Climbing Frangipani

As I sit on my veranda to have breakfast or lunch I can see the changing colours of the creepers that swarm over a tall tree stump. My veranda is not on ground level, it is on the first floor of the house, over the flat used by our travelling son when he eventually comes home for a break. So the tree stump is quite large - the original tree was enormous and we had it lopped for safety reasons when we built the extensions that include the flat, unfortunately the shock of the severe pruning killed the tree so the five metre tall tree stump was left to support three different creepers.

At the moment it is the climbing Frangipani that is in flower, when it has finished the pink Jasmine will take over the display. The strands of the Jasmine are completely hidden at the moment and house a huge collection of finch nests. The sweet little Double Bar Finches know when they are onto a good thing and have made homes close to where there is a regular supply of seeds! As you can see the Frangipani is quite vigorous and has continued past the tree stump and up and into the African Tulip Tree! That tree is not ready to flower yet so it was looking rather boring until this happened!

Not many people have come across the Climbing Frangipani and I am constantly asked what it is. I have included a close up picture of the flowers so you can see how much they resemble the familiar tree Frangipani with the number of petals, the way they are slightly overlapped and the subtle yellow and white colouring. They are also quite different - the petals are thin and fragile and they do not drop off the vine and fall as perfect flowers to the ground. Often the flowers look rather a mess. It is thanks to our recent rains that there is a fresh flush of flowers today and they looks so good.

The birds are not interested in the nectar of the Climbing Frangipani. Either they have very little nectar or it is not sweet enough for the lorikeets.

AJ