Tag Archives: Flowers of Mexico

Mexican Color: Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge, 10/1/15

                                                     Mexican Color

I have spent hours trying to identify this plant and I’m no closer now than I was a year ago.  Whatever it is, Here it is again in detail. The leaves look like a heliconia or ginger, but although I once found a picture of it by Googling heliconia, I think it was just a random picture placed in that category as it wasn’t labeled at all and I can’t find it elsewhere. *Version 4 Version 3 IMG_5412 IMG_5417*News Flash!!! My lovely, smart, kind, curious, researching genius friend Marilyn Armstrong has identified this plant I’ve been trying to identify for fourteen years!  After she told me the various names for it, I looked it up in Wikipedia and this is some fascinating information about it:

Canna indica is a perennial growing to between 0.5 m and 2.5 m, depending on the variety. It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. The flowers are hermaphrodite.[3][4][5][6] Canna indica sps. can be used for the treatment of industrial waste waters through constructed wetlands. It is effective for the removal of high organic load, color and chlorinated organic compounds from paper mill wastewater.[7][8]

The seeds are small, globular, black pellets, hard and dense enough to sink in water.[5] They resemble shotgun pellets giving rise to the plant’s common name of Indian Shot.[citation needed] The seeds are hard enough to shoot through wood and still survive and later germinate. According to the BBC “The story goes that during the Indian Mutiny of the 19th century, soldiers used the seeds of a Canna indica when they ran out of bullets.“[9]

“Cee” more flowers HERE.

Mystery Flower: Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge

                                                Mystery Flower

I took these pictures at my friend Harriet’s house.  She has no idea what it is.  Nor do I.  Al?  Anyone else?  I know someone gave me a link to a place that identifies flowers from a picture but I misplaced the URL. If you know what this is or have a guess, please comment!

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For more audacious flowers, look here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/28/flower-of-the-day-september-28-2015-american-beauty-checkers-dahlias/

More Tapalpa Flowers

                                           More Tapalpa Flowers

I’ve always thought this Tapalpa scene looked like a scene from a French painting–the mist, the trees and the muted colors of the fields of flowers in the background.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd here are other scenes from the day’s outing.  Fourteen of us  traveling in my van, including me, (taking the picture) and baby Oscar who is hidden in his sister’s arms.

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I was trying to compensate for the shadows on the girls’ faces here and perhaps overdid it a bit.  Reminds me of the bright Kodacolor prints of the sixties!

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/14/flower-of-the-day-september-14-2015-maarn-dahlia/

Oscar and Carmen Play with Flowers (Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge)

Oscar and Carmen Play with Flowers

I think there were twelve of us in my full-sized van that day, off to see the wildflowers and rocks of Tapalpa.  This series of pictures is all about Carmen and Oscar. Oscar is the little boy you saw diligently doing his English homework at my dining room table a few days ago.  He is now nine.  In these pictures he is two.  Carmen is his sister and stylist.

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Oscar was pretty happy with his handful of pristine white flowers

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But Carmen had a better idea.

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She looked beautiful in her  cosmos garland, in spite of the sun in her eyes that gave her a wistful look.

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But she had further plans.

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And I’m not too sure how Oscar feels about his sister’s attempt to spruce up his look, but I thought he looked adorable!

For more gorgeous flowers, go HERE.

Not Ready to Pop

Not Ready to Pop

IMG_4142 Version 4 Version 8I love the seed pods on these flowers almost as much as the flowers.  I earlier identified the flower as a heliconia, having found a picture of it with other heliconias, but I now think I am perhaps wrong.  I Googled it and was so excited to find a picture that looked exactly like my big pot filled with these flowers.  So, I was once again willing to be persuaded that it was an uncharacteristic version of a heliconia when I spotted the url for the flower.  It was my picture!  Ha.  If anyone knows what this is I’d love to find out.  It turns brown and pops open to emit very large shiny black round seeds.  At any rate, I love these black and whites of what I guess are mystery flower ovaries!!!

For more black and white beauties, look here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/10/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-what-is-beautiful-to-you/

This is what the flower looks like, for identification purposes only.  Obviously not a black and white!

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On the Road to Tapalpa: Flower of the Day, 9/11/15

On the Road to Tapalpa

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              I have never seen such a profusion of flowers as on the road to Tapalpa.

 

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For miles and miles, the fields are full of wildflowers.  These pictures were taken in October, when the flowers were at their height of bloom.

More flowers: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/11/flower-of-the-day-september-11-2015-dahlia/

Datura: Cee’s Flower of the Day: 9/9/15

Datura (also known as Angel’s Trumpets or Moonflowers)

IMG_4733 IMG_4735Both the seeds and flowers of the Datura plant are poisonous

Go HERE to see other flowers of the day on Cee’s blog.

Greens: Flower of the Day 9/8/15

Greens: Flower of the Day
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I love the fragility of these green palm blossoms. Soon they will fall like rain.
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Some leaves, such as these on jade plants and other succulents, imitate flowers. IMG_4404

To view Cee’s flower and others, go HERE.

Birds of Paradise: Flower of the Day, 9/7/15

Birds of Paradise

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For more wonderful flowers, go HERE.

More Orange Bougainvilleas: Flower of the day

                                                   More Orange Bougainvilleas

Okay, more orange bougainvilleaS, but this time with the real flowers : (Click on photos to enlarge.)IMG_4690 IMG_4695 IMG_4692 IMG_4691 IMG_4693Each of those little coral pistil-looking rods is actually a flower bud getting ready to open.  Since my last bougainvilleas post, most of them have opened, giving the bougainvillieas a fluffier look!  I like both stages–sparse and frilly!  In Mexico, they are bugambilias and they have many namesakes: housing developments, shopping centers, movie theaters.

See more flowers here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/09/06/flower-of-the-day-september-6-2015-dahlia/