Plants: Yucca gigantea

There are yuccas in the UP Clarkfield campus and I am surprised I could not ID immediately the following trimmed landscape tree at Petron station along NLEX. This is where the van is sure to make a brief stopover after leaving the campus at 4 or 3 pm in the afternoon.


The tree is a yucca gigantea or yucca elephantipes, not some old dracaena plant.

Plant	Yucca gigantea
Location	Petron station, NLEX,Bulacan
Camera	Samsung WB150F
Photographer	Dr. Ernesto P. Adorio
Acknowledgment	Susan Estrope Dicker(common name Yucca)
Reference	Wikipedia

Hylocerus Undatus, queen of the night, dragon fruit

This is a nice dragon fruit flower, also called queen of the night. It is the flower of the exotic dragon fruit whose texture is similar to Kiwi fruit! It is sweet smelling especially at night.

Plant	Hylocerus Undatus
Common name	queen of the night, pitaya, dragon fruit
Location	Philippines
Camera	Samsung ES-15
Photographer	Al Claud

Image created and copyright by Al Claud, published with permission in this blog.

Flowers: peony

Here is a salmon colored single petaled peony flower, taken by Dinah Canada based in the USA. Many gardening companies sell various colorfula and beautiful peony cultivars that keeping track of the scientific names is beyond our current capacity.

Plant	salmon colored single petaled peony
Location	USA
Photographer	Dinah Canada
Reference	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peony

Photo owned and copyright reserved by Dinah Canada. Published in this blog with permission.

Insects: A danaid eggfly

This butterfly species seems unafraid to flaunt its beauty. They are actually distasteful to birds!

Here is another photo.

Taken with a Samsung WB150F digital compact camera at UP Clarkfield.

Vines: Cissus Sicyoides, Curtain ivy , Princess Vine

This aerial roots of this vine makes nice dividers and a good screen to avoid butterflies from getting out of a butterfly dome. I found this one in Paradise Ranch, Pampanga inside a butterfly house, but I did NOT photograph the vine plant itself which was difficult to do since it was an overcast rainy day.

Here is what I believe a flower and leaves or the curtain vine.

Hopefully, next time I will be able to post more photos focusing on both vine and curtain roots.


Here is a "dramatic"

Plant, Vine	Cissus Sicyoides
Common Name	Princess Vine, Bali Curtain,Curtain Ivy
Location	First photo(Paradise Ranch, Pampanga); second photo(University Avenue, Diliman, Q.C.)
Camera	Samsung WB150F
Photographer	Ernesto P. Adorio
Reference	wikipedia

Plant: Zamia furfuracea, cardboard plant, mexican cycad

I saw this "primitive" looking plant used as for landscaping at the Petron station in NLEX(North Luzon EXpressway) where we make a brief stop before proceeding to Balintawak or Mindano Avenue. It cycad.The leaves and stems are stone hard. Here is a link to the photographer's FB photo

Here are more photos which hopefully are also zamias.

Plant	/Cycadales/Zamiaceae/Zamia furfuracea
Common Name	cardboard plant, Mexican cycad
Location	Bulacan NLEX Petron Station(1st photo), Quezon Memorial Circle(2nd photo)
Camera	Samsung WB150F
Photographer	Ernesto P. Adorio
Acknowledgement	Dr. Lorna Almocera(complete identification)
Reference	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamia_furfuracea; arkive.org

Peanut flowers as ground cover: Arachis Glabrata

I saw yellow flowers growing low in Paradise Ranch, Jollibee Clarkfield, and at U.P. Diliman. A former student identified it as a peanut but a friend in my Handbook of Philippine Plants and Flowers said it is NOT a commercial peanut. I thought it was a weed, but it is actually used as a ground cover! and in soil conservation.

The real commercial peanut is Arachis hypogaea. The one in the photo is Arachis glabrata.

Plant	Fabales/Fabacae/Arachis Glabrata
Common name	mani-mani, Groundcover peanut, Creeping forage peanut, Rhizoma peanut, Rhizoma perennial peanut, Perennial forage peanut,Golden Glory
Location	Jollibee branch at Airforce City, Clarkfield, Pampanga
Camera	Olympus VG-110
Photographer	Dr. Ernesto P. Adorio
Acknowledgment	Philip del Mundo(identification as peanut), Al Claud(mani-mani, noncommercial)
Reference	Univ. of Florida: Guide to Using Rhizomal Perennial Peanut in the Urban Landscape, Wikipedia