Exotic flowers and plants for you!
I posted a photo on June 6th with some of these exotic flowers in a truck. Now, I get the chance to present them to you in a fountain. Okay, this is the last photo I will post from Hotel Centro Colonial Antigua even though I took more and I uploaded 8 of them to my flickr account. If you care to see them, I have them in a slideshow; there is a treat for you.
Trivia: The red flowers are called camarones here. Can you guess what it means and do you the English name for these flowers?
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August 26th, 2006
Oooh I love them!! Very beautiful! Flowers is one of my favorite photo subjects! Thanks for sharing this Rudy! You made my day!
August 26th, 2006
Yes, in this setting they look very exotic and eye-catching. Nice!
August 26th, 2006
Camarones are shrimp, aren’t they??
The blooms are very showy. I wish I knew what they were in English so I could know what to look for at the store.
August 27th, 2006
Hi Glenda — The plants are called ’shrimp plants’ in English, too! The scientific name is Justicia brandegeana, named after botanists Townsend and Katherine Brandegee.
(Rudy, I am still addicted to your site!)
August 27th, 2006
Hi folks. Lillian is correct that Justicia brandegeana is called shrimp plant in some places, like the USA:
http://toptropicals.com/catalog/uid/justicia_guttata.htm
However, the beautiful flowers in your photo are a different plant, Alpinia purpurata. It is related to culinary ginger:
http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Alpinia_purpurata
Mix-ups happen when people use common names to describe plants, especially when talking to people from different countries. Latin names sound geeky and pretentious, but it’s the only way to be sure what the plant is. Very nice photos, by the way. Antigua is an awfully pretty place. Kim.
August 28th, 2006
Oops!! Kim, thanks for catching my error and providing the links. So the correct answer to Glenda’s question is that the English name is ‘red ginger lily’ but she should use the Latin name ‘Alpinia purpurata’ to be sure she gets the right flower.
April 17th, 2008
lovely building and flowers I like the way the statue on the right hand side is holding her hands out to present the flowers and the fountain - nice work!