Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Beast and the beauty!



Update: Accidental discovery! 

Today I was trying to find out the answer for a curiosity question I had - How long a seed can live? and voila, got to id the plant in the below picture!!

It is called Albizia Julibrissin, a 'survivor' seed variety.  It sprouted after 147 years of inertness when a fire in London's British Museum during World War II was doused with water. This fella got drenched and happily germinated it seems.

(It was kept in a Herbarium, i.e. a place where specimens of dried seeds are stored for documentation purpose, in London's British Museum).

Albizia Julibrissin - popularly known as Persian Silk tree - it's flowers have anti-cancer, anti-depressant and anti-obesity properties it seems! So it is not a beast anymore!!


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Need your help to id this plant! If you have any plant-wizard friends then all the better :-)

A beast of a plant with inch long thorns




has these fantastic flowers!



It just bloomed this month and...vow!

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