Author: Steve Turner

Rare & Unusual Tropical Trees & Plants, Flowering, Fruit, Native, Palm, Bamboo, Heliconia, Hummingbird, Butterfly

Giant Elephant Ear Plant

Colocasia gigantea ‘Thai Giant’ is a very large herbaceous plant with an underground tuberous rhizome. The leaves are attached to very succulent leaf stalks that can reach 4-8′ long and the leaf itself can be 3-5′ wide. In a pinch, the leaves are large enough to duck under in a light rain to avoid getting…
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August 7, 2022 0

Fukien Tea Shrub

The Fukien Tea Plant is named for the Fukien or Fujien Province of S. China where it is native.  Its botanical name which most people are familiar with is Carmona microphylla.  However, recently it has been renamed Ehretia buxifolia.  It is a member of the Boraginaceae family, or Borage Family.  In the Philippines, the leaves…
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July 31, 2022 0

Brazilian Red Cloak

Brazilian Red Cloak (Megaskepasma erythrochlamys), a winter bloomer which can tolerate shady conditions, and attract hummingbirds to your landscape. What’s not to like? A very tropical looking shrub with large green leaves, contrasting against the bright red bracts which house tubular white flowers. It can be planted as a single specimen shrub, or as a…
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July 24, 2022 0

Lady of the Night Shrub

Lady of the Night is a shrub in the Brunfelsia genus that has large white tubular flowers that give off a spicy vanilla fragrance in the evening, thus the descriptive common name. There are generally three species for sale in S. Florida. Brunfelsia nitida is probably the most common, and most compact of the three.…
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July 17, 2022 0

Crepe Ginger

Costus speciosus is the tallest species of Costus attaining a height of 10-12′. In South Florida this plant goes dormant dying back to the rhizome. In the summer months it has large papery white flowers protruding from a cone like structure. There is also a pink flowering variety that doesn’t get quite as tall. Young…
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July 9, 2022 0