Immense clusters of large, striking, white flowers seen on a strong rampant vine, mean that the Beaumontia is in bloom. The season is winter and spring. The flowers are about six inches across, papery in texture and a dead white in color, except for a pink flush on the back, and pale green in the center. They are cup shaped, with five wavy lobes. In the center of the flower rise the five stamens, white and pale green in color and joined at the tip into a point. The flower has a delicate fragrance, matching its fragile appearance. If cut early in the morning and plunged deeply into water for awhile, it will be successful as a cut flower. The blossoms are often used in wedding bouquets in Hawaii.
The vine grows to a large size with long, large leaves prominently veined and a shining bright green in color. The plant is a native of tropical Asia. It is a member of the Periwinkle family. ([Plate XIII])
BLUE BUTTERFLY PEA
Clitoria ternatea Linnaeus
Blossoms of a true cerulean blue are exceedingly rare in the flower world, but those of the Butterfly Pea are of this hue. Though small and scattered on the vine, these little flowers are delightful for their gorgeous color and unusual shape. As members of the pea family, they are shaped like a modified pea blossom, the “banner” or large back petal being oval, the wings very small. The banner usually has a white mark on the base. Sometimes the flowers occur double and there is also a white variety.
The foliage is compound, the leaflets being rounded. The plant, which is an annual in colder climates, grows rather thickly. The dried pea-like pods which follow the flowers hang on the vine a long time. The seeds grow easily.
The plant gets its name from the island of Ternate in the East Indies, but is considered a cosmopolitan in the tropics. ([Plate XIII])
Chapter VII
GINGER BLOSSOMS
Leading among Hawaii’s special flowers are those of the Ginger family. They are usually exotic in form, colorful, and often intoxicatingly fragrant. The name, Ginger, covers several groups or genera, which vary considerably in appearance although the botanist can distinguish the similarities which relate them. Gingers are not far removed from the Cannas and Bananas; hence, they are reedlike plants, with fibrous stalks and blade-shaped leaves. Some are short, hardly more than a ground cover, others grow twelve or fifteen feet in height.
A native ginger, called Awapuhi by the Hawaiians, and Zingiber zerumbet, by the botanist, grows in the Hawaiian forests. Its leaves form a ground cover a foot or two high. In spring the flower heads spring up, bulbous and reddish, composed of scaly bracts out of which appear the small, inconspicuous, yellowish flowers.