We are gifted with many fragrant plants and trees here in the Islands. One classic old-fashioned one is lechoso, or Stemmadenia litoralis. It is a small- to medium-size tree with pretty, pointed medium-size green leaves and white, fragrant flowers. Each blossom has five slightly fragile, clear white petals and a tubular shape at the base.

Lechoso is in the plumeria family. You can guess this by the fragrance (though you might think of gardenia), but the milky sap and twin fruit help you guess Apocynaceae, the plumeria family. The fruit reveals a classic plumeria family trait — twin yellow-orange pods with upturned ends. I always am reminded of fairy dancing shoes, from some childhood fantasy story, when I see them.

Lechoso is native to Central America. You can find Stemmadenia here and there. Akamai landscape architects call for it in their plans. It grows up to 20 feet.

I first learned about lechoso from the late Hideo Teshima, a fabulous estate gardener and sensei to us apprentice gardeners at Lawai Kai, the Allerton estate and a part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kaua'i. Teshima had it in an old garden walkway of mycoy "grass," with a gnarled kiawe tree high overhead. The lechoso was the star of this area that was mostly simple green plants.

There is another closely-related species, S. glabra, which has yellow flowers that also are fragrant. It grows in the Daibutsu lawn area of Foster Botanical Garden, and there is a large, lovely specimen also at Waimea Arboretum on the North Shore.

There is a grove of lechoso fronting Hamilton Library at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. These greet and reward the studious, hard-working student, since their scent hits the library at night. (They smell great in the daytime, too, but like many white flowers, they are more intense in the evening).

There is a nice small, blooming tree in the day-use section of Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden. We got to inhale this perfume the other evening on a garden moonwalk. (Call Olive or Joyce at 233-7323 to find out about the next moon walk in this awesome garden — a garden that, as a taxpayer, you own!)