Saturday, August 27, 2011

Royal Creeper Vine



Royal Creeper
Oxera pulchella
(oks-ER-uh) (pul-KEL-uh)

These are archive shots from last winter. Taken at Fairchild Tropical Garden just south of Miami, Florida.

Since we are under a Hurricane Warning my thoughts have briefly drifted down to Florida and the devastation we saw when driving through Homestead, Florida after Hurricane Andrew had a direct hit there. I know it won’t be as bad as that but it did teach me a little bit about how bad these storms can be. The most recent forecast has the eye of a Category 1 Hurricane coming right over our little town/city. We are directly in what I call the “Cone of Doom”, which is the projected path of Irene. I was laughing and telling my friend from the west coast we will probably be wiped off the map just as we were in 1777 when the British troops burned the town to the ground for supplying that pesky Continental Army of the Americans. All kidding aside we have made some preparations and are keeping up with forecast although I have severely limited my intake of the coverage of the storm. It’s not really telling me anything and quite frankly is depressing.

About the flower for today. It is a quite attractive vine that blooms in the winter. It is very tropical and looks distinct and classy. Vines in general are not my favorite types of plants. While there is a time and place for them they usually end up going somewhat out of control.

3 comments:

lotusleaf said...

My thoughts are with you. I hope the hurricane will not do any significant damage.
Although I live in the tropics, I have never come across this flowering vine.

SandyCarlson said...

Way cool. I hope all your work survives the hurricane.

Karin M. said...

Das ist sind wunderschöne Aufnahmen....super.
LG: Karin