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 Plumeria alba (White Frangipani) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Plumeria (common name Frangipani; syn. Himatanthus Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.) is a small genus of 7-8 handsome and useful species native to tropical and subtropical Americas. Open plants have leathery, pointed leaves at the ends of the branches. Flowers during warm seasons, and give clusters of large, showy, waxy flowers with a strong perfume. Plumeria is related to the Oleander, Nerium oleander, and both possess poisonous, milky sap, rather similar to that of Euphorbia.
Plumeria flowers are most fragrant at night in order to lure sphinx moths to pollinate them. The flowers have no nectar, and simply dupe their pollinators. The moths inadvertently pollinate them by transferring pollen from flower to flower in their fruitless search for nectar.