Plumeria Decorative Art

by Deborah Benoit

Title

Plumeria Decorative Art

Artist

Deborah Benoit

Medium

Photograph - Original Photography Art By Deborah Benoit

Description

This is a picture I took of My own Plumeria. Plumeria are fun plants to grow. I now have two seed pods on one of my plants so I might try to grow some plants from seed n Port Orange, Florida.

In Southeast Asia the plumeria tree and flower are considered sacred. A relief in the Penataran temple ruins in East Java shows a plumeria tree with its distinct flower petals and skeleton-like branches. A relief in the Borobudur temple, at the west side 1st zone, also depicts plumeria. These reliefs were created before European exploration. Borobudur was constructed in the 9th century and Penataran in the 14th century. Taken together, their dates fail to establish when plumeria came to Southeast Asia.[further explanation needed][citation needed]

In Mesoamerica, plumerias have carried complex symbolic significance for over two millennia, with striking examples from the Maya and Aztec periods into the present. Among the Maya, plumerias have been associated with deities representing life and fertility, and the flowers also became strongly connected with female sexuality. Nahuatl-speaking people during the height of the Aztec Empire used plumerias to signify elite status, and planted plumeria trees in the gardens of nobles.

These are now common naturalized plants in South and Southeast Asia. In local folk beliefs, they provide shelter to ghosts and demons. They are also associated with temples in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cultures.

In several Pacific islands, such as Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga, and the Cook Islands, Plumeria species are used for making leis. In Hawaii, the flower is called melia. In modern Polynesian culture, the flower can be worn by women to indicate their relationship status—over the right ear if seeking a relationship, and over the left if taken.

Plumeria alba is the national flower of Laos, where it is known under the local name champa or dok champa.

In Bengali culture, most white flowers, and in particular, plumeria (Bengali, chômpa or chãpa), are associated with funerals and death.

Also in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, the plumeria is often associated with ghosts and cemeteries. Yangsze Choo in her novel The Night Tiger for example described it as is “the graveyard flower of the Malays.” Plumerias often are planted on burial grounds in all three nations. They are also common ornamental plants in houses, parks, parking lots, and other open-air establishments in the Philippines. Balinese Hindus use the flowers in their temple offerings. The plumeria's fragrance is also associated with the Kuntilanak, an evil vampiric spirit of a dead mother in Malaysian-Indonesian folklores.

Indian incenses scented with Plumeria rubra have "champa" in their names. For example, nag champa is an incense containing a fragrance combining plumeria and sandalwood. While plumeria is an ingredient in Indian champa incense, the extent of its use varies between family recipes. Most champa incenses also incorporate other tree resins, such as Halmaddi (Ailanthus triphysa) and benzoin resin, as well as other floral ingredients, including champaca (Magnolia champaca), geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), and vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) to produce a more intense, plumeria-like aroma.

In the Western Ghats of Karnataka, the bride and groom exchange garlands of cream-coloured plumeria during weddings. Red-colored flowers are not used in weddings. Plumeria plants are found in most of the temples in these regions.

In Sri Lankan tradition, plumeria is associated with worship. One of the heavenly damsels in the frescoes of the fifth-century rock fortress Sigiriya holds a five-petalled flower in her right hand that is indistinguishable from plumeria.

In Eastern Africa, frangipani are sometimes referred to in Swahili love poems.

Some species of plumeria have been studied for their potential medicinal value.

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July 8th, 2023

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