Frangipani Plant

Today’s plant is the Frangipani Plant!

 

The flowers of this beautiful plant are known for their unique fragrant clusters of colourful, bright and waxy nature. Frangipani (Plumeria rubra), is also known as the Hawaiin Lei flower, and is native to warm tropical areas of the Pacific Islands, Caribbean, South America and Mexico. Frangipanis withstand subtropical climate.

 

A Frangipani plant is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. It contains seven or eight species of mainly deciduous shrubs and small plants.

I became a great admirer of the Frangipani Plant in the year 2009. At that time I got a new job in Colaba and from Churchgate station I used to go to my office in the BEST bus. Every day the moment the bus reached Nariman Point, I would be transported into another world. I would be enamoured by the beauty of the Marine Drive on one side and the charming five star hotels on the other. I was most attracted by the Trident hotel because of its Frangipani plants. Those frangipani trees, bearing clusters of colourful and scented flowers during the months of November through to April, were so nice to look at.

 

Every day I would look at the glossy foliage and then one fine day I bought a Frangipani plant of my own for its fragrant, large and beautiful flowers. I didn’t know that our very own Champa flowers were known as Plumeria or frangipani in English that spread fragrance mostly at night.

 

But call it plumeria rubra or nosegay or frangipani or champa – one truth remains the same – I killed this plant also.☹️