King's Mantle

 King's Mantle, Bush Clockvine, Thunbergia erecta

A West African native, King's Mantle is a herbaceous perennial climber that grows as dense shrubs.  It can grow up to 6 feet, prefers moist soil but can tolerate some drought, and it does better at partial shade.  This is one of the flowers at my aunt's garden in Antique.

The voice of beauty speaks softly; it creeps only into the most awakened souls. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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Thunbergia lauriflolia

Blue Trumpet Vine, Thunbergia laurifolia

Ornamental vine with showy blue-violet trumpet-shaped flowers.  This flowering vine covers most of the pergola and parameter fence at a friend's property in Tagaytay.

"Gardening is a kind of disease.  It infects you, you cannot escape it.  When you go visiting, your eyes rove about the garden; you interrupt the serious cocktail drinking because of an irrisistible impulse to get up and pull a weed."....in my case, to take a photo.:p

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Thunbergia Mysorensis

Clock Vine, Thunbergia mysorensis, Thunbergia Andreson x Bedd

A stunning flowering vine originating from India.

The bright yellow/maroon flowers were hanging in clusters from a pergola at a friend's garden. 

In the garden I tend to drop my thoughts here and there.  To the flowers I whisper the secrets I keep and the hopes I breath.  I know they are there to eavesdrop for the angels. ~ Dodinsky

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Yellow Climber

I was waiting for my friend near the entrance of the supermarket while she was paying her bills and I was getting bored.  I have already demolished a cup of buttered corn kernels, yogurt and was munching on crisp slices of fresh papaya when I noticed this pretty, cheery climber at the flower shop.  I asked the clerk what this flowering vine was called but he was clueless.

I also searched on line but nothing looked similar from flower catalogs.  I hope somebody can identify this flowering vine.

"And, in the end

The love you take

is equal to the love you make."

~ Paul McCartney

 

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Monday Mellow Yellows

Queen of the Night

Epiphyllum oxypetalum, Night-blooming Cereus, Queen of the Night

I noticed this flowering vine in the yard of my friend's neighbor a couple of weeks ago.   It was already dark but there was a street lamp just outside the garden.  My friend was laughing at me while I was clinging at the wrought iron fence to get a better shot.  I have forgotten this flower until my brother saw the images while browsing through the same folder for photos of his youngest son. Turned out, my sis-in-law cultivated this flowering vine for years but it only bloomed once and the flower wilted by morning.  I quickly googled and found the name on line!

Night-blooming cereus is the common name referring to a large number of flowering Cereus cacti that bloom at night. The flowers are short lived, and some of these species bloom only once a year, for a single night^.  The night-blooming cereus is also referred to as princess of the night, Honolulu queen and queen of the night.

This amazing flowering vine is native to Central America and Northern South America, the flower blooms rarely and only at night---mysteriously, the flower wilts before dawn.  The Chinese chengyu (four character idiom) 曇花一現 (tan hua yi xian) uses this flower (tan-hua; 曇花) to describe someone who has an impressive but very brief moment of glory, like a "flash in a pan", since the flower can take a year to bloom and only blooms over a single night. Therefore someone described as "曇花一現" is generally understood to be a person who shows off or unexpectedly gains some achievement and is thought to be an exception or only lucky. The flower also has a rich history in Japan, where it is known as the 月下美人 (Gekka Bijin) or "Beauty under the Moon".  Wiki source

Regardless of genus or species, night-blooming cereus flowers are almost always white, often large, and frequently fragrant.  The plants that bear such flowers can be tall, columnar, and sometimes extremely large and tree-like, but more frequently are thin-stemmed climbers. While some night-blooming cereus are grown indoors in homes or greenhouses in colder climates, most of these plants are too large or ungainly for this treatment, and are only found outdoors in tropical areas.

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V/ABC Wednesday

I have always been attracted to vines, especially flowering vines.  I like the naturalness of vines---their spontaneous search of sunlight, and instinctive clinging and twining for support.  A vine generally is referred to any plant with a growth habit of trailing, climbing, stems or runners.  The flowering vine above is called Violet Allamanda or Allamanda blanchetii, a beautiful but poisonous plant.

Considered a noxious weed, Cadena de Amor, is a climbing, perennial vine wildly crafted in the Philippines. A few years ago, a Metro Manila Chairman planted cadena de amor at the center islands of EDSA and C5, two major thoroughfares, to enhance the greening of the metro and in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide. Dubbed as vertical gardens, the pink flowers somehow cheered up the drab roads. But the invasive vines eventually choked up trellises and lamp posts, and the streets looked like a forest. 

I love the wildness of vines.  They add dimension to this self-portrait of a Davao artist, Kublai Millan.  And these hanging vines, probably strangler figs---overwhelm a balete/banyan tree in a forest park.

 

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Trumpet Vine

 Blue Trumpet Vine, Laurel Clock Vine, Thunbergia laurifolia

A native to India,  it is a fast-growing ornamental vine with showy violet, white or blue trumpet-shaped flowers.  It is locally known as kar tuau in Malaysia and rang jeud in Thailand. Thunbergia laurifolia leaves are opposite, heart-shaped with serrated leaf margin and taper to a pointed tip. Flowers are not scented and borne on pendulous inflorescence. The hermaphrodite flower is trumpet-shaped with a short broad tube, white outside and yellowish inside. The corolla is pale blue in color with 5–7 petals, one larger than the others.

The plant flowers almost continuously throughout the year with flowers opening early in the morning and aborting in the evening of the same day. Carpenter bees are frequent visitors, creeping into the flowers for pollen and nectar while black ants are present probably as nectar scavengers. The plant develops a very tuberous root system.

  

In Malaysia, juice from crushed leaves of T. laurifolia are taken for menorrhagia, placed into the ear for deafness, and applied for poulticing cuts and boils. In Thailand, leaves are used as an antipyretic, as well as an antidote for detoxifying poisons. Several Thai herbal companies have started producing and exporting rang jeud tea. The tea has been claimed to be able to detoxify the harmful effects of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

 Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us on a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it. 
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

 

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Morning Glory

Morning Glory, Bindweed, Ipomoea, Calystegia, Argyreia nervosa

Morning Glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae.   Found this perennial climbing vine growing wildly at the beaches of Batangas.  Most Morning Glory flowers unravel into full bloom in the early morning.  The flowers usually start to fade a few hours before the petals start showing visible curling.  They prefer full sun exposure  throughout the day in an environment with well-balanced supply of  moisture.

Morning Glory was first known in China for its medicinal uses, due to the laxative properties of its seeds.  Ancient Mesoamerican civilizations used the morning glory species Ipomoea alba to convert the latex from the Castilla elastica tree  and also the guayule plant to produce bouncing rubber balls.  The sulfur in morning glory's juice served to vulcanize the rubber, a process predating Charles Goodyear's discovery by at least 3,000 years.  Aztec priests in Mexico were also known to use the plants hallucinogenic properties.  The seeds of morning glory can produce a similar effect to LSD when taken in large doses.

 

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Mellow Yellow Monday: Up close

Thunbergia mysorensis, Indian Clock Vine 

Here's a Clock Vine up close---a beautiful, vibrant flowering vine.

Chase your blues away @ Mellow Yellow Monday

Blue Trumpet Vine

Blue Trumpet Vine, Laurel Clock Vine (Thunbergia laurifolia) 

A popular ornamental vine in tropical gardens, Blue Trumpet Vine is a fast-growing perennial plant and can become invasive.  This plant flowers almost continuously throughout the year with flowers opening early in the morning and fading in the evening of the same day.  Flowers are not scented although bees are frequent visitors.    Rang jeud tea from Thailand comes from the leaves of  Blue Trumpet Vine.  It is said to detoxify the harmful effects of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

"The immortality of Flowers must enrich our own, and we certainly should resent a Redemption that excluded them..." ~ Emily Dickinson

In the open world

 the sun comes and finds your face,

Remembering all.

~ Carl Sandburg

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Emeral Vine/Today's Flowers #51

@ mirandablue
Strongylodon macrobotrys, Emerald Vine, Jade Vine, Tayabak

A species of leguminous perennial woody vine, a native of the tropical forests of the Philippines, with stems that can reach up to 18 meters in length. A member of the Fabaceae (the pea and bean family), it is closely related to beans such as kidney bean and runner bean.  

This was taken at a pergola in Eden Nature Park, Davao City.

"You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way." ~ Walter Hagen

Flowers from around the world at Today's Flowers