The final few photos from Duthie park show something that you don't often see - at leastin the Uk or in Fiji - in fact i had never seen this in Fiji - the flower of Colocasia esculanta - that's taro, dalo or cocyam to you and me. The reason you never see it in Fiji is that the plants are pulled up, the tops cut off and the root boiled and then the top replanted. That is the plant never grows big enough or is left undisturbed long enough for the flowers to form - though I'm sure they must do somewhere in a neglected garden or that the breeding stations. It is quite clearly an aroid flower like the lords and Ladies we have in our garden (a flower that I still haven't seen yet - probably it too hasn't grown big enough yet).
the lobnger we stay in Tipperty then the more wild flowers and garden escapees are showing up - more and more each year. I must stop using glyphispahte on the waste land and just do slash and burn each year - that way the "exotic native" plants will get to grow a bit and get recognised as newbies before we slash them down. It is quite amazing how many have turned up in just a few years - at least 4 or 5 this year.
Anywho - if you look in the background then you see something hiding - another of those items that the Winter Gardens is known for (in addition to Spike the talking cactus, and the croaking frog). it used to be a Loch Ness monster in the pool formed from a stream that flowed down from the main room, through the fernery finally to the croaking frog. The stream is still there as is the frog but the monster and the aroids have been moved into the steamy bromeliad room where the dalo is thriving.
As to Nessie - that has gained yellow spots and a bright grin. It looks sickly to me which isn't suprising as Loch Ness is neither hot or steamy. You have to be Fijian to be hoit and steamy.
