Frangipani

This flower brings with it many memories from my days in East Africa. Frangipanis grew in the gardens of most of the houses we lived in, planted partly for the delicate beauty of their waxy flowers but also because they produce a rich scent during the night, so it is associated with evenings spent on the veranda or parties on the beach.

One vivid memory is of breakfasts, for when we sat down in the morning a bowl of water stood in the centre of the table with frangipani flowers floating in it, except at the Hoey house at Nyali where an even more exotic flower, also from a tree in the garden, took their place - sadly, I don't know the type of the flower except that we called it a 'moonflower'.

Frangipanis formed low trees which were ideal for climbing and easy to sit in. We also climbed them to find lizards' nest in their hollow dead branches, from which we stole the eggs to keep in cotton wool in a matchbox until they hatched out. I also remember that, if we wanted to find a chameleon, they seemed to like frangipani trees.

My mother loved the frangipani. In her 'Life' she writes of a Lilimama she attended - the welcoming home of the head of the house by the women - given in honour of the Sultan of Zanzibar's wife. "We were given drinks of lemonade and samosas, and as we sat in the garden with fairy lights around the trees and the strong scent of frangipani, the Lilimama was performed by a young woman who sang and danced for us. We were, of course, in full evening dress, and it is an evening of scent and sound and people I will never forget."

Perhaps my parents' great friend Commander John Hall knew of my mother's particular love for frangipanis for he slightly skewed the view in the picture he painted for them from the upper balcony of our last house in Mombasa so it included the end of the grove of frangipanis that ran down the side of the house - they're visible in full bloom at left.

Although I associate the frangipani with East Africa it is a native of South and Central America though its origins may have been in the Caribbean. It's a good example of a plant whose spread around the world by humans has given many people immense happiness.