THE HEART OF FLAME - BROMELIA BALANSAE
It has been a scorching summer
this year in Namm Ooru Bengaluru and bidding adieu to the summer are these
stunning blooms of the “Bromelia balansae” or the “Heart of Flame”, plants.
These plants are often grown as
hedge plants because of their almost impenetrable razor sharp leaves, because
of which they often referred to as the "Barbed-Wire-Fence-Bromeliad".
Come summer and these
often ignored hedge plants begin to blossom with the leaves turning bright
vermillion red and from the center rises, the inflorescence filled with lovely
lavender colored flowers, truly a stunning sight to behold.
Captured these images in the 400
acre wooded campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. India.
The IISc Campus is a Botanist and a Naturalist's Delight.
The genus is named after the Swedish medical doctor and botanist Olof Bromelius (1639-1705) – for Bromelia and
after the French botanist and explorer Benedict Balansa (1825-1891) - for balansae.
The plant is native to tropical South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,
Colombia and Paraguay).
The most famous example
of the Bromeliaceae family is the edible and delicious fruit - The
Pineapple (Ananas comosus).
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