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.

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
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Sunday, May 2, 2010

Samanea saman and The Powderpuff Girls


Recently, I have already posted 2 flowering plants sharing the same common name of "Powder-puff". So, today I shall introduce Samanea, and later I will parade all 3. Please help me select the Beauty Queen.

Scientific name: Samanea saman
Synonym: Albizia saman, Enterolobium saman
Common name: False Powder-puff, Monkey Pod, Raintree
Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae - pea/legume family)
Origin: Tropical America from Mexico to Brazil 

This picture was taken near the market at SPPK, Ipoh.

This is "BLOSSOM", the pink powder-puff plant. This False Powder Puff  is a big tree about 10 - 30 m tall. It bears pale pink to pink inflorescent flowers the whole year through and enjoys the full sun. Propagation is by seeds or bud grafting. Here in the tropics, we grow it as a big shade tree due to its umbrella shaped crown.

The name "rain tree" was coined in tropical India, especially Bengal. Its origin is the moisture that collects on the ground under the tree, largely the honeydew-like discharge of cicadas feeding on the leaves. (Source: Wikipedia)


Here's BUBBLES (a shrub or small tree) from Africa.

Scientific name: Combretum constrictum
Common name: Thailand Powderpuff
Family: Combretaceae
Origin: Tropical Africa

Here we have, BUTTERCUP ( a shrub or small tree) from Australia.

Scientif name: Xanthostemon youngii
Common name: Crimson Penda
Family: Myrtaceae
Origin: Australia

They look like powder-puffs but actually they are 3 different species from 3 different families.

Now, which one is your favourite and which one do you have in your place?

My post today is dedicated to Bernie from North-eastern Australia of My Dry Tropics Garden blog. Thank you for being the first commenter of my previous post on the Combretum constrictum. She also has a powder-puff plant in her garden.



I am extremely delighted to be Guest Friend for Today's Flowers # 91, a meme which opens every Sunday, 2pm GMT. My grateful thanks to Today's Flowers team members; Luiz Santili Jr, Denise in Virginia, Laerte Pupo and Sandy Carlson. To participate and view other gorgeous flowers around the world, click here.

58 comments:

  1. Loved your post ... great photos showing these lovely girls off at their best.

    You're so right in pointing out that even though some plants have the same common name, they are indeed from different plant families.

    Thanks very much for the dedication ... very kind!... and as for having a powder puff, I actually have 3 different ones.

    I have the Calliandra surinamensis (the pink Powder Puff) as well as Calliandra haematocephala (the red Powder Puff) and the Combretum constrictum (the Thailand Powder Puff).

    So while I have 'Blossom' and 'Bubbles' growing in my garden ... I don't have 'Buttercup'. (Loved those names!) My favourite, however, is definitely the Combretum.

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  2. Too cute! My daughter loved, loved, loved the Powerpuff girls when she was little. And I love, love, love the Powderpuffs! Calliandras are favorites of mine.

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  3. Oh, I almost forgot. I do grow the dwarf powderpuffs in my butterfly garden. You can see a photo in my sidebar and my blog header.

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  4. I'd go for the Buttercup! It's gorgeous and different from the other two. Well, may be because I am tired of the Pink Powder puff that's been flowering all over the city? I dunno, I still love it though. Great shots of all the three!

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  5. Great flower photographs.
    Costas

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  6. Gosh! They all look so alike.... Thx for enlightening us with this post and stating their differences. We find the dwarf powder puffs growing quite commonly here along the road side. Look very pretty when in blossom in red n pinks.

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  7. The blooms on this tree are fantastic! I too like the buttercup but it is a hard choice because they all look so lovely.

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  8. Lovely photos. I've never seen those flowers in here.

    My entry this week : in HERE. I hope you have time to visit. Thanks

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  9. Wow, they are all lovely, each has its own beauty but I go for Buttercup ... i love it's orange color.

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  10. Beautiful photos in both places. I like the color of these flowers.

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  11. Great post. I'm not able to pick a favorite because I like them all so much. They are so exotic looking. I also love your shots on the home page for Today's Flowers today.

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  12. Those are beautiful blooms but I like the buttercup the most.

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  13. Hello Autumn Belle

    Wonderful post to your Guest Friend's Day.
    Thanks for joining us.
    A good week for you.
    Return each Sunday to TF.

    Luiz

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  14. Really lovely - the powderpuff is so sweet.

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  15. More flowers new to me. Look just like dainty fsiries.
    Enjoy your posts
    JJ

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  16. They are all beautiful!
    I'm not sure which is the one we have in our subdivision. We'll walk by one of these days and probably take a shot too.

    Btw, we love how your research about these plants! Thanks for sharing!

    Lui and Sweepy

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  17. These flowers are new to me, thanks for sharing, fab photos.

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  18. They're all gorgeous but my favourite is Buttercup. Very interesting that they're three distinct species - who'd have thought that from just looking at them.
    Your guest friend photos are quite lovely too.

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  19. Beautiful flowers and blossoms.

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  20. Autumn: Quite a sweet bloom and you flowers are the main site are lovely.

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  21. These are really beautiful and I don't think I have seen them before. Lovely name. A

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  22. i like so much the second one....is more romantic...itsn´t?
    thanks for your comment
    have a nice day

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  23. aloha,

    a real beautiful series of flowers, i love the colors and textures of all three, but if i were to choose i would like the buttercup since it has those gorgeous eucalyptus like leaves and i'm sure this would make a nice long lasting cut flower!

    nice post!


    thanks for sharing today

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  24. Love those powder puff girls, very striking and exotic.

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  25. I can understand the name powder puff! Enjoy and thanks for sharing these pretty flowers.

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  26. Hello Autumn Belle, my vote goes for Calliandra Surinamensis but they are all amazing, thanks for sharing so much beauty.

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  27. Here in the USA there's a tree, mimosa julibrissens (not sure if I have the spelling right) that looks very similar to your top tree. It likes full sun and has very fragrant pink flowers like that every summer. It grows in New York, Northern California and the Pacific Northwest at least.

    Congrats on being Guest Friend on Today's flowers! Great close ups.

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  28. Those sure are interesting flowers. New to me. Thanks.

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  29. There's another one that's also commonly known as Powderpuff, it's the Scadoxus Multiflorus from the familyof Amaryllidaceae. The Calliandra here are mostly red, not pink.

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  30. Spectacular shots of flowers.

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  31. I vote for buttercup. I like the flowers and the color/shape/size of the foliage as well. If buttercup were a different color (pink? yellow?) it'd REALLY be a knockout!

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  32. Lovely photos! :)

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  33. Do we have to choose? I like them all! So delicate...

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  34. Beautiful photos, what an amazing color on the pink powder-puff plant. Nice work.

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  35. Congratulations! And your photos for 'Todays Flowers' are stunning. You also have a beautiful site.

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  36. lol@powderpuff! they certainly are cute!

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  37. Terima kasih Autumn Belle for your wonderful flowers! And for your visit and kind comment.

    I love the logo in the header.

    "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."

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  38. Wow..those or gorgeous flowers! I have seen these flowers before, but didn't know their names. I would love to grow this plant in a container.

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  39. such delicate blooms...wish I could cite the latin names as well as you.

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  40. Wow those are stunning flowers...Happy TF!

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  41. So beautiful flowers. They are new to me. I like them all so soft colors.

    Have a nice day
    Gunilla

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  42. Very unique flowers...love it :)

    Thanks for dropping by

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  43. They are so exotic and beautiful! I even love the name!

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  44. How lovely! Little powder puffs for sure! Gorgeous photos.

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  45. that powder puff flower is so cute, i also see it around here

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  46. Those are lovely, made even lovelier by the beautiful composition. I agree with Jama, they look like the Scadoxus multiflorus (Haemanthus multiflorus), which i posted a few weeks ago (www://abagillon.blogspot.com/2010/03/bulbs-tropical-style-for-blooming.htmlspot.com). But of course the umbel of the bulbs are bigger than those of the trees, as in Calliandra, etc. thanks.

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  47. Nice red blooms! They all look pretty to me. I still remember you said they look like big rambutans. It is nice to them in the street and here as well. Thanks for posting.

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  48. Lovely flowers! :)

    Have a nice day!

    M

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  49. great series of pics especially the powderpuff girls. they are so eye-catching.

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  50. I have seen and photographed this plant too but never know it is called powder-puff! Beautiful flower and pictures.

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  51. lovely images of your plants and flowers..

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  52. These are fun, frivolous blooms!

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  53. Amazing photos of your flowers. Thanks for your visit.

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  54. All 3 are lovely but Bubbles stands out for me - she looks so adorable and beautifully sun-kissed!

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