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Young World
Flower power
MADHAV GADGIL
The smell of Night Jasmine is sweet and fresh
And reminds one of hills and snow;
Like the smile of a lass with ruby lips
And snow white teeth in a row!
Just as the dawn breaks, they drop one by one, forming a carpet of snow-white petals topped by ruby stalks; an enchanting sight common to the court-yards of countless Indian houses. Picked up early in the morning, the sweet-scented flowers of Night Jasmine end up adorning the gods. This combination of white colour, fragrance and the habit of blooming at night characterises many of our flowering plants. Such plants depend for pollination on night flying insects, so abundant in the tropics. So we have moved many of them from nature into the precincts of our gardens and temples.
The Night Jasmine, a small tree, occurs in the wild in the Himalayan foothills and in the terais; today it is cultivated all over India and in many of our neighbouring countries as well. The true Jasmines, all shrubs or climbers, also occur in our forests, from where they have been moved to the gardens and thence into the braids of the women. After all, Indians practised aroma-therapy for millennia before it became fashionable in the West.
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