Exotic Beauty (21) : Mexican Butterfly Weed

Exotic Beauty (21) : Mexican Butterfly Weed

The past 2 years I made several visits to the conservatories of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium where 10.000 (!) plant and tree species originating from the tropics and the subtropics are growing in the greenhouses over there.

Thanks to the warm and moist climate in the conservatories and the intensive maintenance, it’s really amazing what an immense great variety of exotic flowers from all over the world can be seen there, even in the cold winter season !
Flowers whose natural habitat is situated in the rainforest, the mountain forest, isolated islands, deserts, etc……. Places that most of us will never or seldom visit.
Some of the flowers are very rare, extremely colourful or specially shaped.
Others were introduced in Europe by men and became a cultivated species or ornamental houseplant.

I selected the –to my personal taste- most beautiful flowers that I saw there and made a series of them.

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Dutch name : Frederiksbloem
German name : Indianer-Seidenpflanze
Latin name : Asclepias curassavica

Country of origin : South America, Amazon rainforest, South Eastern USA and Mexico

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As a very high concentrated source of nectar, these flowers are very attractive to butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
The stem of this plant however contains a milky sap that is toxic.