Bougainvillea spectabilis - Bougainvillea, Schefflera actinophylla - Queensland Umbrella Tree

Nice shot Delonix.

Panther:

Thanks for the compliment!

Wow...now that's a Schefflera!~ mine is about 7ft tall... love the bougainvillea too. How many colours of B. are there? There was a lovely peachy salmon pink in the tropical greenhouse at the U.

Lori:

You name the color...it's available. The most common colors are: purple, red, pink, red, white, gold, orange, lavender, and variegated form of these colors. Not only are the bracts variegated...there's many variegated variations on the leaves.

I know it is wonderful to have such variety...but where does the "tinkering" end? I wish there was a trend to return to the specie ...and stop all this endless hybridizing and cloning and meristem culturing, DNA splicing, etc. etc. We need to find and preserve the old varieties of fruit and nut trees and berries, and drupes......don't you find that many fruits we eat have lost flavour...in favour of extending their shelf life or disease resistance...or insect resistance.

Lori:

For ornamental purposed I think hybridizing is fantanstic! However, when it comes my food...I'm with you. To much tinkering with genetic engineering.
That's the reason I grow my own bananas, mangoes, papapayas, coffee (for the cherries), eggplant, crookneck squash and several other vegetables and herbs. I wish I had more land though.

The next exotic fruit I want to grow is Garcinia xanthochymus - False Mangosteen. It has some incredibly medicinal and anti-oxidant properties.
It is difficult to find though...I'm still searching. If you want to see a photo of one check out my photos for tonight.