Buttercup Winterhazel

First off, what a fantastic name Corylopsis pauciflora has: buttercup winterhazel. The flowers do look a little bit like buttercups, and have a great creamy yellow color (an unusual contrast to the brighter, more sulphuric yellows you see this time of year). It blooms so early in the spring, it makes sense to have the name winterhazel, too.

Of course, it's hard to make out the specimen of Corylopsis from the plastic flowers that are placed with it. Like garden statuary, I lean against using fake flowers in a garden, but appreciate the better intentions of the gardener.


Corylopsis is a member of the Hamamelidaceae, or witch hazel, family. Like witch hazel, it has a great, irregular, spatula-like leaf. It blooms early in the spring and in the right conditions (not these) it has a loose, sprawling suckering habit. A great specimen of this plant can be found just southwest of the restrooms at the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park.

Corylopsis is derivative of the Greek work for hazel (korylos) and -opsis generally means 'looks like.' If you hear -opsis or -oides in a botanical name, it usually means 'looks like.' Pauciflora literally means 'few flowers.'

Iris reticulata

When most people think of the Iris, they probably think of the flags (Iris pseudacorus) that grow in bogs, or the simple Iris siberia that is often seen as a cut flower in florists and delis.

Less common is the dwarf iris, Iris reticulata.


Unlike the other species of Iris I mentioned - which spread via underground rhizomes, this one grows as bulb, much like snowdrop or Lycoris.

It's the earliest of the iris and I am always surprised at how prevalent it is in New York. I have seen it at Liz Christy, in Washington Square Park and in planters all around the NYU campus. Someone responsible for the greenspaces at NYU clearly had a weakness for this plant.

And who can blame them? Though diminutive, and probably overlooked at first glance as another crocus, it's a sweet flower and always a bit of a discovery when found in the city.



Reticulata refers to the ridged quality of the leaves. Like all irises, this plant has six modified petals. The bottom three (the ones with the yellow markings that essentially function as runway lights for pollinators) are called falls. The top three are called standards.

Red Ginger

Here's another classic tropical plant, Alpinia purpurata, or red ginger:


Yes, this is the plant that is responsible to adding that great ginger flavor to so many foods, and of course, ginger ale, too. You can recognize the flavor, if you rub your fingers against the large, lanceloate leaves.


And ginger, like Heliconia, is a repeating tropical that works quite well as a cut flower and can be found in most floral shops.

Alpinia is named after Prospero Alpino, a 16th century Italian botanist.

Heliconia psittacorum

I took this photo during my last hours in Puerto Rico. I was desperately hoping that my flight back to New York would be canceled -- I wasn't ready to leave, and there was a bit of snow there, anyway. Alas, flights were merely delayed. I was fearful that would be the case, so I spent my last bit of time in the tropics furiously snapping photos of plants.

I was pretty sure the plant below was a Heliconia, but it was not until I got back home (and at a computer) that I was able to pin down not just the species, but the cultivar, too. I'm fairly certain this plant is Heliconia psitticorum 'Lady Di.'

The common name for Heliconia psitticorum is parrot's beak, so named for the beak-like red bracts that are the showy part of the plant. Bracts, as I think I've mentioned before (note to self: make more tags for this blog), are modified leaves associated with the flower. More often than not, they are modified to aid in attracting pollinators. In this case, their red color is aiming to attract hummingbirds. The actual flower is nestled inside the interior set of yellow bracts.


There are around 150 species of Heliconia, and Heliconia is the sole genus in its family, Heliconiaceae. Heliconias were formerly members of the banana family but have since been deemed different enough from Musaceae to merit its own family name.

Heliconias are native to South America and the Pacific tropical islands. They are definitely 'go-to' tropicals which bloom all year round.

When I speculated about the origin of the genus name, I got a bit smug. I figured that the arrangement of bracts was probably helical, thus the name Heliconia. But when I looked it up, I found out I was dead wrong. The plant is named after Helicon, which was the mountain of muses in Greek mythology.

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PS -- You may notice (upper right) that I have set up a twitter account. I am still fooling around with it, and am not sure I'll keep it up. But right now I am using it to give a brief 'real time' account of what's in bloom (or otherwise notable) in NYC. Feel free to 'follow' me if you are on twitter yourself.