mysterious Big Seedling (Cypress Vine)

This BIG seedling came up in a pot on the deck after several days of (occasional) rain. I put the photos on facebook for an ID:



Stephanie Marr wrote: "Pretty sure it's cypress vine. It has a vigorous twining habit, up to 15 feet. Small star-shaped red or white flowers last one day. Reseeds like you wouldn't believe."

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Follow-up:

There were several single flowers in September and I missed most. On September 21, there were three at once, and Holly photographed them. This gives me hope that we will have seeds!

Silk Floss Tree (a tree in Pasadena)

These are NOT in my yard. They're in the Asian sculpture garden at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.

At first I saw poof of stuff and thought it might be a nest for some sort of bugs, or that it was a tree parasite. But looking at others, it's the opened pod of seeds, it seems. And the trunks of some of them had bumps, and some bumps were like thorns, but some had a hole (like a boil that had been popped) and some parts were smoother, and some trees had more bumps.

I had never seen anything like any of it.

The blossoms reminded me a bit of the redbud tree people identified for me last year.




Most blew up round and fluffy, but this one looked like fingers, or teats on an udder.





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Karen James and Zann Carter both knew, or found it.

Thanks, Karen and Zann! That's it. Google said (on the side bar of a search)

Ceiba speciosa

The silk floss tree, is a species of deciduous tree native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America. It has a host of local common names, such as palo borracho. It belongs to the same family as the baobab and the kapok.

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

Scientific name: Ceiba speciosa
Higher classification: Ceiba
Rank: Species

Redbud Tree

I see I quit numbering, at 35, a while back. That's okay. I don't care enough anymore to try to get to 100, but it's fun to try to track the lives of some of the floral creatures in our yard.

Last year I didn't know this was a redbud tree. I asked on facebook for help, and several very nice people ID'd it.
This year it's five feet high with lots of blossoms. Last year it had its first blossom and was 3.5' tall. Last year: http://helpwithmysterythings.blogspot.com/2012/04/volunteer-tree-my-back-yard.html and on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/SandraDoddABQ/posts/251703271593053

Purple with flowers on the ends

In April 2012 I asked on facebook about a plant someone gave me. In January 2013, I found a message in a folder called http://www.houseplantsguru.com/setcreasea-purpurea, from someone nice named Toddy, who sent me this link. Setcreasea purpurea.

Now I need to find the photo. I looked through all my facebook entries in early 2012 and didn't see it. In India, in the housing society where Pushpa lives, there was landscaping, and there were long areas full of that plant, right outside. So last summer (2012) I planted some outside in the planter outside our room (SW of the hot tub, north of the lilacs) and it was very happy. I expect the winter will have killed it, but I have some more inside the house.

Here it is:

http://helpwithmysterythings.blogspot.com/2012/04/purply-houseplant.html

Hoya, Wax plant

Years ago at the Gills' house in La Mesilla there was a large hoya they had brought from Hawaii (that Uncle Bill had brought them, I think). It was nearly always blooming, too and filled most of the kitchen window.

I've just bought one for my own house, 40 years later. It might grow big, or it might not. It might bloom; it might not. There are pink edges on some of the leaves.

Strawberries & Cream Wax Plant - Hoya carnosa

I'm not trying to learn the names of 100 local plants anymore. It was a Victorian folly-hobby, and I live in the desert.
Now I'm using this blog to keep notes about plants. That's more fun.

Scarlet Globemallow/Yerba de la Negrita

Scarlet Globemallow / Yerba de la Negrita

These grow over three feet high each year, in a couple of places in the yard. I'll take a photo next year.

It's winter, and nothing is so exciting as that sea onion

You can click to enlarge.