Admiring Tropical Beauties

While I am majorly using this blog to record my gardening progress and fun, I also love to use it to share the plants I saw during some garden visits or trips.  I admit that I don't know the names for most of them, but it does not stop me sharing them with you.  Maybe some of you can recognize them.

Today I will show you some of those tropical beauties I saw last month from several different places.

Last month, company had a team building activity at Zoo Miami (formerly Miami Metro-Zoo).  It turned out that this zoo not only has large selection of animals from around the world, they also have beautiful landscape filled with tropical beauties.

The team building event is Safari Quest.  Team was divided into 3-person groups to find the correct animal names based on some hints.  The list included the hints for 25 animals, and we had two and half hours to finish the quest.  The time was pretty tight even we got to ride a Safari Quest Cycle.  We had lots of fun to fulfill the quest, but you also can imagine that I did not get much time to admire the plants and take lots of pictures.  Here are some I managed to take.

Oh, I surely recognized this Floss-Silk Tree (Ceiba Speciosa) immediately since I have been admiring it from Floridagirl's blog for a while.  She listed its detail in her "Plant of Month: November 2010" post.  Who would not love it?

I was certain that somebody has shown this flower in his/her blog, but I can not remember its name.

It is no secret I love bromeliads, and I especially loved this placement of bromeliads near the zoo entrance.

I took parents to visit Flamingo Gardens during one weekend.  The following pictures were taken there.

This soft pink flower kind of reminded me Jatropha tree flowers, but I am not sure if  they are related.

This flower is so purely white, almost like snow. 

Aren't these two beautiful? Again, I don't know the names.  Sorry.

This has some similarity with yellow shrimp plant, but it is obviously not.

This also looks familiar, but no name came to my mind either.

Love the look of this soft yellow flower with white bracts, so delicate, yet stunning!

I don't how this tree formed the trunk like this.  Nature really creates magic.



Ficus Racemosa 'Cluster Fig'

I took the next two pictures from a local nursery.  The owner told me this is called "African Tulip" tree, and let me know that I was the first person who ever asked him its name.

While I can not grow this tree in my tiny garden, I was certainly admiring its bright red-orange flowers.  I am sure this tree would put on a fantastic show when it is full of the blooms. 

African Tulip (Spathodea campanulata)



Hope you enjoyed these tropical beauties as much as I did, and feel free to shout out some of those plants' names.