Plumeria alba

West Indian Frangipani ( Plumeria alba)

The West Indian Frangipani ( Plumeria alba ) is a plant of the genus Frangipani ( Plumeria ) in the family of the dogbane family ( Apocynaceae ).

Description

The West Indian Frangipani grows as up to 10 m tall with a trunk diameter of up to 10 cm or a shrub. Its branches are strong, greenish to brownish colored. The thick, almost leathery leaves are 15-38 cm long and 1.5 to 5 cm wide. Towards the front they are pointed or blunt, the base is concentrated. The top is hairless, the bottom is covered with whitish trichomes, but can also be veined glabrous and reticulate. The leaf margin is strongly bent.

The inflorescences are compact and consist of several to many luxurious flowers. The inflorescence axes 1-4 cm long, the flower stems are strong, hairless and up to 2 cm long. The calyx is 2-3 mm long and is studded with rounded calyx lobes. The crown is colored white, and has in the middle of a yellow center. The corolla tube is 2 cm long, the Corolla lobe are obovate, rounded and about 3 cm long.

The follicles are 10-15 cm long and 1.5 cm thick.

Occurrence

The species occurs, inter alia, in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles before. It grows on dry to moist sites in coastal thickets and on mountain slopes in low altitudes.

Importance

The West Indian frangipani is the national flower of Nicaragua, known here under the name of national Sacuanjoche. Your image adorns, among others the background of each page of the Nicaraguan passport.

Swell

• Henri Alain Liogier: Descriptive Flora of Puerto Rico and adjancent Islands, Spermatophyta, Volume IV: Melastomataceae to Lentibulariaceae. Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1995, ISBN 0-8477-2337-2, pp. 215-216.