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Botanical Name: Epiphyllum xypetalum
Family: Cactaceae
Subfamily: Cactoideae
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Caryophyllales
Genus: Epiphyllum
Species: E. oxypetalum

Synonyms:
*Cactus oxypetalus Moc. & Sessé ex DC.
*Cereus latifrons Zucc.
*Cereus oxypetalus DC.
*Epiphyllum acuminatum K.Schum.
*Epiphyllum grande (Lem.) Britton & Rose

Common Names: Dutchman’s pipe cactus or Queen/princess of the nigh
Orchid cactus, Jungle cactus, Night blooming cereus, Dutchman’s Pipe • Hindi: Nishagandhi • Marathi: Brahma kamal • Urdu: Gul-e bakawali • Mizo: Bethlehempar

Vernacular Names:
In India, it is called Iruludavare in Kannada, meaning ‘night lotus’. Brahma Kamalam in Sanskrit, named after the Hindu god of creation, Lord Brahma. It is believed that the wishes of people who pray to God while the flower is blooming will be fulfilled. Also it is called Gulebakavali in Ancient Tamil. It is called Kadupul flower in Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka’s native blossom)

The Chinese chengyu (four character idiom) use this flower to describe someone who has an impressive but very brief moment of glory, like a “flash in a pan,” since an Epiphyllum oxypetalum plant might bloom only once a year over a few days. Therefore, someone described as is generally understood to be a person who shows off or unexpectedly gains some achievement and is thought to be an exception or only lucky. The flower also has a rich history in Japan, where it is known as the (Gekka Bijin) or “Beauty under the Moon”. In Sri Lanka it is called “Kadupul” which means the flower from heaven. In Indonesia it is called “Wijaya Kusuma” which means “Flower of Triumph”.

Habitat: Epiphyllum oxypetalum is native to Southern Mexico and to extensive areas of South America. It is widely cultivated, escapes from cultivation in tropical areas especially in the southeast Asia, and has become naturalised in China.

Description:
Epiphyllum xypetalum is a shrub growing on trees, freely branched, 2-6 m tall, with aerial roots. Old stems and basal extension shoots round, to 2 m or more, woody; branches numerous, dark green, laterally flattened, leaflike, lanceshaped to oblong-lanceshaped, 15-100 × 5-12 cm, hairless, base wedge-shaped, narrowed, or stalked, margin wavy to deeply rounded toothed, tip pointed to tapering; midrib 2-6 mm wide, stout. Areoles small, spineless.

The flower blooms at night, since the flowers are predominantly pollinated by bats and large moths. They have large white star-like flowers to help their pollinators locate the blossoms by moon or star light, and many have very lovely fragrances. Pure white flowers, the size of a dinner plate, open as soon as the sun goes down and stay open all night, closing in the morning.

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Flowers nocturnal, fragrant, funnel-shaped, 25-30 × 10-27 cm. Receptacle tube 13-18 cm, base green, 4-9 mm in diameter, slightly angled, with triangular to lanceshaped scales 3-10 mm. Sepaloids often recurved, pale green or pinkish red, linear to inverted-lanceshaped. Petaloids white, inverted-lanceshaped to obovate, 7-10 × 3-4.5 cm. Filaments white, 2.5-5 mm; anthers cream, 3-3.5 mm. Style white, 20-22 cm; stigmas 15-20, cream, narrowly linear, 1.6-1.8 mm. Fruit rare, purplish red, oblong, about 16 × 5.7 cm. Seed 2-2.5 × about 1.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Oct.

Cultivation:
Epiphyllum oxypetalum is an easily cultivated, fast growing Epiphyllum. It flowers in late spring through late summer; large specimens can produce several crops of flowers in one season. This is the most commonly grown of the Epiphyllum species.

it usually takes at least three years before you will begin to get flowers. A cutting takes time to grow new branches. Buds will appear in the notches (areoles) along the branches. A plant that is already rooted and growing will usually bloom in less than three years.

Edible Uses:
The fruit of Epiphyllum oxypetalum is edible, very similar to the pitaya fruit from the closely related genus Hylocereus, though not so large, being only 3–4 cm long.

Medicinal Uses:
The indigenous peoples of America have used the night blooming cereus as a topical remedy for rheumatism and itchy rashes, as well as an internal herbal remedy for worms, cystitis and fever.

The Native American tribe Death Valley Shoshone called this plant “pain in the heart”, and used it to treat angina-like pains. Several other tribes of Native Americans use the stem to treat diabetes.

Epiphyllum oxypetalum is used in homeopathy and recommended for urinary tract infections, for heart conditions such as the crushing pain of angina and for spasmodic pain and haemorrhage.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphyllum_oxypetalum
http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Orchid%20Cactus.html

Botanical Name:Tulipa gesneriana
Family: Liliaceae
Subfamily:Lilioideae
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Liliales
Tribe: Lilieae
Genus: Tulipa

Common Names: Tulip, Didier’s tulip or Garden tulip

Habitat: The origin of this plant could not be found, though it is naturalized in S.W. Europe.(very popular in Holand).It grows in and arround cultivated land.

Description:
Tulip is a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes, dying back after flowering to an underground storage bulb. Depending on the species, tulip plants can be between 10 and 70 cm (4 and 28 inches) high.

Flowers: The tulip’s flowers are usually large and are actinomorphic (radially symmetric) and hermaphrodite (contain both male (androecium) and female (gynoecium) characteristics), generally erect, or more rarely pendulous, and are arranged more usually as a single terminal flower, or when pluriflor as two to three (e.g. Tulipa turkestanica), but up to four, flowers on the end of a floriferous stem (scape), which is single arising from amongst the basal leaf rosette. In structure, the flower is generally cup or star shaped. As with other members of Liliaceae the perianth is undifferentiated (perigonium) and biseriate (two whorled), formed from six free (i.e. apotepalous) caducous tepals arranged into two separate whorls of three parts (trimerous) each. The two whorls represent three petals and three sepals, but are termed tepals because they are nearly identical. The tepals are usually petaloid (petal like), being brightly coloured, but each whorl may be different, or have different coloured blotches at their bases, forming darker colouration on the interior surface. The inner petals have a small, delicate cleft at the top, while the sturdier outer ones form uninterrupted ovals. Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colours, except pure blue (several tulips with “blue” in the name have a faint violet hue), and have absent nectaries. Tulip flowers are generally bereft of scent and are the coolest of floral characters. The Dutch regarded this lack of scent as a virtue, as it demonstrates the flower’s chasteness.

Androecium: The flowers have six distinct, basifixed introrse stamens arranged in two whorls of three, which vary in length and may be glabrous or hairy. The filaments are shorter than the tepals and dilated towards their base.

Gynoecium: The style is short or absent and each stigma has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers.

Fruit: The tulip’s fruit is a globose or ellipsoid capsule with a leathery covering and an ellipsoid to globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows per chamber. These light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed.

Leaves: Tulip stems have few leaves. Larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12. The tulip’s leaf is cauline (born on a stem), strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the leaves are alternate (alternately arranged on the stem), diminishing in size the further up the stem. These fleshy blades are often bluish-green in colour.The bulbs are truncated basally and elongated towards the apex. They are covered by a protective tunic (tunicate) which can be glabrous or hairy inside.

Cultivation:
Easily grown in a sunny position in a well-drained sandy soil with added leafmould. The bulbs are very hardy, surviving soil temperatures down to about -12°c. This is a complicated species, or perhaps a group of very closely related species, some members of which are probably native to Europe. It is a parent of the cultivated garden tulips. The flowers are sweetly scented. Bulbs can be harvested in June after they have died down and then stored in a cool dry place, being planted out again in October.

Edible Uses:
Bulb – cooked. It can be dried and ground into a powder and then mixed with cereals when making bread etc. Some caution is advised, see the notes below on toxicity.

Tulip petals are edible flowers. The taste varies by variety and season, and is roughly similar to lettuce or other salad greens. Some people are allergic to tulips.

Tulip bulbs look similar to onions, but should not generally be considered food. The toxicity of bulbs is not well-understood, nor is there an agreed-upon method of safely preparing them for human consumption. There have been reports of illness when eaten, depending on quantity. During the Dutch famine of 1944–45, tulip bulbs were eaten out of desperation, and Dutch doctors provided recipes

Medicinal Uses: Not known to us.

Other Uses:
Plants have been grown indoors in pots in order to help remove toxins from the atmosphere. It has been shown to help remove formaldehyde, xylene and ammonia

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip
https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Tulipa+gesneriana

Botanical Name: Impatiens aurella
Family: Balsaminaceae
Order :Ericales
Genus: Impatiens
Species:Impatiens aurella Rydb.
Kingdom: Plantae

Common Names: Impatiens, Jewelweed, Touch-me-not, Snapweed and patience, Paleyellow touch-me-not

Habitat: Impatiens aurella native to Western N. America – Central Alaska to Oregon and Idaho.It grows on damp thickets and springy places.

Description:
Impatiens aurella is an annual herbs with succulent stems. Plant size varies from five centimetres to 2.5 meters. Stems are often rooting when becoming in contact with the soil. The leaves are entire, often dentate or sinuate with extra floral nectaries. Dependent of the species leaves can be thin to succulent. Particularly on the underside of the leaves, tiny air bubbles are trapped over and under the leaf surface, giving them a silvery sheen that becomes pronounced when they are held under water.

The zygomorph flowers of Impatiens are protandric. The calyx consists of five free sepals, of which one pair is oft strongly reduced. The non-paired sepal forms a flower spur producing nectar. In a group of species from Madagascar the spur is completely lacking, but they still have three sepals. The crown consists of five petals, of which the lateral pairs are fused each. The five stamens are fused and form a cap over the ovary, which falls off after the male phase. After the stamens have fallen off, the female phase starts and the stigma becomes receptive, which reduces self-pollination.

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Cultivation:
Succeeds in any reasonably good soil. Grows well in heavy clay soils. Prefers a moist well-drained humus rich soil in a cool site. This plant has seed capsules that spring open forcibly as the seed ripens to eject the seed a considerable distance. The capsules are sensitive to touch even before the seed is ripe, making seed collection difficult but fun. This species is probably part of I. noli-tangere.

Edible Uses:
Young shoots – cooked in one change of water. Some caution is advised, see the notes below on toxicity. Seed – raw or cooked. They are tedious to collect in quantity, mainly because of their exploding seed capsules which scatter the ripe seed at the slightest touch.

Medicinal Uses:
Antidote, parasiticide. Used in the treatment of warts, ringworm, nettle stings, poison ivy rash etc.
North American impatiens have been used as herbal remedies for the treatment of bee stings, insect bites, and stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) rashes. They are also used after poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) contact to prevent a rash from developing. The efficacy of orange jewelweed (I. capensis) and yellow jewelweed (I. pallida) in preventing poison ivy contact dermatitis has been studied, with conflicting results. A study in 1958 found that Impatiens biflora was an effective alternative to standard treatment for dermatitis caused by contact with sumac, while later studies found that the species had no antipruritic effects after the rash has developed. Researchers reviewing these contradictions state that potential reason for these conflicts include the method of preparation and timing of application. A 2012 study found that while an extract of orange jewelweed and garden jewelweed (I. balsamina) was not effective in reducing contact dermatitis, a mash of the plants applied topically decreased it.

Other Uses:
A yellow dye is obtained from the plant. No more details are given. Used as a hair rinse for itchy scalps. No more details are given. A fungicide is obtained from the plant. No more details are given but it is likely to be the juice of the plant that is used.

Known Hazards:
Regular ingestion of large quantities of these plants can be dangerous due to their high mineral content[172]. This report, which seems nonsensical, might refer to calcium oxalate. This mineral is found in I. capensis and so is probably also in other members of the genus. It can be harmful raw but is destroyed by thoroughly cooking or drying the plant. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones and hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens
https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Impatiens+aurella

Botanical Name: Impatiens noli-tangere
Family: Balsaminaceae
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Ericales
Genus: Impatiens
Species: I. noli-tangere

Synonyms:
*Balsamina lutea Delarbre
*Balsamina noli-tangere (L.) Scop.
*Impatiens komarovii Pobed.
*Impatiens lutea Lam. nom. illeg.

Common Names: Touch-me-not, Touch-me-not balsam

Habitat:Touch-me-not balsam or Touch me not is native to Europe, including Britain, from Scandanavia to France, east to Macedonia and temperate Asia.
It grows on side of streams, wet ground in woods in N. Wales, the Lake District, Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Description:
Impatiens noli-tangere is an annual plant growing to 1 m (3ft 3in).
It is in flower from July to September,color of the frower is yellow. The fruit is a capsul and the seeds ripen from August to October. The species is hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs) and is pollinated by Insects.

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Cultivation:
Succeeds in any reasonably good soil. Grows well in heavy clay soils. Prefers a moist well-drained humus rich soil in a cool site. Self sows in areas where the minimum temperature is no lower than -15°c. This plant has seed capsules that spring open forcibly as the seed ripens to eject the seed a considerable distance. The capsules are sensitive to touch even before the seed is ripe, making seed collection difficult but fun.

Edible Uses:
Young shoots – cooked and eaten. (See the notes above on toxicity below). Seed are eaten raw. A delicious nutty flavour but rather difficult to harvest, mainly because of their exploding seed capsules which scatter the ripe seed at the slightest touch.

Medicinal Uses:
The plant is antiseptic, diuretic, strongly emetic, laxative and vulnerary. It has been used in the treatment of stranguary and haemorrhoids. The plant is occasionally used internally in the treatment of haemorrhoids and as a laxative and diuretic, but the dose must be carefully adhered to since large quantities are strongly emetic. The plant is harvested at any time in the summer.

Known Hazards: Regular ingestion of large quantities of these plants can be dangerous due to their high mineral content. This report, which seems nonsensical, might refer to calcium oxalate. This mineral is found in I. capensis and so is probably also in other members of the genus. It can be harmful raw but is destroyed by thoroughly cooking or drying the plant. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones and hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens_noli-tangere
https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Impatiens+noli-tangere

Botanical Name:Dianthus barbatus
Family: Caryophyllaceae
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Caryophyllales
Genus: Dianthus
Species: D. barbatus

Synonyms:
*Caryophyllus barbatus Moench
*Cylichnanthus barbatus Dulac
*Dianthus aggregatus Poir.
*Dianthus compactus Kit.
*Dianthus corymbosus F.Dietr.
*Dianthus girardinii Lamott

Common Name: Sweet William

Habitat:Sweet William is native to southern Europe and parts of Asia. It normally grows in Meadows and woods.Now it is growing in the mountains of southern Europe from the Pyrenees east to the Carpathians and the Balkans, with a variety disjunct in northeastern China, Korea, and southeasternmost Russia

Description:
Sweet William is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant growing to 13–92 cm tall, with green to glaucous blue-green tapered leaves 4–10 cm long and 1–2 cm broad. The flowers are produced in a dense cluster of up to 30 at the top of the stems (known as an umbel). Each flower is 2–3 cm diameter with five petals displaying serrated edges, with a spicy, clove-like scent. Wild plants produce red flowers with a white base, but colours in cultivars range from white, pink, red, and purple to variegated patterns.

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There are two varieties:
*Dianthus barbatus var. barbatus. Southern Europe. Leaves broader, up to 2 cm broad.
*Dianthus barbatus var. asiaticus Nakai. Northeastern Asia. Leaves slenderer, not over 1 cm broad.

Cultivation:
Prefers a rich well-drained loamy soil in a sunny position, but succeeds in most soils including dry ones. A very ornamental plant, its flowers are very attractive to butterflies and moths. The flowers have a strong clove-like scent. Plants self-sow freely when grown in a suitable position. Although the Sweet William is a perennial species, it is quite short-lived and degenerates after its second year. It is best treated as a biennial in the garden.

Propagation: Through seeds.

Edible Uses: The flowers are considered edible. The flowers have a mild flavour and are used as a garnish for vegetable and fruit salads, cakes, desserts, cold drinks etc.

Medicinal Uses: Not yet known.

Other Uses:
Landscape Uses:Border, Container, Rock garden, Seashore, Specimen.
Special Features:Attracts butterflies, Suitable for cut flowers, Suitable for dried flowers, Fragrant flowers.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianthus_barbatus
https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Dianthus+barbatus