Flowers.

These frames I have captured from the Green Paradise, Wayanad.
Some famous quotes about the flowers……
“The earth laughs in flowers.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.” ― Edna St. Vincent Millay
“I must have flowers, always, and always.” ― Claude Monet

 

Lantana Camara (Kongini Poovu)
 

Lantana camara is called as Kongini Poovu(Ari Poovu) in Malayalam. Lantana camara, also known as Spanish Flag or West Indian Lantana, is a species of flowering plant in the verbena family, Verbenaceae, that is native to the American tropics.It has been introduced into other parts of the world as an ornamental plant and is considered an invasive species in many tropical and sub-tropical areas.
 

L. camara is sometimes known as "Red (Yellow, Wild) Sage", despite its classification in a separate family from sage (Lamiaceae), and a different order from sagebrush (Asterales).
 

The native range of Lantana camara includes Mexico, Central America, the Greater Antilles, The Bahamas, Colombia, and Venezuela. It is believed to be indigenous to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States. It has become naturalized in tropical and warm regions worldwide. In the Kenyan highlands it grows in many areas that receive even minimal amounts of rainfall. It can be seen in the wild and along footpaths, deserted fields, and farms. West Indian Lantana has been naturalized in the United States, particularly in the Atlantic coastal plains, from Florida to Georgia, where the climate is close to its native climate, with high heat and humidity.
 

It was introduced into the Philippines from Hawaii through the Makiling Forestry School (now the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources), as part of botanical academic exchanges between the United States and the Philippines. It escaped into the wild and has become naturalized in the islands. It is referred to by a number of common names including coronitas ('coronet'), utot-utot ('fart [flower]'), and baho-baho ('smelly [flower]'), the last two referring to its distinctive pungent odor. It has also become a major weed in Sri Lanka after escaping from the Royal Botanic gardens of Sri Lanka in 1926.  

Description from Wikipedia- Courtesy  

The Petal

This snap I have clicked on May 1, 2009 from my sister’s house in Calicut. The object is a petal of Ixora coccinea flower. Ixora coccinea (or Jungle Geranium, Flame of the Woods, and Jungle Flame) is a species of flowering plant in the Rubiaceae family. It is a common flowering shrub native to Southern India and Sri Lanka. It has become one of the most popular flowering shrubs in South Florida gardens and landscapes. Its name derives from an Indian deity. In Malayalam it is called Chethi Poovu. Mainly petals of this flower used for offering to the God in all most all temples in India. It has been reported to possess a number of medicinal properties. It has traditionally been used for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery. However the claims of Ayurveda have to be validated by suitable experimental models. The present study was therefore undertaken to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of I. coccinea for its antidiarrheal potential against several experimental models of diarrhea in albino Wistar rats. Here, we report the effects of aqueous extracts of flowers of I. coccinea in the castor oil induced diarrhea model. The gastrointestinal transit rate was expressed as the percentage of the longest distance traversed by charcoal divided by the total length of the small intestine. Weight and volume of intestinal content induced by castor oil were studied by the enteropooling method. Loperamide was used as a positive control. The plant-extract showed significant (P<0.001) inhibitor activity against castor oil induced diarrhea and castor oil induced enteropooling in rats at the dose of 400 mg/kg. There was also significant reduction in gastrointestinal motility in the charcoal meal test. Results obtained in this study substantiate the antidiarrheal effect of the aqueous extract and its use by traditional practitioners in the treatment of diarrhea.