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Light Tropical Shade Garden

Tropical Color and Texture

This garden, located off the main walkway, includes a variety of trees, shrubs and flowering plants.

Collection Highlights
Pink Handkerchief Tree (Maniltoa lenticelleta)

This evergreen tree produces pendants of pink new growth that drape like handkerchiefs and are often confused as flowers. The blooms are actually white clusters.

Sanchezia (Three species are commonly cultivated, Sanchezia nobilis, S. parvibracteata, and S. speciosa.)

This attractive, low-maintenance shrub has dark green foliage with striking white, cream, or gold veins. Sanchezia has an upright habit that can reach 8 feet tall and wide but usually reaches 4 feet. In summer, yellow tubular flowers emerge from eye-catching orange bracts.

Calcutta Summer Poinsettia (Mussaenda erythrophylla ‘Orange Marmalade’ aka ‘Bangkok Rose’)

This variety of Mussaenda is rare and has orange flowers. Mussaendas are tropical shrubs or sub-shrubs that will grow to 10ft tall in tropical areas, but more likely will reach 1-3ft tall in containers.

Sausage Tree (Kigelia pinnata)

This large tree is native to tropical Africa, where it grows in open woodlands, along riverbanks and streams, and in floodplains. Flowers are bright red, tulip shaped, and bloom mainly at night to attract nocturnal pollinators such as bats and insects. Fruits grow on long, rope-like stalks and can weigh a whopping 30 pounds! Unripe fruit is actually poisonous, but once ripened, it is eaten by elephants, baboons, bush pigs, giraffe, hippos and monkeys.