A Glorious Curtain of Bauhenia Kockiana

In my hometown garden, there is an ancient vine that never ceases to enchant with its endless blooms. In fact, I sometimes felt rather impatient for the blooms to be over and done with, as I needed to do some hard pruning.

A single inflorescence showing flowers of varying shades.


Even with the vine covered with blooms, many buds can be seen, ensuring a long flowering period.


The flowers themselves are long-lasting so much so that the vine seems to be blooming for about nine out of twelve months.


Inflorescences are terminal.


Clusters of buds develop fast to form gorgeous blooms.

 
A green stigma drips with nectar while a bud peeks out.


A newly bloomed flower is yellow in colour. As it matures over several weeks, it takes on an orange hue which over time developed an orange-red hue.



Glistening drops of nectar? for the taking.


Numerous seed pods are formed which dehisce to scatter seeds all over the garden.

 

 Newly emerged leaves are light green looking very similar to betel vine (sireh). As they mature, they take on a darker hue.


At the front-left corner of the car porch 

The long vines of Bauhenia kockiana and Bougainvilla Mrs Eva got entwined and entangled with each other.

Bougainvilla Mrs Eva at its most beautiful hue of lavender. A week later, the colour wóuld have faded and it wont be as fresh-looking.

A Curtain  of Cascading inflorescences(at the Left side of the car porch)

The cascading Bauhenia vine continues along the left side of the house forming an expansive curtain.


The tattered bamboo screen once taken down would not be replaced as the cascading vines would take over its function.

 

Bauhenia inflorescences under dappled light.

A casuarina tree is seen in the background.

They flourish under full sunlight. The flowers have no fragrance. I presume this as a trade-off for its loud visual presence. That alone is sufficient to attract the pollinators, not to mention the nectar that they exude.