What's in Bloom
Bloom Highlights
Calliandra haematocephala
Red Powderpuff
Native to the woodlands, shrublands, and savannas of Bolivia, this plant has been cultivated and naturalized in many tropical and subtropical countries and regions. This large, multistemmed shrub grows fast with a fine texture. The branches bear distinct bipinnately compound leaves with oblong leaflets that remain evergreen in ideal growing conditions. Young shoots of mature plants will produce globose inflorescences with many flower buds that resemble ripe raspberries. The flowers have insignificant, tubular calyces and corollas, but have numerous long, showy stamens that protrude from each floral tube. The appearance of the bright red, hemispherical inflorescences are alluded to in common and scientific names. The genus name comes from the Greek words kallos and andros meaning “beautiful” and “male” respectively, referring to the many stamens of the flowers. The specific epithet also comes from Greek meaning “bloody head” from the words haima and kefále.
Clerodendrum × speciosum
Java Glory Bean
This plant is a hybrid of C. thomsoniae and C. splendens, both of which are native to the wet tropical forests off the western coast of Africa from Senegal to Angola. The woody vines of this plant produce many semi-woody branches that have dark green, semi-glossy leaves. The leaves are obovate to cordate with dark prominent veins and smooth margins. Floral clusters are produced at branch terminals and from leaf axils. The buds are protected by five pointed bracts that are fused at their bases. The bracts are white but mature to a purply-pink just before the flower blooms. They persist after the flower fades. The flowers have five bright red, rounded petals with four long stamens with pink filaments that hang out from each flower. If pollinated, the flowers produce a singular, iridescent blue berry. The genus name is Greek and comes from the words klēros meaning “lot” as in fate as well as “cleric” referring to its historic use in medicines and for religious ceremonies and dendron meaning “tree.” The hybrid epithet is the Latin word meaning “beautiful” or “showy.”
Crassula ovata
Jade Plant
This common houseplant is native to southern Mozambique and the eastern provinces of South Africa, where it grows as a shrub on dry, rocky hillsides, in valley thickets, and on coastal dunes. The thick, fleshy stems of this shrub have distinctive rings that show the progression of growth. The young stems are green, sometimes tinged with red, and glossy, but as the stems mature, the epidermis dulls and turns more gray-green. The stems bear fleshy, waxy, green obovate leaves oppositely, with smooth margins that sometimes turn burgundy. As a houseplant, it rarely blooms, but in its natural habitat, terminal cyme-like clusters of white, star-like flowers bloom in the winter months. The flowers have five light pink sepals protecting white petals tinged with pink that are fused at their bases. The five stamens are white and radiate alternately with the petals while the five pink-tinged pistils at the center of the flower alternate with the stamens. The genus name is derived from crassus meaning “thick” or “fat” in Latin. The specific epithet also comes from the Latin ovatus, meaning “egg-shaped.”
Rhipsalis baccifera
Mistletoe Cactus
This plant is native to the tropical and subtropical regions of North, Central, and South America as well as the tropical regions of Africa. It is a trailing epiphyte that grows in the drier canopies of rainforests. Its stems are slender and cylindrical, and trail up to 30 feet in the wild, but in domestic settings stems usually only reach 6 feet. The stems are succulent and do not produce leaves; young shoots will produce bristly areoles that are modified leaf clusters. As the stems mature, these fall off and become smooth. Along the stems, tiny, solitary, funnel-shaped flowers are produced. These flowers have insignificant calyces and a double whorl of white translucent petals. The stamens and pistil are also white and hard to see without a hand loupe. The short-lived flowers fade and produce showy, translucent, white berries that are relatively large compared to the size of the originating flower. The berries have a black button where the flower once was, making them similar in appearance to the berries of the unrelated mistletoe (Viscum sp.). The genus name from the Greek word rhips means “wickerwork,” with the Latin ending -alis meaning “related to” referring to the plant’s overall appearance. The specific epithet means “berry bearing” in Latin.
Vachellia constricta
Whitethorn Acacia
Native to Texas, Arizona, and northern Mexico, this plant is commonly found on mesas and on dry slopes. It grows as a multistemmed small tree. The stems usually have a light gray to tan bark, but sometimes can be as dark as mahogany. The plant always has pairs of straight, white spines. The stems alternately bear bipinnately compound leaves with spiny petioles and green, oblong leaflets. From the leaf axils, a solitary, globose inflorescence is produced. The inflorescence contains many small yellow flowers with long, yellow stamens giving the appearance of small yellow pom-poms hanging from the tree. The genus was named to honor Rev. George Harvey Vachell, who was the chaplain to a British East India Company post in Macao. He collected and documented the flora in the area including many taxa new to the west. The specific epithet comes from the Latin verb constringere meaning “to bind together,” referring to the many stems.