Ever seen beautiful flowers growing right out of a tree trunk?

Well, you can, in a slice of hothouse jungle, in the heart of temperate Adelaide.

Let me introduce the phaleria (see the photo), that rivetted my attention.

This phaleria graces the jungle plants and trees of so many varieties that crowd the enormous, wedge-shaped glasshouse in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens.

Not only do the phaleria’s flowers grow straight out of the trunk, but also in season its fruit!  A wandering cassowary could safely snack on the fruit, but it’s poisonous to people.

This delightful tropical micro-environment is complete with pandanus stalks over a jungle pool, humidified stillness, and occasional misty ‘rain’.

If you’re not there in crowds, you could call this benevolent space — crammed with silent living beings, many of them huge — a vast meditation room.