The Scent of Fall in Hawaii

October 20th, 2009

Autumn has a different smell in some places:  the scent of dried leaves or pine, the crisp feel of breathing cold air.  In Hawaii, it smells like flowers.  The flowers that adorn trees, bushes and hedges are still in full bloom, sending out their wonderful aromas.
 
I pass by a hedge with these very small white flowers on my way to and from the bus each day.  On their own, they don’t have a powerful smell.  But the entire hedge exudes the light scent of gardenia in a gentle wave as I walk by.  Plumeria trees are the same – they are still very happily full of leaves, producing the flowers that burst with popcorn-like enthusiasm into clusters on the branches and then litter the ground beneath.  The flowers do not have a strong scent but the trees full of them smell vaguely floral and pleasant.

One of my professors was reared on the east coast of the mainland.  He said he always thought that air with a smell was a bad thing, until he moved to Hawaii.  Here, it is a delight to experience the subtle differences among plants, most of which seem to sprout flowers.  I had never seen trees with leaves and flowers before I came to Hawaii.  It is still a treat to look up and see an enormous bouquet with a tree trunk as a stem.

Different flowers flourish at different times, but it seems that something is always in bloom, even through the winter season.  The floral scent lingering in the air provides another dimension to Hawaii’s natural beauty.

Posted by Cindy Scheopner  Follow me on Twitter @Scheopner

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Entry Filed under: Customs, Practices and Pastimes, In General, Uncategorized