This is a continuation of my previous article collections for your additional information about the unusual flowers. You can get lots of wisdom from this second article for your guidance what unusual flowers you want to plant in your garden.
1. Philippine Wax Flower. Belongs to the family Zingerberaceae with its binomial name as Etlingera elatior. This herbaceous perennial plant is also known as Torch Ginger, Ginger Flower, Red Ginger Lily, Torch Lily, Wild Ginger, Combrang, Bunga Siantan, Xiang Bao Jiaing, Indonesian Tall Ginger, Boca de Dragon, Rose de Porcelaine or Porcelain Rose, and Philippine Wax Flower.
Its flowers are used in decorative flower arrangements. Some parts of its flower, like the flower buds are used as a ingredient in the Nonya dish and laksa. It's also used for a dish called arsik ikan mas or Andalusan / Szechuan pepper spiced carp in North Sumatra.
Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from the Peranakan culture, a combination of Chinese and Malay which is prevalent in Malaysia, Singapore and extended up to Indonesia.
The Nonyan Dish or Nonya cuisine is a combination of the Chinese and Malay culture dishes which formed a unique blend of dishes.
2. Night-blooming Cereus (Cereus greggii) is a gray cactus that sprawl across the sand. It sprouts a few ribbed, twiggy stems with fragile spines all through its plant plant and looks dead when you see it. It blooms a white flower and perfumes the dry air during the night, hence the name Queen of the Night. This unique plant is found in the Sonora and Chihuahua deserts of Arizona, Texas, and northern part of Mexico.
As the sun goes down, this plant opens its flower with a size of 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. Its fragrances spreads as far as 30 meters radius. Some nocturnal insect pollinators, like hawk moths and others feed on the nectar and at the same pollinates the flower. After being pollinated, the flower close up and do not open anymore.
Pollinated flower developed an oblong, spiny, red-orange fruit and once in the ground grows and develops from a tuberous taproot which isible for consumption.
3. American Pitcher Plant. This unique plant is a native of North America. It has a five-petal led flowers that emerges from the ground with a shades of yellow from pale pink to red and nod down from a 1-3 feet stalk. The flowers are spotted that lasts 1-2 weeks to attract bees to pollinate the flowers.
The appealing colors of its flowers lures insects to its sweet nectar that contains a narcotic, coniine that causes paralysis of the insects and later end their lives.
The insects later becomes liquefied and the plant reabsorb the soup portion where the plant gets its nutrients needed like nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and other elements derived from the insects trapped.
4. Rainbow Plant. This plant is related to butterworts, but they trap insects like the sundews. Insects are attracted to the radiation in all directions of the wispy stems with the fringy leaves. The insects flock to the dew (which are actually sticky glue) that covers the whole plant that makes it simmer with rainbow colors.
While the plant is showing its radiance to attract insects, it exudes a mysterious enzyme and bacteria-free digestive juice that breaks down the insects soft tissue and eventually soften to easily being absorbed into the plant's body tissues.
5. Sea Holly. It is also known as Rattlesnake-Master, Sea Holm, Spiny Cilantro, and Miss Wilmott's Ghost, it is a hardy perennial that blooms in the latter half of summer. It grows from 18-36 inches tall with a one-foot spread.
A native of Iran and the Caucasus, it's related to Queen Anne's Lace, parsley, fennel, and anise. It's flowers has no fragrance, but are ideal for dried flower arrangements.
Sea holly tolerates in full sunlight with good drainage moist soil. It grows from a deep taproot and it's easily grown from seeds. Germination typically takes up to 10 weeks, a long wait. So, you've got to advance your planting to catch the time for the right climate to grow this plant.
Happy gardening!
