PRETTY BRACTS 
POGONOPUS 
* POGONOPUS (P. speciosus). Bushy, 
South American shrub or small tree to 20 
feet, resembling Mussaenda. This out- 
standing introduction bears 1l-inch, purpl- 
ish crimson tubular flowers. These are 
accompanied by brilliant scarlet, leaf-like 
bracts, one to two inches long, that persist 
for a time after the flowers fall. Harold F. 
Winters of the USDA experiment station 
in Puerto Rico, recommends the use of 
this showy plant in Florida landscape 
work, either as a specimen or as a back- 
ground shrub where faced with evergreen 
species. In Puerto Rico the foliage is 
deciduous for a short period in the dry 
season. 
"ASHANTI BLOOD (Mussaenda ery- 
throphylla). This Gold Coast plant, ac- 
cording to Hutchinson & Dalziel, is “usu- 
ally a climbing shrub but sometimes more 
or less erect or even a small tree with 
a definite trunk.” Irvine calls it “one of 
the most beautiful and showy of African 
shrubs.” The clustered 5-petalled 14-inch 
flowers are of a beautiful creamy yellow 
with a center of short rich crimson hairs. 
Like some other members of the coffee 
family, the blossoms are set off by the 
sudden enlargement of one lobe of the 
calyx on each flower; these expand to 2% 
inches wide and become a deep crimson, 
“making it a most striking sight in the 
forest,” Irvine adds. 
INDIAN MUSSAENDA (M._ roxbur- 
ghi). Like the preceding, except this is a 
shrub from Assam that bears very dense, 
many flowered clusters of bloom in which 
4] 
the flowers are orange and the expanded 
leaf-like lobes are white. 
*“CALYCOPHYLLUM- (C. candidissi- 
mum). “One of the showiest trees of Cen- 
tral America,” Standley wrote, “often ap- 
pearing as a huge mass of white.” See 
1947 catalog. 
*“LYCIDICE (L. rhodostegia). This is 
a large S. China evergreen handsome tree, 
with rose-purple flower sprays and_ per- 
sistent colored bracts covering the tree 
for months. Macmillan lists it aniong the 
finest of flowering trees to be found in 
the world tropics. 
RAUWOLFIA (R. serpentina). This 
pretty, little South Indian evergreen shrub 
of the Allamanda family, has small white 
flowers made conspicuous because each 
one is backed up by a bright red calyx 
and red stem. These are followed by 
black berries. 
MANDARIN 
HAT 
MANDARIN HAT (Holmskioldia san- 
guinea). An excellent, showy evergreen 
shrub for Florida gardens because of its 
copious burnt-orange flowers all winter 
that are shaped like a Chinese hat. It has 
a tendency to climb, but if pruned back 
severely may be kept as a rounded 6-foot 
shrub. 
