Hexagonal Frangipani

The name frangipani traces to Mucio Frangipani, a 16th-century Italian marquis who created a fragrant almond-based treatment for gloves. When French colonists encountered a tropical flower in the West Indies that mimicked this scent, they named it accordingly — making frangipani one of the few plants named after a fragrance rather than the reverse. The botanical genus Plumeria honors Charles Plumier, the 17th-century French botanist who documented several species. Native to Central America and the Caribbean, the plant spread through colonial trade routes to Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where it became embedded in cultural practice. In Hawaii and parts of Southeast Asia, frangipani trees are planted at gravesites because they bloom continuously with minimal care, providing color and fragrance year-round. The flowers release their scent at night to attract nocturnal pollinators — a strategy that makes ecological sense but complicates extraction, since the volatile compounds responsible for that signature creamy-peach aroma dissipate rapidly after picking.