Cuckoo about Curcumas

It was early morning when I saw this wild Curcuma. It was nestled up close to the rough, exposed roots of an old cashew tree. With the sun just opening up the skies and sending out one tentative beam to paint the tips of the flower, it looked as if it was on fire! A fireball wrought of fragile crystal, suspended above an emerald bed .

It was so exquisitely pretty that it stopped me in my tracks for a minute . And then, I ran for my camera. I just couldnt resist circling around to get a photo from the other side. And what do you know ... it was just as gorgeous from the other side too!






From this side, I soon saw what I had missed earlier. A view of the true flowers, complete with bright yellow path highlighting the way in for all pollinators. "Just follow the yellow brick road..."




My curcuma is not just a pretty-colour type of flower, though it obviously has that too. There's something so 'architecturally' striking about its form.




When I looked around, there were more curcumas in flower and bud but there were quite a few varying shades and hues. Were they the after-effects of cross-pollination or just varying shades at various stages of flowering? I think I'll have to wait till next year to find out because my wild curcumas dont rebloom for me. The foliage remains for a couple of months, growing progressively more and more ratty . Then they just die down and cut out all above-the-ground activity till the next monsoon season. And its time to bring on the show-stoppers!





Source: the-urban-gardener.blogspot.com