While birds of turquoise plumage roam the hills at Asa Wright Nature Centre, flowers of a similar hue welcome our visitors. Named after its spectacular blue-green colour, the Jade Vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) is a native of the tropical rainforest of the Philippines but a current inhabitant of the Jade Vine Arbor at Spring Hill. This liana produces hanging inflorescences of a colour that is seldom found in flowers. In the wild, the Jade Vine is normally pollinated by bats which will hang upside down to drink the nectar from its claw-shaped flowers.
The Jade Vine has been threatened by continuous deforestation of its natural habitat in the Philippines. One study says that between 1990 and 2005, 32.3% of forest cover was lost in the Philippines. The Jade Vine was recently described by a popular website, Listverse.com, as one of the top ten incredibly rare flowers in the world.
–J.L. Ryan
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