Coco-De-Mer (Lodoicea maldivica)

Coco-De-Mer
Lodoicea maldivica
(lo-DOY-see-uh) (mal-DY-vih-kuh)

Today’s tree is part of what makes the botanical world so special. I wished I had photographed it a bit better. I hadn’t seen it before and I could tell it was a very unusual tree. This one was planted at Flamingo Gardens in Davie, Florida. I came upon it after being frustrated I couldn’t get a shot of the big patch of Red Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior) that was blooming. Now that is quite a flower and I found it fascinating. I didn’t get the shot of the Ginger and usually that doesn’t bother me. When I’m in a garden shooting pictures I have much better results if I just kind of have a leisurely look at the plants and flowers. If you see something nice try and record it and move on. I get better pictures that way and get to enjoy the garden to its fullest.

Anyway, this is a seldom-cultivated tree that has several unusual features and even this young specimen exacted attention. It produces the largest seeds and has the longest leaves of any plant. Since there are so many special things about this tree I have provided a couple of links for information. It truly is a wonderful example of nature’s anomalies.

Wikipedia Article

sea bean.com

arkive.org

That last one is a very interesting site that I plan on exploring a little more.


Check out all these synonyms: Double Coconut, Sea Coconut, Coco Fesse, Seychelles Nut, Sea Bean



This fan was huge!

Flame of the Forest (Butea monosperma)

Flame of the Forest
Butea monosperma
(bew-tee-uh) (mon-oh-SPER-muh)


This was blooming at Flamingo Gardens. It was a small tree that was pretty much covered with these orange flowers. This native to Southeast Asia and India has several synonyms including Bastard Teak, Parrott Tree and Dhak. It has several industrial and medicinal uses as well as being a handsome ornamental. This particular tree had been trained to about ten feet although it can grow to 50 feet in the wild. The trunk was twisted and knarly. I didn’t get to see the foliage as the leaves fall off before the tree begins to flower. The buds were interesting with an almost black velvety appearance.




I took both of these pictures with Karen’s D80 and the 60mm Nikkor-Micro. It did pretty well as I remember thinking at the time the flowers were almost naturally over saturated. The color was just stunning. The D80 is nice as it shoots a huge file, which is still bigger than a D70 file even if you crop it.

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens
Davie, Florida

I visited Flamingo Gardens in Davie yesterday. I have been there several times over the last twenty years and they have been doing a lot of work. There are several reasons why I love this garden. Overall, the tropical feeling is wonderful and there is a bit of Citrus Grove feeling on the back trail. The plant collection is top-notch, with several state champions included in the large trees. The Tropical Tree collection is the most impressive to me. It has been a little roughed up by the hurricanes but it is still a place to see some very large specimens. They also have some nice shrubs and a succulent collection. There are quite a few birds and other animals to see, including a Gator, of course.. The Flamingoes were eating right out of my hand. Karen let me use her D80 and it is a nice camera. I can’t believe how responsive it is. I will be posting some results of the 40 pictures I took with it. I used the D70s on the Flamingoes with the new Sigma 17-70mm. My only little knocks against the garden is that at $17 it is a little expensive. Try to find coupons or use AAA for discounts. The other was the plant collection could use a little better signage. Those are very small complaints and I think the staff does a wonderful job keeping up the place.

I am going to cut this short as I am forgot to bring my extra keyboard for my laptop. I hate trying to type with the onboard keyboard. This laptop (it is a G4 Titanium) needs to be replaced, as soon as I upgraded to Photoshop CS2 that really became apparent. The weather is cold and rainy but it looks like the sun is trying to peek out. It is supposed to get real windy.



Not really sure what flower this is. I just liked the lighting.