Today we have some flower photos from reader MichaelC. His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Sri Lanka Flora!
Recently I sent WEIT some photos from the Dambulla cave temples in Sri Lanka. My wife and I took a “pre-honeymoon” there (we took our honeymoon before the wedding; we’re olde so rules don’t apply to us!) and I have a large number of photos of Sri Lankan flora. [Today we have the flora.]
I hope some of the ones I’ve selected are new to readers. I have tried to identify them, some I’m sure of, others not so much, and some I don’t know at all. The countryside in Sri Lanka is bursting with color; there are flowers everywhere. And birdsong! If you don’t like singing birds, Sri Lankan is not a place for you. Most of the flowers are probably familiar to people – I’ve seen many myself. These were mostly taken at the Royal Botanical Gardens or on the estate of the Dilmah Tea Plantation.
A Vanda orchid, possibly Vanda suksamran?
Black Bat flower (Tacca chantrieri). I know some Goth friends of my son who I bet would like this plant!:
Some type of rose. St. Nicholas’ Damask, maybe?:
Scarlet Sage (Salvia splendens):
Bachelor’s buttons (Centratherum punctatum or Centratherum intermedium?):
The familiar Hanging Lobster Claw (Heliconia rostrata):
There were a large variety of Angels trumpets (Brugmansia spp.) in parks, gardens, and jungles all over Sri Lanka. Here are a few;
Some kind of orchid (my notes say it’s a Dendrobium orchid):
Egyptian Starcluster (Pentas lanceolata):
Star of Bethlehem (Hippobroma longiflora):
Very nice!
Thank you for sharing your pictures of these beautiful flowers!
Lovely flowers! The Angels Trumpets stirred a memory, so I looked it up and learned that they are in the deadly nightshade family, so they are very poisonous. Also these shrubs are considered extinct in the wild and are only grown under cultivation. I wonder how that happened!
Thank you Michael. These bright and colorful flowers in Sri Lankan sunshine are very welcome here on a very cold and not very sunny day here in Virginia.
I might be confused here. Today’s pictures are from MichaelC:
But the cave pictures were from EdwardM:
Are MichaelC and EdwardM the same person?
By the way, some scenes from the film Bridge on the River Kwai were shot at the Royal Botanical Gardens. The film was entirely shot in Ceylon, I think.
EdwardM is the name I go be here. My name is Michael Edward C***. Once at a conference a name tag mistake had me as EdwardM…and I had a plenary talk to give as well as poster! So all week long, that’s who I was.
It dawned on me afterwards that I could use that nom de plume while on the intertubes. It’s not lying (it IS my name*) but this kind of partial anonymity helps prevent spam and abuse. I wish I could have sent more photos but I’m not a good photographer.
Cheers
*I think we get middle names so when we drive her nuts our mothers can yell at us, specifically.
Very nice. The Black Bat Flower is amazing.