Random flowers from Samoa

Here are an assortment of flowering plants photographed in Samoa in 2013

unknown Possibly of the Family Liliaceae.

 I came across these at the University of the South Pacific's Alafua Campus.. The flowers are rather small but quite striking. I think they belong to the Family Liliaceae or perhaps another Family in the Order Liliales.

I think it may be Cyanella hyacinthoides (Lady's Hand) in which case then it belongs to the Family Tecophilaeaceae which is in Order Asparagales, so my original guess was wrong.

Lantana camera

Binomial Name: Lantana camera

Common names: Lantana (English); Lantana (French); Lantana, Wandelröschen (German); Lantana (Portuguese); Lantana (Spanish); ___ (Bahasa Indonesian); (Samoan); (Fijian); (Tongan)

Taxonomy: Order:Lamiales – Family: Verbenaceae – Genus: Lantana - Species: Lantana camera

Solanum lycopersicum, Tomato

The tomato belongs the Family Solanaceae along with a host of other important food crops as well as some deadly relatives which nonetheless are equally important economically for their medical and other properties. I will be covering them in one of my Plant Family posts.
These were part of a grafting project in which heritage/heirloom tomato stock or scions were grafted onto a hardier root stock that also produced lots of fruit. Heirloom or heritage plants are plants of older cultivars that have been cultivated by people for long periods of time in the past.
I will do a post discussing heritage / heirloom plants and their importance as well as efforts to preserve them.
In this case the main reason why we grafting them was because while these heirloom cultivars all produced very high quality fruit in terms of either flavor and/or size they were either highly susceptible to various diseases or did not produce many fruit whereas the root stock plant was a very disease resistant plant which produced lots of fruit for long periods of time.
Grafting the heirloom stock to such a root stock the scion would then not only benefit from the resistance but also the strength of the root stock would enable it to produce more of the desired fruit.
Tomatoes have soft stems and were reasonably easy to graft.
I have seen other forms of grafting such as two or more varieties of mangoes on one tree and three different colored Frangipani flowering on one tree. These types of grafts were more for the ornamental aspect although ... I suppose if you had only enough space for one tree and wanted different types of cultivars of the same species then you could graft them onto one plant and have several varieties.

Binomial Name: Solanum lycopersicum

Common names: Tomato (English); Tomate (French); Tomate (German); Tomateiro (Portuguese); Tomate (Spanish); Pomodoro (Italian); (Samoan); (Fijian); (Tongan)

Taxonomy: Order: Solanales – Family: Solanaceae – Genus: Solanum - Species: Solanum lycopersicum

African Tulip Tree

Spathodea campanulata, commonly known as the African Tulip Tree belongs to the Family Bignoniacea. In the Pacific and elsewhere it is considered an invasive species.

Binomial Name: Spathodea campanulata

Common names: 
African Tulip Tree, Nandi Flame, Pichkari or Fountain Tree (English) Tulipier de Gabon (French); Afrikanische Tulpenbaum (German); tulipeira-do-gabão ou chama-da-florest (Portuguese); tulipanero africano, árbol de la fontana, llama-del-bosque, llama Nandi, amapola meaito in Puerto Rico, caoba de Santo Domingo and gallito  in Venezuela(Spanish); Pohon hujan (Bahasa Indonesian); (Samoan); (Fijian); (Tongan)

Taxonomy: 
Order:Lamiales – Family: Bignoniaceae -Tribe: Tecomeae – Genuss: Spathodea - Species: Spathodea campanulata

Hibiscus

 

Taxonomy: Order: Malvales – Family: Malavaceae – Subfamily: Malvoideae – Tribe: Hibisceae – Genus: Hibiscus – Species: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

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