Blooming Roadsides

As most of you who follow this site know, I work and live in the big city, but occasionally go home some weekends to our old home in the province. Our area is a bit on the midland overlooking a bay and a mountain at our back. So we have the sunrise view but not the sunset. During the -ber months we get some spill-over cold winds courtesy of Siberia, China and Mongolia. While most of you are approaching winter, we are approaching our best temperatures in the year, and that is around 24-29°C, maybe just like your approaching summer.  We now experience some foggy mornings, which we don't experience in the lowlands.


I brave some cold mornings to wake up early, go out and take some photos of sunrise. I leave usually 5:00-5:30am, returning when the sun is already hot and I already feel some hunger pains. Not many flowering weeds are seen during short days. But still there are those which are blooming luxuriantly.

 Ruellia tuberosa or cracker plant at the left side of the road

This weed lined both sides of the road near our area, as if both sides are planted with it. We haven't seen anyone perusing this weed, and maybe i am alone in our area finding beauty in them. However, searches point to it as a good source of antioxidants and many medicinal properties. Review of medicinal properties are in Pharmacognosy Journal

  Ruellia tuberosa or cracker plant at the right side of the road

Luxuriant blooms can even be beautifully arranged in bouquets. I hope in the future some people study how it can have longer shelf or vase life. We don't have many violet or blue flowers in the tropics, and I find this one very attractive. This plant does not grow more than 1 foot, unlike the Ruellia brittoniana or Mexican petunia, which becomes bushy. They also differ much in the shape of their leaves, this one being rounded. 

 Those dark protrusions are the already mature seed pods and will eventually dehisce to scatter the seeds.

  above shows the different stages of flowers to pods

 Wedelia trilobata or Singapore daisy

This is used in landscaping as a ground cover to minimize erosion. However, in our area they are growing in marginal areas like roadsides as weeds. Of course, weeds also control soil erosion, and this is a volunteer plant for that purpose.

a flowering grass

I did not see any insect or butterfly alighting on it when i was there, but I found its value with me, as i consider it pretty swaying with the wind. Maybe the small birds will come by when the seeds mature.


This is my first time to link with Wildflower Wednesday at Clay and Limestone. I have some few more tropical wildflowers to link in the future. I linked it as well with Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer, and belatedly linked it with Today's Flowers.