Jade Vine

I was told about this unusual plant that is growing in the Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, so this was the main reason I went to the Zoo today. This hanging stem of flowers is about three feet long and just beautiful. I had to use flash inside the Conservatory, which has made the flower colour slightly more vivid than it actually is.

"The jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) is a native of the tropical forests of the Philippines. Its flowers are the color of jade, and hang in bunches up to 90 cm long; each clawlike flower is about 7½ cm long. In its native Philippines, the jade vine's flowers are pollinated by bats.

S. macrobotrys is prized in tropical and subtropical gardens for its showy flowers which are a highly unusual blue-green. It is usually grown over a pergola so that the flowers may hang down below where they can be seen easily. In South Africa the jade vine is mainly restricted to the warm humid strip of coastal Natal but grows in a few frost-free spots inland." From Wikipedia.