Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Does anyone know the name of this pink flower?

http://sierpinski.insider.com/111_1132.j...





If the link doesn't work then please cut and paste the address into a new browser. Thanks.

Does anyone know the name of this pink flower?
Vinca is one of the best examples of why you need to know botanical names. Known variously as vinca, periwinkle, and Madagascar periwinkle, summer-flowering vinca is Catharanthus. It is easily confused with Vinca minor and Vinca major. All of them are members of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. Catharanthus likes the exact opposite conditions of its cousins, which are also called vinca. Catharanthus prefers sunny, hot situations and blooms all summer until frost. The cousins, Vinca minor and Vinca major, are evergreen vining ground cover plants for shade that produce lovely, generally blue, flowers in spring; they are propagated from cuttings not seed. Another cousin, called vinca vine (Vinca major), is a trailing vine with soft green leaves variegated whitish-yellow; it is popular for use in containers, window boxes, and hanging baskets.





Why the name confusion? The plant botanists who first observed Catharanthus noticed that the flower closely resembled Vinca minor, and it does superficially. They named it Vinca rosea. By the time botanists realized the differences between the plants, the name vinca had become too common to change. The botanical name for the summer flowering vinca, however, underwent a few changes from Lochnera to Ammocallis until it was finally classified as Catharanthus. The species name, C. roseus, which means rose-colored, changed only from the feminine rosea to the masculine roseus to match the gender of the Latin name of the genus. The genus name, Catharanthus, translates as "pure flower." Most modern cultivars are a consequence of hybrids made between C. roseus and other Catharanthus species.
Reply:Sorry, but your link just takes you to insider.com.
Reply:Vinca, self seeds, roots in water, annual
Reply:that link doesn't work
Reply:Your link is too long to copy and is unpasteable in Safari. Why not use tinyurl?


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