Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Local flowers





I don't know what this flower is- it's something indigenous to central Texas. I see it everywhere in "natural" native landscaping.

Whatever, it's pretty, and like everything else here, is blooming like crazy because of all the rain. Even the cacti are blooming.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pride of Barbados. Poinciana pulcherrima or a very close relative.

Frequently mistakenly called the Mexican Red Bird of Paradise.


I have one in the backyard I have been pestering over for about three years now. It's a pet. Poinci.

EkCenTriK

four legs good said...

Oh, thanks!

I never saw these when I was in college here, but now they're all over.

Very pretty, eh?

Anonymous said...

Absolutely.

Sorry, I am beginning to befuddle myself with cross blog posting heh.

As noted at that "other" place, they are fairly new to us down here as well.

I pass a house daily that has them lining their side walk. The walk is about 40 to 50 feet long. The suns hits and they look like orange fire. I can't get mine to look that full.

EkCenTriK

Anonymous said...

That's because they're actually native to northeastern Mexico, not Texas, and is the Caesalpinia pulcherrima (the Caesalpinia mexicana is the yellow blossom variety, also called the Phoenix bird of paradise.) Poinciana pulcherrima is a synonym, but Caesalpinia is the preferred designation. Incredibly heat and drought tolerant (look at those bipinnate leaves!) - I've got them all around the yard.
/GWPDA

Remember to cut it down to the ground in the winter and it will grow vigorously pretty much forever. Pretty!

Anonymous said...

Didn't "northeastern Mexico" used to be, I dunno, 3 or 4 hundred miles further SOUTH than Austin??

Like, on the far side of Port Isabel, maybe even Brownsville??

And people think global warming's a myth.

...The Other Sarah

four legs good said...

I've got them all around the yard.

I pretty much loves them.

Didn't "northeastern Mexico" used to be, I dunno, 3 or 4 hundred miles further SOUTH than Austin??

Umm, yes, but up until this year, Austin has been getting progressively hotter and dryer. This year we're just like Calcutta.

Anonymous said...

Didn't "northeastern Mexico" used to be, I dunno, 3 or 4 hundred miles further SOUTH than Austin??


ahh but Austin itself is not in the same place it used to be either, as in Pflugerville is now "north Austin" and Buda is "far south Austin", Bastrop is "far east Austin" and Oak Hill is "west Austin."

Back in my day, Austin was Austin and ..... Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. 'Give me five bees for a quarter,' you’d say.
"Now where were we? Oh yeah -- the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.
and
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

ThePoliticalCat said...

They're beautiful in flower. When I was a sprout, the gummint planted them on both sides of the main drag, and every year they would be alive with blossom. They were listed as poinciana, but the common name was Flame of the Forest. Apt, no?