बस यूँही…..

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The evening brought with it a nip in the air. Delayed and plentiful rains followed by clear, cloudless skies and a brisk breeze meant goosebumps and a slight shiver. The profuse and fragrant inflorescence greeted me: रातराणी is what we call it in Maharashtra.
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Cestrum nocturnum, the lady of the night, night-blooming jasmine, night-blooming jessamine, night-scented jessamine, night-scented cestrum or poisonberry, is a species of plant from the potato family Solanaceae. It is originally native to the West Indies, now naturalized in India as well.
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Despite its common name, the species is not a “true jasmine” and not of the genus Jasminum. It is difficult to relate this delicate, fragrant flower to a shapeless potato, but that’s what it actually is.
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The flowers are greenish-white, with a slender tubular corolla 2–2.5 cm long with five acute lobes, around 1 cm in diameter when open at night, and are produced in cymose inflorescences. A very powerful, sweet perfume is released at night. The mostly multi-flowered, drooping inflorescences can be either terminal or axillary. They are clustered, sparsely branched panicles, on the inflorescence axes of which there are herbaceous bracts. The five sepals are fused to form a bell-shaped, approximately 2 mm long calyx and have five pointed tips, which are slightly enlarged, ribbed and acutely pointed on the fruit. The inside and outside of the calyx are finely haired.
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#Flowers_In_our_Garden ,
#Beauty_Around_Us ,
#Nature,
#Hopelessly_In_Love_With_Nature
#Fragrant_Nature