The humble hibiscus

I have always looked at the hibiscus flower as a humble one, though I don't know why so. It is quite an attractive flower, does not require any extra inputs for flowering so liberally, and the flowers, the leaves are super beneficial for us - be it as a natural shampoo, for making hair oils, or making super tasty hibiscus flower juices.

I remember my childhood when we kids used to collect the flowers and feed them to the calf which relished and would consume them and would allow us to caress it.  Even cows love hibiscus flowers very much.

Collecting these flowers for the Onam (one of the key festivals of Kerala -India) floral circles called Pookkalam was a craze as these flowers are available in plenty and would make multiple circles with hibiscus flowers of different colours. Sometimes, when flowers are scarce, we even collect the leaves and make a green circle though it was considered among children as cheating.

So I still don't know why I consider this being a "humble" flower.

But look at it again, don't you also feel like it is a humble flower?

In conversation with nature

 With another day of lockdown, we realize how much of nature you can embed in our homes if we chose. On a normal day, with work, we hardly notice what we already have at home. With the COVID and lockdown, give us the opportunity to start loving our own home - the little spaces where we grow little plants and the little pieces of happiness - flowers they offer to us. Lockdown has taught us to start a new conversation with nature once again, the long lost times which we had in our childhood. The long trails we had collecting flowers for the floral circles called "Pookkalam" during the Onam festival. Look back, reflect, and enjoy!

Shankhupushpam - Another beautiful, edible flower ....

Shankhu Pushpam - (Shankhu meaning Conch-and Pushpam meaning flower) or Clitoria ternatea commonly known as Asian pigeonwings,  bluebellvine, blue pea, butterfly pea, cordofan pea and Darwin pea is a beautiful flower commonly seen as a creeper on the fences (and as fences have disappeared so this plant also) in villages. Rarely I have seen this in pots in the cities too.

This comes various colours from blue to purple, to white, even yellow etc, it is quite refreshing to the eyes.

 As kids, we used to collect this flower especially for Onam floral circles called "Pookkalam" and it is not that easy to make a full circle with this flower alone. After the first summer rains they come to life and in Kerala, one can see them during the rainy months.

Only recently I came to understand that this has quite a few medicinal properties and one can make beautifully coloured juices by boiling water and putting a handful of flowers in it and leave overnight to get a good dark blue tinged juice which you can drink with lemon and sugar or even jaggery.


I found that this is supposed to have some memory boosting capabilities and if one is especially stressed out or too anxious about something, a glass of cool juice made of this flower actually soothes you much. Interestingly there is also a variety of gin called Ink Gin in Australia coloured using these flowers. In Malaysia, these flowers are added while cooking rice to get a bluish tinged coloured rice.





So next time you see these flowers, get some and try your blue rice or blue lemon juice or even a hot blue tea. And also start cultivating a few plants in your garden or in a pot on your terrace (if you have) or verandah. Think of some innovatively coloured Biriyani or other dishes ..!!!