One of my favorite plants in Hawaii, in addition to the African Tulip, is the Cup of Gold Flower bush.

Depending of your source of information, this plant is either from the West Indies and a member of the potato family - or - it is a Mexican branch of the tomato family. Evidently my sources of information cannot get their story straight.

Regardless, it is a very beautiful, large, leathery-like flower which grows on bushes which can attain heights of 10 feet or more. The flowers can grow to a diameter of 12 inches but I have only seen flowers as large as 6 inches across.

When I expressed my desire to plant this flowering bush in my yard, when I lived in Kona Paradise, someone told me that the bushes can take up as much ground as my car. I still planted one of these trees in my backyard. I have since sold my Kona Paradise house and moved into Captain Cook in the McCoy Plantation area.

I had originally planned to do a portrait of this flower, containing only 1 to 3 flowers, but when I noticed how interesting the fallen flowers on the ground looked, I decided to paint the lower part of a bush with several flowers and some dead flowers and leaves on the ground.

Still, it is such a striking flower, that I will probably still paint a portrait of the flower in the future.