Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Rajnigandha

Rajnigandha sold in the old flower market in Dadar.
The tuberose is a night-blooming plant thought to be native to Mexico along with every other species of Polianthes. The Aztecs called it Omixochitl or bone flower. Its Indian name is "Rajnigandha". The Hindi name Rajnigandha means "night-fragrant" (rajni=night; gandha=fragrance). In Bangladesh it is called "Rojoni-Gondha", meaning "Scent of the Night". In parts of South India, it is known as "Sugandaraja", which translates to "king of fragrance/smell". In Singapore it is called Xinxiao which means "that on which the moth rests". In Indonesia it is called "bunga sedap malam", meaning fragrant night flower.
The tuberose is also used traditionally in Hawaii to create Leis and was considered a funeral flower in Victorian times. Its scent is described as a complex, exotic, sweet, floral.
It grows in elongated spikes up to 45 cm (18 in) long that produce clusters of fragrant waxy white flowers that bloom from the bottom towards the top of the spike. It has long, bright green leaves clustered at the base of the plant and smaller, clasping leaves along the stem.
Info sourced from http://www.4to40.com/encyclopedia/index.asp?id=961

13 comments:

  1. In other words, this one smells good... ;-)

    "Louis's" smart-aleck tone aside, it is very interesting reading about the flowers you've been posting in this series.

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  2. bravo pour toutes ces informations. j'aime bien comme nom "nuit parfumée"
    bravo to all this information. I like the name "night scented"

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  3. Looks like the bees love it too! Thanks for such an informative post, it's nice that you take time to include such interesting facts and trivia with your lovely photos.

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  4. Beautiful and smells great.
    My post is 'D' for DADAR here.
    Mumbai ABC Wednesday

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  5. That's a great picture magiceye - I thought it was beansprouts when I saw the picture in the portal. Oh well, I'll just have to imagine the smell rather than the taste!

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  6. I thought the same as Jackie! It looks such a delicate flower.

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  7. Me too, I thought of yellow beans, I'll admit.
    I'd love too see those in bloom!

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  8. I can’t say that I was familiar with these, I am now though!

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  9. At first, I thought it was a cabbage. A natural perfume? Thanks for introducing us.

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  10. Sad pic for me. I put many of these on my mom's grave :-(

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  11. Sad pic for me. I put many of these on my mom's grave :-(

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  12. Me too, I thought of yellow beans, I'll admit.
    I'd love too see those in bloom!

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  13. Beautiful and smells great.
    My post is 'D' for DADAR here.
    Mumbai ABC Wednesday

    ReplyDelete