Silk Crepe Flower - Dalechampia Aristolochiaefolia

Lovely Colour,Looks lke a Bract is it, with tiny flowers in the middle

Bjs - yes the purple part is a silk like bract. You can just see the leaves behind - they're heart-shaped. The creamy-brown bit in the middle is quite sticky and I've never been able to find out what its purpose is. I think the little red things are tiny flowers but am not sure. This is an evergreen creeper that doesn't seem to be well-known - there's not even very much information about it on the internet.

Most unusual love the colour and pretty

Thanks Morgana - yes it's the most unusual plant I have really. I've never really seen anything like it.

Marguerite - this just turned up in my local nursery a few weeks ago. I had to have it - one of my favourite colours and such an unusual bloom. I'm really looking forward to seeing this grow and become covered with these flowers.

Berieh
You say the centre is sticky this is probably the stigma (The female bit ) of the flower,sticky to hold on to the pollen from the red bits when they open up as staymens ( the male bit) with the Pollen.
This is often the case the female becomes receptive before the male part to allow insects to carry polen from another flower.I could go on but it might becomes X rated.
Brian
PS i wonder what the minimum tempeture is it would stand.

Thanks very much for the information Brian - it's certainly amazing how nature works (no x-rated stuff here please - we'd better leave the poor thing some privacy!!) The label on this said suitable for 'warm' climates so I'm guessing it doesn't stand the cold very well - I can't find out much about this particular plant.

stunning colour

Yes Irish it's one of my favourite colours.

that is a lovely flower paulette .

Thanks Paulette - it is a most unusual thing and really does feel a little like a silky piece of material.

very unusual and beautiful.

Bernieh:

Very gorgeous! This tropical plant seem to love your beautiful tropical climate.
I've only seen this vine very rarely available here. You are extremely lucky!

Delonix - my local nursery got a new management team and they seem to be getting more and more interesting things delivered. Unfortunately, they weren't able to tell me much about this one. It has been doing very well - still only 3/4 of a metre tall though.

Bernieh:

It's in the Euphorbiaceae family...so that means it may possibly set viable seed...like many of the other species in this family. It will probably be easy to start from cuttings. It would only probably grow in tropical and subtropical climates.

I've only seen this plant available in two specialty nurseries in Southern California before...one in Northern San Diego County and the other in Hollywood, CA.

Please keep us informed on how quickly it grows and how long it blooms. I would be very interested.

Thanks Delonix - I will keep you posted of its progress. So far there's only been one bloom.

Bernieh:

Thank you! I'll appreciate the information.