Monday, February 15, 2010

Which passionflower is this?

 
 
I bought this plant in a Sungei Buloh nursery two years ago and it has been flowering in the Secret
Garden of 1 Utama. Could this be Passiflora amethystina? It does not fruit and the flowers are not perfumed. The leaves are deeply trilobed.
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19 comments:

Andrea said...

Dr Ng it is so beautiful. We are not taxonomists so we can't help you, but we appreciate your posts a lot. By the way, in Pilipino, sungay is horn and bulo is a young cow or calf. Do we have the same meaning for these words? I know Malaysia and the Philippines have lots of words in common. haha.

Dr Francis Ng said...

Hi, Andrea. This may be a garden hybrid, in which case even a taxonomist will be lost. I am hoping somebody will know the plant. On the matter of words, we do have some words in common, but not so many. Our horn is tandok and cow is lembu

Autumn Belle said...

The wonderful part about buying plants from our local nurseries is the pleasant 'surprises' we get when the seedlings mature. They seldom label the plants. I still remember buying a senduduk that turned out to be a tibouchina glory bush and a thai jasmine that turn out to be a wrightia antidysenterica. I just bought a safron 'golden needle' flower plant that turn out to be a yellow daylily! Either the owner is very creative in naming plants or I asked the wrong person. Dr. Ng, Good Luck in your quest for the correct name!

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Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye.

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Anonymous said...

I find that typing the name you want to research into the browser (google for me)hit SEARCH then look into the IMAGES selection at the top of the page on the left hand side. I made a tinyurl of the search using your requested flower name.

http://tinyurl.com/yzoe33c

I was recently speaking of your work with charcoal as a growing medium at the biochar techgroup pages. We were discussing what percentage of biochar is consumed by the plants/fungi if any. What is the condition of the charcoal now that a year has passed? Have you any difficulties or successes you would like to share with us? Is the charcoal breaking down and becoming finer? Do you have information about things like CEC, this is of interest to the group and your experience is so unusual. I also wonder if there are worms in your media either added by you or maybe spawned by bird excretia? Please drop by and pay us a visit soon. Geralyn D.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/message/10559

Ranunculus said...

Dr. Ng,

I have seen the picture of the flower elsewhere when I was looking for seeds of passionfruit. I don't remember which website. Degressing from the topic, I have some observations that I wanted to share (and VERY SORRY to hog your blog) and hope to get your opinion:

1. I have bought some flower seeds from the US and planted the seeds in December (2009)last year. I noticed that all the seeds (Dreamland Zinnia,Autumn/Mixed Sunflower, Vanilla Marigold, Crimson Morning Glory) I planted grew thin and started flowering about February 2010 when they were just less than 6 inches tall. The Zinnia supposed to grow to 1-2 feet, whereas the sunflower was to grow to 5-6 feet. None of this happened. And the amazing thing was that I had sunflowers (Crimson & Yellow) which were only 1.5cm (less than 1 inch). They lasted about a week. I took digital pictures of the flowers as a "memoir". The Zinnia flowers was about 1-2cm and the Marigold was about 2cm but well petalled. I was not sure whether the hot weather (reaching 33 degC at times) was causing such effect on the growth and flowering phase of the plants. The MG was of normal size flower. All the plants recieved good morning sun, but dappled light from noon onwards.
2. All my California Poppies (nothing to do with Somni type) grew 3-5cm and died within weeks. They sprouted with/without cold stratification. They sprouted so graciously and I was so happy until all of them frizzled to death!
3. My Alpine strawberry has been alive with 5 leaves for 3 months. The leaves come up so tiny. The rossette is only 1.5cm in size! I am not giving up on them. I am hoping the monsoon chilly wind would help them soon. I hope they would wait to see the moonsoon wind...
4. None of my Mixed, Sonata, Candy, Psyche White and Multilayered Cosmos flowers grew up. Only one 3 month old Psyche White is still live but only 5cm height and extremely spindly. I still look after it. I read (so much) that Cosmos can survive in tropical weather, but I don't know why all the seeds sprout healthily and just goes dust to dust!
5. My apple seedling sprouted in the fridge and survived (after transfered out) for almost two weeks after second set of leaves and died later. Another trial (from numerous trials) dashed to futile action!
6. None of the Lisianthus seeds sprouted! I saw a Blue Lizy plant at one of our local nursery and just turned my eyes off. I really wanted the seeds to grow and not just buy plants and exhibit them at home. So many times, all the exhibits die a natural death (absolute no-know-how of nursery care)!
Anyway, I hope to stop here. Already hogged so much. Hope you could tell me if I had made some grave mistake(s) of sprouting these seeds. Any hint would help. Thanks and my apologies again.

Dr Francis Ng said...

Hi, Ranunculus. Your experience with seeds bought overseas to grow in the tropics is not new. I have had the same problem, as well as everybody else that I know.

There is less risk buying well-grown plants. Even so,plants that have been grown in the tropical highlands will often fade and die when brought down to the tropical lowlands.

Taking risks is part of the fun of gardening, and plants do change. The unsuitable ones die and the better-adapted ones survive. All the plants in our gardens have gone through such a selection process. By taking risks and trying new things, we help to accelerate the process. Whenever I buy a plant new to me, I take a risk, but I know I am helping to finance others who may be taking bigger risks. We are all taking part in a quest to add variety to our gardens. One big success compensates for 100 flops.

Dr Francis Ng said...

Hi Geralyn, I retrieved your comment from my trash bin. All my anonymous mail goes to the trash bin because I have been getting a lot of trash from 'anonymous'.

Now to the matter of charcoal (also known as biochar and horticarbon) used in the Secret Garden and other gardens that I design. The charcoal level sinks and has to be topped up every year or two. I top up with charcoal chips each time. I think the sinking is due to compaction as the charcoal chips break up into finer particles. I do not know whether any of it is being consumed by microbes and other organisms or being oxidised by the air. I have not noticed any attack of worms and we do not deliberately introduce worms. Many of our plants come with root balls from normal plant nurseries and contain the normal garden soil organisms. The question of how charcoal breaks down should make a nice research project.

Ranunculus said...

Thanks Dr. Ng.
At least I am not the only one who seemed to have less luck with non-tropical seeds. Anyhow, my Gazania had flowered twice over the month. It is beautiful, like a small daisy. I have sprouted a few more. My strawberry died after being transferred to another pot. My Hollyhock shows healthy leaves and large ones, although very slow growth rate.
Thanks for the encouragement sir.

querked said...
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querked said...

Hi Dr Ng,

Sorry for the previous entry, seems I was a bit premature in my suggestion :) Looks closest to being a passiflora x violacea... http://www.passionflow.co.uk/passiflora-violacea.htm. Will ask this group of folks on their FB list too once i get in! Hope this is right! :)

I myself have a common passionfruit plant in my garden (caerulea) but am germinating a indonesian varient with a less sourish fruit! Hopefully successful!