As Wet as Cacaloxochitl and Tlalcacaloxochitl can be. Plumeria or Frangipani at Puri Mas, Lombok, Indonesia
What we today call 'Frangipani' or 'Plumeria' hails originally from Central America, notably southern Mexico. It was given its Latin name by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) and Carolus Linnaeus for the "King of Botany", Charles Plumier (1646-1704), who'd been a star pupil of Tournefort's and had given an early description of this marvellous shrub or tree.
But Plumier was not the first to have described our shrub. The first account which reached Europe about it dates from the middle of the sixteenth century. It is found in the writings of two Aztec converts to Christianity. In 1521 the important Aztec city of Tlatelolco (now part of Mexico City) had fallen to the Spaniards under Hernán Cortés. Very soon afterwards, a Christian mission was established and one of its first tasks was to educate the indigenous people to the culture of Christianity. To that end a Colegio Imperial de Santa Cruz was established under Franciscan authority. It was here that Martinus de La Cruz and Juan Badiano - both converts - set about writing in Nahuatl and Latin an herbal of Aztec medicine. This herbal arrived in Europe in 1551/1552, generated some interest but then remained obscure until it was rediscoverd in the 1920s. The manuscript and another work of the same kind are two of the most important sources for the botany but also the anthropology and language (and much more) of the Aztecs.
The herbal describes two kinds of what we call Plumeria or Frangipani: Cacaloxochitl and Tlalcacaloxochitl. The first is probably Plumeria rubra or acutifolia, the second possibly pudica or inodora. The Aztecs apparently greatly favored Cacaloxochtitl, because of its wonderful fragrance. Even in the rain, the flowers in this photo emitted a lovely, sweet yet soft smell.
The raindrops might be taken as just as many reminders of the terrible fate of the many thousands of Aztecs at the hands of the Spanish conquerors. As evening falls...
As Wet as Cacaloxochitl and Tlalcacaloxochitl can be. Plumeria or Frangipani at Puri Mas, Lombok, Indonesia
What we today call 'Frangipani' or 'Plumeria' hails originally from Central America, notably southern Mexico. It was given its Latin name by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) and Carolus Linnaeus for the "King of Botany", Charles Plumier (1646-1704), who'd been a star pupil of Tournefort's and had given an early description of this marvellous shrub or tree.
But Plumier was not the first to have described our shrub. The first account which reached Europe about it dates from the middle of the sixteenth century. It is found in the writings of two Aztec converts to Christianity. In 1521 the important Aztec city of Tlatelolco (now part of Mexico City) had fallen to the Spaniards under Hernán Cortés. Very soon afterwards, a Christian mission was established and one of its first tasks was to educate the indigenous people to the culture of Christianity. To that end a Colegio Imperial de Santa Cruz was established under Franciscan authority. It was here that Martinus de La Cruz and Juan Badiano - both converts - set about writing in Nahuatl and Latin an herbal of Aztec medicine. This herbal arrived in Europe in 1551/1552, generated some interest but then remained obscure until it was rediscoverd in the 1920s. The manuscript and another work of the same kind are two of the most important sources for the botany but also the anthropology and language (and much more) of the Aztecs.
The herbal describes two kinds of what we call Plumeria or Frangipani: Cacaloxochitl and Tlalcacaloxochitl. The first is probably Plumeria rubra or acutifolia, the second possibly pudica or inodora. The Aztecs apparently greatly favored Cacaloxochtitl, because of its wonderful fragrance. Even in the rain, the flowers in this photo emitted a lovely, sweet yet soft smell.
The raindrops might be taken as just as many reminders of the terrible fate of the many thousands of Aztecs at the hands of the Spanish conquerors. As evening falls...