Endangered flower species

What follows is a sampling of endangered plants recently collected by garden botanists:

Moraea neopavonia is a south African wildflower threatened by wheat farming.

Barringtonia butonica is a member of the Brazil nut family from Madagascar.

Blossoms of the Madagascar Symphonia nectarifera tree.

Iliamna remota found only in virginia Indiana.

Symbolanthus pulcherrimus, a member of the gentian family native to Central America.

Gloxinia dodsonii was discored in Ecuador by Cal Dodson.

Lindmania holstii was named for Bruce Holst, who found it on a mesa in Venezuela.

Minquartia guianensis is a tree used throughout the Amazon region because it resists rot. Medicine men use it's bark to fight intestinal parasites, bronchial disorders, and tuberculosis.

In any temperate forest, such as a grove of oaks and hickories in Missouri, you find numerous trees but only a few species.

Metasequoia, or dawn redwood, long thought extinct until a forester in the 1940s found some growing near a mountain village in China.

Banana skins and roses

Banana skins can do wonders for the health of your roses if they are dug in around the roots just below the surface with the inside of the peel facing down. Banana skins are packed with phosphates, sodium, magnesium, silica, potassium, sulphur and calcium.

Many rose-lovers swear that meat fat buried around the roots will also yield stunning blooms.

The scent and health of roses is thought to be improved by planting parsley nearby.

The origins of some flowers.

Acer also known as maple: Acer is Latin for sharp. Romans used the tree to make arrows.

Aquilegia: From Latin aquila for eagle. So called because of its wing-shaped petals.

Buddleja: Named after the seventeeth-century english botanis Adam Buddle.

Campanula: From Latin campano for bell. Flowers are bell-shaped.

Forsythia: After the eighteeth-century Scottish gardener and writer William Forsyth.

Fuchsia: After the sixteeth-century German botanist and herbalist Leonard Fuchs.

Orchid: From the Greek orchis for testicle. Bulbs of many species are shaped like testicles.

Philodendron: From the Greek phileo for I love, and dendron for tree.

Phlox: From the Greek word for flame. Brightly colored flowers.

Raphanus or radish: From the Greek ra for quick, and phainoma for to appear. Fast-growing vegetable.

Sedum: From the Latin sedere, to sit. Low-lying plant.