Tag Archives: Hawai’i Tropical Botanical Garden

Costus lucanusianus

Costus lucanusianus is a native of tropical Africa. It’s also known as spiral ginger or African spiral flag. It’s related to true gingers and the ‘spiral’ in the name comes from the arrangement of the leaves on the stems.

This one was at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s bat plant

Bat plant is the common name for Tacca nivea, a tropical evergreen from Malaysia. The name comes from its appearance. Large white petals stand above dark flowers and long bracts and together these make it look like a bat face.

In this photo the two petals are not standing up, but are lying on top of the flowers so the look is different, but still striking. I’ll have to go back again at a different time to catch it with standing petals.

This one was at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

Tropical mystery plant

Yesterday, I posted about a visit to Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden with Terri, from Second Wind Leisure Perspectives. These photos are of one very interesting plant we saw toward the end of our tour. The spectacular pink bloom sprouted from the end of a single stem. This was definitely something I hadn’t seen before. I took several photos, including these two.

A few steps farther up the path, was a shaving brush tree (thanks for ID Terri) and on the ground around it were numerous pink blooms, remarkably similar to those of this mystery plant. Across from the shaving brush tree, a different shrub altogether sported the same bloom.

Someone had been having an entertaining visit, placing shaving brush blooms on an assortment of plants, but it had been well done and I thought it appropriate for today’s post.