Tubular Flowers

More fruit-colored tubular flowers from the Tropical High Elevation House. All of our tropical blueberries produce flowers that look good enough to eat, Cavendishia macrantha included. I love the two-tone melon/honeydew colored flowers. They are followed by berries that are rich in anti-oxidants.

And a completely unrelated plant, a bromeliad, possibly a Guzmania, with tubular olive flowers. The flowers arise from translucent pink bracts.

Here's a look at the entire plant, with its narrow linear leaves, glossy red stem and long internodes. Quite striking.

more luscious Tropical Blueberries

Sweet tooth: prepare for action. One of the most spectacular of the tropical blueberries is in flower now in the Tropical High Elevation House.

Cavendishia grandifolia in flower 

Cavendishia grandifolia fruits have been recently recognized as an extremely potent source of dietary antioxidants.

Aside from being beautiful and nutritious, the plant is remarkable for its size: the sprawling stems on our plant are about ten feet in length. It is an enormous epiphytic shrub.

Cavendishia micayensis inflorescences cascading over the face of the waterfall.  The green tipped flowers can be seen among the billowy pink bracts.

Macleania coccoloboides with bell shaped flowers, an unmistakable hallmark of the family Ericaceae

Cavendishia bracteata with gorgeous translucent bracts.

Cavendishia grandifolia and C. micayensis will continue to flower through January. Stop by and see these marvelous plants!

Tropical Blueberries II

Ceratostema silvicola in bud & flower

Two more delectable tropical blueberry species are flowering this week in the Tropical High Elevation House. The flowers look good enough to eat.

Cavendishia micayensis 
Notice the ivory/green tubular flowers among the pink bracts

Last week I wrote about the antioxidant properties of these tropical relatives of our native blueberries. But did I mention how gorgeous they are?

Their culture is similar to that of the the Vireya Rhododendrons, another group of tropical ericaceous shrubs. They need some sun, temperatures above 48º, acidic peaty substrate. Many of them are epiphytes and therefore want some additional perlite and/or fine fir bark added to their mix. The biggest challenge in growing them? Size. The flowers pictured above are produced on branches about 6' in length.

Tropical blueberries are fairly uncommon in cultivation. The New York Botanical Garden has an excellent research collection. Our Tropical High Elevation House is a great place to see them.

Extreme Superfruits

Whether you realize it or not, you are already familiar with this group of plants.

Macleania pentaptera in flower

These are blueberries. They belong to the same family (Ericaceae) that includes Rhododendrons, azaleas, heathers, mountain laurel, Pieris, and edible crops like cranberry, lignonberry, bilberry and, of course, the temperate zone blueberries that you put on your morning cereal.

Anthopteris wardii with flowers and fruits

The blueberries pictured above grow in the tropics of Central and South America. Their vivid flowers are the precursors of large fleshy berries, usually white or purple. Beautiful, yes. Great tasting? Well...I would describe them as faintly sweet, but without a distinctive flavor. I won't be making a pie out of them.

But wait. In July of this year researchers at Lehman College and the New York Botanical Garden announced that tropical blueberries have two to four times more antioxidants than U.S. blueberries. Consumption of antioxidants is associated with a low incidence of some chronic diseases and may help protect against heart disease and cancer.

Anthopteris wardii, pictured above, along with Cavendishia grandifolia, are the two species that the researchers found to have the highest amounts of antioxidants.

"We consider these two species of neotropical blueberries to be extreme superfruits with great potential to benefit human health," said Dr. Edward Kennelly of Lehman College in a statement.

You can see Anthopteris wardii, Cavendishia grandifolia and a dozen or so other neotropical blueberries in our Tropical High Elevation House.