05 November 2010

THAILAND - CHIANG MAI

At other nurseries, I saw this interesting aromatic plant with unusual looking flowers which I presumed to be Mitrephora keithii.


The Clerodendrum splendens (common name: Flaming Glorybower) climber also caught my attention with its red flowers although what I saw was no where as spell-binding as the Clerodendrum wallichii that I posted earlier, until I came across the link from Top Tropicals. 2 links are shown below for reference:
There was another climber Passiflora coccinea (common name: Scarlet Passion Flower) with red flowers although I wasn't as thrilled by it compared to the P. 'Lady Margaret' mentioned in an earlier post. A link is attached below:


Once again, I came face-to-face with the Beaumontia murtonii which I bought. I shall not say more about this intriguing climber since I have already done so on several occasions.

Then there was this blue flower trailing Lobelia erinus 'Blue Eyes' (Riviera series) (common name: Trailing Lobelia, Garden Lobelia) from the Campanulaceae Family. Unfortunately, it didn't make the trip back home after the packing because of its herbaceous nature and poor ability to withstand root disturbance. Some links are shown below for reference:
Finally, there was the heart-stopping Pyrostegia venusta (synonym: Bignonia venusta, Pyrostegia ignea; common name: Flame Vine, Flaming Trumpet) from the Bignoniaceae Family. The genus name is derived from the greek words "pyro" which means flame and "stege" which means covering while the species venusta means pleasing. I saw the plant covering the 2 walls of a private house and I saw more of them on sale at numerous nurseries. 2 links are shown below:
  1. http://www.floridata.com/ref/p/pyro_ven.cfm
  2. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53032/
I was told by the guide that I went to Chiang Mai at the right time of the year because there were a lot of beautiful flowering plants that were in season then.