Tropical Plants

Hibiscus

2009-11-17T12:42:00.005-05:00

Hibiscus is a plant noted for its showy flowers. Like other tropical plants the Hibiscus is native to warm, temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. The genus also includes both annual and perennial herbaceous plants, as well as woody shrubs and small trees.

The leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to lanceolate, often with a toothed or lobed margin. The flowers are large, conspicuous, trumpet-shaped, with five or more petals, ranging from white to pink, red, orange, purple or yellow. The color of the Hibiscus grows darker as it ages. The fruit is a dry five-lobed capsule, containing several seeds in each lobe, which are released when the capsule splits open at maturity.

Many of these tropical plants are grown for their showy flowers or used as landscape shrubs. Hibiscus is also a primary ingredient in many herbal teas. One species of Hibiscus is used in paper making. Another is used as a vegetable and to make herbal teas and jams (especially in the Caribbean).

Healthy, fertilized hibiscus plants are more tolerant of insect attacks. The newly bought nursery grown tropical plants may need to be allowed to adjust to new conditions in your yard. Grown in partial shade and well fertilized, they need to be introduced to full sun over a 7-10 day period and kept well fertilized. Plant in at least 50% sun. Rotate insecticides for best results. Never use Malathion on Hibiscus. Strong dry winds can burn leaves but they will recover.

You can prune Hibiscus any time of the year except late fall and winter. Expect blooms on the new growth in about 3 months. Cut just above (1/4 inch) an eye that is pointing in the direction you want the new growth to go. New growth is more susceptible to freeze Up North. The Hibiscus plants will need to be brought inside for the Winter. In the deeper south, like Florida, you may only have to cover your plants to protect them from a light frost damage.

Pitcher Plant

2009-11-12T12:30:00.002-05:00

This carnivorous tropical plants hollow leaves trap insects that are digested to supply nutrients for the plant. The whole group of these tropical plants have been collected from the wild to the point where they are rare and endangered. Other species found in Florida, limited to the northern part of the state, are the hooded Pitcher plant, the white Pitcher plant, and a few red flowered forms. These tropical plants are rarely available commercially, but can be found in Boggy, sandy areas on the coastal U.S. from North Carolina into north and central Florida.

These tropical plants feature yellow five-petaled flowers with a musky odor, appearing in spring. They typically grow to 2 feet high in bogs and edges of ponds.

Goldenrod

2009-11-11T13:59:00.002-05:00

When used with other tropical plants the Goldenrod may be used in mixed or single-species wildflower beds. At least four species of Goldenrod are used in Florida landscaping, all of which are herbaceous, perennial, mostly erect, fall-flowering wildflowers.

The Goldenrod grows naturally on sandhills, roadsides, disturbed areas, dunes, tidal marshes, flatwoods, and bogs. Goldenrods are native throughout the eastern United States and Florida. This tropical plants flowers are yellow with spikelike racemes at the tip, and sometimes along only one side of the stem, Summer and Fall. The leaves are linear, to lance shaped, toothed or entire, somewhat fleshy in some species.

As with other tropical plants, the Goldenrod can grow in sandy, acid to mildly alkaline soil. Its best feature is the bright yellow flowers. It is often blamed for hay fever and other Fall allergies.

Thomas Edison once experimented with the sap as a substitute for natural rubber.

Beautyberry

2009-11-11T12:42:00.004-05:00

Among the tropical plants that occur in a wide variety of woodlands across much of eastern North America is the Beautyberry. As tropical plants, the Beautyberry is commonly used as a specimen shrub for its prolific, attractive, purple fruit. Also often massed in shrub beds, situated in naturalistic landscape settings, or along woodland edges. They are very showy tropical plants for roadside plantings, especially in highway medians and road edges.

The Beautyberry is a loosely branched, irregularly spreading, graceful shrub with arching branches. The flowers are small, sometimes inconspicuous, pink to lavender in color that bloom in late Spring to early Summer. The leaves are aromatic, 3-6 inches long, with long stalks with prominent veins. The fruit is conspicuous, purple in color that grows in dense clusters along the branches. It produces more flowers and fruit in the full sun.

Coco Plum

2009-11-09T14:01:00.005-05:00

As with other tropical plants the Coco plum will form dense hedges from the ground up and is excellent along property boundaries. It is a multi trunked, rounded to domed shaped shrub. It is native of coastal and tropical hammocks in southernmost Florida and the West Indies.

It has tiny mostly inconspicuous white flowers with spikes at the base of the leaves. The leaves are rounded, leathery and shiny green, about 3 inches long and point upward. The fruit is about 1 1/2 inches long, purple and edible with a tasty nut.

The Coco Plum as other tropical plants, is tolerant to a large range of soils and is salt tolerant. Full sun is best for dense vegetation and forms a more thinly vegetated shrub when planted in shady spots. It has a moderate life span.

Coco plum is a desired shrub for its hardiness and edible fruit. It provides good cover and food for wildlife.

Acacia Tree

2009-11-08T13:46:00.004-05:00

If you found this site than chances are that you are looking for information about tropical plants. This site is new so until we update, the choices of tropical plants to study will be limited. We will start out with the Acacia Tree.

The Acacia is an excellent barrier shrub that can also be used for highway medians. It is an upright, multi stemmed, densely branched shrub or small tree with zigzag branches. Oval in outline with a rounded to sometimes flattened top.

The Acacia native range is most common in southernmost Florida and southern California. It is also found in Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico, Central and South America, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas.

It has bright yellow flowers that grow in 1/2 inch clusters and are very fragrant. The leaves are about 4 inches long and are divided into small green leaflets. The fruit is a 2-3 inch wooden like pod that produces shiny brown seeds. The bark is reddish brown.

Like other tropical plants the Acacia can tolerate drought conditions but will not tolerate wet soil. The life span is less than 30 years. Its best features is its rapid growth and bright yellow flowers.

Privacy Policy

2009-11-07T11:45:00.001-05:00

Updated Feb. 2010

This website/blog uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when visiting this site. These third parties may collect and use information (but not your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, you can visit Google's Advertising and Privacy page.

If you wish to opt out of Advertising companies tracking and tailoring advertisements to your surfing patterns you may do so at Network Advertising Initiative.

Google uses the Doubleclick DART cookie to serve ads across it's Adsense network and you can get further information regarding the DART cookie at Doubleclick as well as opt out options at Google's Privacy Center

I respect your privacy and I am committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at this site tropicalplantsinfo.blogspot.com. The following discloses how I gather and disseminate information for this Blog.

RSS Feeds

If a user wishes to subscribe to my RSS Feeds (powered by Feedburner), I ask for contact information such as name and email address. Users may opt-out of these communications at any time. Your personal information will never be sold or given to a third party. (You will never be spammed by me - ever)

Log Files and Stats

Like most blogging platforms I use log files, in this case Statcounter. This stores information such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring, exit and visited pages, platform used, date/time stamp, track user’s movement in the whole, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. This blog doesn't use cookies. However, some of my business partners use cookies on this site (for example - advertisers). I can't access or control these cookies once the advertisers have set them.

Links

This Blog contains links to other sites. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites. I suggest my users to be aware of this when they leave this blog and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Blog.

Advertisers

I use outside ad companies to display ads on this blog. These ads may contain cookies and are collected by the advertising companies and I do not have access to this information. I work with the following advertising companies: Google Adsense. Please check the advertisers websites for respective privacy policies.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Ben Willis at bwillismusic@gmail.com