This flower almost always catches my eye as a lone spot of color in a tangled field of grasses and shrubs.
When I get up close to it, I feel an odd deja vu. Only after identifying it, and finding its family and its elegant relative, did I come to understand why.
You’re invited to participate in a biological data collection blitz in Panama. During the week of 21-29 April 2007, citizens in the United States and elsewhere will be collecting information to discover how many plants, bugs, reptiles, frogs, and other creatures live in one small area near their home. Read more about it here. If you would like to do this in Panama, leave a comment here. Materials, methods, and training will be forthcoming.
31 March 2007 update: If you’d rather not leave a public comment, but would like to sign up for the blitz, you may send an email to panamaplants@yahoo.com.
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Se le(s) invita a participar en una recolección relámpago de datos biológicos en Panamá. Durante la semana de 21 al 29 de abril de 2007, ciudadanos estadounidenses y de otros lugares estarán recabando información para conocer cuántas plantas, insectos, reptiles, ranas y otros seres vivos habitan en un área pequeña cerca de sus hogares. Para mayor información, pulse “aquí”.
Si desea participar en Panamá, deje aquí su comentario. Los materiales, métodos y entrenamiento serán anunciados posteriormente. [translation kindly provided by Hilda Pitti]
Actualización del 31 de marzo de 2007: Si prefiere participar en el biorelámpago de manera privada, sírvase enviar un mensaje electrónico a panamaplants@yahoo.com.
Just when the dry season began feeling parched, and after many of the “yellow” trees had moved beyond blooming into fruit and seed production, along came one of the “pink” trees.
It’s Tabebuia rosea, known commonly as the roble de sabana (oak of the savanna) or pink trumpet tree.
The pictures I took of the tree that is growing along our seasonal stream (here’s one, showing blooms on the lower branches and leaves on the upper)
don’t give the idea of breathtaking beauty that one can get from this tree, so I point you to an image at the at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute site. There I learned that T. rosea is planted as an ornamental in almost all the parks in Panama.
But it’s the common name, roble de sabana, that caught my eye when I read about it. Why oak?
I’ve been waiting for this tree to flower since last June, when its relative bloomed so beautifully. I’ve had an idea about what it is, but I wouldn’t be able to find out whether my idea is right until I could see its flower. Here’s the tree:
If I’m right, the common name is dos caras, Spanish for “two faces,” or papilillo, “cigarette paper.” I prefer dos caras because it is so evocative of the two sides of the leaves – green on top, tan underneath. With a breeze going, as it is in the above picture, the undersides of he leaves flop up – it’s very easy to see the two leaf colors, especially if you click on the image to enlarge it.
Just exactly how great this contrast between upper and lower sides of the leaves may be easier to see when we compare leaves with another member of the same family, same genus:
The larger leaf in both scans is the dos caras leaf. The tops of the leaves are on the left, the undersides on the right. Notice how much more of a contrast there is between top and bottom in the dos caras than there is in the smaller leaf.
While we’re looking at the leaves, look at the veins. Those 3 major longitudinal veins practically announce that the plant family here is Melastomataceae, which I have called the “black mouth” family from mela – black and stomata – mouth.
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