Be careful which ear you put that Frangipani over!

I know I promised to write about the beautiful red flame of the forest in this edition, but their blooming is not going as fast as I would like it to be. Our patience is being tested… We’ve been looking at these rough brown beans hanging down for months now. A couple of trees are taking an apprehensive start, but I’ll wait to describe them when they are in full glory.

Not disappointing are our frangipanis (or Plumerias). Plumeria was named in honour of a French seventeenth century botanist, Charles Plumier. Somewhere through history, the name changed from Plumiera to Plumeria. Their common name, frangipani, comes from an Italian noble family, a sixteenth century marquess of which invented a plumeria-scented perfume. This would mean that they had their common name, frangipani, before their scientific name, plumeria. You can still buy this perfume today but you might want to think twice about this… Read on …

They are native to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America as far south as Brazil but have been spread throughout the world's tropics, including Africa. Frangipani 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.

In Asian folklore they provide shelter to ghosts and demons. The scent of the Plumeria has been associated with a vampire in Malay folklore, the pontianak. In several Pacific islands, such as Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga and the Cook Islands Plumeria species are used for making  lei garlands. 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. Bear this in mind for our next luau. You’ve been warned! 

January 2011: did you say Africa?

I would have sworn this was South America. Look at this Thevetia Peruviana, also called the Mexican Oleander. The yellow variety is abundantly present all over Abuja but not to be confused with the yellow bells which are also widely spread on all compounds (more about those later). Yellow bells have more than one flower on the stem and each flower has just one bell-shaped petal. Oleanders have only one flower per stem with multiple petals.

The Thevetia Peruviana (why Peruviana translates as ‘Mexican’ is a mystery to me) has an orange variety as well. There is at least one on V1. See if you can find it, but you will have to leave the beaten track.

The Mexican Oleander has big round seeds and large lance-shaped leaves. As you could have guessed, it is native to Mexico and Central America. As all oleanders, also this one is extremely poisonous although tiger sharks native to the warmer waters of Central and Southern America are known to feed on these plants for use as aphrodesiacs. There is no need to worry, I have seen no tiger sharks in Abuja so far.

So you say: one swallow does not make the summer.

And I say: aha, but what do I find next to the Mexican Oleander? The Brazilian Rain Tree (Pithecellobium Tortum). Its flowers are unusual and look like drum brushes. The story goes that Jim Moody, the owner of Jupiter Bonsai in the US, had received some seeds from his sister-in-law, collected whilst she was travelling in Brazil. He experimented successfully with them and the Brazilian Rain Tree is now widely cultivated as bonsai in the US.

The seed pods of the Brazilian Rain Tree are similar to the big brown bean-shaped seed pods of the Delonix Regia (the big red-flowered trees which most of us on V1 have in their front yard and can also be cultivated as bonsai) but a lot smaller and lighter in colour. The leaves of both trees are also similar. The Delonixes have just started flowering again. I will talk about them in the next edition.

If you want to have a go at bonsai-growing, I’ll tell you where to find seeds!

Reporting to you from Central and South America

Alice in Wonderland

December 2010: the bleeding heart vines

My first few weeks in Abuja, now almost seven months ago, I was a little bored, as one can be. Our UAF or luggage hadn't arrived yet, I knew basically nobody, husband in the office and I had so much time on my hands. Fortunately, I had brought the camera and I had a dog that needed walking. It didn’t take long for me to see what a beautiful garden of Eden we live in. Take a look at this stunning seed pod, for example.

I took the camera out, took loads of pictures and started googling for information. I am not a botanist of any kind. I just feel like Alice in wonderland. I will take you through some of the wonders of our gardens. When you’ve got a spare minute, have closer look and enjoy. You'll be surprised at what you find on your doorstep. The pictures are not perfect, I am still learning.

One of the most beautiful flowers I found is the bleeding heart vine. I have seen two varieties so far:  the red bleeding heart vine (Clerodendrum speciosum) and the white bleeding heart vine (Clerodendrum thomsoniae).  It is not difficult to see why their popular name is "bleeding heart". The white bleeding heart indeed looks like a bleeding heart. Clerodendra are native to tropical West Africa and there are about 400 different species. Some of them are shrubs, some lianas and some trees.

Ours are evergreen shrubs and lianas that can grow up to 4 m tall. The flowers consist of two colours: bright pink and red or white and red. Clerodendrum and its relatives have an unusual pollination syndrome which avoids self-pollination. According to Darwin, this was a mechanism to reduce inbreeding. They do not flower abundantly. But when they do, don’t miss it. It is beautiful!