In Bangladesh, more flowers bloom in the rainy season than at any other time. Many of us do not know the flowers by name, but that does not matter; there is nothing wrong with being dazzled by their beauty. As soon as the monsoon arrives, flowers appear in abundance. How many of them can we actually recognise?

As the rains sound their song of arrival, kadam flowers bloom on branch after branch. Shapla, or water lilies, bloom most in canals and beels brimming with water, especially white, deep red, blue and pink ones. Shaluk and padma can be seen too, purple kalmi flowers peep out between green leaves, and water hyacinth flowers are another beauty of the season.

Red lilies on rooftops and in gardens also announce the season, and keya and bakul are everywhere. Spider lily, dolonchampa, sukhdarshan, grass flowers, sandhyamalati, gulnargis, sonapati and alokananda can be seen as well. Along with rajanigandha and jui, flowers that began blooming in the previous season, such as gandharaj, rangan, raktajaba, togor, shwetkanchan and ghantaphul, bring joy.

Another rainy-season flower is phurush, whose English name is crab flower. Another attractive monsoon flower is dopati, which grows in this country in several colours, including pink, red, purple, sky blue, blue and white. Countless white chandmala flowers catch the eye, and the "butterfly lily", also called gulbakawali, flutters like a butterfly's wings.

Among all the colourful flowers you will find sukhdarshan or tiger lily, rain lily, multicoloured glory lily, morning glory, portulaca in many colours, grass flowers, nayantara, morogjhunti, bleeding heart, ruellia, mandevilla, begum bahar, hazari beli, karabi, kalaboti and alokananda.

White flowers have a special importance in the rainy season: of all the flowers that bloom at this time, white ones are the most numerous. They include beli, dolonchampa, kamini, white kathgolap, malati, fragrant or aromatic jui, clematis jui, jui or juthi, bakul, gandharaj, shwetchampa, shwetrangan, sudarshan or spider lily, rajanigandha and mehedi flowers. The scentless kath togor, togor, Chinese togor, kunda and shwetkanchan are also among the monsoon's white-clad blooms.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.