Abuli – Firecracker Flower – Crossandra Plant

Firecracker flower

The Firecracker Flower, also known as the Abuli plant, Crossandra Plant, is a great long-lasting flowering plant and can bloom almost nonstop all year long in the right conditions. In tropical climates, this heat and humidity loving plant put on quite the show with their spikes of bright orange, yellow, salmon, or pink blooms. They can also make wonderful houseplants with their glossy, deep green foliage that looks good even if they are not in bloom.

The flowers are unusually shaped with 3 to 5 asymmetrical petals. They grow from four-sided stalked spikes, and have a tube-like 2 cm long stalk. Leaves are 6-9 x 2-4 cm, elliptic, pointed at both ends, usually crowded towards branch ends. Firecracker plant thrives best in bright, indirect sunlight. During the summertime, do not expose them to direct sunlight. But in the winter, provide as much light as possible. Indoors, your plant can do well with bright artificial light if you don’t have a sunny window.

It is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae, native to southern India and Sri Lanka. It is most often found in south Indian region Malenadu and Kerala. In South India, Kanakambaram is the favourite flowers of ladies to put in their hair. It competes strongly with jasmine to adorn the south-Indian hair-do’s. It is an erect, evergreen subshrub growing to 1 m with glossy, wavy-margined leaves and fan-shaped flowers, which may appear at any time throughout the year.