Common name: Purple Wreath, Queen's Wreath, Sandpaper Vine • Hindi: नीलमणि लता Nilmani lata • Tamil: Kudirai valuppu • Bengali: নীলমনীলতা Nilmanilata
Botanical name: Petrea volubilis Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Native to Central America, Purple Wreath is a very lovely small climber
with drooping long racemes of delicate violet-purple star-like flowers. It
is a semi-shrub and semi-climber and the small wooden trunk develops
artistic curves over the years. It looks as if an Ikebana expert has
shaped it for his floral arrangement. It grows best in sunshine. It
flowers in spring and in some areas also in November. The flowers come
in raceme reaching over 1 foot long. The true flower, which is purple,
lasts a couple of days but the blue bracts remain much longer, slowly
turning gray.
| Photographed in Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. |
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