Under the Flowering Trees. Flame tree (Brachychiton Acerifolius), Date Palms (Phoenix dactylifera), Oleanders, Rosewood (Tipuana tipu), Parkinsonia aculeata (Jerusalem thorn), Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), Purple Jacaranda, Albizia julibrissin (Persian silk, Pink silk tree), Pink Rose of Sharon, Bauhinia variegata (Camel's Foot Tree, Mountain-ebony), Silk floss tree (Palo borracho / Ceiba speciosa), Lace-bark tree (Lagetta lintearia), Lagunaria patersonii (cow itch tree), Purple Bougainvillea, Koelreuteria paniculata (Goldenrain tree), Lagerstroemia indica (Crape myrtle), European Redbud or Judas tree (Cercis siliquastrum).

One of the most pleasant things you can do on a hot summer day is lie in a hammock or on the grass under the flowering trees scenting the air with their blossoms, enjoy their fragrance and watch the birds fly by high above in the sky.

Flame tree (Brachychiton Acerifolius) and Yellow-Legged Gull (Larus michahellis)
(© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Freesia fucata, Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), Melia azedarach (white cedar, chinaberry tree, bead-tree, Cape lilac, syringa berrytree, Persian lilac) flowers

Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Iridaceae. It is native to the eastern side of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa.



Freesia fucata flowers. (© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)



Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) Female

Yellowhammer (Emberiza citronella) female in a puddle. (by-nc-nd)

Iris Pseudacorus (Yellow Flag, Yellow Iris, Water Flag) Flowers

Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag, yellow iris, water flag) is a species in the genus Iris, of the family Iridaceae. It is native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa. The rhizome has historically been used as an herbal remedy, but when applied to the skin or inhaled, the tannin-rich juices can be acrid and irritating. Not only is yellow iris a beautiful ornamental plant, but also a form of water treatment since it has the ability to take up heavy metals through its roots.

Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag, yellow iris, water flag) flower close-up. (© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Summer Colours: Yellow and Pink. Golden Trumpet Tree (Handroanthus Balbus), Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) and Mirabilis jalapa (The four o'clock flower)

Handroanthus albus, the Golden Trumpet Tree, is a tree with yellow flowers native to the Cerrado (tropical savannas) of Brazil ( ipê-amarelo-da-serra), namely in the states of Bahia, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo.. It is used as an urban tree, as well as a medicinal plant.

Handroanthus albus (Golden Trumpet Tree) flowers close-up. (© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Summer Colours: Scarlet Red and Yellow/Pink. Flame tree (Brachychiton Acerifolius) and Mirabilis jalapa (The four o'clock flower)

In the dark, the red glow of these baroque style bell shaped flowers looks especially suggestive.

Flame tree (Brachychiton Acerifolius) close-up.  (© LightColourShade. All rights reserved) 

Clouded Yellow (Colias croceu), Large / Cabbage White (Pieris brassicae)

Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) is a small butterfly of the Pieridae family. The upper side is golden to orange yellow with a broad black margin on all four wings and a black spot near the centre forewing. The underside lacks the black borders and is lighter, with a more greenish tint, particularly on the forewings. Females differ from the males in having yellow spots along the black borders on the upper side. Like all Colias species they never open their wings at rest.

Clouded Yellow (Colias croceu) on Dittrichia viscosa (False Yellowhead) flower. (by-nc-nd)

Dragonflies. Red-veined Darter, Nomad (Sympetrum fonscolombii) female

The Red-veined Darter or Nomad (Sympetrum fonscolombii) is a dragonfly of the genus Sympetrum. It is widespread in southern Europe and from the 1990s onwards also in northwest Europe, including Britain and Ireland.

Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) female.
(© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Flowering Bushes: Spanish Broom, Cistus, Henbit Deadnettle, Potato Bush, Augustusbossie

Spartium junceum (the sole species in the genus Spartium), known as Spanish Broom or Weaver's Broom, is a perennial, leguminous shrub native to the Mediterranean region in southern Europe, southwest Asia and northwest Africa, where it grows in sunny sites, usually on dry, sandy soils.

Spartium junceum, Spanish Broom, Weaver's Broom flowering bushes
(© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Flowering Trees. Parkinsonia Aculeata (Jellybean Tree)

Parkinsonia aculeata is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. Common names include Mexican Palo Verde, Parkinsonia, Jerusalem Thorn, and Jellybean Tree. It is native to the southwestern United States (western Texas, southern Arizona), Mexico, the Caribbean, South America south to northern Argentina, and the Galápagos Islands. The tree has a lovely pastel hazy appearance due to the small leaves and long thin stems.
It grows 2 to 8 m (6.6 to 26 ft) high and sheds leaves in dry or cold weather, leaving the green petioles and branches to photosynthesize. The branches grow sharp spines 7–12 mm (0.28–0.47 in) long. The fragrant yellow-red flowers grow from a long slender stalk in groups of eight to ten.

Parkinsonia aculeat (Jellybean tree) flowers
(© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Summer colours. Garden Flowers: Pink, White, Yellow, Purple

I'm still clinging to summer, I just can't let it go, ;) so here go my bits of aestival joy.

I stumbled upon this beautiful bush growing wild in the field in an unexpected place. It turns out it's Garland chrysanthemum, botanically Chrysanthemum coronarium or Leucanthemum coronarium, also known as chrysanthemum greens or edible chrysanthemum, native to the Mediterranean and East Asia. It is a leaf vegetable in the genus Chrysanthemum.

Garland chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum coronarium, Leucanthemum coronarium). (© 2012 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Scarce Swallowtail and Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies

Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius), aka Sail Swallowtail or Pear-tree Swallowtail, is a Palearctic swallowtail butterfly found in gardens, fields and open woodlands. It is widespread throughout Europe with the exception of the northern parts. Its habitat extends northwards to Saxony and central Poland and eastwards across Asia Minor and Transcaucasia as far as the Arabian peninsula, India, and western China.
The Southern Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthamelii) is a butterfly found in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
Honestly, I'm not sure which one is which and how to tell them apart, so I put both names in the captions.

Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) / Southern Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthamelii) on a pomegranate twig.
(© 2012 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Wildflowers. Flowering Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria), Teasel (Dipsacus), Moth Plant (Araujia cericifera), Carpobrotus, Ulex and Australian Hollyhock Summer Colours: pink, Yellow, Lilac and White

Let your garden overgrow and a lot of beautiful wildflowers will pop up, especially if you avoid cutting the grass with a lawnmower and use a scythe instead — not only an excellent workout, but also a way to cut down on petrol consumption.

Bramble or blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) belongs to the rosaceous family, genus Rubus. It has thorny stems and black or purple glossy edible berry-like fruits (drupelets). There are lots of wild blackberry bushes growing near my house, but they are so prickly that it's quite a pain to gather them.

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) flowers
(© 2012 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Mirabilis Jalapa (Four O'Clock Plant)

As its name reflects (Mirabilis in Latin means wonderful, while Jalapa is a town in Mexico), Mirabilis Jalapa aka The four o'clock flower or marvel of Peru) is a fascinating plant and the most commonly grown ornamental species of Mirabilis. The flowers usually open in the late afternoon onwards, giving off a strong, sweet-smelling fragrance, hence the first of its common names. It's believed to have been exported from the Peruvian Andes in 1540.

What I especially love about these flowers is their random colouring — flowers of different colours can be found simultaneously on the same plant and an individual flower can be splashed with different colours as if God or an invisible painter had taken a brush and coloured the flowers at their whim with watercolour touches.

But the peculiarities don't end here, the most unusual trait being the plant's colour-changing phenomenon. For example, in the yellow variety, as the plant matures, it can display flowers that gradually change to a dark pink colour. Similarly white flowers can change to light violet. The plant creates a wide range of 'Broken Colours': from all sorts of combinations of yellow, white, purple, deep pink or red petals to watered down purple, red or yellow flowers stippled with yellow, white or purple.

Yet another curious aspect of this plant is that, when red-flowered plants are crossed with white-flowered plants, pink-flowered offspring, not red, are produced. Similarly, when yellow-flowered plants are crossed with red or purple-flowered plants the offspring are pale orange-flowered. This is an exception to Mendel's Law of Dominance, because in this case the red, yellow and white genes are of equal strength, so none completely dominates the other. The phenomenon is known as incomplete dominance.

Moreover, the plant isn't just a pretty face — an edible crimson dye obtained from the flowers is used in food colouring. The leaves may be eaten cooked as well, although only as an emergency food.

It also has medicinal properties — parts of the plant may be used as a diuretic, purgative, and for vulnerary (wound healing) purposes (leaf juice may be used to treat wounds). The leaves are also used to reduce inflammation and decoction of them (mashing and boiling) is used to treat abscesses. The root is believed an aphrodisiac, as well as diuretic and purgative.

The only downside is that each individual flower blooms for just a day (an afternoon, to put it more exactly), lasts all night and then wilts.
Anyway, enjoy their beauty.

Mirabilis jalapa (The four o'clock flower), yellow pink purple
(© 2012 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) Butterfly and Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus)

The Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) is a small butterfly in the family Lycaenidae, widespread over much of the Palaearctic. Their uppersides and undersides have different patterns: male uppersides are irridescent blue, while females are rather brownish. Undersides are greyish colour in the males and more brownish in the females.

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) male. (by-nc-nd)

Flowering Trees. Yellow Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia)

Another one from my flowering trees series, this time it's yellow acacia — or at least that's the name I know it by.

Flowering Yellow Acacia. (© 2012 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Wildflowers of the Dunes. Treasure Flowers and Cape Daises.

Take a walk through the flowering dunes and in addition to the refreshing sea breeze you'll find a lot of wildflowers to feast your eyes on. Treasure flowers (Gazania rigens) are my favourites — I find their warm colours especially pleasing.

Gazania rigens, var leucolaena flowers.
(© 2011 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Spring colours. Red, lilac, pink, white, yellow, blue, violet and their hues.

In Spring, wherever you turn your head you find something blooming, flowering or singing. Every year I discover something new in apparently familiar environment — that's the beauty of observing the Nature. Red is my favourite colour — to my eye, without something red the scene lacks verve, impetus, energy, passion. Even a drop of red makes everything look more vivid.

Red geranium flower (Pelargonium hortorum).
(© 2011 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Spring Colours. Yellow and Red. Yellow clover, Sweet Easter broom and Butcher's broom.

Early spring flowers start to pop up.
Melilotus officinalis, known as the yellow sweet clover, yellow melilot, ribbed melilot or common melilot is a species of legume native to Eurasia and introduced in North America, Africa and Australia. These days they bloom almost everywhere — in the birch grove undergrowth, in the garden or at the corner of the house.

Yellow clover  undergrowth. (© 2011 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Winter Colours. Mimosa (Lemon yellow)

Although mimosa blooms in winter, its colour gives you a feeling of spring. As soon as the tree comes into flower we know that spring is round the corner.
The name is derived from the Greek word μιμος (mimos), meaning "mimic.”

Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) close-up.
© LightColourShade (CC by-nc-nd)