I will always remember the fragrant scent of these flowers.
This creeper plant had grown quite luxuriantly over the shed outside my bedroom at home when I was a child. Whenever it blooms, its fragrant scent would waft into the room through the open windows. And you would always smell its fragrance if you walk near it... particularly in the evenings.
Growing up, we referred to this plant as "bunga nasi".
It was only in recent years that I came to learn that the correct local name of this plant should be "bunga kerak nasi".
For the longest time, this name never did have any significance to me.
It never did hit a chord because it was one of the "first smells" in the garden that I knew as a child. And its name was only a name to start with.
Yet, if you ask most people, they would say that the fragrance is like steamed rice. Sometimes, even being likened to the scent of the pandanus or "pandan" leaves.
Well, is that any wonder at all? Isn't it?
After all, the name "bunga nasi", when translated to the English Language, literally means "rice flower", while "kerak nasi" refers to the burnt rice that's stuck to the bottom of the rice pot if you had overcooked the rice.
And "pandan" leaves are also often placed in the rice pot to make the rice more fragrant.
How apt.
But then, I have also recently learnt that its common or given name in English is actually "Bread Flower".
I wonder why?
This creeper plant had grown quite luxuriantly over the shed outside my bedroom at home when I was a child. Whenever it blooms, its fragrant scent would waft into the room through the open windows. And you would always smell its fragrance if you walk near it... particularly in the evenings.
Growing up, we referred to this plant as "bunga nasi".
It was only in recent years that I came to learn that the correct local name of this plant should be "bunga kerak nasi".
For the longest time, this name never did have any significance to me.
It never did hit a chord because it was one of the "first smells" in the garden that I knew as a child. And its name was only a name to start with.
Yet, if you ask most people, they would say that the fragrance is like steamed rice. Sometimes, even being likened to the scent of the pandanus or "pandan" leaves.
Well, is that any wonder at all? Isn't it?
After all, the name "bunga nasi", when translated to the English Language, literally means "rice flower", while "kerak nasi" refers to the burnt rice that's stuck to the bottom of the rice pot if you had overcooked the rice.
And "pandan" leaves are also often placed in the rice pot to make the rice more fragrant.
How apt.
But then, I have also recently learnt that its common or given name in English is actually "Bread Flower".
I wonder why?
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