LBOS 2008 Annual Show - Winners 1: Plumeria pudica
Los Baños Orchid Society 2008 Annual Show
Plumeria pudica - Best Plant in Show, Best Flowering Plant (Exhibitor: Exotica)
Plumeria pudica(Click this link to view larger photo.)
The genus Plumeria, belonging to the family Apocynaceae, has 8 species distinguished from each other by their growth habit and the unique characteristic of their leaves and flowers. The genus originates from Mexico, Central America and Venezuela. "Frangipani" is its common name in the horticulture trade. It is called "kalachuchi" in the Philippines.
P. pudica was first described in 1763 by the Dutch scientist Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin. It is differentiated from other Plumeria species by its spoon-shaped evergreen leaves, shrubby growth (up to 4 meters tall when mature) and white unscented flowers.
It's funny but when you mention "kalachuchi" to the ordinary person, they would say it is "the flower for the dead" (bulaklak sa patay). In my neighborhood, several mature kalachuchi trees regularly bloomed profusely in great numbers, and some men would also regularly harvest their blooms, gently plucking each one and putting them into large sacks. I remember as a child, I asked my mother then what the men were doing and she said the flowers are for the dead. I didn't understand it then until later in a wake, I saw a large circular wreath made up of several dozen individual white kalachuchi flowers stuck into a cut banana trunk to make the wreath. I don't know if they still make wreaths of kalachuchi flowers, because the ones I see in wakes are now made with anthuriums, orchids and lilies.
The genus Plumeria, belonging to the family Apocynaceae, has 8 species distinguished from each other by their growth habit and the unique characteristic of their leaves and flowers. The genus originates from Mexico, Central America and Venezuela. "Frangipani" is its common name in the horticulture trade. It is called "kalachuchi" in the Philippines.
P. pudica was first described in 1763 by the Dutch scientist Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin. It is differentiated from other Plumeria species by its spoon-shaped evergreen leaves, shrubby growth (up to 4 meters tall when mature) and white unscented flowers.
It's funny but when you mention "kalachuchi" to the ordinary person, they would say it is "the flower for the dead" (bulaklak sa patay). In my neighborhood, several mature kalachuchi trees regularly bloomed profusely in great numbers, and some men would also regularly harvest their blooms, gently plucking each one and putting them into large sacks. I remember as a child, I asked my mother then what the men were doing and she said the flowers are for the dead. I didn't understand it then until later in a wake, I saw a large circular wreath made up of several dozen individual white kalachuchi flowers stuck into a cut banana trunk to make the wreath. I don't know if they still make wreaths of kalachuchi flowers, because the ones I see in wakes are now made with anthuriums, orchids and lilies.
Back to LBOS 2008 Annual Show
0 comment(s):
Post a Comment