Calotropis gigantea (Crown flower)

Calotropis gigantea (Crown flower) is a species of Calotropis native to Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and China.

It is a large shrub growing to 4 m tall. It has clusters of waxy flowers that are either white or lavender in colour. Each flower consists of five pointed petals and a small, elegant "crown" rising from the centre, which holds the stamens. The plant has oval, light green leaves and milky stem.

The latex of Calotropis gigantea contains cardio glycosides, volatile fatty acids and calcium oxalate. This plant plays host to a variety of insects and butterflies. Calotropis is an example of entomophily pollination (pollination by insects) and pollination is achieved with the help of bees. In Calotropis, gynostegium is present (formed by the fusion of stigma and androecium).

The pollen are arranged in a structure named Pollinia which are attached to a glandular, adhesive disc at the stigmatic angle (Translator Mechanism). These sticky discs get attached to the legs of visiting bees so that pollinia are pulled out when the bee moves away. When such a bee visits another flower, this flower gets pollinated by the sticky pollinia.

Source : Wikipedia

This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of tens of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at rupindang [at] gmail [dot] com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.