These were at Lyon Arboretum. Clerodendrum thomsoniae and C. magnificum are the two red Clerodendrum listed on a U of Hawaii Manoa campus plants page, so I'm guessing they might be what's in the running for the ID of this plant. Most of the C. thomsoniae photos I see have white calyxes, but what's shown on the campus plants page has calyxes sort-of this colour. Part 2: Are these the same species, with just the calyxes and fruit beginning to develop? They were near the others, but these had no flowers remaining. The person at the visitor centre said he would get me answers for the questions I already had by the time I officially arrived, but he hasn't replied to my email.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? Clerodendrum splendens I believe. I also Think you're seeing seed develop on second grouping.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? Ah, and me with no habit photo. Clerodendrum splendens is supposed to be a vine that needs support or will creep to create a ground cover. My poor memory of this is that these were unsupported bushes, but I don't trust that memory. Thanks, saltcedar.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? http://newenglander.smugmug.com/Nat...tNQL/978270415_8pdMkFS#!i=978270415&k=8pdMkFS Bit of both really, scrambling shrub is how I'd describe them.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? OK, thanks saltcedar. Same person has a photo at the very beginning of her stream that's a good comparison. I'm interested to know how I would distinguish the three of these species. I found one personal page that does have photos of all three of them (including one on the previous page), plus similar enough to me C. speciossisum, an Asian, not African, species. Fairchild BG has C. splendens and C. thomsoniae in their plants list with the plot locations - I could go to Florida again. The only thing I've found is that in the National Botanic Garden of Belgium, the peak bloom time for C. splendens is December-January and April-May, whereas for C. thomsoniae, it's June, or according to another site, July-October. That would support its being C. splendens, and I can't find the blooming time for C. magnificum. I'm wondering with the two pictured plants at such different stages of development, whether it's two different species. I also found mention of The link to the source page with the rest of the text does not work, so that's all there is. Too bad - it's that kind of description I'm looking for.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? Not sure how to answer this. You can't really expect plants to behave predictably in cultivation and in the wild. Not only that...tropicals and subtropicals do not bloom and mature in predictable ways in sub-tropical and tropicals areas like temperate climate plants must in order to survive and reproduce in their short growing seasons. Hybrids only confuse maters further.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? Reviews on Amazon say Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i (Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Special Publication, 2 Vol. Set) is good. I assume it includes exotics. I'd look for it at libraries there that would have plant manuals. Might be in the public system, with a branch on your route happening to have it, otherwise I'd try a college library.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? Thanks, Ron. I had a look thru the pdf supplement, with name changes and new sitings. It looks like it only includes plants that are native or naturalized. It sounds like the book to have for those plants, not so useful for botanical garden plants. I'm wondering if it's worth getting the 1989 edition that is available for not too unapproachable a price. I found a Floridata page called The Flowering Plants of Hawaii, which so far has a photos for a sample of flowers of 55 of the 65 parts of that manual, where each part is an alphabetical range of families.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? Earlier I was trying to remember the title of In Gardens of Hawaii by Marie C. Neal. Check that one out. Old but thick.
Re: Clerodendrum - thomsoniae or magnificum? In Gardens of Hawaii is from 1965. In that case, I should probably then get the Manual from 1989. Well, I found one for $10, so I got that. Of course, shipping is more than that, but never mind. Looking up that, though, I came across Bishop Museum Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 1997, which has descriptions for plants (and animals) that were new to Hawaii or whose status has changed since I'm not sure when. That year, maybe. Maybe there's one of these papers for every year. I also came across a University of Hawaii site called Native Plants Hawaii, which provides a browse function and allows search by Genus, Species, Subspecies, Variety, Forma, Hawaiian and Common Names, or Synonyms. This looks really useful if you have a name.
