Chocolate Flower Berlandiera lyrata

Greetings,  This Is a lovely picture that I captured over the summer of a Chocolate flower, Given its name because of its Delightful chocolate aroma it puts off when it blooms in the early morning hours. You can find items featuring this photo in my Zazzle store At this link

A.K.A. chocolate daisy, Lyreleaf Greeneyes, Berlandiera lyrata

A quarter-size, vibrant, yellow daisy with striking red striped undersides and chocolate-colored stamens.

A small plant with an airy habit, Chocolate Scented Daisy  (sometimes called Chocolate Flower) makes a nice, informal edging plant, and is most impressive and most fragrant when planted in groups.

 Although native to the Southwest, Chocolate Scented Daisy has shown itself to be adaptable to a wide spectrum of conditions.  A night bloomer, the flowers offer up their rich cocoa scent in the morning. As the temperature rises the petals close or drop and the fragrance recedes.

The calyxes flatten outward and make a convenient holder on which the large milk chocolate colored seeds will ripen. Left alone to drop or be carried, these seeds come up readily the next spring.

 If harvested before the seeds come loose at the center (note the cream colored attachment points around the middle), these make an attractive addition to the autumn dried arrangement.

The fragrant stamens do taste like cocoa, or more accurately like unsweetened chocolate. But, they are much more enjoyable adding their delicious fragrance to the garden.

Berlandiera dies back to the ground in winter and returns with a larger crown each spring, ultimately reaching about two feet across and about 18 inches high.

It Flowers nearly year round, and is very drought resistant making a perfect plant for Landscaping in the Desert Southwest.

It grows in Dry arid regions, sandy loams, rocky, limestone soils, roadsides, grasslands with mesquite, oak, and juniper; 700–2200. Found in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and of course the Deserts of Mexico.

Berlandiera lyrata is cultivated in Arizona. Exceptional specimens that are scapiform (sometimes monocephalic) with mostly undivided leaves and with wartlike hairs on peduncles occur at higher elevations (south-central New Mexico, trans-Pecos Texas, and Nuevo León). They have yellow disc corollas, as do most collections from Chihuahua, Durango, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.

 Scientific Specifics:

Plants 10–60(–120) cm. Stems (erect to decumbent) usually branched. Leaves evenly distributed along stems; petiolate; blades oblanceolate or obovate to spatulate, often lyrate, sometimes ± pinnatifid (terminal lobes usually shorter than pinnatifid portions, crenate to irregularly incised), membranous to slightly chartaceous, ultimate margins crenate or entire, faces ± velvety. Heads in corymbiform arrays. Peduncles hairy (some hairs reddish, bulbous-based, wartlike, surpassing white, appressed hairs). Involucres 13–17 mm diam. Ray corollas deep yellow to orange-yellow, abaxial veins (sometimes whole surfaces) red to maroon, laminae 10–14 × 5.5–8 mm. Disc corollas red to maroon (rarely yellow). Cypselae 4.5–6 × 2.7–3.7 mm. 2n = 30.

Yellow Fish-hook cactus flower Hamatocactus setispinus

Greetings Bloggers!  I do apologize for the long delay between posts! Today’s post features the photos of the beautiful blossoms of the Fish-hook Cactus. I found these beauties on a local ranch in Western Texas, Near Del Rio.  I have created many new Products for my Zazzle store with these Photos, including Skins and cases for the Kindle and Iphone 5. To see these and other Products Visit my store here http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88

Hamatocactus setispinus

Description

 Habit: H. setispinus is a typically solitary cactus that sometime will offsets from it’s base. This species produces a lot of fragrant yellow, orange-eyed flowers at the top of the stem. An attractive blooming machine.

Stem: Globular to cylindrical, yellow-green to dark bluish green of flabby texture like Echinocereus, up to 15 cm tall, 10 cm in diameter; distinctly ribbed.

Ribs: About 13 high and 1-2 mm wide, very evident, thin, wavy on the margin, straight or more or less spiralled.

Roots: Long fibrous.

Areoles : ± circular, 5-8(-14) mm long, 2-7 mm wide, 15 mm apart, with short wool and finally naked: Areoles typically bear extrafloral nectaries.

Spines: Both radials and centrals, white or yellowish and brown radials 12 to 16 (10-30 mm long), central 1 to 3 one of them usually hooked, longer than the radials, 6 to 40 mm long (or more). Tubercles absent.

Flower: Silky yellow with orange to darker red throat , 3 - 7 cm across, 3,8 - 5,2(7) cm long. Inner perianth segments oblong, acute, widely spreading. Flowers-bud pointed, covered with imbricated naked scales (whithout wool or bristles in the axil). Flower-tube narrow, funnelform.

Fruit: Red and fleshy, nearly naked, globular to ovate, 8-11 mm long, that dry and fracture basally at full maturity.

Seeds: 1,3-1,7 mm long and 0,5 -0,8 mm diameter, black tuberculate, hilum large basal, circular.

Phenology: Summer grower.

Blossoming time: It flowers very well, even when quite young, producing lots flowers in succession all Summer.

Distribution: USA (Southern-Texas) and Northern Mexico (Taumaulipas ; Nuevo Leon, Coahuila) Habitat: It is often found growing under Mesquite scrubs on costal lowlands. Altitude 0 – 550 m

Cultivation: This species is easy and well worth growing, wonderful when grown in containers as a patio plant in colder climates. Require little care once they have reached a nice flowering size H. setispinus is suited for any rich, well drained soil in full sun throughout the year (But do better with some light shade in summer). Pot culture: grow best in a well-drained container filled with a porous cactus soil mixture that doesn't contain too much humus. To insure robust plants water and fertilize during the aestival growth cycle, this plant need plenty of water (indicatively to about once a week) But needs to be avoided wetting the bodies of these plants while they are in sunlight. A wet cactus in the sun light can cause sun burning which can lead to scars or even fungal infections and death. Care must be taken to prevent sooty mould forming on the sugary secretions from near the areoles.

Frost Tolerance: In winter keep completely dry at 5°C this usually aids in maintaining a healthier plant, but it is hardy as less as -12 to -7°C depending on the origin. (Temperature Zone: USDA 9-11)

Reproduction: Seeds or cutting. Seeds are the typical way of reproducing. These cacti will easily grow from seeds and some from cuttings. Seeds can be sown in the spring or summer in well-drained pots of cactus soil; sow the seeds thinly on top. Cover them with a bit of fine quartz grit. Moisten and lay a piece of glass across the top. The pots should be set in a warm greenhouse until they start to sprout, after which the glass should be progressively removed so they can receive full light and air.  It isn't good to keep the glass over the seedlings. Well-developed seedlings can be planted separately in small pots.

Cuttings made from pieces of the stem of any size can be detached and laid aside for a few days, to allow a protective "skin" to form over the cut. They can then be planted in pots. Place them in a spot where they'll receive sun, and do not water until the soil becomes fairly dry. After a while the soil should be moistened regularly, but never kept constantly saturated.

Etymology: The genus name " Hamatocactus" derives from the Latin word “Hamatus” meaning “fish-hook” to describe its central spines furnished of a terminal hook and the word "cactus", the genus from which this segregate was removed. ( The genus name implies: "hooked cactus").

The species name "setispinus" Derives from the Latin name “seta” meaning “bristle” or “stiff hair of an animal” + “i” (connective vowel used by botanical Latin) + “spina” meaning “thorn, prickle, spine” + “us” (latinizing suffix) ( The specific name implies: " bristle-like spines ").