Sweet Orange

Common name: Sweet orange, Santara संतरा (Hindi), Komla (Manipuri)
Botanical name: Citrus sinensis Family: Rutaceae (citrus family)
The sweet orange is a tree of moderate size, probably the most popular of all citrus fruits, available in a number of varieties that ripen at various seasons. The leaves are shiny and leathery, oblong to elliptic, up to 4 in (10.2 cm) long, and have narrow wings on their petioles (leaf stems) Orange flowers are white, very fragrant, and arranged in clusters of 1-6. They bloom in spring and give rise to oranges the following autumn or winter. Last year's oranges often are still on the trees when the new flowers are blooming Honeybees love orange blossoms and the honey they make is mild and delicious.Oranges do not continue ripening after picking, so leave them on the tree until you're ready to use them.

Citron

Common name: Citron • Hindi: बड़ा निम्बू Bara nimbu, बिजौरा Bijaura, Kutla • Manipuri: হৈজাঙ Heijang • Marathi: महाळुंगी Mahalungi • Tamil: Marucahagam, Komattimadali • Malayalam: Matalanarakam • Telugu: Lungamu • Kannada: Rusakam • Bengali: Bara nimbu, Begpura • Konkani: Mauling • Assamese: Jora tenga • Gujarati: તુરંજ Turanj • Sanskrit: महाफल Mahaphala, Matulunga
Botanical name: Citrus medica Family: Rutaceae (Citrus family)
Citron is a large lemon-like fruit borne by a slow-growing shrub or small tree reaching 8-15 ft high with stiff branches and stiff twigs and short or long spines in the leaf axils. Citron is probably native to North-East India. The leaflets are evergreen, lemon-scented, ovate-lanceolate or ovate elliptic, 2.5-7 in long, leathery, with short, wingless or nearly wingless petioles. The flower buds are large and white or sometimes purplish. The fragrant flowers about 4 cm wide, in short clusters, have 4 to 5 petals, sometimes pinkish or purplish on the outside, with 30 to 60 stamens. The fruit is fragrant, mostly oblong, obovoid or oval, occasionally pyriform, but highly variable; various shapes and smooth or rough fruits sometimes occurring on the same branch. The citron is unlike the more common citrus fruit like the lemon or orange. While the most popular citrus species are peeled in order to consume its pulpy and juicy segments – the citron's pulp is very dry containing only little insipid juice.

Divine Jasmine

Common name: Divine Jasmine, Tamilnadia • Marathi: Kalaphendra • Tamil: Wagatta, Kalikarai • Malayalam: Pindichakka, Malankara • Telugu: Kuka-elka
Botanical name: Tamilnadia uliginosa Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Synonyms: Gardenia uliginosa, Catunaregam uliginosa, Randia uliginosa, Gardenia pomifera
Divine jasmine is a very rigid, ramous, small tree, armed with numerous strong thorns, delights in bogs, swamps, banks of rivers and other moist places. Flowering time the beginning of the hot season, or, in some measure, all the year. The flowers of this species, as well as the beauty of the entire shrub, render it deserving of a conspicuous place in the flower garden. Trunk ill defined, covered with a dark rust-colored scabrous bark. Branches erect, rigid, four-cornered, thick set with short, rigid round, diverging branchlets. Short lateral shoots, each of which terminally produces one or two pairs of short thorns. Leaves opposite on young shoots, or fascicled at the end of branchlets, short-petioled, oblong, shining, entire, 2-3 inches long by 1.5 inch broad. Flowers 1-3 upon their proper short peducles at the extremeties of the branchlets, large, white, and fragrant. Calyx above, tubular, obtusely five-toothed, permanent. Berry 4 cm across, globose or ovoid solitary ; stalk 2 cm long ; seeds many, embedded in the pulp.

Blue Forest Champa

Common name: Blue Forest Champa • Hindi: Padera, Padwa, Mahabal, Barcha • Marathi: गिडेसा Gidesa • Nepali: बन चाँप Ben champa • Telugu: Erra Mogi, Konda muritidi • Urdu: बन चाँपा Ban champa
Botanical name: Spermadictyon suaveolens var. azureum Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Synonyms: Spermadictyon azureum
Blue Forest Champa is a branched shrub, growing up to 1-2 m tall. The species name suaveolens means sweet-scented, and refers to the fragrant flowers. The variety name azureum means blue, referring to the bluish flowers of this close cousin of the white-flowered Forest Champa. Oppositely arranged elliptic-lancelike leaves, 10-20 cm, are finely velvety. Leaf stalks are 1-2 cm long. Flowers occur in many-flowered spherical heads, arrange in panicles at the end of branches. The spherical heads are 5-10 cm across. Flowers are fragrant, in bunches of 5 or more. Sepals are small, very narrow, and tapering. Flowers pale bluish or pinkish, with a relatively long tube and short, oblong petals. The tube is slender, funnel-shaped, up to 1.5 cm long, with 4-5 short petals, spreading up to 8 mm. Stamens remain inside the flower throat. Style with 5-lobed stigma protrudes out of the flower. Fruit is capsule-like, crowned by the leftover sepals. In China it is grown for its showy, fragrant flowers. Only seen wild in India. This flower is seen in Western Ghats and Himalayas, from Pakistan to SE Tibet, at altitudes of 700-2300 m. Flowering: October-March.

Forest Champa

Common name: Forest Champa • Hindi: Padera, Padwa, Mahabal, Barcha • Marathi: गिडेसा Gidesa • Nepali: बन चाँप Ben champa • Telugu: Erra Mogi, Konda muritidi • Urdu: बन चाँपा Ban champa
Botanical name: Spermadictyon suaveolens Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Synonyms: Hamiltonia suaveolens, Hamiltonia mysorensis
Forest Champa is a branched shrub, growing up to 1-2 m tall. The species name suaveolens means sweet-scented, and refers to the fragrant flowers. All vegetative parts stink when bruised. Oppositely arranged elliptic-lancelike leaves, 10-20 cm, are finely velvety. Leaf stalks are 1-2 cm long. Flowers occur in many-flowered spherical heads, arrange in panicles at the end of branches. The spherical heads are 5-10 cm across. Flowers are fragrant, in bunches of 5 or more. Sepals are small, very narrow, and tapering. Flowers are white with a relatively long tube and short, oblong petals. The tube is slender, funnel-shaped, up to 1.5 cm long, with 4-5 short petals, spreading up to 8 mm. Stamens remain inside the flower throat. Style with 5-lobed stigma protrudes out of the flower. Fruit is capsule-like, crowned by the leftover sepals. In China it is grown for its showy, fragrant flowers. Only seen wild in India. This flower is seen in Western Ghats and Himalayas, from Pakistan to SE Tibet, at altitudes of 700-2300 m. Flowering: October-March.

Fragrant Panama Rose

Common name: Fragrant Panama rose, Sweet Smelling Rondeletia
Botanical name: Rondeletia odorata Family: Rubiaceae (coffee family)
Originally from Panama and Cuba, Fragrant Panama rose is an evergreen shrub, commonly cultivated in gardens in India. It grows up to 6-10 feet tall, with opposite sessile, ovate to oblong leaves with wavy margins, 2 inches long. From summer to fall, it blooms with beautiful, fragrant reddish orange, tubular flowers with yellow throats. Flowers occur in many-flowered cymes at the end of branches, up to 5 inch across. The Fragrant Panama rose was first collected by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in "Mexico: Guerrero: inter Alto del Peregrino et Río Papagallo", 'between loft of the wanderer (or peregrine's nest?) and the River Papagayo (parrot)'. The botanical name was published by Kunth in 1818 in the fourth edition of Nova Genera et Species Plantarum. The name honored Guillaume Rondelet, a natural historian, physician, and botany instructor at the university in Montpellier, France in the 16th century.

Needle Flower Tree

Common name: Needle Flower Tree
Botanical name: Posoqueria longiflora Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Needle Flower Tree is a small tree, native to central America. Leaves are elliptic-oblong, glossy dark green. Flower flowers, which are very narrow and long, arise in cascades and are extremely fragrant. The species name longiflora means long flowers. This is a tropical rainforest tree, and thrives in humid environment and can stand both full sun or filtered light. Blooms most of the year, filling air around with sweet gardenia-like fragrance.