Category: Fragrant Flowers

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

Looking for Passion?, Part I

To say that the collection of Passion Flower species is large and widespread is an understatement. Comprising some 500 species, the genus Passiflora is found growing natively in Old and New World Tropics, excepting Africa, and in temperate locales as well. In the United States, there are species as far west as California and as…
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September 11, 2015 0

Portlandia and Other Rubiaceae Relatives

Portlandia grandiflora (Tree Lily or Bell Flower) has fragrant flowers like its relative, the Gardenia.  It is a small tree or shrub from the Caribbean attaining a height of 6-8 feet.  It grows best in filtered light and does very well in South Florida’s alkaline soils.  It blooms from spring to fall with 6 inch…
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August 16, 2015 0

Golden Dewdrops (Duranta erecta f/k/a Duranta repens)

If you’re not already familiar with Duranta erecta, now is a good time to get acquainted with this very attractive New World flowering species.  Like a lot of plants, it comes with its own little bag of mysteries:  Its current specific epithet, erecta, means upright.  Yet an older epithet, repens, means creeping.  That sounds like…
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May 24, 2013 0