Observing the responses I was wondering what is so interesting in this flower . No doubt the flower is large, beautiful, colourful. I read the description from Dinesh carefully. The *meaning of Strophanthus: 'Twisted cord flower'* appeared interesting to me but still couldn't understand it. This prompted me to search on Wikipedia which gave the following result.
Somehow this feature is not visible here but is present in some other species of Strophanthus. Will post one of the pictures from my collection in separate thread. The genus is really interesting!!! *Strophanthus* is a genus of 35-40 species of flowering plants<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowering_plant>in the family Apocynaceae <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocynaceae>, native mainly to tropical Africa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa>, extending to South Africa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa>, with a few species in Asia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia>, from southern India<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India>to the Philippines <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines> and southern China<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China>. The name (*strophos anthos*, "twisted cord flower") derives from the long twisted threadlike segments of the corolla<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corolla_%28flower%29> , which in one species (*S. preussii*) attain a length of 30–35 cm. The genus includes vines <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine>, shrubs<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrub>and small trees <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree>. The leaves<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf>are opposite or whorled, simple broad lanceolate, 2–20 cm long, with an entire margin. Several of the African tribes used *Strophanthus* as the principal ingredient in arrow poison <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_poison>. On 1 November 2010 14:30, Dinesh Valke <[email protected]> wrote: > Apocynaceae (dogbane, or oleander family) » *Strophanthus gratus* > *Synonym*: *Roupellia grata* > > > *stroh-FAN-thus* -- twisted cord flower > *GRAH-tus* -- pleasant, charming > > > *commonly known as*: climbing oleander, cream fruit, rose allamanda > > > *Native to*: West Africa > > > Attached view from Chota Kashmir, Aarey Milk Colony, Mumbai. > ... no more views !! >
