is a large sized, single-stemmed, warm growing epiphyte. It looks very much like a Vanda. It has a stout erect to curved stem carrying narrowly oblong, strap-shaped, leathery leaves. Leaves are slightly notched into 2 unequal lobes. Flowers arise in the fall on a short, 1 inch long, many (10-12)         Common name: Acampe orchid, Maravasha (Marathi), Taliyamaravada (Malayalam) Botanical name: Acampe praemorsa    Family: Orchidaceae (orchid family) Acampe is a genus of seven orchid species distributed from tropical Africa to India, eastwards to China and southwards to Malaya, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea. The name Acampe was derived from the Greek word akampas, meaning "rigid", referring to the little, brittle, inflexible flowers. These species produce slow-growing, medium-sized vines that form very large vegetative masses in nature. They are noted for their thick, leathery, distichous leaves. They produce fragrant small to medium-sized yellow flowers, barred with brown stripes, in a few to many-flowered racemose inflorescence. The brittle sepals and petals look alike. The ear-shaped, fringed, white labellum (lip) is saccate (sac-shaped) or has a spur, and has red markings at its base. The fleshy column is short and has two waxy pollinia. Due to their large size and small flowers, they are rarely cultivated. Acampe praemorsa is native to India and Srilanka.              Common name: Curled Aerides Botanical name: Aerides crispa     Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Aerides crispum (?) Curled Aerides is an epiphytic orchid found in SW India at elevations of 800-1200 m. It has a thick dull violet purple stem carrying spreading, thick, leathery, pale green leaves, dull-violet -purple basally. Leaves are strap-shaped, unequally bilobed at the tip with a small tip between the lobes. Inflorescens is a 40-50 cm long, erect to arching, branched, 20 to 25 flowered cluster, carrying fragrant flowers.                Common name: Fox Brush Orchid, Cat's-tail Orchid • Marathi: Thipke irid amri • Kannada: Drupadi Pushpa Botanical name: Aerides maculosa    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Saccolabium speciosum, Aerides schroederi, Aerides illustris Fox Brush Orchid is a dwarf orchid species with crystalline pink, spotted magenta, fragrant flowers to 2cm. The spikes are arching to pendulous, to about 25cm long with many flowers. They occur mainly in Asia : the Indian subcontinent, Nepal, Southern China, SE Asia, the Philippines, New Guinea. They form pendulous racemes with many fragrant, long-lasting, waxy flowers, in white, (rarely) yellow, purple or pink colors, with a forward facing spur, growing on stout many-leaved stems from the leaf axils. The leaves grow distichously (in two vertical rows) The leaf margins are bilobed, while the apex is emarginate.       Common name: Crested Coelogyne • Hindi: Gondya • Nepali: Chandi gabha Botanical name: Coelogyne cristata    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Crested Coelogyne is a very common orchid found growing on forest trees in the Himalayas, from Uttarakhand to Sikkim, at altitudes of 1000-2000 m. Joseph Hooker, who collected orchids and other plants in 1848-1850, recorded that "On the ascent from Darjeeling the straight shafts of many of the timber trees are literally clothed with a continuous garment of white-flowered coelogynes, which bloom in a profuse manner, whitening their trunks like snow". Flowers are white, in hanging clusters, with a white lip with 4 yellow ridges at the base between the lateral lobes, and with 2 broad crenulate yellow plates on the mid-lobe. Flowers are 5-9 cm across, borne in 3-10 flowered clusters 15-20 cm long. Sepals and petals are 4-5 cm long, oblong blunt with wavy margins. Bracts are oblong and persistent. Spur is absent. Leaves are paired, linear-lanceshaped 15-30 cm long, 2-3 cm broad. Pseudobulbs are oblong ovoid, 5-8 cm, arising from a stout rhizome. Flowering: March-April. Medicinal uses: Juice of the pseudobulb is applied to boils. This juice is also put in the wound on the hooves of animals.          Common name: Clustered Coelogyne Botanical name: Coelogyne corymbosa    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Pleione corymbosa Clustered Coelogyne is an epiphytic orchid distinguished by its small pseudobulbs, and its erect clusters of only 2-4 white fragrant flowers each up to 5 cm across. Sepals and petals are white, broadly lanceshaped, lip oblong with broad blunt erect lateral lobes, the central lobe triangular-ovate, brown at base with two yellow blotches and with a white terminal part. Leaves are oblong-elliptic, 10-18 cm long. Pseudobulbs are 2.5-4 cm, borne on a thick rhizome. Clustered Coelogyne is found in Eastern Himalayas, from C. Nepal to NE India and SW China, at altitudes of 2200-3300 m. Flowering: April-June.

Himalayan Wild Flowers - III

Common name: Elephant Cobra Lily Botanical name: Arisaema elephas    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Elephant Cobra Lily is an interesting species of Cobra Lily found in China, Bhutan and Myanmar. We found it growing in Arunachal Pradesh too. The "hood" or the spathe is purple, with white or greenish vertical stripes, carried on a leafless stalk 11-15 cm long. The "tongue of the cobra", or the spadix, is purple, and protrudes erect above the hood. The plant has only one trifoliate leaf, carried on a 20-30 cm long green stalk, which has 2 cm thick base. Leaflets are green - central leaflet is obovate to inverted heart-shaped, stalkless, 5-10 cm long, 6-13 cm wide. Lateral leaflets are oblique oblong or ovate, 7-14 cm long, 5-10 cm wide, pointed, base broadly wedge-shaped. Elephant Cobra Lily is found in meadows, mossy rocks, at altitudes of 1800-4000 m. Flowering: June-July.         Common name: Blushing Cobra Lily Botanical name: Arisaema erubescens    Family: Araceae (arum family) This smaller Cobra Lily reaches 40 cm in height, but this doesn't take away from its unique beauty. Its spathe varies in colour from pale purplish red to purplish pink. The botanical name erubescens means blushing (reddening). The spathe has white stripes on the inside below, and ovate long pointed down-curved blade.Spadix blunt, slightly longer than the cylindrical spathe-tube. Leaf has 7-14 narrow lance-like, long pointed radiating leaflets. The long leaf stalk is variegated brown, 12-30 cm high. Seen at altitudes of 2000-2600 m in the Himalayas. Flowering: May-June.           Common name: Yellow Cobra Lily, Yellow Jack in the Pulpit Botanical name: Arisaema flavum    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Yellow Cobra Lily can be distinguished from all other cobra lilies by its very small yellowish or greenish hood, 1.5-4 cm, which is usually dark purple on the inside. The stem carrying the hood is 10-40 cm tall. Leaves are digitately compound with 5-11 oblong-lanceshaped leaflets 2.5-12 cm long. Yellow Cobra Lily is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to SW China, at altitudes of 1800-4500 m. Flowering: May-June.       Common name: Green Taro, cocoyam, taro, aivi, dasheen • Hindi: अरवी Arvi, Ashukachu, कचालू Kachalu • Manipuri: পান Pan • Marathi: आलू aaloo, चेम्पू Chempu, रान आलू Ran aalu • Tamil: Sempu, shamakkilangu • Malayalam: Chempu, Chempakizhanna • Telugu: Chamadumpa, Chamagadda, Chamakura • Kannada: Kesavedantu, Keshavanagadde • Bengali: Kachu, Alti kachu • Oriya: Jongal saaru • Mizo: Bal, Dawl • Sanskrit: Aaluki, Alukam, Alupam, kachchi Botanical name: Colocasia esculenta    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Green Taro is a tuberous bulb plant growing 3-5 ft tall. The large leaves of the plant resemble elephant ears. It produces heart shaped leaves 2-3 ft long and 1-2 ft across on 3 ft long stalks that all emerge from an upright tuberous rootstock, technically a corm. The inflorescence, which is rarely produced in cultivated plants, is a pale green spathe and spadix, typical of the arum family. The corm is shaped like a top with rough ridges, lumps and spindly roots, and usually weighs around 0.5-1 kg, but occasionally as much as 3.5 kg. The skin is brown and the flesh is white or pink. Certain kinds of taros produce smaller tubers or "cormels" which grow off the sides of the main corm.           Common name: Dwarf Gonatanthus • Nepali: लेलधामखोस Leldhamkhos, पतरकच Patarkach Botanical name: Gonatanthus pumilus    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Synonyms: Caladium pumilum, Gonatanthus sarmentosus Dwarf Gonatanthus is a herb which is characterized by large ovate-oblong heart-shaped, Arbi-like leaves. Leaves are 8-15 cm long and 5-10 cm broad, attached to a long stalk from the middle of the blade (what is called a peltate leaf). Flower is a 15-25 cm long stick like spadix, wrapped in a green covering (spathe). Fruit is a head of small yellow berries enclosed in the spathe-tube. The rootstock of the plant is tuberous. Flowering: June-August.     Common name: Creeping Philodendron Botanical name: Rhaphidophora decursiva    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Synonyms: Raphidophora decursiva Creeping Philodendron is a robust evergreen climber, climbing into trees up to 10 m or more by means of roots produced from stem. Leaves are large, glossy, in 2 rows, pinnately lobed. This plant can be easily mistaken for Split Leaf Philodendron, a common house-plant. Each leaf has 8-15 pairs of lobes. Leaf stalks are stout, abruptly bent at the tip. Spathe is pale yellow, 12.5-17.5 cm long, leathery, falling early. Spadix is shorter, white, cylindric, with crowded flowers. Creeping Philodendron is found in the Himalayas, from Uttarakhand to Burma, at altitudes up to 1500 m. Flowering: November.

Himalayan Wild Flower - II

Common name: Saucer Magnolia, Magnolia Tulip Tree Botanical name: Magnolia x soulangiana    Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia family) Saucer Magnolia is probably one of the most popular magnolia. It originated as a hybrid of two Asian magnolias, China's ivory-white Yulan Magnolia (M. denudata) pollinated by Japan's Lily Magnolia (M. liliiflora). It was named after Etienne Soulange-Bodin (1774-1846), a Napoleonic soldier who survived the defeat at Waterloo, & who afterward became director of The Royal Institute of Horticulture near Paris, where he raised his hybrid seedlings. It is a deciduous small tree which grows up to 30 ft tall, with upright and spreading branching, and rounded to irregular habit, with multi-trunked or low main branches. Deciduous leaves are 3-7 inches long, half as wide. Leaves are elliptical with a sharply-pointed tip. Flowers are white, pink, or purple, large, cup-like. The tree blooms in mid- to late April. The flowers are also fragrant. The tree flowers at a young age, and is typically a heavy bloomer. That probably explains its popularity.             Common name: Thulo Tarshing • Nepali: Thoolo tarsing Botanical name: Beilschmiedia roxburghiana    Family: Lauraceae (Laurel family) Synonyms: Beilschmiedia fagifolia Thulo Tarshing is a trees, 10-15 m tall. Branchlets are blackish brown, compressed, prominently angled, sparsely velvety or smooth. Terminal buds are small, densely gray-brown velvety. Leaves are opposite, sometimes alternate, carried on 1.5-2 cm long, slender stalks. Leaves are elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or elliptic-lanceshaped, 9-14 × 3.5-5 cm, papery or somewhat leathery, minutely gland-dotted on both surfaces. Base is broadly wedge-shaped or round, tip blunt or pointed acute, or round. Flowers are borne in cyme-like panicles or racemes, in leaf axils or at branch ends, short, 5-15 cm, wholly densely gray-yellow velvety. Flower-stalks are about 1 mm. Flowers are small. Tepals are ovate, about 1.5 mm. Fertile stamens are 9. Fruit is ellipsoid, 4-5 × 2-3 cm, smooth, rounded at both ends, tip mucronate. Fruiting stalks are robust, 5-20 mm, up to 7 mm in diameter, always brown maculate. Thulo Tarshing is found in E. Himalaya, Nepal, Sikkim, Assam, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Indo-China, at altitudes of 250-2000 m. Flowering: August.              Common name: Duthie's Bay Tree • Nepali: माहिलो काउलो Mahilo kaulo Botanical name: Persea duthiei    Family: Lauraceae (Laurel family) Duthie's Bay Tree is a medium sized evergreen tree, with oblong to oblong-lancelike pointed leaves. The leaves are glaucous beneath. Greenish-yellow flowers appear in branched clusters at the end of branches. Flowers are 6-10 mm across, finely hairy, with oblong-linear petals. Fruit is spherical in shape. Duthie's Bay Tree is found at altitudes of 1500-2700 m, from Pakistan to East Nepal. Flowering: April-May.           Common name: Fragrant Bay Tree • Nepali: सेतो कौलो Seto Kaulo Botanical name: Persea odoratissima    Family: Lauraceae (Laurel family) Synonyms: Machilus odoratissimus Fragrant Bay Tree grows up to 16 m tall and 90 cm in trunk diameter. Bark is dark grey. Branchlets are hairless smooth. Terminal bud large with many glabrous, somewhat fimbriate, bud scales. Leaves are smooth, leathery, lancelike to oblong-oblanceolate to elliptic-oblong, 2.5-7 cm wide and 7.5-18 cm long, acute or acuminate, base shortly acute or rounded. Both surfaces are microscopically pitted. Leaf stalks are slender, 1-2 cm long. Yellow flowers are borne in many-flowered panicles almost at the end of branches, up to 12 cm long. Flowers are 6-10 mm across, with 4-5 mm long stalks. Petals are oblong-linear sharp-tipped petals. Stamens slightly shorter, filaments pilose near the base. Fruit ellipsoid, up to 7 x 15 mm, sepals reflexed, oblong, 8 mm long; pedicels thick, often pinkish. Ripe fruit is purple. Leaves which have a pleasant orange smell, are used for silkworm cultivation. The leaves are collected as fodder for domesticated animals while the bark is used as a red dye. The wood of the trunk is burned as firewood, and the better sections are used in house construction and for furniture. Fragrant Bay Tree is found in the Himalayas at altitudes of 1500-2100 m. Hence visible in various hill station in north India. Flowering: March-April.          Common name: Devil's Tongue, Voodoo Lily, Corpse Flower, Snake Palm • Kannada: kaadu choorna gedde, kaadu kande gedde • Marathi: Ran-suran • Sanskrit: amalavela, atyamlaparni Botanical name: Amorphophallus bulbifer    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Synonyms: Arum bulbiferum Devil's Tongue is a very interesting Aroids, native to NE India. The foliage will reach 3 feet in 6 inch pots. Leaves are digitately divided into leaflets. The dark green leaf and spotted stems make quite an attractive plant. Devil’s Tongue probably get its name from its spathe which is 8 inches long with greenish lines and spotted pink outside, rose in the throat and becoming flesh colored upward inside, spadix is shorter, the sterile appendage pinkish, 3 inches long. Devil's Tongue thrive in a rich loamy soil in partial shade. Compost should consist of 2 parts loam to 1 part peat moss to 1 part sand. Keep the plant evenly moist all through the growing season. Fertilize monthly with a houseplant fertilizer diluted to ½ the strength recommended on the label. Water should be gradually withheld starting in October until the leaf withers. Devil's Tongue is propagated by division of offsets or by seed. Flowering: March-April.              Common name: Striped Cobra Lily Botanical name: Arisaema costatum    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Striped Cobra Lily is a distinctive cobra lily with a dark purple hood with white stripes, 8-12 cm long. The blade is down-curved ending in a tail-like tip, 1-4 cm long. A long thread-like appendage comes out of the throat, 15-45 cm long. The three large leaflets have numerous parallel veins. They are elliptic to ovate, 10-20 cm long. The flowering stem is greenish, up to 40 cm tall, shorter than the leaves. Striped Cobra Lily is found in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 2000-2600 m. Flowering: May-June.