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A Gardenia for Christmas
A gift from Nature
It is summer in Australia. In the south, that means hot dry days, in the north, hot humid days. Here in the Queensland Wet Tropics, the monsoon has arrived, ushering storms towards the coast. Next week, the tropical low that formed in the Arafura Sea will sweep through, propelled by the monsoonal north-westerlies. It will bring heavy rain for as long as it sticks around, but the winds are so strong that it won’t be tarrying. By the weekend, it will be over the warm waters of the Coral Sea, where it might gain enough energy to organise itself into a cyclone.
Although most of the spring blossoms are shrivelled and faded, the Hann Gardenia (Gardenia psidioides, Rubiaceae) is blooming. This species is restricted to a small area of tropical forest north-west of Iron Range on Cape York Peninsula. It was only described in 1988, along with another Peninsula species, Gardenia scabrella. Both have been brought into cultivation.
This Hann Gardenia in my collection has been producing its flowers one at a time for the past fortnight. On Christmas Day, a single bud unfurled. Today (Boxing Day) it is fully open, a whorl of immaculate white petals, the starkness softened by the clouded sun. What better Yuletide present is there? A gift from Nature — and one that unwraps itself.
The best of the season to you all.
