I didn't know that, did you?

Coming across something abroad we didn’t care for much back home offers us the opportunity to see it with fresh eyes. This is exactly what happened to me in the case of the frangipani. I’ve known this shrub ever since I can remember; it used to make up the living fence around the yard of my mom’s house. As children we climbed the small trees, not minding their sticky milky-white sap.

I took this picture in Jazan, a port city in the southwest of Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea. Frangipani thrives there for some reason or another, which I couldn’t quite figure out. Though indigenous to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Brazil, this deciduous plant has been transplanted successfully to many different parts of the world, and could rightly be said to now be a cosmopolitan beauty. 

It looks majestic with its succulent green leaves and dense clusters of flowers. The waxy white flowers consist of five petals each with a yellow center; they are especially fragrant at night to attract moths for pollination. The flowers don’t yield any nectar, though, and they simply trick their pollinators. The fragrance, which primarily serves a biological function, is simply enchanting to human onlookers and passersby.

          An interesting fact I recall is that the frangipani won’t suffer sunburn even in the hottest summer. I read somewhere that it can withstand up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Centigrade) of external temperature.

Peter Wohlleben, in his book The Secret Network of Nature, writes as follows about deciduous trees in general: “As long as they are alive, they are absolutely immune to fire. This is something you can easily test for yourself - but please, with just a single green twig. No matter how long you hold a flame underneath it, the twig will not burn" (p.189). If in doubt, see for yourself. There is no harm in trying.