Definitely not monochrome. I claim no skill nor composition expertise, but you've gotta see this flower! Sharpness issue for the bottom half is, I beleive, a result of the jpeg conversion - the tiff is very sharp.

[nupentaxian]

very nice, looks like a beak of a tucan...

[Stratman]

Where was this? Shaws garden? Botanical Garden? Would love to check those places out, never been there, and lived here all my life, lol

Looks like a Heliconia Wagneriana. It also looks like it is upside down, or it is tall and has started drooping down. One common name for it is Lobster Claw.
Gary

[monochrome]

The flowers on this tree were all oriented hanging down like this.

Looks like a Heliconia Wagneriana. It also looks like it is upside down, or it is tall and has started drooping down. One common name for it is Lobster Claw.
Gary

[monochrome]

Stratman: I wish it was at the Botanical Garden.

I worked there summers in college in the production greenhouses - saw lots of neat stuff.

One year I had to get DEA Certified because some botanist had a grant to grow opium poppies and peyote for the DEA. Much of the stuff I built and maintained was removed about ten years ago when the new entry building was constructed - very sad.

There's a ton of stuff to shoot there, but hard to get wide a shot without stray visitors in it.

This was shot at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in the Mizener Courtyard, a small conservatory of exotic botanical plants such as banyan trees and kapok trees. Not many had identifying plaques - this one didn't.

Where was this? Shaws garden? Botanical Garden? Would love to check those places out, never been there, and lived here all my life, lol