Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

Count Your Blessings!
Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

Knowing me, Knowing you..... Aha.....!

Notice Board

Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Friday, April 30, 2010

Combretum constrictum - The Hot, the Loud and the Proud #2


Recently, I was attracted by this bright red flower that looks like a big rambutan fruit. The flowers are very striking and spectacular. On second thoughts, I think they look like porcupine spikes too. What do you think?

Are you growing this plant in your garden and what is your common name for it?



Scientific name: Combretum constrictum
Common name: Thailand Powderpuff
Family: Combretaceae
Native of: Tropical Africa
Photographs taken by Autumn Belle at The Secret Garden of 1-Utama
Grateful thanks to Dr. Francis Ng


This is an evergreen that grows under the full or partial sun. It flowers freely throughout the year and the blooms are attractive to bees, butterflies and birds.

It can be grown as a small tree or trained as a shrub by prunning. The plant is quite free of pests. Propagation is from seeds and cuttings.




My post today is dedicated to Flower Lady from Florida, USA of Plum Cottage Gardens blogs. Thank you for being the first commenter of my previous post on the Asian Foxtail. I'm sure you'll be inspired by her lovely exotic flowers and beautiful quotes.



This is end of April 2010, time for The Hot, the Loud, and the Proud Meme started by Noel of A Plant Fanatic blog. Please follow my link here to participate or view other spectacular shows around the world.

This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit
here.

Post publication update: Bernie is growing this plant in her garden. She has written a post about it at My Dry Tropics Garden blog. The post is here.

32 comments:

  1. Great photos Autumn Belle ... they really show off this marvellous shrub so well.

    I also grow this beauty and it's in full bloom right now. It attracts lots of Sunbirds and butterflies in my garden. My shrub doesn't flower quite all year round ... it takes a break over the winter and starts blooming again in late spring.

    Over here we also use the common name Thailand Powder Puff.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stunning photograph! Truly special!

    Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  3. aloha autumn belle,

    this is a beautiful shrub/tree, they are also very popular here in hawaii and the blooms are very showy

    thanks for sharing this with us today :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. The buds that are ready to bloom look like a dragon. They are blowing hot, and hot flame.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love it! Your photo also captured the beuty of this flower so well! Very Hot, Loud and Proud!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't grow that and am not familiar with it. But it is very beautiful! Reminds me of the blood lily, only growing in bush form. Wonderful plant and perfect for hot, loud, and proud!

    ReplyDelete
  7. A stunning flower, Autumn Belle, and such a perfect subject for your signature photography style of starting up close and then gradually giving us a fuller picture. Wow! -Jean

    ReplyDelete
  8. I didn't know that as Thailand Powderpuff,over here the Calliandra Emerginata is also known as powderpuff plant, the flowers quiet similar.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Like Jama we call that Calliandra of just powder puff, no Thailand hehe. As usual your photos are lovely. I am not good yet with my DSLR.

    ReplyDelete
  10. At the first glance - I thought it was a blood lily.
    Really they look marvelous - any fragrance?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would love to have that shrub in my garden. It is very pretty! It reminds me a little of the bottle brush shrub.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello autumn belle; a beautiful tropical Powderpuff, as it is commonly called like all the others with similar flowers. The colour is really tropical hot and showy. I wish to grow one like this!

    ReplyDelete
  13. This African native powderpuff does look like rambutan and a big one ;-) Nice puffs. Have a good day.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Beautiful flowers. Great photographs.
    Costas

    ReplyDelete
  15. My post today is dedicated to Autumn Belle from Malaysia of "My nice garden"

    ReplyDelete
  16. Good morning Autumn Belle ~ That is a beautiful powder puff flower. I don't have that one, but do have a baby white powder puff growing from seed planted last year. No blooms yet.

    Thank you for the dedication. I now have 4 blogs going, yikes.

    Love the orchid that is your last picture. Just beautiful.

    Have a lovely weekend ~ FlowerLady

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi, everyone. Thank you very much for the visits and nice comments. I really appreciate it very much.

    Jama, Andrea. Eventhough Combretum and Calliandra Emerginata are from different families, they do look like powderpuffs, no wonder they have similar common names.

    James, you caught me this time! I don't know of any scent from this flower. Also no info. about the fragrance. I'll ask Bernieh who is growing this plant.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Autumn Belle this is beautiful - it reminds me of a plumper bottle brush plant.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What a great stand out plant!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. That is a beautiful flower, but now you have me craving some rambutan! Some days I'll drive all over the city looking at each and every grocery store for fruit like rambutans, dragonfruit, lychee and passionfruit.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Wow, what a beauty, Autumn Belle! I love it at the stage of the buds just unfurling. :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Simply gorgeous!
    I saw some in Manila but I'm pretty clueless with names. We name our flowers after people. Now, if I see that flower again I will name it "AutumnBelle"

    ReplyDelete
  23. It looks so exotic to me...and very lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  24. These are called Callendra / powder puff here and are a common sight along the road side. Beautiful shots and the RED is definitely catchy n haute! Thx for sharing. Its a pleasure.

    ReplyDelete
  25. It resemble rambutan in a small way, the hairs especially, but it also exhibits striking similarity to ixora with its dashing red spikes... ~bangchik

    ReplyDelete
  26. Now, I have the answer as regards to fragrance on the plant. Bernie has replied to me that this plant does not have a fragrance on its flowers or leaves.

    Bernie has written a post on this plant, so I'm going to insert her link here.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Juz as expected awesome pixs again. Lovely tQ.

    ReplyDelete
  28. What a firecracker of a specimen! My Dad would be head over heels in love with this one!

    I think it def. suites the theme you have here. Thanks!

    Rosey

    ReplyDelete
  29. WOW! WHat an amazing flower! Thanks for sharing...Paula in Idaho

    ReplyDelete
  30. i am not too fond of red flowers most esp red roses but this one looks pretty

    ReplyDelete

Words are like the voice of the heart... Confucius

Note: If you are unable to comment on my latest post, click on the post title to reopen the post and try writing your comments again. Comments under "Anonymous" will be automatically treated as spam if no name is included.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin