Monday, August 11, 2008

Champa


Champa - a very fragrant flower being sold in the old flower market in Dadar.
Champa is native to Indonesia, India and other neighbouring areas. It occurs naturally in the eastern Himalayan region. It is a large evergreen tree with a long straight bole of 18-21 m with a close tapering crown composed of ascending branches. The most interesting part of the tree are its flowers which are not very showy with few narrow yellowish white petals, but have an extremely heady fragrance. This fragrance has made Champa flowers very popular and they have been part of the culture in India from time immemorial. They are used in religious offering in various parts of India. On a warm humid night, the scents can easily be enjoyed several hundred feet away.
Info sourced from http://www.flowersofindia.net/

17 comments:

  1. i think this is the same flower we call Champangi in Tamil .... a very nice & fragrant one ....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another beautiful lush photo. Someone needs to invent a program that allows for sending smells online. I used to have some Nag Champa incense, I wonder if that's the same scent.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @mediterranean kiwi.. these are not buds but blooms.

    ReplyDelete
  4. très belles tes fleurs, et elles ont une magnifique couleur

    your beautiful flowers, and they have a magnificient color

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, HOW I wish the Internety had a smell capacity (well for some things, anyway!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've never seen these blooms before. You've made me curious about what they smell like!

    ReplyDelete
  7. WOW! "Louis" can almost smell these flowers all the way to California!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a lovely flower, I can almost smell the scent here!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this. I hope you stay with this theme for a little while longer. These photos are just scrumptious.

    ReplyDelete
  10. These are lovely so pretty a yellow.
    Interesting post.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like learning about those flowers from India. I don't think I've seen those here. I'd be able to tell you if I knew the latin name.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love champa (cempaka in Indonesian) ... so fragrant ...

    ReplyDelete
  13. @mediterranean kiwi.. these are not buds but blooms.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh, HOW I wish the Internety had a smell capacity (well for some things, anyway!)

    ReplyDelete
  15. From where i can buy these flowers

    ReplyDelete