Thursday, July 26, 2012

Flower Photo: The Red Tower or Spiral Ginger


This is one of the things I really enjoy about getting lost on Okinawa.


While that Map It Okinawa guy is checking out every trail, or making his own,

I kinda pretend I'm resting in the shade.


And fool around with the settings on my camera.

Not having any clue as to what these red and yellow flowers were, I shot a few.

See, I know lots of folks come here to see flowers and ferns.

There are plenty of websites I have bookmarked to help identify Okinawa's flowers.

This one had me stumped, though.

It wasn't on any of the sites I checked, over the last three hours.  Groan.

So, I Googled "Red and Yellow Pine cone-shaped flower."

BINGO !

The University of Connecticut tells me they are Costus barbatus.

Common name, Red Tower or Spiral Tower.

Taking my search a little bit further, I found even more information for you.

Over at Some Magnetic Island Plants, I found out you can eat the yellow flowers.

Both sites will tell you these plants came from Costa Rica.

Now I feel a lot better.  People aren't the only things that get lost on Okinawa.



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