Pink is sweet, and red for Passionate, so does the red powderpuff flowers.

Continued from my Saturday post, pink powderpuff flowers, in this post, I will show you the red powderpuff flowers, the Botanical Name is

Calliandra emarginata

also called Dwarf Powder Puff or Fairy Duster

Family name: Fabaceae (alternately Leguminosae)

Plant type: A perennial flowering shrub reaching about 6-7 feet, originating from Southern topical America

Calliandra comes from the Greek words "kallos" meaning “beautiful stamens”

Native to the tropical regions, they are fast growing plants with flower all year round, they like hot summer sun.

They are evergreen shrubs or small trees, typically grows 3-5m tall in its native habitat. You can easily find them in Singapore, in the park, garden or around the playground area at HDB estates. I am wondering, such a beautiful tree, does anyone try to make it into small bonsai, or an ornamental container plant?

…Those raspberries like red things look good enough to eat!

But they are not the seeds.

Raspberry-like flower buds open to hemispherical red powder puff flower heads (to 3” across) consisting of masses of scarlet stamens. The flowers present a wonderful contrast amongst its light to medium green foliage, the stunning red blooms like explosive fireworks, they are attractive to bees, butterflies, hummingbirds too. Variations in flower color exist, pink color flowers shown in my previous post here, and I have seen some white flowers too, but not sure if there are some in Singapore.

…and this is the bean like seed, shown in the picture below:

In the end of the post, I would like to talk about the leaves:

Do you notice the leaves? They are kidney shaped, appearing in pairs and semi-deciduous. Like most leguminous plants close their leaves in the evening, their leaves folding too when the sun sets or it’s dark., then open again early in the morning according to the circadian rhythm controlled by a biological clock. (Wiki about biological clock ). When I was a small kid, I was always curious about how the leaves of certain plants can close and open…

there are always a lot of fun to look at different kinds of plants…