Christmas Candle (Senna alata)

It is that time of year when this wonderful shrub is covered in magnificent candle-like golden flowers, Christmas Candle (Senna alata). When these start to flower, you know that Christmas is just around the corner, the days are shorter and the nights are cooler.

Many people have this shrub in their gardens, but they can also be seen growing wild, particularly in the eastern and northern parts of the island. It seems to be quite a hardy plant as it survives irrespective of the weather in preceeding months - the flowers will always appear at the end of the year.

The leaves are quite thick and feel like they have a very fine covering of hairs. At other times of the year, Christmas Candle will just blend in with surrounding greenery. It really is when the flowers come out that it stands out in a class of it’s own, and to me it really does mean that the  Christmas season has arrived.

Column Cactus

I have no idea what kind of column cactus is shown here, but I found a piece growing wild, carefully removed it and put it in a pot on my deck, where it has been for the past three or so years.

When I first got the plant, it was about eighteen inches tall, but obviously loved it’s location. Within a matter of months, it was about five feet tall. It seems to have slowed down at it’s present height of about eight feet and puts out the most magnificent flowers.

There is usually just one flower at a time, but there may be two or three a few days apart. The bud grows over a period of a week or so and each flower opens in the late afternoon around dusk, and the actual opening is quite quick, maybe over an hour. It will stay open like this all night, close up a little the next day, re-open the next night and then close completely the following morning. The photos here were all taken in the early morning, and I had to get the ladder out to get some of them.

I know that the hummingbirds feed on the flowers as I have watched them come in for a feed after the sun has set but before it is pitch dark, and they will go and come several times during the course of the evening. I’m sure larger moths probably enjoy the nectar too, but I haven’t actually seen this. After the flower has closed, it will dry up and drop off after a few days.