March 16, 2007

Here is another bonus that comes with life in the sub-tropical city of Miami: a flowering plant from the tropics. This is Ochna Integerrima, a yellow flowered plant that blooms around February each year. This is the traditional flowering plant the cuttings of which are universally sought after in Viet-Nam when people greet the lunar new year. This year, the lunar new year of the Pig arrived on February 17.

The Ochna Integerrima is traditionally cultivated to bloom spectacularly right on the first day of the new year. Here, in Miami, left to its own device, this plant blooms whenever it feels like it, and this year, it peaks today, a month late. This plant is hard to find even in Miami. It exists in an alba form, which is even rarer, and I am in the hunt for it.