Tropical Flowers

Angel's Trumpet Flower (Brugmansia). Most Brugmansia are fragrant in the evenings to attract pollinating moths. Brugmansia are native to tropical regions of South America, along the Andes from Venezuela to northern Chile, and also in south-eastern Brazil. They are grown as ornamental container plants worldwide, and have become naturalized in isolated tropical areas around the globe, including within North America, Africa, Australia, and Asia. All parts of Brugmansia can be toxic.

 Flamingo Plants

 The Anthurium is also known as Painted Tongue, Flamingo Flower (Flamingo Lily) or Tail Flower. The flowers are contained in dense spirals on the spadix. The spadix is often elongated into a spike shape. Anthuriums are herbaceous epiphytes native to tropical America. Anthurium is a genus of more than 800 species found in the New World tropics from Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay.

 Pitcher Plant - Nepenthes

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps-a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive fluid. Foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual lures such as anthocyanin pigments, and nectar bribes. The sides of the pitcher are slippery and may be grooved in such a way so as to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. Pitcher plant, nepenthes, or monkeys cup, are a genus of carnivorous plants that attract & ingest insects. The name monkey cups refers to the fact that monkeys have been observed drinking rainwater from these plants. 

Tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes are distributed in tropical areas of northern Australia, southeast Asia, southern China, India and Madagascar. These plants grow as vines, in the undergrowth, or up in the canopy of tropical forests.

Zebra Plant - Aphelandra Squarrosa, commonly called zebra plant, is a compact shrub growing to 6’ tall in its native tropical habitat in Brazil.

The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) native mainly to the tropical Americas, with a few species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa. 

As if bromeliads weren’t cool enough, with their amazing ability to thrive without roots in soil. One of the world’s most beloved fruits, the pineapple, is a bromeliad. At least three types of bromeliads are carnivorous. With urn-like pitfall traps formed by tightly packed leaf bases, they rely on bacteria to break down their prey (instead of digestive enzymes like other carnivorous plants). Other bromeliads take on a more hospitable approach, acting like mini-ecosystems unto themselves: tree frogs, snails, flatworms, tiny crabs, salamanders, and other animals may spend their entire lives dwelling in one such bromeliad. This is just one of the more than 2,700 species native to the Neotropics.

Datura, One Of My Favorite Exotic Looking, Tropical Flowers. Datura metel, also known as devil's trumpets, they are also sometimes called moonflowers, jimsonweed, devil's weed, hell's bells, thorn-apple, and many more. Datura belongs to the classic "witches' weeds", along with deadly nightshade, henbane, and mandrake. Most parts of the plants are toxic, and datura has a long history of use for causing delirious states and death. In India it has been referred to as "Poisonous" and as an aphrodisiac. In little measures it was used in Ayurveda as a medicine from the ancient times. It is used in rituals and prayers to Shiva. It is also used in Ganesh Chaturthi. The larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species, including Hypercompe indecisa, eat some Datura species.

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Disclaimer

My blog is meant to inform and I strive to be totally accurate. It is solely up to the reader to ensure proper plant identification. Some wild plants and mushrooms are poisonous or can have serious adverse health effects.