PlantFiles: Firecracker Plant, Firecracker Flower, Kanakambaram
Crossandra infundibuliformis

After all the comments about the seeds self sowing and becoming a weed, I have had no luck at all with seed set! I have searched for the plant year after year, (its not easliy available in this area). It blooms well and does great through summer.It never sets seed! I move it indoors along with my other tropicals, it dies not survive ! That is the only reason for my Neutral rating, otherwisw a great plant.

However, one of the outside cats is getting high in the pot of it every night until he falls out of the pot! Thus, I am having trouble keeping it upright.

This was my first time to grow this plant---so pretty!!! We had sever drought this year. I never one time watered this plant. It was in full sun all summer. It is now October, and it is still glossy green and blooming!! I am saving seed in case it does not return next year on its own. Love this plant---want more of it next year!!!

I have two of these and they are just beautiful. I have them in partial sun/shade...in large containers...positioned next to our water garden. They continually bloom..I love them..Easy to care for, o...At least down here they are! Hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine!!

My experience has been similar to Mike's. I planted the crossandra in 2005. It seemed to die out, and now, this year, it has suddenly reappeared . . . everywhere, like a weed.

I've changed my rating to negative after having it grow here for more than a year. It looks nice and it will grow anywhere, but it ended up spreading like a weed and choking out some of my other plants. Unless you want to completely fill in an area, be very careful with it. I just had to remove some of them.

In south india, orange kanakambaram flowers are tied with jasmine into short beautiful lengths and sold in street stalls to decorate the hair with. Kanakambaram and jasmine are also sold outside of temples to use as offerings.

Great house plant, too! When you put water on the seed pods of this plant, they POP out, sometimes as far away at 12 feet! The best way to harvest the seeds is to put the dry seed pods in a jar, add water and place your hand over the rim (very quickly) to keep the seeds from popping out, and then lay them out to dry on a paper towel! You'll get a higher germination rate if you keep the seeds and soil at 90 degrees (and takes 10-14 days)! Seeds are hard to find sometimes.

Plant originates in tropical Africa, southern India and Sri Lanka. They are often used as hedge plants in zone 10 in the U.S.

They prefer part shade to full sun. They can be propagated by cuttings in March - or by seed.