Young flower vendors selling sampaguita garlands are as virginal and blessed a sight as statues of patron saints in Philippine churches. They sum up a religious experience in their hands. Holding strands of a pure white offering, they make an honest plea for people to buy their wares.

The street waifs walk from car to car in bumper-to-bumper Manila traffic -- hardly becoming wealthy by selling sampaguita strands for a few pesos each. But the drudgery of it continues daily. The sacrifice is as eternally Filipino as the flowers themselves. Or, is it?

The truth is that the sampaguita, a native part of the Philippine landscape for centuries, is not originally from the Philippines, but from India. For some, this quirk does not spoil the flower's complex fragrance or special charm. It only heightens its mystery.

How did the Philippines, with a profusion of native orchids and flowering plants -- including 13 species of domestic jasmine -- ever inherit the sampaguita as a national flower?

About 70 years ago, Governor-General Frank Murphy, moved by sentiment, named it a national symbol. "Sentiment has dictated the selection of national flowers either symbolical of certain national or sentiments, or reminiscent of some important historical or traditional events," Murphy explained in Proclamation Number 652. "France has her fleur-de-lis and Japan her cherry blossom," he said. "In the same way the Philippines should have her national flower."

On advice from the secretary of agriculture, Murphy concluded: "Considering its popularity, ornamental value, fragrance and the role it plays in the legends and traditions of the Filipino people, I hereby declare the sampaguita (Jasminum sambac [Linn.] Ait.) to be the national flower of the Philippine Islands. Done at the City of Manila, this first day of February, in the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and thirty four."

Sentiment aside, botanists agree that the sampaguita originated from India -- from the northern parts of the Himalayan valleys, although it is grown throughout India today. Others place the origins of the sampaguita even farther off to Egypt and Persia or present-day Iran. At the height of its power in ancient times, the Persian Empire reached from Egypt to India. The confusion does not end here, though, because the sampaguita is otherwise known as Arabian jasmine. In the Philippines, the sampaguita also has a number of names: sambac, sampagung, campopot, lumabi, kulatai, pongso, malur and manul.

Sampaguita, a Spanish term, comes from the Pilipino words "sumpa kita," which means "I promise you." It is a pledge of mutual love, according to Consuelo Asis in Plants of the Philippines. In early days, a young couple exchanged sampaguita necklaces much like a bride and groom exchange wedding rings nowadays.

Facts on the sampaguita are quite scarce. Even in India, where the sampaguita originated, little is known about the varieties in cultivation. The Indian Social Institute in New Delhi lists eight cultivars for Jasminum sambac, the scientific name for sampaguita. But piecing together bits of information on it is much like stringing buds of sampaguita to make a garland. The sampaguita is known as a vine or semi-climbing shrub. Its flowers open at night and naturally wilt in less than a day. Sampaguita does not bear seed and must be cultivated from cuttings. It arrived in the Philippines in pre-recorded times, most likely as an item of barter or gift on board trade boats plying the South China Sea.

It was said that a Chinese emperor of the Sung dynasty had sampaguita in his palace grounds so he could enjoy its fragrance. In the 1400s, jasmine was planted for kings of Afghanistan, Nepal and Persia. Since ancient times, jasmine of the olive family oleaceae, was cultivated for its essential oils.

Varieties of jasmine, like J. grandiflorum, especially used in perfume, found their way to places across the seas -- beginning from areas along the Arabian Sea, such as Persia and India then crossing the Red Sea into Egypt. They reached into the territory around the Aegean Sea into Turkey and Greece. And, they spread to areas along the Mediterranean Sea from Africa through Egypt, Algeria and Morocco -- reaching Western Europe through Spain in 1600, and France and Italy.

Even today, jasmine is considered one of two most highly-prized ingredients in some of the world's superior fragrances. The other is rose. Sampaguita is not a key ingredient in top-price perfumes, but its scent and makeup have given it precious uses.

In India, where some varieties can grow as large as small roses, sampaguita is used as religious offerings symbolizing divine hope. A variety is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu.

Sampaguita was used as far back as five centuries for hair ornamentation in India and China -- and later, in the Philippines as well. In China, sampaguita, paired with another variety, flavors jasmine tea, food and wine, and symbolizes the sweetness of women.

In Malaysia, sampaguita scents hair oil from coconut and, because of the yellow pigment in its variety, sometimes substitutes saffron. In Indonesia, women roll up their hair in oil and jasmine. Sampaguita also is used medicinally. Some believe that its scent relieves a variety of ailments including headaches and promotes a feeling of well being.

In the Philippines a type of jasmine called sampaga was described as early as 1698 when Ignacio Mercado, a Filipino-Spanish mestizo and Augustinian monk, first wrote about its medicinal use in the Declaracion de las virtudes de los arboles y plantas que estan en este libro. In translation, Mercado said that the leaves of the sampaga (which has bigger flowers than sampaguita) made a wonderful syrup to comfort the heart. The vapor was a good cure for asthma.

Flora de Filipinas, which appeared in 1837, was the first scientific study of Philippine flora by another Augustinian, Manuel Blanco. In translation he wrote that flowers of Nyctanthes sambac alone, without soap, could be used to wash fine white clothes -- leaving a very fine scent.

Referring to Swedish botanist Linnaeus, he wrote that the natives of India used the young leaves and flowers to make a putty, which was mixed and eaten with rice to dry scabies and other skin eruptions.

In an up-to-date entry in Philippine Ornamental Plants, botanist Mona Lisa Steiner described how sampaguita was used to stop the production of milk in nursing mothers. The roots, she said, were used to treat wounds and snake bites.

From its basic utility, the sampaguita easily inspired art and literature as well. Damiana L. Eugenio, Ph. D., doyenne of Philippine folk literature, said the sampaguita endures as a national symbol for its purity. But she rarely has come across sampaguita in her research.

In folklore, the sampaguita only appears in general references, she said. It does not occur as a specific subject matter. "(But as) poems, yes, there are."

One such volume exists. While in Madrid during the 1880s, Pedro Paterno published Sampaguitas Y Poesias Varias. Believed to be the finest of his poems, it was reprinted five times.

In a mastery of Spanish, Paterno wrote short verses on a variety of themes like love, filial piety and religiosity, according to Teofilo del Castillo y Tuazon in the 1937 A Brief History of Philippine Literature.

Another Paterno -- Dolores, made an indelible mark on Philippine music when she composed Sampaguita, a Philippine melody with lyrics in both Spanish and Pilipino by Levi Celerio. The virtues attributed to the jasmine flower are celebrated in this song:

"Sampaguita ng aming lipi,
bulaklak na sakdal ng yumi
Ikaw ang mutyang pinili
Na sagisag ng aming lahi,
At ang kulay mong binusilak
Ay diwa ng aming pangarap,
Ang iyong bango't halimuyak
Sa tuwina'y aming nilalanghap.

"O bulaklak, na nagbibigay ligay,
O! paraluman, mutyang Sampaguita,
Larawang mistula ng mga dalaga;
Ikaw ang tanging bituin
Hiraman ng kanilang ganda.

"Ang iyong talulot
Ang siyang tunay na sagisag
Ng sa dalagang puso'y wagas,
Kayumian at pagkamatapat."

Jonathan Chua, professor of interdisciplinary studies at the Ateneo de Manila University, pointed to another endearing literary work. Ana Chavez, sister of noted short story writer and editor Paz Marquez Benitez, wrote a piece for the sampaguita in the 1920s. "It's a lovely little poem, where the persona addresses the sampaguita a la William Blake's The Lamb," he said. And, he suggested that a legend on the sampaguita could be found in a book by Monina Allerey Mercado.

On the World Wide Web, a legend of the sampaguita is included with the product description for a scent that was marketed, curiously enough, with a picture of an orchid. The story, it claimed, was that the sampaguita originated on the hilltop burial site of a brokenhearted Lakambini, who had kept a vow of eternal fidelity to a nobleman defending her kingdom. But he had not returned. The theme is a recurring one in legends of various plants contained in early books on Philippine folklore.

Even though the sampaguita has won over many admirers, there are those who take a whiff of its foreign origin. A clear reference for native flowers is captured in a Waray piece translated by the staff of Leyte-Samar Studies in Philippine Literature Past and Present by Silverio Baltasar.

The original writer waxed poetic over Flowers of May -- appreciating native flowers like the waling-waling, other orchids and the common gumamela above all else. Most of the flowers the writer mentioned in the first stanza, plus calachuchi and marigold in the third stanza, are transplants. But a variety of ilang-ilang is native to the Philippines.

"How lovely and how choice
are the ilang-ilang, [champaca] and sampaguita
the fragrant roses, rosal and azucena;
their scent fills the air
and is wafted far away;
sweet flowers of May.

"Flowers cover our native land
so exquisite they captivate the mind
the waling waling and other orchids
with colors to delight the eyes
loved or not, they are still admired
though they wither fast; they are flowers of May.

"Even the common gumamela
In the morning very proudly blooms;
The calachuchi, the marigold,
Have beauty and fragrance to rival others;
We have many flowers of May.

"Flowers of all kinds have we
No need is there to name them;
Flowers that can burn our hearts
Like fire in [the] month of May.

"Many of these flowers come from afar
they have blossomed from [alien] seeds
or have been transplanted from other lands
their beauty has no price
yet they are not my choice
I prefer our own flowers of May."

The sampaguita has taken root in the Philippines through religion, literature and music. From high art to mass cultures, the sampaguita continues to grow and even change in time. Its image, for instance, took a gritty and more colorful appearance in the '70s when a rock music artist made it her name.

For centuries the flower with the distinct aroma has become closely intertwined in the volatile history and mixed culture of its adoptive land. Filipinos have perpetuated its uses -- as religious offering, adornment and scent with healing qualities, and done little to alter its significance. It thrives in the Philippine landscape. It appears everywhere -- hanging from rear view mirrors in jeepneys, buses and cars, gracing the necks of loved ones, idols, superstars and the powers that be, to folded hands of holy images. It is threaded like prayer beads said to a litany of intentions. For some, though, the flowers remain commonplace -- plain and ordinary as the flower vendors on the street, who fashion the blossoms into fragrant necklaces.

The sampaguita persists unquestionably as an enduring national symbol, a bud of hope in the national consciousness planted in the days of colonial imposition. It has survived war and upheavals, bloomed through liberation, proliferated in economic struggle and become ignored in casual acceptance.

A short-lived blossom of immense staying power, the sampaguita is one that Filipinos, for better and for worse, have kept as their own.


» Article taken (without permission...) from TuroTuro. From the April 24, 2000 issue of The Philippine Star. Lengthy, but definitely informative.