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A garden enthusiast who loves to travel and capture the beauty of places and freeze the memories of her travels in photographs, as well as document her experiences in verse...thankful for the simple pleasures in life.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Anyone for some cream fruit?

Cream Fruit has no cream in it, and is not a fruit. How on earth did it get its name??? I've had Cream Fruit in my garden for the last 5 years, but it had never occurred to me to share it with you. I assumed that it was too common a flower, and I didn't know that it had such a delicious-sounding name. I was ignorant of the attributes of my poor, unappreciated Cream Fruit plant which I had uprooted from the front garden and transplanted to the backyard, by a wall beside a bamboo grove which overshadowed its existence. I never knew that it has scented flowers until I read about it in a book on tropical flowering plants. Hence it remained in that  non-significant part of my backyard, literally being a wallflower.  


I have found out since then that it is from Sierra Leone in Africa, and that it is from the family Apocynaceae, and the genus Roupellia. This Roupellia grata is a flowering bush with climbing vines if you do not prune it.The flowers are creamy white with a touch of pink, have a deep burgundy throat, and crimson petals on its underside. It is free flowering, but the smooth,shiny leaves tend to overwhelm the blossoms on my bush. The flowers suffer from low self esteem and usually hide under the leaves. The scent that the flowers give out is pretty much like the fragrance of roses. That must be why it is also known as Rose allamanda. It is also called Climbing oleander. The blooms do bear some resemblance to the oleander, except that the Cream Fruit flowers are sturdier and larger.


















Linking to:
Mosaic Monday
Macro Monday
Today's Flowers
SOOC
I heart macro
GBBD


18 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers and photo's. I also love the garden.

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  2. Lovley mosaic and flower. Thanks for sharing this beauty! Have a great week!

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  3. Beautiful flowers. Love the color. I don't think I have ever seen a flower like that.

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  4. Interesting flowers and new to me. So many different shades of pink and red in the same flower!

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  5. The macro of the open blossom is awesome!

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  6. Beautiful flowers. I haven't seem them before.

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  7. Very pretty blooms! I'm not sure whether have seen them before, maybe because did not notice them! That's a lot of flowers in a cluster. An interesting name!

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  8. It's beautiful! How come I have not heard of Cream Fruit before? It definitely looks interesting.

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  9. Very unusual looking flower. I like your Japanese stone lantern.

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  10. What a lovely plant ...so glad you shared it...

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  11. I'd never heard of cream fruit either. What a wonderful plant. Must keep an eye out and see if it's available here.

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  12. Oh, if that flower is 'common' to your area, I am amazed. How gorgeous it is. Love the bloom and the name makes it almost good enough to eat.

    Wonderful post!

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  13. It is beautiful, I had never seen or heard of it before.

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  14. This is an interesting flower. I've never seen it before ......... I really like the color ...
    LG: Karin

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  15. Interesting name for a pretty flower...

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  16. Such a pretty flower. The photos are nicely taken.

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