Plumeria

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Plumeria

Plumeria alba (White Frangipani)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Apocynaceae
Genus:	Plumeria Tourn. ex L.

Species

7-8 species including:

Plumeria alba
Plumeria inodora
Plumeria obtusa
Plumeria pudica
Plumeria rubra (Also known as Plumeria acutifolia)
Plumeria stenopetala
Plumeria stenophylla

Plumeria (common name Frangipani; syn. Himatanthus Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.) is a small genus of 7-8 species native to tropical and subtropical America. The genus consists of mainly deciduous shrubs and trees. P. rubra (Common Frangipani, Red Frangipani), native to Mexico, Central America, and Venezuela, produces flowers ranging from yellow to pink depending on form or cultivar. The genus is also related to the Oleander, Nerium oleander. Both are known to possess poisonous, milky sap, rather similar to that of Euphorbia. In Mexico, the Nahuatl (Aztec language) name for this plant is "cacalloxochitl" which means "crow flower." It was used for many medicinal purposes such as salves and ointments.

From Mexico and Central America, Plumeria has spread to all tropical areas of the world, especially Hawaii, where it grows so abundantly that many people think that it is indigenous there. P. alba is the national flower of Nicaragua and Laos, where it is known under the local name "Sacuanjoche" (Nicaragua) and "Champa" (Laos).

The genus, originally spelled Plumiera, is named in honor of the seventeenth-century French botanist Charles Plumier, who traveled to the New World documenting many plant and animal species. The common name "Frangipani" comes from a sixteenth-century Italian noble family, a marquess of which invented a plumeria-scented perfume. Depending on location, however, many other common names exist: "Kembang Kamboja" in Indonesia, "Temple Tree" or "Champa" in India, "Kalachuchi" in the Philippines, "Araliya" or "Pansal Mal" in Sri Lanka, "Champa" in Laos, and "Dead man's fingers" in Australia, for example. The Australian name is perhaps taken from its thin, leafless, finger-like branches. Many English speakers also simply use the generic name "plumeria".

Each of the separate species bear differently shaped leaves and their form and growth habits are also distinct. The leaves of P. alba are quite narrow and corrugated, unlike any other. Leaves of P. pudica are remarkably unique with their elongated oak shape and glossy, dark green color. P. pudica is also one of the rare everblooming types with non-deciduous, evergreen leaves. Another species that is retains leaves and flowers in winter is P. obtusa; though its common name is "Singapore", it is originally from Colombia.

Plumeria flowers are most fragrant at night in order to lure sphinx moths to pollinate them. The flowers have no nectar, and simply dupe their pollinators. The moths inadvertently pollinate them by transferring pollen from flower to flower in their fruitless search for nectar.

Plumeria species are easily propagated by taking a cutting of leafless stem tips in spring and allowing them to dry at the base before inserting them into soil. They are also propagated via tissue culture both from cuttings of freshly elongated stems and via aseptically germinated seed.

They are now common naturalised plants in southern and southeastern Asia, and in local folk beliefs provide shelter to ghosts and demons. The scent of the Plumeria has been associated with a vampire in Malay folklore, the pontianak. In Hawaii they are used for making leis. They are associated with temples in both Hindu and Buddhist cultures though Hindus do not use the flowers in their temple offerings.

Literary references:

The frangipani tree is notably referred to in the work by Mozambican author, Mia Couto, entitled Under the Frangipani, Portuguese, A varanda do frangipani, in which the shedding of the tree's flowers serves to mark the passage of time, and whose conclusion sees the protagonists submerging into the tree's roots as the ultimate solution to fix their shattered world.