Is that a flower...or something else?

I have to admit that I am sometimes naively arrogant about being a "tropical" girl. I assume that since I lived in a tropical country nearly all my life, then there is nothing really fascinating to see in the greenhouses of the botanical park. I mean, they would probably have the "usual" exotic plants I would have already come upon some point in my lifetime.



So I had skipped the place the past two times I had been there, the additional cost (just a mere 200¥ extra but I wasn't feeling very generous then) was also another factor. But the last time I had been there, this spring, I decided to see what the greenhouses had to offer. What else is better for macro photography?



The first sight were the begonias that I had posted about recently. All those dazzling colours - it was a shock at first because I expected, er, green! See how naive I am? By the way, I thought that the flowers above (the name I have completely forgotten) looked like dolphins breaching.



The first time I saw a picture of this inflorescence (Strongylodon macrobotrys or jade vine or emerald vine), it was on a poster. I thought that whoever that was in charge of printing this poster must have chosen a bad colour printer because it looked like one of those washed out poster, all the wrong colours and there was no way that those flowers could be that emerald green. Hah, was I so wrong! I nearly missed it cause it was hidden. It wasn't until I was walking back to take another picture of another plant that I finally saw it.



I think that this flower reminds me of a certain part of a woman's anatomy. If you can't figure it out, then please, just bring out those science textbooks. It is a Pearcea hypocyrtiflora and it is really this red.



And this definitely reminds me of a certain part of the man's anatomy, complete with studded protection. And there is more, but I think I will just leave it to your imagination.



I may be hungry but these flowers looked like they had a sprinkling of powdered sugar on them, like sugared "elongated" berries.



For the extra 200¥, it really was worth the price and more. There was of course the king of the fruits in the display case (ah, when can I eat durian again!), some bananas growing and papayas as well. Funnily enough, there were no coconut trees (or at least I didn't see any), but then they are too tall and probably can't fit into the green house.



There are more flowers there of course and I took hundreds of pictures but I won't bore you with them. If you want to see more, then please visit my flickr album site!



I know that I won't be so arrogant next time!