FLOWERING TREES IN INDIA

FLOWERING TREES IN INDIA(SPRING)

1) GOLDEN SHOWER TREE(Amaltas):

     Cassia fistula, known as the golden shower tree and other names, is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to southern Asia, from southern Pakistan east through India to Myanmar and south to Sri Lanka. It is associated with the Mullai region of Sangam landscape. It is the national tree of Thailand, and its flower is Thailand's national flower. It is also state flower of Kerala in India and of immense importance amongst Malayali population. It is a popular ornamental plant and is an herbal medicine.

MEDICAL USES:

In Ayurvedic medicine, golden shower tree is known as aragvadha, meaning "disease killer". The root is considered a very strong purgative, and self-medication or any use without medical supervision is strongly advised against in Ayurvedic texts.

Though its use in herbalism has been attested to for millennia, there has been rather little research in modern times. The purgative action is probably due to abundant dihydroxyanthraquinone and derivatives thereof. Many Fabaceae are a source of potent entheogens and other psychoactivecompounds, e.g. tryptamines; such plants are rarely found among the Caesalpinioideae. There is also a rare case of it being used for analautoeroticism.

CULTURE:

The golden shower tree is the national flower of Thailand; its yellow flowers symbolize Thai royalty. A 2006-2007 flower festival, the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek, was named after the tree, which is most often called dok khuen orratchaphruek in Thailand. The golden shower tree is the state flower of Kerala in India. The flowers are of ritual importance in the Vishu festival of the Kerala state of India, and the tree was depicted on a 20 Indian rupees stamp. C. fistula is also featured on a 2003 joint Canadian-Thai design for a 48 cent stamp, part of a series featuringnational emblems. Cassia acutifolia, the pudding-pipe tree, furnishes the cassia pods of commerce.

The tree starts flowering in May month.The streets of old Delhi and the other parts of India can be seen with full bloom of thousands of golden yellow Amaltas. 

                                                                                                                                                

2)JACARANDA:

The Blue Jacaranda, Jacaranda mimosifolia more often known simply as the "Jacaranda", is a sub-tropical tree native to South America that has been widely planted elsewhere because of its beautiful and long-lasting blue flowers. It was introduced to Cape Town by Baron von Ludwigin about 1829. Older sources give it the systematic name Jacaranda acutifolia, but it is nowadays more usually classified as Jacaranda mimosifolia. It is also known as the Black Poui, or as the fern tree. In scientific usage, the name "Jacaranda" refers to the genus Jacaranda, which has many other members, but in horticultural and everyday usage, it nearly always means the Blue Jacaranda.

HABITAT:

 The Blue Jacaranda has been cultivated in almost every part of the world where there is no risk of frost; established trees can however tolerate brief spells of temperatures down to around −7°C (20°F). In the United States, it grows in parts of Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Florida and has been reported to grow in Lafayette, southern Louisiana, the Mediterranean coast of Spain, in southern Portugal(very noticeably in Lisbon), southern Italy (in Naples and Cagliari it's quite easy to come across beautiful specimens). It is regarded as aninvasive species in parts of South Africa and Queensland, Australia, the latter of which has had problems with the Blue Jacaranda preventing growth of native species. Lusaka, the capital of Zambia also sees the growth of many Jacarandas.

APPEARANCE:

 The tree grows to a height of 5 to 15 meters (16 to 49 feet). Its bark is thin and grey-brown in color, smooth when the tree is young though it eventually becomes finely scaly. The twigs are slender and slightly zigzag; they are a light reddish-brown in color. The flowers are up to 5 cm long, and are grouped in 30 cm panicles. They appear in spring and early summer, and last for up to two months. They are followed by woody seed pods, about 5 cm in diameter, which contain numerous flat, winged seeds. The Blue Jacaranda is cultivated even in areas where it rarely blooms, for the sake of its large compound leaves. These are up to 45 cm long and bi-pinnately compound, with leaflets little more than 1 cm long.

In the USA, 30 miles east of Los Angeles where winter temps can dip to 10 degrees F (-12 C) for short several-hour periods, the mature tree survives with little or no visible damage. Profuse flowering is regarded as magnificent by some and quite messy by others. The unusually shaped, tough pods, which are about 2 to 3 inches (5-7.5 cm) across, are often gathered, cleaned and decorated for use on Christmas trees and in dried arrangements.

JACARANDA FESTIVAL AT GRAFTON:

 The city of Grafton on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, is also famous for its Jacarandas. Each year in late October and early November the city has a Jacaranda festival during the period of full bloom. A street parade, local public holiday and a series of events are held.It looks like the whole city of Grafton is dressed in purple when it blooms, an spectacular view for the life time.One should be present their to witness the glory of the Jacaranda festival. A Jacaranda Queen and Jacaranda Princess are named at a formal ball.

The history portrays the early festival in 1932 when the festival made its debut in a highly illuminated Jacaranda Avenue which formed the venue for many festivals which followed.

The tree canopies in some of Sydney's north shore and harbour suburbs in the east have a purple glow during late spring.

The main street of the town of Red Cliffs, Victoria, Australia (part of the Calder Highway) was named Jacaranda Street in the original town plans of the early 1920s and Jacaranda trees have since been planted to line this street.

Even in India Jacaranda trees can be found in almost all the parts of the country which blooms in the month of March and stays for couple of weeks.

                                                                                                                                           

3)TABEBUIA CHRYSOTRICHA:

 Tabebuia chrysotricha (Pronunciation: tab-eh-BOO-yuh kriss-oh-TRICK-uh), commonly known as Golden Trumpet Tree, is an evergreen tree from Brazil. It is very similar to and often confused with Tabebuia ochracea. In Portuguese it is called "Ipê amarelo" and is considered the national tree of Brazil.

GROWTH:

 T. chrisotricha grows to a height of 25 to 35 feet, with a spread of 25 to 35 feet. It has very showy golden-yellow to red flowers in the spring. These are rich in nectar and thus the tree is a useful honey plant. While it is not especially popular with hummingbirds, some of these - e.g.Glittering-bellied Emerald (Chlorostilbon lucidus) and White-throated Hummingbird (Leucochloris albicollis) - seem to prefer them over the flowers of other Tabebuia species.

Tabebuia is widely used as ornamental tree in the tropics in landscaping gardens, public squares, and boulevards due to its impressive and colorful flowering. Many flowers appear on still leafless stems at the end of the dry season, making the floral display more conspicuous. They are useful as honey plants for bees, and are popular with certain hummingbirds. Naturalist Madhaviah Krishnan on the other hand once famously took offense at ipé grown in India, where it is not native.

"Trumpet tree" redirects here. This term is occasionally used for the Shield-leaved Pumpwood (Cecropia peltata).

Tabebuia is a neotropical genus of about 100 species in the tribe Tecomeae of the family Bignoniaceae. The species range from northern Mexico and southern Florida south to northern Argentina, including the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic, Haiti), Jamaicaand Cuba. The generic name is derived from words used for the trees by the indigenous peoples of Brazil.

Well-known common names include Ipê (commonly misspelled "epay"), Poui, trumpet trees and pau d'arco.

Tabebuia is a notable flowering tree. The flowers are 3 to 11 cm (1 to 4 in.) wide and are produced in dense clusters. They present a cupular calyx campanulate to tubular, truncate, bilabiate or 5-lobed. The outside texture of the flower tube is either glabrous or pubescent.

                                                                                                                                  

4)TABEBUIA IMPETIGINOSA:

Tabebuia impetiginosa^[1], Pink Ipê or Pink Lapacho is a native Bignoniaceae tree of America, distributed from northern Mexico south to northern Argentina. It is a common tree in Argentina's northeastern region, as well as in southeastern Bolivia. It is said to be indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago.

It is a conspicuous and well-known species with a long history of human use. Consequently it has a range of local names ipê-cavatã, ipê-comum, ipê-reto, ipê-rosa, ipê-roxo-damata, lapacho negro, pau d'arco-roxo, peúva or piúva. The timber is sometimes traded as "brazilwood", which properly refers to the unrelated Pernambuco Tree (Caesalpinia echinata).

GROWTH:

The Pink Lapacho is a rather large deciduous tree, with trunks sometimes reaching 8 dm width and 30 m height. Usually a third of that height is trunk, and two thirds are its longer branches. It has a large, globous, but often sparse canopy. The tree has a slow growth rate. Leaves are opposite and petiolate, 2 to 3 inches long, elliptic and lanceolate, with lightly serrated margins and pinnate venation. The leaves are palmately compound with usually 5 leaflets.

Pink Lapacho flowers between July and September, before the new leaves appear. In India, the flowering season is December to January, after the leaves are shed. The flower is large, tubular shaped, its corolla is often pink or magenta, though exceptionally seen white, about 2 inches long. There are 4 stamens and a staminode. The fruit consists of a narrow dehiscent capsule containing several winged seeds.

The flowers are easily accessible to pollinators. Some hummingbirds - e.g. Black Jacobin (Florisuga fusca) and Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis) - seem to prefer them over the flowers of other Tabebuiaspecies, while for others like the Stripe-breasted Starthroat (Heliomaster squamosus) it may even be a mainstay food source.

USES:

 Tabebuia impetiginosa, as well as other species of this genus, are trees naturally found in the wild of central to South American forests. It is also used as a honey plant, and widely planted as ornamental tree in landscaping gardens, public squares and boulevards due to its impressive and colorful appearance as it flowers. Well-known and popular, it is the national tree of Paraguay. It is also planted as a street tree in cities of India, like in Bangalore.

The inner bark of Tabebuia impetiginosa is used medicinally. It is dried, shredded, and then boiled, making a bitter brownish-colored tea known as Lapacho or Taheebo. The unpleasant taste of the extract is lessened when taken in pill form, or as tinctures. Lapacho bark is typically used during flu and cold season and for easing smoker's cough. It apparently works by promoting the lungs to expectorate and free deeply embedded mucus and contaminates during the first three to ten days of treatment.

                                                                                                                                    

5)TABEBUIA PALLIDA:

 T.Pallida is commonly known as 'White trumpet tree' which belongs to the Bignoniaceae family.This species is similar to the very polymorphic species T. heterophylla. Typical specimens have only a single leaflet but some have three leaflets. However the petioles are 4-5 cm long rather than 6-10 cm and they are not pale yellow, nor is the midrib. Flowers are white to pale mauve with a pale yellowish throat. Capsules to 17 cm long and about 1 cm wide, dark lepidote scales are obvious on green fruits. Overall this is a much larger tree than T. heterophylla when they are grown under similar conditions.

This is probably the most variable of all species of Tabebuia. Its pattern of variation includes both flowering and leaf variations. Most T. hetrophylla are adequate to excellent bloomers, but a small minority are inept bloomers. The intensity and duration of flowering varies considerable from tree to tree.Poor bloomers remain poor bloomers, excellent bloomers remain strong flowers, but their flowering schedule may vary from year to year. For many trees, flowering may persist on and off during the year, but the best display occurs in March or April. At that time, flowering usually occurs with varying degree of foliage retention, with the best displays being on leafless trees. Once flowering beings in earnest, a carpet of pink petals quickly gathers beneath the tree and may rival in beauty the color above it. Some T. hetrophylla have dark-green, oblong leaves and a crown that narrows at the top.

                                                                                                             

6)GULMOHAR:

Delonix regia is a species of flowering plant from the Fabaceae family, Caesalpinioideae subfamilia, noted for its fern-like leaves and flamboyant display of flowers. In many tropical parts of countries around the world it is grown as an ornamental tree and in English it is given the name Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant. It is also one of several trees known as Flame tree.Discovered in the early 19th century in its native Madagascar. Gulmohar is a flamboyant tree in flower- some says the world's most colorful tree.

  In India it is known as Gulmohar (Hindi and Urdu -‘Gul’ means ‘Flower’ and ‘Mohr’ is 'Peacock', thus the name suggests a spectacular show of color, like the extraordinary colors of a peacock's tail). It is also known there as Krishnachura (Bengali: 'crown of the Lord Krishna). In Vietnamese it is known as Phượng vĩ (means "Phoenix's Tail) (Vietnamese), Malinche, and Tabachine. In Guatemala, Antigua Guatemala, it is known as "Llama del Bosque".

This species was previously placed in the genus Poinciana, named for Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the 17th century governor of Saint Christophe (Saint Kitts), who is credited with introducing the plant to the Americas. Because it is a legume, the tree has nitrogen-fixating and soil-improving properties.

The Royal Poinciana is found in Madagascar's Madagascar dry deciduous forests. In the wild it isendangered, but it is widely cultivated elsewhere. In addition to its ornamental value, it is also a useful shade tree in tropical conditions, because it usually grows to a modest height but spreads widely, and its dense foliage provides full shade. In areas with a marked dry season, it sheds its leaves during the drought, but in other areas it is virtually evergreen.

Flower (Kibbutz Ginnosar, Israel)

The flowers are large, with four spreading scarlet or orange-red petals up to 8 cm long, and a fifth upright petal called the standard, which is slightly larger and spotted with yellow and white. The naturally occurring variety flavida has yellow flowers.^[3] Seed pods are dark brown and can be up to 60 cm long and 5 cm wide; the individual seeds, however, are small, weighing around 0.4 g on average. The compound leaves have a feathery appearance and are a characteristic light, bright green. They are doubly pinnate: Each leaf is 30–50 cm long and has 20 to 40 pairs of primary leaflets or pinnae on it, and each of these is further divided into 10-20 pairs of secondary leaflets or pinnules.

Delonix regia is endemic to the western forests of Madagascar, but has been introduced into tropical and sub-tropical regions worldwide. In the continental United States, it grows in South Florida,Southwest Florida, the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, ranging from the low deserts of Southern Arizona (to as high as Tucson), and Southern California. It also grows in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where it is the official tree of the islands. It is much loved in the Caribbean; for example, many Puerto Rican paintings feature Flamboyant Trees, it can also be found in The Bahamas as well. The Poinciana is also the national flower of St. Kitts and Nevis.

The Royal Poinciana is regarded as naturalised in many of the locations where it is grown. It is a popular street tree in the suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The tree is also found in India and Pakistan, where it is referred to as the Gulmohar, or Gul Mohr. In West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh it is called Krishnachura.

                                                                                                                                




7)MILLINGTONIA:

Millingtonia hortensis, Tree Jasmine or Indian Cork Tree, the sole species in the genus Millingtonia, is a tree native to South East Asia. It is known as Akash Malli or Mara Malli in Tamil, Kavuki in Telugu, Pip in Thai: ปีบ and Mini Chameli in Hindi, Akash Mallee in Oriya.

In the name Millingtonia hortensis, Millingtonia is named for Sir Thomas Millington who was an inspiration to Carl Linnaeus the Younger who first described the genus. The specific epithet 'hortensia' derives from 'hortensis' and 'hortus' which in Latin is related to garden. In its synonym, Bignonia suberosa, 'suberosa' derives from 'suberos' which means 'corky' in Latin.Millingtonia Avenue in Lucknow is named after Millingtonia hortensi.From April until the rains and again in November and December, a profusion of silvery-white, delightfully fragrant flower crown the foliage.

GROWTH:

The tree grows to height of between 18 to 25 metres and has a spread of 7 to 11 metres. It reaches maturity between 6 to 8 years of age and lives for up to 40 years. It is a versatile tree which can grow in various soil types and climates with a preference for moist climates. 

The tree is evergreen and has an elongated pyramidal stem. The soft, yellowish-white wood is brittle and can break under strong gusts of wind.

The leaf is imparipinnate and resembles that of the neem. Leaves are prone to attack by Acherontia styx and Hyblaea puera.

Flower:

The tree flowers twice a year and the white flowers come as large panicles which emit a pleasant fragrance. They are bisexual andzygomorphic. The bell-shaped sepals of the flower have five small lobes. The flower has four stamens with parallel anthers unlike in most other plants of this family where the anthers are divergent. The corolla is a long tube with five lobes. The flowers are used in rituals, because of the perfume of the flowers they are very much sought after. The waxy characteristic of the flowers ensure their freshness for a long time.

Fruit and seed:

The fruit is a smooth flat capsule and is partitioned into two. It contains broad-winged seeds. The fruits are fed on by birds which aid in seed dispersal. In cultivation, the viability of seeds is low unless they are sown immediately after the fruit ripens, so the plant is generally propagated through cuttings.

Uses:

 The tree is considered ornamental and the pleasant fragrance of the flowers renders it ideal as a garden tree. The wood is also used as timber and the bark is used as an inferior substitute for cork. The leaves are also used as a cheap substitute for tobacco in cigarettes.Extract of the leaves of Millingtonia hortensis has good antimicrobial activity- dried flower- bronchodilator, root-lung tonic.

                                                                                                                                

8)SATHODEA(AFRICAN TULIP TREE):

Spathodea is a monotypic genus in the flowering plant family Bignoniaceae. The single species it contains, Spathodea campanulata, is commonly known as the Fountain Tree, African Tulip Tree, Flame-of-the-forest, Rudra Palash, Pichkari or Nandi Flame. It is a tree that grows between 7–25 m (23–82 ft) tall and is native to tropical dry forests of Africa.The generic name comes from the Ancient Greek words σπαθη (spathe) and οιδα (oida), referring to the spathe-like calyx.

 This tree is planted extensively as an ornamental tree throughout the tropics and is much appreciated for its very showy reddish-orange or crimson (rarely yellow), campanulate flowers. It has become an invasive species in many tropical areas.The flower buds form a ball-shapped cluster. Each brown banana-shaped flower bud is filled with water, forming a natural water pistol when squeezed. The outer buds bloom first before the inner ones. The tree blooms in the month of August and September and last for a couple of weeks.The ripe pods split open into a  woody, boat-shapped form. Children use them in boat races, by placing the opened pods in a fast flowing drain.

HABITAT:  

The flower bud is ampule-shaped and contains water. These buds are often used by children who play with its ability to squirt the water. The sap sometimes stains yellow on fingers and clothes. The open flowers are cup-shaped and hold rain and dew, making them attractive to many species ofbirds. In Neotropical gardens and parks, their nectar is popular with many hummingbirds, such as the Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis), the Black Jacobin (Florisuga fusca), or theGilded Hummingbird (Hylocharis chrysura). The wood of the tree is soft and is used for nesting by many hole-building birds such as barbets.

The seeds of this flower is one of the most favorite food of parrots.One can find enormous number of parrots on this trees after the flower dries and when the seeds form. The many seeds (about 500) are in an 8" long legume that breaks open when it falls from the tree.The seeds are very small with transparent winglets and spreads easily in wind.

                                                                                                                                                          

9)PELTOPHORUM PTEROCRPUM(COPPER POD):

Peltophorum pterocarpum ('Copperpod, Golden Flamboyant, Yellow Flamboyant, Yellow Flame Tree, Yellow Poinciana, Perunkonrai) in Tamil, Radhachura in Bangla) is a species of Peltophorum, native to tropical southeastern Asia and a popularly ornamental tree grown around the world. 

It is a deciduous tree growing to 15–25 m (rarely up to 50 m) tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 1 m. The leaves are bipinnate, 30-60 cm long, with 16-20 pinnae, each pinna with 20-40 oval leaflets 8-25 mm long and 4-10 mm broad. The flowers are yellow, 2.5-4 cm diameter, produced in large compound racemes up to 20 cm long.

The fruit is a pod 5-10 cm long and 2.5 cm broad, red at first, ripening black, and containing one to four seeds. Trees begin to flower after about four years.

Peltophorum pterocarpum is native to tropical southeastern Asia and northern Australasia, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines(doubtfully native), and the islands off the coast of Northern Territory, Australia .

USES:

The tree is widely grown in tropical regions as an ornamental tree, particularly in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Florida and Hawaii in the United States. The trees have been planted alternately in India as a common scheme for avenue trees in India alternately with Delonix regia(Gulmohur) to give a striking yellow and red effect in summer, as has been done on on Hughes road in Mumbai.

The wood has a wide variety of uses, including cabinet-making and the foliage is used as a fodder crop. The blooming season of this tree is in the month of February-March.

                                                                                                                          

10)ALBIZIA SAMAN(RAIN TREE):

Albizia saman (sometimes treated under the obsolete name Samanea saman) is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to the Neotropics. Its range extends from Mexico south to Peru and Brazil, but it has been widely introduced to South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii. Common names include saman, rain tree and monkeypod (see also below). It is often placed in the genus Samanea, which by yet other authors is subsumed in Albizia entirely. 

Saman is a wide-canopied tree with a large symmetrical crown. It usually reaches a height of 25 m (82 ft) and a diameter of 40 m (130 ft). The leaves fold in rainy weather and in the evening, hence the name "rain tree" and "five o'clock tree" (Pukul Lima) in Malay. Several lineages of this tree are available, e.g., with reddish pink and creamish golden colored flowers.

During his 1799-1804 travels in the Americas, Alexander von Humboldt encountered a giant saman tree near Maracay, Venezuela. He measured the circumference of the parasol-shaped crown at 576 ft (about 180.8 m^[3]), its diameter was around 190 ft (about 59.6 m), on a trunk at 9 ft (about 2.8 m) in diameter and reaching just 60 ft (nearly 19 m) in height. Humboldt mentioned the tree was reported to have changed little since the Spanish colonization of Venezuela; he estimated it to be as old as the famous Canary Islands dragon tree (Dracaena draco) of Icod de los Vinos on Tenerife.

The tree, called Samán del Guère (transcribed Zamang del Guayre by von Humboldt) still stands today, and is a Venezuelan national treasure. Just like the dragon tree on Tenerife, the age of the saman in Venezuela is rather indeterminate. As von Humboldt's report makes clear, according to local tradition, it would be older than 500 years today, which is rather outstanding by the genus' standards. It is certain, however, the tree is quite more than 200 years old today, but it is one exceptional individual; even the well-learned von Humboldt could not believe it was actually the same species as the saman trees he knew from the greenhouses at Schönbrunn Castle.

Large, handsome and spreading, the Rain Tree is easily recognised by its umbrella like canopy of evergreen, feathery foliage and puffs of pink flowers. It is frequently planted in groups or as an avenue because of its ability to keep its symmetrical conformation in spite of prevailing winds. It is a tree of rapid growth, brought originally from Central America to Sri Lanka and forwarded from there because it was considered to be a tree of great value for railway fuel. It often reaches a height of 27 m. and the strong, spreading branches may be nearly as long. The bark is dark grey, often bearing horizontal weals and the trunk frequently branches quite low down. From March to May and again towards the end of the year the green canopy is dotted all over with pink and white. During the rest of the year, too, there are usually quite a few flowers to be seen. The flowers appear like round, silken tufts, but actually each flower stalk bears one central and a surrounding circlet of florets, up to twenty in number. Each has a tube-shaped calyx and a tiny, yellow-lobed, crimson trumpet; bunches of long stamens, half pink and half white, protrude from each. The long, heavy leaves are twice pinnate and each pinna, of which there are four to eight pairs, bears from three to seven pairs of leaflets. These are oval and have no stalks, becoming larger and more curved towards the end. on its thickened base so that the leaves all lie sideways. In Malaysia this drooping of the leaves is considered to portend rain and is the explanation of the name Rain Tree, Hujan-hujan meaning "rain", but in India it is believed that the name was given because of a curious habit possessed by the tree of intermittently spraying the ground beneath with moisture. Later it was discovered that this was caused by multitudinous minute insects. The fruit is a fleshy pod, sweet to the taste and much relished by squirrels, horses and cattle. 

                                                                                                                                        

11) PLUMERIA:

Plumeria (common name Frangipani) is a genus of flowering plants of the family that includes Dogbane: the Apocynaceae. It contains 7-8 species of mainly deciduous shrubs and small trees. They are native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America as far south as Brazil but have been spread throughout the world's tropics.

Plumeria is related to the Oleander, Nerium oleander, and both possess an irritant, rather similar to that of Euphorbia. Contact with the sap may irritate eyes and skin. Each of the separate species of Plumeria bears differently shaped alternate leaves, with distinct form and growth habits. The leaves of P. alba are quite narrow and corrugated, whereas leaves of P. pudica have an elongated shape and glossy, dark-green color. P. pudica is one of the everblooming types with non-deciduous, evergreen leaves. Another species that 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 may be easily propagated from cuttings of leafless stem tips in spring. Cuttings are allowed to dry at the base before planting in well-drained soil. Cuttings are particularly susceptible to rot in moist soil. Propagation can also be by tissue culture from cuttings of freshly elongated stems or aseptically germinated seed. Pruning is best accomplished in the winter for deciduous varieties, or when cuttings are desired.

There are more than 300 named varieties of Plumeria.

Etymology and common names:

The genus, originally spelled Plumeria, 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 an Italian noble family, a sixteenth-century marquess who invented a plumeria-scented perfume. Many English speakers also simply use the generic name "plumeria". In Hawaii, the name is "melia". In Sri Lanka, it is referred to as araliya and (in English) as the Temple Tree. In Cantonese it is known as, 'gaai daan fa' or the 'egg yolk flower' tree.

Culture:

These are now common naturalised plants in southern and southeastern Asia. In local folk beliefs they provide shelter to ghosts and demons. The scent of the Plumeria has been associated with a vampire in Malay folklore, the pontianak; frangipani trees are often planted in cemeteries. They are associated with temples in both Hindu and Buddhist cultures.

In several Pacific islands, such as Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga, and the Cook Islands Plumeria species are used for making leis. In modern Polynesian culture, it can be worn by women to indicate their relationship status - over the right ear if seeking a relationship, and over the left if taken.

P. alba is the national flower of Nicaragua and Laos, where it is known under the local name "Sacuanjoche" (Nicaragua) and "Champa" (Laos).

In Bangladeshi culture most white flowers, and, in particular, plumeria (Bengali, চম্পা chômpa or চাঁপা chãpa), are associated with funerals and death.

In the Philippines and Indonesia, Plumeria, which is known in Tagalog as calachuchi, is often associated with ghosts and graveyard. Plumerias are often planted on cemetery grounds in both countries. They are also common ornamental plants in houses, parks, parking lots, etc. in thePhilippines. Balinese Hindus use the flowers in their temple offerings.

Indian incenses containing Plumeria have "Champa" in their name, for example Nag Champa.

In Hindu mythology, there is a saying "चम्पा तुझमें तीन गुण - रंग, रूप और बास  ; अवगुण तुझमें एक ही कि भंवर न आए पास" (Hey Champa you have three qualities color, beauty, and fragrance, but the only thing you lack is that honey-bees never sit on you.)"roop tajey to Radhikey, or bhanwar Krishna ko daas, is mariyaadey ke liye bhanwar na aaye pass" (the beauty of champa is compared to Radhika, who is wife of lord Krishna and honey-bees are servants of Lord Krishna and this is the reason honey-bees don't sit on the champa flower.)

In Sri Lankan tradition, Plumeria is associated with worship. One of the heavenly damsels in the frescoes of the 5th-Century rock fortress Sigiriya holds a 5-petalled flower in her right hand that is indistinguishable from Plumeria.

In Eastern Africa, frangipani are sometimes referred to in Swahili love poems.