Sunday, December 30, 2007

New Year Bow Tie

Here is the first flower from the vine I recently got for my backyard. This flower is still growing and will get larger. This vine had no name tag and I am still looking for its name. For the time being, I'll call it "Bow Tie" vine, and may use this flower to go with my rental tux if I am invited somewhere to a New Year Eve party. Wishful thinking, really! I'll end up blogging New Year Eve. I'll wish you a Happy New Year then.

Bow Tie Vine

2 comments:

TOG said...

It's new to me but with a little snooping I found the name. You have a Dalechampia discoriaefolia. Just google it and you will get a lot of information. With a name like that you can be sure there are some good common names

Lan said...

Thank you Tog. That is the name, although there are two varieties of spelling. I found many hits Googleing "dioscoreifolia" So I learn that the showy purple wings are not the flower, they are bracts pigmented with anthocyanins and attract special species of tropical bees, which collect a sticky substance from a gland and pollinate the female flower with pollen carried from tiny male flowers. The flowers are the tiny orange structure in the middle, and the gland must be the purple spherical shape in the photo. Hopefully, I'll get to see the bees when this vine thrives in the summer of 2008. It has grown vigorously since I got it very recently. I am lucky I did not get any allergic reaction to touching its leaves, which I did all day trying to take this photo.