Spring Plant Festival

It has been a while since we were at the USF Botanical Garden. So this year's Spring Plant Festival seemed like an opportune time to revisit this garden at our backyard, so to speak. And it happened on April 12, 2009, a typically sunny afternoon at this time of the year.

While many of the visitors were either lugging pots of flower/plants or pulling a wagon/trolley of similar purchases, we were criss-crossing the make-shift stalls practically empty-handed, except for the digital camera in my hand. Only our eyes were feted to the colorful display of the plant kingdom as captured in the following digital tapestry.

A butterfly clinging to a flower, no surprise there.

Wify and her favorite painting subject, the bamboo.

As the name plate indicates, this is bonsai territory.

Hooded pitcher plants.

A hibiscus hybrid, unbelievable indeed, covering Wify's both palms.

Another unbelievable hibiscus, wielded in the same hand as above.

This is actually a cut plant affixed to the tent pole.

Another flower species seemingly spanning across the sky.

Wify knows the Chinese name translated as the embroidered ball flower. And I did the rest using the Internet search to come up with, viola, Hydrangea.

An Australian import: Ptilotus exaltatus.

The Fall Plant Festival at USF Botanical Garden

The Fall Plant Festival organized by the USF Botanical Garden was scheduled on Oct 11-12, 2008. We were planning to go on the first day, which fell on a Saturday, but that plan was derailed when I found out that the level of the engine oil in our Minivan was low, for seemingly no apparent reason. I was actually acting on a hunch after I noticed that the low engine oil indicator on the console would light up whenever I was braking, and would then disappear when the Minivan had come to a stop, much like the sloshing fluid motion in a less than full enclosed glass jar when it decelerates from uniform notion whence part of the jar will bottom out. So before we boarded the Minivan that morning, I decided to look under the hood and removed the oil dipstick for a visual examination. Lo and behold, the oil level was even below the first bottom mark on the dipstick. After apologizing to Wify for having to shelve the trip of wonderment at the Botanical Garden, I drove straight to the nearby Toyota Service Center. They needed to do a thorough examination and sent me home with a rented car provided for my convenience, at their cost.

The next day, I delivered the promised trip, in the rented Toyota Camry. Our experience sauntering among the many stalls, each presenting a unique floral/fruit offering showcasing the toasts of plant species found in Tampa and Florida, amidst the many visitors pulling little wagons behind them stuffed full with the purchase of the day, interspersed with plant taxis (these are buggies transporting goods for those patrons who found the trip back to the car park too onerous with their prized collections), is best narrated in a sequence of Kodak moments captured for posterity. Join us then for a flower extravaganza.

The Pitcher Plant, one of the few plants that trap insects alive, and then dissolve the helpless prey for ingestion. I have known it as a plant found in the wild but have not been aware that it has since been elevated to its present decorative status. I guess it can double as house pest control too.

Most of these fruits are actually common back home like durian, mangosteen, jack fruit, rambutan, etc. I was in my elements when I undertook to enlighten fellow visitors, some of whom have only seen these in pictures, on the different tastes of these fruits based on first-hand palate experience.

These caterpillar-like flowers are Chenille plants.

These upside-down gems of a flower are Angel Trumpets. How befitting.

These are the Philippine Violets. No prize for guessing right where they originated.

I was intrigued by the word, Soroptimist, on the banner, thinking that it must be a branch of botany or something. Boy was I wrong. Here's what Wikipedia says: "Founded in 1921, Soroptimist ("best for women") is an international volunteer organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls, in local communities and throughout the world."

These belong to a class known as Philodendrons. They are the dwarf species, somewhat like bonzai. At first I thought they are related to another plant the leaf shape of which is fondly referred to as Horse Face becuase of its elongated shape, like the face of a house.

Antique roses! What do you know. And I thought antique is a moniker reserved for things dead and like fossilized.

Plumeria. Sounds like a blossom of plumes.

Good old Bougainvillea, always a favorite decorative plant, spotting different shades of pink.

A soothing cascading stream to caress the tired mind engendered by the hustle and bustle of city life.

Cactus plants with their unique pink buds striking out at mid-section.

And to conclude the journey, Elkhorns.

Of Plants and Butterflies, at USF

One advantage of staying in/near a university is that one would be able to attend social, cultural, and festive events held there. Such was the case when we were living at Corry Village, a married student housing located within the UF Campus. Easter egg hunts, Christmas tree lightings, July 4 fireworks, band performances, Asian/Hispanic/Black student days, arts/books exhibitions, and many others.

Before we moved to our present home, we have visited the USF on several occasions to attend Chinese New Year celebration, music performance, Tzu-Chi (a Buddhist foundation) celebration, and a Dharma talk, not to mention the weekend trips to the Main Library for scientific exploration.

Naturally, when we moved to just across from USF, these visits will take on a new “frequency”. So yesterday we dropped in on our new neighbor, the event being the plant/herb/butterfly exhibition held at the Botanical Garden, a plant research center under the auspices of the Department of Geography.

Area-wise, it’s much smaller than the Botanical Garden near Largo that we have visited several times as well. It was a paid event, admission being $4/= per visitor, with an additional dollar for going inside a small makeshift butterfly room. Most of the visitors came away with bagful of young plants, but we did not. Our purpose was mainly an exploratory one, getting to know some of the local plant/herb/butterfly species, which abound in Malaysia too.

As in most visits, the story is best told pictorially, showcasing the Floridian offerings in horticulture and lepidoptery (yes, I did look up this word which means the scientific study of butterflies and moths).

A staghorn fern, named so because of the resemblance of the leaf to, well, the horn of a stag (a male deer). No mystery there.

Back home we have a nickname for this plant: horse face. Get it? So Staghorn, horseface, a kind of crossover of the animal and plant kingdoms?

These leavee are naturally perforated. How weird can nature get? Wonder whether there is a purpose.

The bromeliads, loud and clear.

The Butterfly room from the outside, with double plastic flap curtains at the doors to prevent butterfly escape.

Two species of butterflies.

Yet another butterfly species.

Yet another .... No wait, this can't be right. It's too huge. And yes, it's faked. Gotcha!