Frangipani

*Plumeria*

How to know it

A small tree with thick, blunt, grey branches and clusters of waxy five petalled flowers in white, yellow or pink. Leaves drop in dry season, leaving bare stubby branches that look dead and are not.

What it does

The flowers are used in offerings, in garlands and in perfume. In Bali they are part of daily temple offerings, which most children in the region will have seen without being told what the flower is called.

Safety

The milky white sap from a broken branch or picked flower is an irritant. It stings eyes and can irritate skin. Collect fallen flowers from the ground rather than picking, which also happens to be the better lesson.

Two things to do with children

Count petals across twenty fallen flowers. Almost all have five. Finding a four or a six is a real discovery about what usual means in nature.

Look at a bare frangipani in dry season and ask whether it is dead. Come back after the first rain. The answer arrives on its own.