Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

I received this plant in 2012 and was given to me by a Singaporean friend. I remember it being tiny and soft at first but it rooted quite quickly and grew healthy enough to finally produce a flower the following year. Over time, the stems lost its leaves and became quite pendent; old stems become knobby and gray. Since then the plant has become an often overlooked specimen, except when in bloom. Frerea is a monotypic* genus represented by Frerea indica . As its name suggests, this plant is a native of India, in the Western Ghats in Maharashtra, and is locally known as 'Shindel Makudi'. The plant has received international recognition in being included in the 12 most endangered plant species in the world in the early 2000s. The plants were locally abundant, but the numbers were dropping and the habitat had shrunk so precariously in Pune (Naseem, 2010). The leaves are gathered by locals to be rubbed on injuries, and it may be that whole plants are getting uprooted for th...