The Manoranjitham flower

Born and raised in my native where for generations the only livelihood was agriculture, my mom loved to have a garden. That is her way of being close to nature. Thankfully, we live in an apartment that has a lot of open surrounding space.

Our compound houses a few coconut trees, a neem tree, an orange tree and my mom's garden. The biggest challenge is to make sure the plants are not ravaged by the rodents or the cats.

A few years back, probably two or three years, we noticed a strange plant growing in a pot. My mom had no idea what it was. After many weeks, she transferred it to the ground and took care of the small plant. We initially thought it was some fruit bearing plant. Over the years, the plant grew in height, without bearing any flower or fruit. There were days when my mom wanted to cut it down since it did not resemble any plant we knew.

Yesterday, while tending to her garden, my mom just looked at this plant while watering it. And that is when she noticed a flower. We were not sure if it was really a flower, since it was green in color and looked different. My mom was excited and told me that it looked like the - Manoranjitham flower. I was skeptical and thought she was wrong. She then asked me to get the "dhoratti" which is actually a iron hook that could be placed at the end of a long stick and used to pluck fruits. She plucked the flower with the dhoratti. She took it in her hands and showed it to me. And that was when I knew she was right. It was indeed the Manoranjitham flower.

The flower changed it's color from dark green to a lighter shade today.

The plant -

The flower -

The Manoranjitham flower has a fruity and an exotic fragrance. It is an unique flower.

My mom told me that there is a myth that whatever smell you wish for, the flower will provide that fragrance.

I also heard that once the flower dries, the fragrance of the flower will get more intense.

Well, we were excited the whole day.  What an unexpected discovery!!!