wild, but very beautiful..................

We are slowly losing some of our very wonderful flowers to land based developmental activities. In the eyes of the new messiahs of development, every bit of "greenery", if left fallow, is land left waste(d). These lands has to converted, they say....But how far do they know that some of these plants will be lost for ever? Or even if we know, are we planning the re-location of such plant species? Nope.

But such lands will be harbouring many tens or hundreds of different kinds of plants. Some very useful medicine plants. Some with very beautiful flowers. Maybe some we still do not know about..some we thought had long gone....

Flowers are the most beautiful of plant organs. Through their flashy designs and structures they attract pollinators and also facilitate the propagation of their self. The fruits also later become the food of some other organisms.

The Kerala landscape is also fast losing some its very beautiful plants like these.............

Rauvolfia tetraphylla  or Pambukolli

Rauvolfia tetraphylla  or Pambukolli

Clerodendrum infortunatum  or Peruku

Clerodendrum infortunatum  or Peruku

Helicteres isora or Edampiri-valampiri  

     

Survival of the fittest...............

Plants perhaps are the most resilient of living things....As "victims of their own environment" they cannot just "run" away from the dangers posed by an approaching herbivore, a fire, insect or pathogen! We and other animals can just move away and find a safe haven somewhere.

 Plants are resilient and can survive by adaptation....Given a bit of favourable environment, they just unleash themselves...here are some faithful followers of Darwin's Law No. III..

the small bit of soil amidst the bitumen is enough...........

Macranga peltata..the true colonizer! the rocks have been there for some time...

wow....resilient indeed.......

those boulders are about a meter in height..yet!

this time, the Trema orientalis shows its colonizing and survival abilities