Kanakambram: A Forgotten Flower From The Past

Crossandra infundibuliformis

A colour somewhere between orange and pink. A shade so unique that it can only be the work of Nature because no man can conceive a colour that's so soothing, so soft and just bright enough without being flamboyant. That's the Kanakambram colour named after a flower.  

An ornamental plant for house gardens

Kanakambram as it is popularly known in southern India is Crossandra infundibuliformis, a flowering plant native to South India and Sri Lanka. It belongs to the family Acanthaceae. Like many plants of this family Kanakambram is also an ornamental plant. In Marathi it is called Aboli and in common English it is known as fire-cracker flower because of the tendency of its pods to burst on maturity.



It is known as the firecracker plant because of the tendency of its pods to burst on maturity...

This plant bears beautiful, delicate pinkish orange flowers in spikes all year round. These flowers are used to make garlands as an offering to the Gods, used as an ornament by women to decorate their hair or as an ornamental in house gardens. These flowers are thus irrevocably entangled with daily lives of South Indians and garner much importance among the natives.

Kanakambram plant bears salmon orange flowers in spikes all year round....

I was barely two when I left my native land with my parents for a new life in Delhi, the capital of India located in Northern part of the country. As I grew up the tender memories of two years spent living in a dainty little South Indian village slipped away and so did the little orange flower which attracted me so much as a child.  Now when I have revisited the place of my birth, just one look and the Kanakambram flower has again found its way back into my heart.



The fragile flower with a thick peduncle and delicate petals blooms for a day or two....

These flowers have thin, delicate petals and a thick long peduncle(stalk). They last for a day or two once bloomed. I remember my grandmother used to pluck these flowers early in the morning when they have just opened up and make a strand of these flowers using just a thread. I loved wearing that orange strand in my hair and pretending to be a garden fairy. That's how me and Kanakambram became best friends. 

My forgotten best friend from the past: Kanakambram

Although between now and then this flower has lost its charm as a garden plant among the natives. People nowadays prefer the flamboyant exotics like gardenias, roses, hibiscus etc for their  house gardens and the stark white, sweet smelling jasmine for their hair. The fragrance-less fragile beauty is no longer as big an attraction. Still the magic of Kanakambram can never fully wane. The flowers not in hoards as before but in little quantities do creep into the gardens, the garlands and into the jasmine strands.

A few Kanakambralu creep into the jasmine strands...

Such is the might of this dainty little flower that it even got a farmer T. Venkatapati Reddiar from Puducherry, the Padam Shri award, Nation's Fourth Highest Civilian Award. It turned a regular paddy farmer into a succesful horticulturist. Mr. Reddiar worked on these flowers to make them more commercially viable. He studied translated research papers and applied various tissue culture techniques to develop more than 100 varieties of Kanakambram. One variety which is planted in Rashtrapati Bhavan is named after India's ex-president Late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and the most recent one is being named Modi after India's present Prime Minister Narendra Modi in honor of his vision for India. 

The spike is open from all four sides so the flowers grow in all the four directions. The leaves are decussate with undulate margins.

The mesmerizing enchantment of Kanakambralu still reigns supreme over my heart...

These salmon coloured flowers had long ago captured my heart. Although forgotten for a few years the mesmerizing enchatment of these Kanakambralu is still there silently reigning over me and overwhelming me with their fragile beauty.