Memories of lovely beach hibiscus and beach morning glory
DURING my recent holiday, I stayed by the seaside and enjoyed some beautiful flowers by the beach. This inspired me to explore planting these lovelies inland, to bring that beachy feel to our own home gardens.
Beach hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus)
Everyone is familiar with our national red bunga raya, which we have patriotically planted in our gardens and in public areas. There are lots of varieties of hibiscus in different shapes, colours, and petals etc.
From the family Malv ace ae, this plant is native to the tropics with other common names such as sea hibiscus, coastal cottonwood, and green cottonwood. This tough and handsome plant can thrive in the most inhospitable conditions. It bears the brunt of harsh coastal environments. It is adaptable to growing inland and can even tolerate cold winters and frosts in colder climes.
Hibiscus tiliaceus can grow up to 33 feet in height, with a trunk up to six inches in diameter. The large flowers, which measure around six to nine centimetres in diameter, are bright yellow with a deep red centre upon opening, resembling yellow roses. Over the course of the day, the flowers will deepen to an orange and finally red before they fall.
This isa many branched tree spreading to around eight metres if left on its own. The smooth bark is a mottled grey brown in colour. The large green heartshaped leaves have a paler underside and are about 10 centimetres by nine centimetres. With prominent veins, the leaves are sparely hairy on the surface but densely haired on the underside.
The plant produces fruit in the form of a semi-woody oval capsule that splits on maturity to reveal small kidney-shaped seeds.
It is a common coastal plant in Australia and Southeast Asia. It has been naturalised in Florida, Puerto Rico, and some islands like Hawaii. It is found growing by beaches, rivers and mangrove swamps.
It tolerates salt and waterlogged conditions, and can grow in slightly acidic to alkaline soils.
The wood apparently floats well and as such is used as canoe floats. It is also good for carvings and firewood, as well as making furniture, while the bark is used for rope making too. The bark can also be used to seal cracks in boats. In Indonesia, the leaves are used for the fermentation of tempeh. The tree is also used to form artistic bonsais, especially in Taiwan.
Beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae)
This is also known as bayhops or goat’s foot, a common pantropical creeping vine belonging to the family Convolvulaceae. The name Ipomoea refers to the twining habit of this runner plant.
This morning glory is similar to the terrestrial variety found in many gardens.
It is a beautiful ground cover that is important for stabilising beach dune habitats and is invaluable to coastal rehabilitation projects. Why? Because this is a salt tolerant plant that also provides a good example of oceanic dispersal. The seeds can float and not be affected by saltwater.
This plant is common along the Australian coastline around Queensland. Being deep-rooted runners, it can colonise the sand dunes.
The sprawling runners spread out from its woody rootstocks and with the large leaves, act as a dense cover on the sand. The leaves are used by the Aboriginal people to treat stings from catfish, stingrays, and spiders.
The perennial vine has trailing stems up to eight metres in length. The flowers are large and bellshaped up to six centimetres long and pink to magenta with a darker star-shaped centre.
It produces smooth semi-woody rounded capsules that contain four hairy seeds. The plant is known to be a community species, growing together with some tough species under difficult conditions.
However, it is often found to be the first species to colonise a degraded or altered environment in tropical regions.
How about introducing these hardy beach varieties to your own garden? Do send me an email if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Happy gardening.