Red Zinnia
Pink Zinnia
Zinnias smiling!
Dear Readers,
I had seen these at my native place in my relative’s home garden. I love these buds, their shape, flowers and colour. These are lightly aromatic. Their leaves are a good substitute for garlic.
Bunch of flowers..
Flowers and buds..
Buds..
The name of this flower that always smiles in our garden is Phanera Purpurea, also called as purple orchid, Hong Kong orchid tree or purple bauhinia. Locally known as Mandara, the combination of the leaves and flowers of this plant look like many beautiful butterflies are surrounding the tree, just about to take off. It has a stimulating and fresh effect on one’s mind. This snap was taken in my home garden.
I also remember seeing an orange variety of this flower in the Agumbe Ghats some years back.
There is a white variety of this flower which is known as ‘Battalu Mandara’, where Battalu means ‘containers’ in Kannada.
These flowers are considered to have medicinal properties.
Like butterflies..
Don’t they look like green and purple butterflies?
Green butterflies flying away…!!!
Took these snaps during a family outing at the Dr. Shivaram Karanth Biological Park, Pilikula, Mangalore.
It was a welcome diversion from the normal hectic daily routine. Exhausted after seeing all the animals across the length and breadth of the park, we were about to call it a day. But this Tiger put on a show for us when least expected, and made our visit memorable.
Cool waters on a summer afternoon…
In contemplation…
Cooling off…
Off to sleep…
Some old memories…
A pecking flock of Pigeons…
At Sarasbaug Park, Pune.
I think this Pigeon has rare neck colour..
At my native place…
I love these flowers since my childhood and remember wearing them to my school everyday, with my younger sister doing the same!
These flowers come in a huge range of colours. Known locally as ‘Eravantige’ they have a very strong fragrance.
This flower is from my mother’s garden.
Mums/Chrysanthemum
Aha!! Rain Rain!
It is monsoon raining here at Mangaluru. See the rain drops on the orchids.. How they look so fresh, like they are smiling..
These are ground orchids from our home garden.
Ground Orchids
It contains a lot of vitamins and is also known as the multi-vitamin plant. It is a shrub grown in some tropical regions as a leaf vegetable. This plant grows in our home garden and had fruited, when I snapped this photo.
This is also known as katuk, star gooseberry, or sweet leaf. In Chinese it is called mani cai; in Japan it is called amame shiba; in Malay it is called cekur manis, in Kerala, madhura cheera.
Sauropus Androgynus
As beautiful as these bunch of flowers look, so are they fragrant as well (I love the aroma of these flowers..).
These are flowers of the Chinese Glory Bower, which is an invasive species. These plants have large leaves and grow to a height of 3 metres if left free.
Chinese Glory Bower
A guest of the monsoon!!!
Have you seen the beauty of the fire ball lily? The creation of the artistic Nature stuns our mind…
and bewilders us…
As if sprung from thunder and lightning
From my mother’s home garden.
They are also known as football lily, blood lily, thunder lily, haemanthus lily, etc.
Fire-ball lily
Chaayaamalikaa 