Blogging in Myrtle Glen

Aloe Vera

 For more Macro pictures go to Lisa’s Chaos, host of Macro Monday

 No gardener should be without at least one Aloe Vera plant. Scrapes and thorn pricks, mosquito bites, sunburn, what ever ails the skin benefits from the cooling and soothing gel that’s inside an Aloe Vera leaf. 

Just cut off a piece of an Aloe Vera leaf and apply the gel to the affected area.

There are no significant Aloe Vera side effects with its use as a topical remedy. 

A cold sensitive plant I received as a mislabeled plant in a trade, but since it falls under  ’weird and wonderful’ plants, the favorites of my dear hubby, we kept it. 

Wake-up time

Why the name Mouse Trap Tree? the seed pods are covered with tiny grappling hooks, and one website suggests those seed pods would even stick to mice. 

The leaves are unusual,  very soft and somehow sticky. I want to touch them, but the sticky feeling creeps me out

I just love the tiny new leaves

This is the summer look of the Mouse Trap Tree, light green, large and soft leaves, and showy bright yellow flowers

Uncarina grandidieri, or Mouse Trap Tree

Loves full sun and does not mind the Florida rainy season, but wants a dry rest period in winter. It froze to the ground during the winter of 2011, with lows at 26F, but came back quickly and grew the following summer to 6 ft tall. 

The Madagascar native is a succulent and develops a  fat caudiciform base reminding me of a Pachypodium or Adenium. 

And already I joined a second gardening blog meme, the Macro Monday hosted by Lisa’s Chaos

One of my favorite plants to photograph is the Graptopetalum paraguayense, the gray ghost plant. Its rosettes are always perfect