I had always known this plant by the common name of Drunken Sailor. I had also often wondered why anyone would refer to this sweet, delicate, most lady-like flower as a drunken sailor. Her perfume is as sweet and heady as her looks. I would think a sailor when drunk would reek of anything but perfume.
It is also known as the Rangoon Creeper. Now this is also unacceptable to me. I get a picture in my mind of a bar-creeper in Rangoon, also drunk and probably a sailor, being referred to as the Rangoon Creeper. I would expect the Rangoon Creeper to be aka...the axe-murderer. For your information, another name for this creeper happens to be Scarlet Rangoon. Scarlet as in blood red?
Fortunately, there is another common name which I feel suits this gorgeous beauty well. She is also known as the Chinese Honeysuckle. She is truly spectacular, appearing in tri-coloured clusters. Just like the Confederate Rose,the flowers open white, then turn pink and finally transform into scarlet beauties before they wither. This colour change happens over a two to three day period. However, on any one vine, we get to enjoy all three colours as the flowers bloom profusely and constantly throughout the summer season, which means, in the tropics they sport showy vines throughout the year!
Here we have it...the fabulous Quisqualis indica. Interestingly, Quisqualis is Latin for What is that? Apparently, there was some confusion as to whether the plant was a bush or a creeper, so a taxonomist must have named it Quisqualis out of exasperation.
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