White Rainbow Shower, Common Oleander Leaf, Red Strawberry Guava Leaves and Hong Kong Orchid Tree by Petter Johansen

Upper left; a Purple-Pink Hong Kong Orchid Tree Flower (Bauhinia blakeana), far right; Common Oleander Leaf (Nerium oleander), Far left, central left and far down; Rainbow shower Tree (Cassia jawanica) Lower central; Red Strawberry Guava leaves aka Waiawi Ula'ula (Psidium cattleianum)

In this floral creation you have four plants that have a special place in my heart, one from my childhood back when I was learning and reading about medicinal plants, one because of its beauty and two because I have had a chance to do research and assist in doing flowcytometric readings on them. 

The Purple-Pink Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia blakeana)

This was one of the first trees I noticed when I arrived in Hawaii for the very first time in January of 2005, with its seasonal flowering spread over the year and especially during the Hawaiian winter, which to me feels like a regular Northern Norwegian Summer, cool and with lots of rain.

Common Pink Oleander (Nerium oleander)

Having read about this plant and admired its pretty white, light pink or bright pink flowers for years I immediately recognized this by its leaves and flowers it is a poisonous, but beautiful plant that has fascinated me since I was about ten years old, and at last I had seen it grown all over Honolulu as a ornamental flowering hedge plant.

Rainbow Shower Tree (Cassia jawanica)

Another of the very first trees I noticed growing as a ornamental tree all over Honolulu, with individual trees showing great variation in color, from pure yellow, to different degrees of yellow and white to degrees of pink. In 2011 I had the opportunity to assist an researcher in running flowcytometric readings and help his laboratory with my own special protocol for doing flowcytometry on troublesome plants.

Red Strawberry Guava aka Cherry Guava 

aka Waiawi Ula'ula (Psidium cattleianum) 

I could write a whole book about this tree and I have been working with this invasive tree plant since 2006, and in October of 2011 I actually started my own non-profit research company called the Psidium Research and Development Foundation to bring awareness of the Strawberry Guava problems in Hawaii and also it's troubling growth patterns on a global scale.