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1. Every Friday post a photo that includes one or more flowers.
2. Please only post photos you have authority to use.
3. Include a link to this blog in your post - http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/
4. Leave the link to your FloralFridayFoto post below on inlinkz.
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When to Post:
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Thursday 3 January 2013

FFF59 - CHALICE VINE

Solandra is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. It is named after the Swedish naturalist Daniel C. Solander. The vines it contains are commonly known as Chalice Vines and are native to the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. They have very large flowers and glossy foliage.

Solandra grandiflora, more popularly known as Chalice Vine or Cup of Gold, is a perennial fast-growing climbing vine or liana. This vine quickly takes root and grabs onto the surrounding vegetation for support, the base stalk is thick, heavy and ropelike. These vines can easily exceed over 30 metres in length, each node on the branch will sprout tendrils and take root, giving the whole plant more stability and a larger root system to improve its ability to access essential nutrients: Water, minerals, sunlight. The leaves grow directly from the main stalk and side branches and are uniformly dark green, thick, with a smooth supple texture; they can grow as large as 15 cm in length, 7 cm wide and are oval shaped.

Chalice Vine is well known among gardeners, and is prized for its large ornamental flowers, which are yellow, grow up to 25 cm long, and are distinctly shaped like bells or chalices. The flowers will begin as bright, brilliant white and yellow with purple or brown stripes spiraling inside, and as the flower ages its color will darken, ranging in shades from chartreuse, amber, lemon and golden yellow; hence the well earned common name, Cup of Gold. The flowers bloom in the evening or night and produce a strong sweet fragrance, which smells similar to coconut. In the wild they produce large yellow, white berries that contain many tiny seeds for future propagation, as the berries ripen they change color from light yellow to deep red. However, when Solandra grandiflora is cultivated as an ornamental, it is usually grown from cuttings and the fruits are rarely if ever seen.

Join me for Floral Friday Fotos by linking your flower photos below, and please leave a comment once you have done so!


10 comments:

  1. Beautiful flower! Have a happy New Year filled with lots of Floral Fridays:)

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  2. I love this flower but the plant grows so big, it will not fit in our already cramped space!

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  3. http://annsnowchin.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/flower-japanese-honeysuckle.html a herb for the Chinese, but an evasive plant here in NZ.

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  4. Thank you for this interesting story!

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  5. this is a new to me, vine and flower; thanks for sharing

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  6. I like this flower and i know very well about this flower like this flower also know the name of Cup of Gold in the world, grow very big, brilliant white, purple or brown stripes spiraling inside the flower etc. We use these flowers for decoration in home.

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  7. I have heard of the Chalice Vine but have never seen one. The bloom is beautiful.

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  8. Lovely flower, nice close up! Love this kind of lily ♥
    Wish you a wonderful weekend,
    moni

    My FFF59 is online under: http://www.reflexionblog.de

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  9. Beautiful flower and interesting reading!
    Thanks for hosting.
    Wish you a great weekend.

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