It has been raining a lot lately, and the plants in the garden seem to be enjoying the end of the scorching summer. One of the things that I have noticed over the past couple of days is that whenever I go out to the garden at night to feed the outside cats, I have smelled whiffs of a fragrant scent not unlike that of sampaguitas. The garden is currently overrun with vines from this very aggressively growing weed with fruits resembling miniature cucumbers, so I was not able to notice the flowers. After clearing most of the weeds out, I discovered that the sampaguita (or what I always thought of as sampaguita) was in full bloom with a lot more buds underway.
Identity crisis?
I showed the flower to a friend, and he confidently stated that the flowers are in fact not sampaguita (Jasminum sambac) but a Philippine rosal (Gardenia jasminoides) or a gardenia, just based on the appearance. After doing a bit of research and looking at various YouTube clips, I have come to the conclusion that the flowers outside are sampaguitas after all. Specifically, they are of the variety called Grand Duke of Tuscany or Kampupot locally. They are double-petaled, rosette-like form of the sampaguita, which resembles miniature white roses. Thanks to this particular rabbit hole, I now know what petioles are and how to identify petiolate and sessile leaflets.
