ONE SHADY FLAMINGO

Seems like its kinda hard to find any tropical shade plants that produce bright flowers. Not that There is a lot of shade here at the sandpit. But there is a few areas stuck here and there that only get the filtered sunlight for a few hours each day.

I was given this plant which is a Chrysothemis Pulchella or Black Flamingo back in December of last year.

This picture is how it looked last December in bloom.

It produces a colorful bloom that looks like a sunset sort of. Some folks call this plant Sunset Bells.

The plant has leathery large leaves that are crinkly looking. The leaves have several colors from copper to dark green with bright purple undersides. It is quite unique looking different than what is commonly seen planted in a shade spot.

The Black Flamingo has no use for cold weather and this is the same plant on March 2nd of this year.

Seems as though when the cold weather comes around this plant goes dormant and the growth dies off.

Not to worry there is still a tuber under the soil that is just waiting for the place to warm back up.

Here is the same plant at the end of April after the cold weather had left.

I had stuck the dead looking plant in its pot under some other plants in the full shade. Sure enough the temperature rising brought it out of dormancy and it is back with several new shoots.

You can see the strange leave texture and colors. Cool huh!

Anyway this is the Black Flamingo plant today starting to bloom it' summer sunset bells on three stalks now.

This picture is not the best but it was raining and the camera lens was fogging up from the humidity.

This plant should do well in the South Florida heat this summer.

It likes the shade and is a candidate to by propagated by tuber cuttings. So that means of course there soon will be lots of FREE little Black Flamingos in the sandpit shadows in the future.

And with this guy you can enjoy the sunset anytime it is warm.

--SANDDUNE--