Majestic Heaven Lotus - Gustavia augusta

Common Name :	Majestic Heaven Lotus, Gustavia, etc.
Botanical Name :	Gustavia augusta
Family :	Lecythidaceae
Bangla Name :	Gustavia (গুস্তাভিয়া ফুল).
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Well, the name of the flower is Majestic Heaven Lotus and it doesn't have any Bangla name in our country as it is native to Brazil and South American region. Botanical name of the flowering plant is Gustavia augusta. This flower is also called as Gustavia (which is the genus name). And in Bangla we'd like to call this as Gustavia as well. This belongs to the plant family Lecythidaceae. Flower resembles the Lotus flower, and for its heavenly beauty it is called as Majestic Heaven Lotus.

It's just like a Lotus flower blooming at tree.

Gustavia (Gustavia augusta) is a medium sized flowering tree that can grow up to 6-8 meter in height. This tree remains mostly unbranched with thick leafs and it is an evergreen tree. Its leafs are very long (slightly broad at one end and narrow near the base) and coffee colored when immature. They are deeply veined which are visible. Leafs are probably spirally arranged as a whirl around the branch (or probably alternately arranged). It is a very slow growing plant.

Bees are attracted to these thick pollens.

Majestic Heaven Lotus (Gustavia augusta) flowers are extremely beautiful. Flowers are large and fragrant. Color of the flower is pink, pale pink, or white pink. It has four sepals and four petals (though I'd like to call all of them as petals). Flowers bloom directly from the branch of the tree with a thick stalk. Reproduction system of the flower is placed at the center of it and looks like a crown. Gustavia can attract lot of bees and insects with its numerous pollens. Since the flowers bloom directly from the branch and the leafs are dense, that's why sometimes you may need to give an attention to notice the flowers.

The perception and judgement varies from person to person. One can find this flower most beautiful and one can find it less. In my personal opinion this gets 10/10 marks for its delicate beauty.

We are familiar with several trees around the Amazon rain forest which are useful to make poison arrow. And our Gustavia (Gustavia augusta) tree has the remedy for those poisons! Extract from the leaf can cure the intoxication of such poisons.

New leaf of the plant.

A Gustavia flower (Gustavia augusta) has emerged directly from the wood.

A flower bud.

Photos of Gustavia augusta were taken from the Romna park, Dhaka, Bangladesh (during March 2015). It was the Spring time in Bangladesh.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/