Exotic flowers and plants for you!

by

Fountain of Hotel Centro Colonial

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?

© 2006 – 2013, Rudy Giron. All rights reserved.

9 thoughts on “Exotic flowers and plants for you!”

  3. 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.

    Reply

  4. 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!)

    Reply

  5. 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.

    Reply

  6. 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.

    Reply

Leave a Reply