Sunday, December 8, 2013

THE ANGELS OF DECEMBER (A BRUGMANSIA PHOTO BLOG)

Hi Everybody!!
I am excited to share with You my 'Angels of December'. These flowers bloom all year, but the December Blooms are special in my yard. The colder weather really makes the big white flowers POP! Below, I have shared an info excerpt from Wikipedia on Brugmansia, The Angel's Trumpet. (Check the Google Search for where to buy these flowers). Also below, links to photostudies in my G+Gallery to see more Angels! Enjoy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugmansia

Brugmansia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brugmansia is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. Their large, fragrant flowers give them their common name of angel's trumpets, a name sometimes used for the closely related genus Datura. Brugmansia are woody trees or shrubs, with pendulous, not erect, flowers, that have no spines on their fruit. Daturaspecies are herbaceous bushes with erect (not pendulous) flowers, and most have spines on their fruit.

Brugmansia

Brugmansia 'Feingold'
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Solanales
Family:	Solanaceae
Subfamily:	Solanoideae
Tribe:	Datureae
Genus:	Brugmansia Pers.

Description[edit]

Brugmansia are large shrubs or small trees, with semi-woody, often many-branched trunks. They can reach heights of 3–11 m (10–36 ft). The leaves are alternately arrangedalong the stems, generally large, 10–30 cm (4–12 in) long and 4–18 cm (2–7 in) across, with an entire or coarsely toothed margin, and are often covered with fine hairs. The name "angel's trumpet" refers to the large, pendulous, trumpet-shaped flowers, 14–50 cm (6–20 in) long and 10–35 cm (4–14 in) across at the opening. They come in shades of white, yellow, pink, orange, green, or red. Most have a strong, pleasing fragrance that is most noticeable in the evening. Flowers may be single, double, or more.

Distribution and habitat[edit]

Brugmansia are native to tropical regions of South America, along the Andes from Venezuela to northern Chile, and also in south-eastern Brazil.^[2] They are grown as ornamental container plants world-wide, and have become naturalized in isolated tropical areas around the globe, including within North America, Africa, Australia, and Asia.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Ecology[edit]

Most Brugmansia are fragrant in the evenings to attract pollinating moths.^[7] One species lacking scent, the red-flowered Brugmansia sanguinea, is pollinated by long-billed hummingbirds.^[2] Brugmansia have two main stages to their life cycle. In the initial vegetative stage the young seedling grows straight up on usually a single stalk, until it reaches its first main fork at 80–150 cm (2.6–4.9 ft) high. It will not flower until after it has reached this fork, and then only on new growth above the fork. Cuttings taken from the lower vegetative region must also grow to a similar height before flowering, but cuttings from the upper flowering region will often flower at a very low height.^[2]

One interesting example of plant/animal interaction involves the butterfly Placidula euryanassa, which uses Brugmansia suaveolensas one of its main larval foods. It has been shown that these can sequester the plant's tropane alkaloids and store them through thepupal stage on to the adult butterfly, where they are then used as a defense mechanism, making themselves less palatable tovertebrate predators.^[8]
See above link for complete article