Describe a plant/flower in your country
I can tell you about Periwinkle, commonly known as Sada Bahar in my country. It’s one of the most popular plants here. It is an evergreen subshrub or herbaceous plant growing to 1 m tall. The leaves are oval to oblong, 2–9 cm long and 1–3 cm broad, glossy green, hairless, with a pale midrib and a short petiole; they are arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are white to dark pink with a darker red centre. The fruit is a pair of follicles. In the wild, it is an endangered plant; the main cause of decline is habitat destruction by slash and burn agriculture. It is also however widely cultivated and is naturalised in subtropical and tropical areas of the world.
My first memory of this pink flower (which I later found out was called the periwinkle) was at my Grandmas place. Every morning she would water the sandy flower beds from which the periwinkles sprang up. I loved watching them nodding at the sun and dancing in the wind. Periwinkles grow perpetually all year through and are also available in shades of white and purple.
Periwinkle is very easy to grow. Just pluck a branch from another plant and stick it in well drained soil. Soon roots will grow and the pink flowers will multiply. I picked a four inch branch one year ago from someone's garden and today I have a flowerbed overflowing with periwinkle flowers.
I think this is one of the most popular ornamental plants we have, and it is used in medicine as well. Today, the leaves and roots of the periwinkle are used in the pharmaceutical industry and in ayurvedic medicines to treat different diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
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