Frangipani and jasmine

Two of Thailand's most beloved scented flowers: frangipani (lantom/plumeria) with its temple associations, and jasmine (mali), the fragrant white flower of garlands, offerings and Mother's Day.

Fragrance and meaning

Some of Thailand's most cherished flowers are loved as much for their scent as their beauty — and none more than frangipani and jasmine, both woven deep into Thai culture, faith and celebration.

Frangipani (Lantom / Leelawadee)

• The flower: plumeria — waxy, five-petaled blooms in white, yellow, pink and red, with a sweet, heady fragrance, borne on sculptural trees;
• The name shift: traditionally called lantom, a word that sounded like ‘sorrow’ and gave the tree a melancholy, temple-and-cemetery association; it was popularly renamed Leelawadee (ลีลาวดี) to shed that connotation, and is now widely planted as an ornamental in gardens, resorts and spas;
• Where you'll meet it: temple grounds, spa gardens (its scent is iconic of the Thai spa), and as a graceful ornamental everywhere — and tucked behind an ear or floated in a bowl of water.

Jasmine (Mali)

• The flower: small, intensely fragrant white blooms — the classic Thai jasmine (mali, มะลิ);
• Deep symbolism: pure white jasmine symbolizes maternal love and is the flower of Thai Mother's Day (celebrated on the Queen Mother's birthday) — given to mothers with deep affection and respect;
• In garlands & offerings: jasmine is the heart of the classic Thai flower garland (phuang malai), strung fresh, and offered at shrines and hung in cars and homes for its scent and blessing;
• Everyday grace: the smell of fresh jasmine garlands is one of the quintessential scents of Thailand.

Other scented favorites

• Dok rak, gardenia, ylang-ylang and champaka (champee) add to Thailand's palette of fragrant flowers, many used in garlands, perfumery and offerings;
• Scent and merit: fragrant flowers are especially valued for offerings — part of the meaning of flowers in Thai spiritual life.

The botany behind the two flowers

• Frangipani (plumeria) belongs to the dogbane family, Apocynaceae, and like many of its relatives produces a milky, latex-like sap when a leaf or stem is broken — a family trait shared with several other well-known tropical ornamentals;
• It is not originally Thai: plumeria is native to Central America and the Caribbean, introduced to Asia long ago and now so thoroughly naturalized across Thai temple grounds and gardens that most visitors assume it always belonged;
• Jasmine (mali) in the classic Thai sense is Jasminum sambac, a member of the olive family, Oleaceae, native to South and Southeast Asia and prized above all for its scent, which tends to be strongest in the evening and early morning;
• Jasmine tea made by scenting tea leaves with fresh jasmine blossoms is a related, well-known use of the same flower, connecting the garland stall to the teapot (flowers in the kitchen).

A regional cousin

Jasminum sambac is loved across much of Southeast Asia, not only Thailand — it is, for instance, the Philippines' own national flower under its local name, sampaguita, a reminder that the region shares much of its floral symbolism even where the details differ from country to country.

Other fragrant flowers, a little more detail

• Champaka (champee) produces a strong, sweet fragrance from small cream or orange-yellow flowers and is traditionally valued in Thai folk symbolism;
• Crown flower (dok rak), with its pale, star-shaped petals, is less about scent and more about form — its distinctive shape makes it useful in fine garland and floral craft work (garlands);
• Ylang-ylang, with its long, drooping yellow-green petals, contributes an intensely sweet, almost heady fragrance used in perfumery well beyond Thailand's borders.