Thursday, May 24, 2007

Colors of Geniparana

Geniparana (Gustavia augusta) is a real showoff when it comes time for flowering- and producing new leaves. Back in December of last year I posted an image of a Geniparana flower, the same one I used for our Christmas greetings message. Now it's time for new leaves and they are almost as attractive as the saucer-seized flower. In the picture you can see the new leaves to the right and the mature ones to the left. As described in the "Colors of Ingá" post not long ago, plants have a bag of tricks to ward off leaf-eating insects- and changing colors is one of them. The insects are tuned into jungle green, not other colors. This gives the leaves a few extra days to toughen up before they are discovered as a delicious salad.

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