I was going over my Toronto Zoo summer footage and noticed that there are some really cool looking plants in the Americas Pavilion Aviary with the Scarlet Ibises, Blue Crowned Motmots, etc.... I especially like the ones that have the red flowers. Anybody know all the plants in there or where I can get a list?
Do you have a photo of the red-flowered plant? Very rarely in a zoo, even the zoo staff/director itself knows what plants they have, except maybe some highlights ones. It's better if you show photos and those of us botanical-inclined can try to ID them.
I just posted the photos of the Americas Pavilion Aviary in the Toronto Zoo's gallery. I f you watch the video I embedded in the gallery, an up close view of the plant with red flowers appears at 0:44. Thanks!
A link to the video would have been nice, but I found it. In the two panoramic photos there are two red flowers in the soil, one of an Anthurium andraeanum and other from Guzmania lingulata (well the latter are not flowers but leaves, but...) plus the red flowers on the shrubby climber that are of course not enough detailed for an ID. In the video these can be see with more detail, tough briefly and notn enough for make definite conclusions, anyway by what can be seen on the video, looks like Clerodendrum splendens as a very good candidate. The leaves of a Calathea lancifolia also appear in the video, and many other plants that will be not possible to ID without detailed individual images of each one.
Well with close-up I'm referring to a photo like this: http://www.weslorflowers.com/manage/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/255210839.jpg Oh, now I think that Clerodendrum splendens must be discarded. Altough not clearly seen in these photos, looks like that the plant have alternate (spiralling disperse) leaves, while Clerodendrum splendens have clearly opposite leaves. So it must be something else.
The flower in the video is Jatropha Jatropha - Gardening Solutions - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences The taller leaves seen are from another plant, a Costus (ginger) possibly Costus barbatus (just because it appears to be so tall!). That is the spiraling leaf plant.
I tought slightly in Jatropha (integerrima, of course, as other species are very different), but from the photos and videoclip it was not possible to be sure by far. I also saw the Costus leaves on the video, obviously different from the red-flowered plant leaves, but when I mentioned alternate (spiralling disperse) leaves I was referring to the ones of the red-flowered plant, very different from the clearly opposite leaves of Clerodendrum. By the way, how are you so sure that the plant is a Jatropha from this clip? Did you had access to a checklist of the plants of this greenhouse, or did you saw the plant directly or something else? Here is my image of Jatropha integerrima that I've took at Berlin botanical garden. @Sarus Crane this is the usual level of detail/cropping of images needed for identify plants.
It says online that Jatropha integerrima is supposed to be poisonous if ingested. Why would they have it inside the aviary where the birds could get poisoned?
We live surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of species of poisonous plants of very common use in our gardens, streets, as indoor plants and also many of out crops of fruits and vegetables are of poisonous plants. I would be a nonsense to avoid that these plants surruound our children and pets as they does, and for the same is equally nonsense to avoid their use in an aviary. On a side note, I suppose that Jatropha (as expectable in a plant of the spurge family) is also poisonous for birds (remember that the inmunological system of each animal species is different, and there are many species that only can feed on plants that are toxic for us), but you checked if it's really the case? (Then would be enough with don't mix pieces of this plant in the bird feeders with their food)
"Poisonous" is irrelevant with animals that don't eat plants (or specifically leaves). In zoo horticulture we must consider the level of toxicity of the plant, the size of the animal relative to how much of the plant it might ingest, and whether or not the animal species even eats plants.
Why don't you just write the zoo? As Zooplantman said, they have a very knowledgeable head of horticulture and others as well. Also you might have got the attention of someone if you posted this in the Toronto Forums.
