Potpourri

When I spoke of 'Magizhampoo' in my summer vacation post, I was reminded of some other flowers that have become rare to find these days. All these flowers have such sweet fragrance .

'Kodi Sampangi' is one..these are bell shaped green color flowers and blooms in clusters...the plant as the name suggests ('Kodi' means a creeper) is a creeper with just one hardy twining trunk.The petals have a light yellow tinge and the flowers cannot be tied into a string like jasmines...they have to be threaded using a needle .

'Oosi malli' ('Oosi' means 'needle' and ofcourse Malli is Jasmine) the flower resembles a needle...atleast 2 inches long and has a long stalk too. When in bloom the petals droop down and when stringed together , they look like a bunch of white thread.

'Soundarya Kanakaambaram' ..Oh the color ! Its a deep saffron color and the petals are more sturdy than the regular ones . Even a six inch stringed piece of this flower can add a dash of color and looks attractive.

'Manoranjitham'..Atleast this flower can still to be seen here and there and I know many ppl who loves its fragrance. Intoxicating is what it is.
(Incidentaly , this is close to me bcos I was chosen to be this flower , in a flower dance we did in school when I was in 4th class :P ....now , I dont want anyone associating the tough look of the flower to me being selected ;-) ....just take my word when I say it was random selection :P But I was disappointed during the actual dance as all the 'jasmines' and 'roses' were all decked up with those flowers from head to toe while the teachers had to go from pole to post.. to collect manoranjithams..unfair eh ? :( )

'Changing rose'...this is one magic flower ..it's white in color in the morning and as the day progresses , changes to pink to deep pink ..then majenta and becomes red by the evening...oh what fun it was to watch its color change during classes in school :P

'Paneer Roja' this is dark baby pink in color..if there is something called 'sweet fragrance' it is this. It blooms in clusters of three or four and unlike the regular roses is very delicate and has less petals with a yellow centre ,the pollen very visible. These are not the pink hybrid variety..(hee hee..the petals taste yummy too :P )

'Nagalinga poo' Though I see these in some parks in Chennai , it used to be one of the regular flowers for pooja a few years back .I like to take the little lingam out of the flower after the pooja :P

'Sentu Malli' ...A variety of jasmine that has a deep jasmine scent but looks like a miniature white rose.

'Thaazham poo'.. This is a flower with a peculiar shape and strong fragrance and can diffuse an entire room with its smell. It was used in 'kadambam' previously ...but is missing now. During summer vacations it used to be a ritual to decorate the plaits of little girls with this flower ... it is called 'thazhampoo jadai' .

'Thumba poo'...this plant is a wild one and the flowers were very special for poojas. They look like 'baby's breath'..tiny and sparkling white in color.

A couple of flowers my dad misses.
'Neel Kamal'....My dad claims to have seen Blue lotuses on the Chennai-Kanchipuram highway when he was in his teens. But there is always an argument bet. us about it. I say that there is no blue lotus and he is talking about blue lilies. He is still in search of some place where there is 'Neel kamal'.

'Kadamba poo' ..when he talks about this he always says 'Kandhaa...Kadambaa' and he described the flower to me...a great smelling , ball shaped fuzzy flower that grows on med. height trees. Once when I found a similar tree somewhere , we walked there for half an hour and both of us were very disappointed to see it was a diff. one...but this one was cute too.

Its nice to see the asters , gerberas, tuber-roses, dhalias , chrysanthamums ,
orchids , gladioli , carnations etc (the cut flower ones) stocked up in lots of places....but I miss the flowers I mentioned too .

If you can think of any other flower that is going extinct..please write about it.