I found this bracket fungus growing from the base of a Jacaranda tree. The unusual thing was , it has a plantlet growing from it. The little plantlet seemed to be the seedling of a native plant . It was quite well entrenched in the bracket.
The Crepe Ginger Costus speciosus is not a ginger at all, but a relative of the ginger family. It is a native of the forests of the Western Ghats. I found these specimens flowering in the rain-soaked forest adjoining IIT Bombay.
The crepe like part is not petals, but is the stamen of the rather insignificant flowers hidden. The plant has a curious habit of spiralling, which you can see in the picture above. When the white 'crepes' have fallen, the plant still has attractive red cones.
The Kanak Champa Pterospermum acerifolium is a big tree with fragrant flowers. The tree is also known as the 'Dinner Plate tree' , because of its big round leaves, which are woven into dinner plates in some parts of India. The flowers fall after a day. They look like peeled bananas.
The timber of this tree is used to make planks. The bark is used in traditional medicine. The tree grows to an immense size, resembling the teak tree. It is found in the deciduous forests of the Western Ghats and Central India.
The butterfly Blue Tiger Tirumala limniace has started appearing in gardens now.Here, it is resting on the plant of Black Nightshade Solanum negrum which grows wild in unexpected corners of my garden. I like the tiny black fruit of the plant, which is said to be a good antioxidant. The leaves and fruit of this plant are widely used in Ayurveda, the Indian medicine system. The fruit has culinary uses too. It is called Ganike in Kannada.
The 'Malabar Rhododendron Melastoma malabathricum grows in the wild in India. It has attractive large pink flowers which last only a day. The name Melastoma came from the Latin meaning 'black mouth', because children who eat its fruit have their mouths stained black.
Shell Ginger Alpinia zerumbet is a native of India and South-East Asia. I found these plants growing wild in the woods of Hong Kong. They were flowering profusely, and bumblebees were hovering round the plants. The flowers are pretty and shell like, and coloured a delicate shade of yellow and white.
I saw this pink ginger at the edge of a ravine in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, India, when our bus was waiting for the traffic to clear.
