SPANISH JASMINE

Jasminum grandiflorum, also known variously as the Spanish jasmine, Royal jasmine, Catalan jasmine, Sicilian jasmine, Greek jasmine, is a species of jasmine native to South Asia, the Arabian peninsula, East and Northeast Africa and the Yunnan and Sichuan regions of China. The species is widely cultivated and is reportedly naturalised in Guinea, the Maldive Islands, Mauritius, Réunion, Java, the Cook Islands, Chiapas, Central America, and the Caribbean. It is closely related to, and sometimes treated as merely a form of, Jasminum officinale.

Jasmine has been made into a well-known scent around the world. It was introduced as a perfume in Europe in the 16th century. The flowers create an aroma that exudes a calm atmosphere, relieving mental and emotional strains. Due to the pleasing scent, J. grandiflorum are commonly made into essential oils, perfumes, soaps, and cosmetics worldwide.

Here it is seen growing in our garden, where it forms a luxuriant climbing shrub, flowering profusely in Summer and whose delicious perfume is intense during the evening. In the Summer afternoons, my grandmother used to pick the burgeoning buds of this flower and thread them with a needle, forming the festoon you see below, which was brought indoors. As the flowers opened later that evening, the perfume filled the house.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

LILAC 'SENSATION'

In mid-spring this hybrid lilac Syringa vulgaris 'Sensation', blooms and bears fragrant, single purple blossoms with distinct white margins. It forms a shrub 3 metres high by 2 metres wide. Lilac flowers are beloved for bouquets, and when in bloom, hummingbirds and butterflies are drawn to them. Lilacs are generally a forgiving bunch, tolerant of roadside sites and neglect.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

LILACS

Syringa vulgaris (lilac or common lilac) is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to the Balkan Peninsula, where it grows on rocky hills. This species is widely cultivated as an ornamental and has been naturalised in other parts of Europe (including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy), as well as much of North America. It is not regarded as an aggressive species, found in the wild in widely scattered sites, usually in the vicinity of past or present human habitations.

Most garden plants of S. vulgaris are cultivars, the majority of which do not exceed 4–5 m tall. Between 1876 and 1927, the nurseryman Victor Lemoine of Nancy introduced over 153 named cultivars, many of which are considered classics and still in commerce today. Lemoine's "French lilacs" extended the limited colour range to include deeper, more saturated hues, and they also introduced double-flowered "sports", with the stamens replaced by extra petals. Illustrated here is the hybrid 'Agincourt Beauty' that grows in our garden.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

OLIVE FLOWERS

The olive (Olea europaea, meaning "olive from/of Europe") is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in much of Africa, the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and southern Asia as far east as China, as well as the Canary Islands, Mauritius and Réunion. The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalised in France, Corsica, Crimea, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Java, Norfolk Island, California and Bermuda.

Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give its name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia and the true ash trees (Fraxinus). The word "olive" derives from Latin ŏlīva ("olive fruit", "olive tree"; "olive oil" is ŏlĕum) which is cognate with the Greek ἐλαία (elaía, "olive fruit", "olive tree") and ἔλαιον (élaion, "olive oil"). The oldest attested forms of the latter two words in Greek are respectively the Mycenaean e-ra-wa, and e-ra-wo or e-rai-wo, written in the Linear B syllabic script.

The word "oil" in multiple languages ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit. Melbourne has an excellent climate for raising olives and olive trees are commonly seen in streets and gardens of Melbourne. Numerous olive groves have now been established in close proximity to the City. At the moment, olive trees are in full bloom in Melbourne and it looks as though it will be a bumper season this year!

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 183 - ASH

Fraxinus excelsior — known as the ash, or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of ash — is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains. The northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway. The species is widely cultivated and reportedly naturalised in New Zealand and in scattered locales in the United States and Canada.

It is a large deciduous tree growing to 12–18 m (exceptionally to 43 m) tall with a trunk up to 2 m (exceptionally to 3.5 m) diameter, with a tall, narrow crown. The bark is smooth and pale grey on young trees, becoming thick and vertically fissured on old trees. The shoots are stout, greenish-grey, with jet black buds (which distinguish it from most other ash species, which have grey or brown buds). The leaves are opposite, 20–35 cm long, pinnately compound, with 7-13 leaflets with coarsely serrated margins, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 3–12 cm long and 0.8–3 cm broad and sessile on the leaf rachis. There are no stipules. These features distinguish ash from mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) in which the leaves are alternate with paired stipules.

The leaves are often among the last to open in spring, and the first to fall in autumn if an early frost strikes; they have no marked autumn colour, often falling dull green. The flowers are borne in short panicles, open before the leaves, and have no perianth. The female flowers are somewhat longer than the male flowers, dark purple, without petals, and are wind-pollinated. Both male and female flowers can occur on the same tree, but it is more common to find all male and all female trees. A tree that is all male one year can produce female flowers the next, and similarly a female tree can become male. The fruit is a samara 2.5–4.5 cm long and 5–8 mm broad, often hanging in bunches through the winter; they are often called 'ash keys'. If the fruit is gathered and planted when it is still green and not fully ripe, it will germinate straight away, however once the fruit is brown and fully ripe, it will not germinate until 18 months after sowing (i.e. not until two winters have passed).

The resilience and rapid growth of ash made it an important resource for smallholders and farmers in the past. It was probably the most versatile wood in the countryside with wide-ranging uses. Until World War II the trees were often coppiced on a ten-year cycle to provide a sustainable source of timber for fuel and poles for building and woodworking.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

OLIVES AT THE PARKLANDS

The olive (Olea europaea) is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin (the adjoining coastal areas of southeastern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa) as well as northern Iraq, and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.

Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give its name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia and the true ash trees (Fraxinus). The word olive derives from Latin olīva which is cognate with the Greek ἐλαία (elaía) ultimately from Mycenaean Greek 𐀁𐀨𐀷 (e-ra-wa - "elaiva"), attested in Linear B syllabic script.

The word 'oil' in multiple languages ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit. The climate of the Southern parts of Australia are conducive to the culture of the olive and numerous olive groves are now to be found in Victoria and South Australia. In Melbourne olive trees are common in gardens, but also planted in nature strips along streets. Here are some olives in the Darebin Parklands, showing the clusters of still small fruit.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 93 - OLIVE

The olive (Olea europaea, meaning "olive from/of Europe") is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in much of Africa, the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and southern Asia as far east as China, as well as the Canary Islands, Mauritius and Réunion.

The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalised in France, Corsica, Crimea, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Java, Norfolk Island, California and Bermuda. Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give its name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia and the true ash trees (Fraxinus).

The word "olive" derives from Latin ŏlīva ("olive fruit", "olive tree"; "olive oil" is ŏlĕum) which is cognate with the Greek ἐλαία (elaía, "olive fruit", "olive tree") and ἔλαιον (élaion, "olive oil"). The oldest attested forms of the latter two words in Greek are respectively the Mycenaean  e-ra-wa, and  e-ra-wo or e-rai-wo, written in the Linear B syllabic script. The word "oil" in multiple languages ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit.

Melbourne has an excellent climate for raising olives and olive trees are commonly seen in streets and gardens of Melbourne. Numerous olive groves have now been established in close proximity to the City. At the moment, olive trees are in full bloom in Melbourne and it looks as though it will be a bumper season this year!

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

SUBURBAN GARDEN WITH JASMINE

Jasminum grandiflorum, also known variously as the Spanish jasmine, Royal jasmine, Catalonian jasmine, among others is a species of jasmine native to South Asia. In India, its leaves are widely used as an Ayurvedic herbal medicine and its flowers are used to adorn the coiffure of women. In Pakistan, it grows wild in the Salt Range and Rawalpindi District at 500–1500 m altitude.

It is closely related to, and sometimes treated as merely a form of Jasminum officinale. It is a scrambling deciduous shrub growing to 2–4 m tall. The leaves are opposite, 5–12 cm long, pinnate with 5–11 leaflets. The flowers are produced in open cymes, the individual flowers are white having corolla with a basal tube 13–25 mm long and five lobes 13–22 mm long.

The fragrance of the flowers is unique and sweet. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in warm temperate and subtropical regions.By method of solvent extraction the Jasmine flowers are converted into Jasmine Concrete and Jasmine Oleoresin (sold as Jasmine Absolute). Both products have a huge demand in the fragrance industry. Methyl jasmonate isolated from the jasmine oil of Jasminum grandiflorum led to the discovery of the molecular structure of the jasmonate plant hormones.

The plant grows extensively in the Mediterranean region and it has also been introduced widely in other temperate zones, like Southern Australia, where it flourishes in suburban gardens. As the plant is difficult to have in the house as a cut flower, a traditional method of enjoying the flowers indoors is illustrated here. The burgeoning buds that are about to open that evening are collected and are strung on thread with a needle. In a couple of hours, the buds open and the delicious fragrance fills the room the garland is hung in. The flowers stay fresh for a couple of days without water.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.