The Lions Lighthouse is a 65-foot lighthouse at Shoreline Aquatic Park in Long Beach. It was first lit in 2000 and has a scenic view of the RMS Queen Mary.
Long Beach Lighthouse in Daylight
Looking Up at Lions Lighthouse, Long Beach
The historic RMS Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach, California, in December 1967 after retiring from ocean service. The city bought the ship for $3.45 million to turn it into a floating hotel and museum. Opened as a tourist attraction and hotel, it features original Art Deco decor, exhibits, guided paranormal and historical tours, and various dining options.
Queen Elizabeth in Daylight
Queen Mary in Setting Sun
Long Beach, California, is made up of eight distinct neighborhoods and is tucked along the waterfront, centrally located between Los Angeles and Orange County. It offers a big-city feel with small-town charm in a unique oceanfront setting.
Here are images of Shoreline Village and Marina.
Long Beach Harbor
Long Beach Harbor Closeup
We end our series of various, interesting images from Fullerton Arboretum and Fullerton Botanical Garden in Fullerton, California.
The Love and Peace Rose (also known as Rosa ‘Love & Peace’ or ‘BAIpeace’) is an award-winning hybrid tea rose famous for its striking bicolor blooms featuring a glowing golden-yellow center edged in vibrant carmine-pink. It won the prestigious All-America Rose Selections (AARS) award in 2002.
Love and Peace Rose
The Bull’s Eye Rose, at Fullerton Botanical Garden, is a distinctive shrub rose known for its creamy white petals and prominent cranberry-red center, mimicking the look of a bull’s-eye.
Bull’s Eye Rose
The name Sally Holmes most commonly refers to the highly acclaimed hybrid musk rose variety with large, single-petal flowers (5 to 8 petals) that form massive, hydrangea-like clusters. Buff-apricot buds open into rich, creamy-white blooms with prominent golden-yellow stamens.
Here are some at Fullerton Botanical Garden.
Sally Holmes
The morning glory is a multi-stemmed ornamental annual vine with summer-blooming, trumpet-shaped flowers in purple, pink, blue, or white. Here is a purple one with a bud ready to bloom at Fullerton Botanical Garden.
Blue Morning Glory Flower and Bud
Rosa ‘Mermaid’ is a legendary, highly vigorous climbing rose featuring large, single primrose-yellow flowers, glossy dark green foliage, and very wicked, large hooked thorns. Here is an example of one flower at Fullerton Botanical Garden,
Rosa Mermaid
The large, fast-growing tree is from Central and South America. Ice Cream Bean grows on trees and is known for its cotton candy-like texture and subtle sweet flavor. It almost melts in your mouth when you suck on it.
The tree also offers beans and white and yellow pom-pom flowers seen at Fullerton Botanical Garden.
Ice Cream Bean Tree Flower
Ice Cream Bean Tree Puffy White Flower
Along with flowers and plants, there were birds in Fullerton Botanical Garden.
The Egyptian Goose is an odd waterfowl species, with an unusual color pattern highlighted by a reddish-brown eye mask, dark collar, and irregular breast patch. Despite its name, this bird is more like a large duck than a typical goose.
Egyptian Goose
Egyptian Goose Sideways
Boston fern is a common ornamental plant frequently grown as a houseplant in cold climates. Nephrolepis exaltata is a tropical sword fern (in the family Lomariopsidaceae), native to humid forests from northern South America through Mexico, Florida, and the West Indies, where it can grow up to 7 feet tall.
Here is one growing outdoors in Fullerton Botanical Garden.
Boston Fern
Greenery also spreads on the lower part of a tree trunk. Here is an example of green growth on a tree trunk at Fullerton Botanical Garden.
Green Growth on a Tree Trunk
The original Banyan tree is Ficus benghalensis and native to India. The name Banyan refers to banyans, or traders, who commonly sold their merchandise under a Banyan tree in India. Typical leaves on a Banyan are glossy green, large, and elliptical in shape. Banyan trees have a unique root system consisting of both shallow, spreading subterranean roots and aerial “prop” roots that hang from the branches.
The first image at Fullerton Botanical Garden shows only banyan tree trunks, where the tree has not fully matured. The other photos are of a mature banyan tree in India.
Banyan Tree Trunks
Old Banyan Tree
Roots of a Banyan Tree
The Succulent Sesame plant blooms much of the year, but goes deciduous during winter. The flowers are yellow with purple throats and are pollinated by beetles. Here are some examples at Fullerton Botanical Garden.
Succulent Sesame
Mini Angel’s Trumpets (Brugmansia) come in a variety of vibrant pastel and deep colors, including white, yellow, gold, orange, peach, and pink. Some rarer, deep-colored varieties also feature stunning shades of red and green.
Mini Angel’s Trumpet
Yellow flowers of the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia), at Fullerton Botanical Garden, are vibrant, waxy, cup-shaped blossoms that typically measure 2 to 4 inches in diameter and bloom from late spring through mid-summer. These striking desert blooms emerge singly or in small groups from the upper curved edges of the plant’s flattened, green pads.
Blooming Prickly Pear Cactus
Yellow Flowers of Prickly Pear Cactus
The towering, striking, and unusual plant, Echium wildpretii, ‘Tower of Jewels.’ While this plant stands at nearly seven feet tall, its tiny, salmon-colored flowers are what make it truly magnificent. Here are some at Fullerton Botanical Garden.
Tower of Jewels
Tower of Jewels Flowering Plant
At Fullerton Botanical Garden is the White Shrimp Plant (Justicia betonica), also known as the Squirrel’s Tail or Hawaiian Torch, is an eye-catching tropical evergreen shrub celebrated for its distinct, architectural flower spikes.
White Shrimp Plant
White Shrimp Plant Closeup
The crown-of-thorns, Christ plant or Christ’s thorn, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to Madagascar. Here is one at Fullerton Botanical Garden with bright, blooming flowers.
Crown of Thorns
Crown of Thorns Closeup
Commonly known as African Candelabra, Ammak, or Desert Cactus, it is a striking succulent plant native to the arid regions of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Somalia. Clusters of small leaves form along the margins of the Ammak, with flowers budding in the Spring/Summer time.
While it features a tall, columnar growth habit, this one is bent out of shape at Fullerton Botanical Garden.
African Candelabra