Fast Fiction

This flower has been bugging me since we moved to this house. It’s this huge bloom and it’s obviously not something native to Los Angeles. The plant has taken over a rather remote corner of the yard, back by the fence, beyond the sprinklers.

But here it is, March and it’s in bloom again. Damn, the thing seems really happy to be here. I counted eight current blooms and about another dozen buds. The flowers are freaky huge - about the size of softball splayed open.

I had no clue what this thing was. So I just started searching the net. I did it by doing a google image search for flower bloom.

Anyway, it is a tropical plant (classified as an invasive species in Hawaii) called Solandra nitida or Cup of Gold Vine. Turns out they’re dangerously poisonous, too.