While casually strolling around the well kept and naturally landscaped premises of our resort at Kabini, one’s gaze is likely to fall often upon some outstanding floral attractions. Many are native to these parts and add a regional flavour to the resort’s gardens and walkways along with striking colours and scents.

We profile a few for you to look out for so that you can enjoy them more closely on your next visit.

Lantana (Lantana camara)

Lantana is a perennial flowering plant found almost everywhere, upon plain and hilltop cool. Its aromatic flower clusters come in a mix of red, orange, yellow, or blue and white florets. The flowers typically change colour as they mature, resulting in multi-coloured inflorescences that are striking to the eye. The leaves of Lantanas, being mildly poisonous, are not eaten by most animals, particularly cows and goats. As such they make good fences. However, their fruit is a delicacy for many birds who serve as a carrier of their seeds to be distributed far and wide. So don’t be too eager to pop a berry into your mouth without first affirming if you are allergic to their toxins. Though the berries are edible when ripe they are mildly poisonous if eaten while still green.

The stems of Lantanas are thin yet hardy, making them an ideal raw material for a variety of intricate handicrafts and simple furniture. The soligas (an indigenous tribe native to these parts) of Karnataka use Lantanas today in their craft making, instead of the bamboos that were plentiful until a few years ago.

Lion’s Ears (Leonotis nepetifolia)

This flower is commonly known as Lion’s Ear and sometimes even as Lion’s Tail. A native to tropical Africa and southern India, these flowers grow to a height of 3 metres. The only way to describe the Lion’s Ear flowers is that they are clusters of orange fuzzy flowers that can seem to take on the shape of lion’s ears if observed closely.

Birds, butterflies, bees and hummingbirds love this flower and it makes quite a statement in a garden, standing proud and tall (like a lion) and requiring (unlike a lion) minimum care. It is easily identifiable, being a mid-sized perennial shrub with either white or orange flowers grouped dramatically along upright stems.

Red star Morning Glory (Ipomoea coccinea)

This is a perennial climber that adds value to a garden or home front, serving as a screen or veil. It is also regarded by some as a weed – a nuisance standing in the way of more valuable garden residents. It is identifiable through its heart-shaped leaves and flowers that are shaped like funnels. True to its name, this plant is a child of the sun and blooms all through summer. It thrives in places with a warm temperature and high year-round humidity.

Datura (Thorn Apple) (Datura stramonium)

Though striking and stately, Datura is commonly associated with death and delirium. It was a common ingredient in love potions and witch’s brews in medieval Europe. We are not sure, though, if it played the same role in regions of India where they are found.

Its common names include Thorn Apple and Pricklyburr (owing to the spiny fruit), Jimson Weed, Moonflower, Hell’s Bells, Devil’s Weed, Devil’s Cucumber, and Devil’s Trumpet, (the last owing to its large trumpet-shaped flowers). Unknown to many, the name datura comes from the hindi Dhatura (meaning thorny apple) from where it was absorbed into English and immortalised.

Daturas are the chameleons of the floral world. They have the unusual ability to change their size and that of their leaves and flowers depending upon and in adaptation to the local environment. It has been noted that this species can develop into a magnificent flowering bush half as tall as a person when growing in a half-shady damp location, and, when growing in a very dry location, into a thin little plant just higher than his ankles with tiny flowers and a few miniature leaves.

The presence of hallucinogenic and poisonous substances in Datura have cloaked it in an air of myth and magic, taking away from its allure of an unusual ornamental plant that can adorn home gardens just as easily as it might put one into a state of Cinderella-like slumber.

It is both a joy to behold and a danger to beware of!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Flora. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.