This is one of my favourite trees - I love the delicate and dramatic colours of the flowers and the unmistakable fragrance is wonderful. These trees are found through Barbados and the Caribbean.
Frangipani trees have a very milky sap that will blister the skin and irritate the eyes, and it will also stain your clothes with an ugly black mark. The individual flowers lower very appealing floating in a shallow bowl of water, but otherwise they are unsuitably for arrangements.
The leaves are 10 to 12 inches in length when mature, and at certain times of the year, the tree will be almost bare of leaves or flowers and look almost dead, but then the flowers emerge and the tree will be absolutely covered in sweet smelling blossoms, and then the new leaves start to come out.
Large boomerang-shaped seed pods come out, and when they have dried out, they burst open to release small seeds encased in tissue-paper like casings that float away with the wind.
The frangipani tree is very hardy and easy to propagate - you can literally break off a small branch and stick it in a hole in the ground, and it will slowly take root with little or no attention. If you trim off branches and leave them in a heap they will continue to flower and “grow” for many months, and may even take root in their new location. Consequently, they require little water and thrive in the dry season.
Because of the poisonous nature of the sap of the frangipani tree, not many insects find them appealing, however, the exception is the caterpillar of the Hawk Moth. The tree can become covered in hundreds of these large caterpillar and clean off every leaf in a matter of days. And though the moth is very visible with it’s dramatic coral coloured stripes, birds and other predators will not touch them as they themselves are toxic from feeding on the poisonous sap of the frangipani tree.
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