Plant Parts: the Flowers

Of the parts of a plant, the flowers are the most real, the most imaginable, and often for a human being, the most significant, plant part.

Flowers show us their perfect selves, pointing to love and forgiveness, upliftment, relaxation, restoration. Most flowers offer cooling energy, helping us reduce the congestion we suffer.

By looking closely at the “Plant parts,” otherwise known as the body or the anatomy or morphology of plants, what emerges are categories, or ways to think about the essences in plants.

Plant morphology concentrates on specific therapeutics provided by plant parts, the flowers, leaves, woods and barks, roots and resins, seeds and fruits of aromatic plants.

Of the plant parts, to me it’s the flowers that offer the real, the imaginable and relatable journey into the heart of plant aromatics. Flowers represent us at our best.

A Dream Garden of Flowers

Imagine that a garden exists before you, as a vision or dream. You step into this garden, and there, among the magic of green leaves, toney barks, vines, or mosses, all kinds of blossoms appear. Looking for your special scent, you encounter blossoms opening as you look into their faces, but sometimes they’re found closing.

The flowers shelter their richness from casual callers.

But this depends on the time of day you enter their domain.

Two Chamomiles

(Matricaria chamomilla, Anthemis nobilis)

The star-like chamomiles light your way in darkness, their petals reflecting moonlight. Now easy-going and relieved with Chamomile, you’re no longer reminded of frustration, anger, or pain.

The name “Chamomile” and its reputation as a healing substance to human suffering was known in ancient Greece and Afro-Eurasia.

Companion to humans as well as other plants, Chamomiles offer brightness when we’ve lost our way.

Two Mint-family Flowers

Reaching into the morning sunlight are scores of lavender blossoms atop wooly leaves and the intricately arched clary sage blooms which also express the clarity of calm and relaxation from tension.

Beautiful in lavender dress and strains of pink, these two flowers are also mature and harvested in summer. As a duo, Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea) offer physical strength for female systems weakened by blood stagnation and difficult periods. Yet as nerve tonics generally they may be unparalleled. When combined with floral energies of Rose or Ylang-Ylang, or Jasmine, more chronic levels of mental or physical pain can be overcome.

Immortelle (Helichrysum italicum)

Emboldened by sunlight in the midday, diminutive but sturdy, golden immortelle tops silver-haired leaves, converting rays of light to healing essence for each of your pains and discomforts. That’s right, Helichrysum’s remedies can be applied to physical and mental discomfort. The essential oil was unknown until the late 20th century, yet it’s been found to offer deep healing for skin, injuries, allergies, and the emotions.

Lotus

(Nelumbo nucifera)

Lotus flowers’ many petals open as layers and layers generating fragrance for pollination, then close at dusk, holding dear the essence which seeds will bear for eternity or for astringency medicine when needed to assuage chronic conditions or irritability.

Scents of the Lotus flower build upon devotion to accumulate as the height of compassion, symbolized by the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Kuan Yin.

Jasmine

(Jasminum officinale, J. Sambac)

Jasmine’s sincere sweetness illuminates your dreams before sunrise, to impart creativity, zeal and intention. Strongly sweet, its aroma is rich, warm, and fruity with notes of tea. Jasmine properties are stimulating, generating an alert, rather than sedated, state.

Considered sensual in nature, Jasmine fulfills much more than the physical person. Jasmine’s true meaning lies in uniting the soul with the earthly body in such a way as to fulfill dreams of the soul.

Neroli

(Citrus aurantium var amara)

The inflorescence of a well-known fruit — think of Marmelade’s Bitter Orange taste — has a sweet-green aroma with a bitter note. Called Neroli, the fragrance of this essential oil is known for its calming actions on stress and anxiety, infections, skin inflammation, and aging.

Rose

(Rosa damascena, Rosa centifolia)

Rose, like a dream of purest love, opens slowly day by day in the month of May. Velvet petals unfold to reveal, all decked out in lacey currency, the flowery center and source of her scent.

The Rose’s origins are in Central Asia and it’s one of the flowers most hybridized for shape and color for the garden. Of the many, many cultivars, only a few are grown for their essential oil: Rosa damascena and Rosa centifolia being the two most available ones.

Ylang-Ylang

(Cananga odorata)

Ylang-ylang’s spritely presence is spontaneous and lacking formality or fashion. Its scent is long-lived, and being distilled multiple times to reap all her aromas, is known for giving at least 4-5 different qualities (depending on your source) of oil, from Extra — the first disillation — to Complete, a final distillation and mix of the other four.

A bright, clean, and sweet scent, Extra or #1 is reputed to have aphrodisiac potenial. Its aroma is cheerful, persuasive, and influential. Inhaling its strongly bright, open, and accessible scent, I think of restoration and regulation, two of its strongest properties.

Flower Essences and Supreme Beings

Flower essences and the perfection of beauty appear to be one and the same. We believe we see the essence of supremely being contained in a flower. And we believe a flower speaks of love to our souls and all the things love means: like compassion and understanding, mercy, nurture, and nature.

A healing essence bestowed by a flower is a pure extract of nature, a concentrated distillation of goodness. Balm of origin, of our true nature, of beginnings, the new.

With the promise of these in mind, we step into the garden, full of expectation. Dropping our cares, ineptitudes, any perception of lack we’re feeling, at once we are renewed in the garden with the flowers’ natural solutions.

NOTES: The “plant parts” or the anatomy or morphology of a plant is seen as a source of healing in aromatherapy. The idea of two well-known aromatherapists and educators, Jade Shutes and Salvatore Battaglia, it is also discussed at length in books written by herbalists. Jade Shutes, from her course on AromaticStudies.com, Dynamics of Blending, emphasizes palnt parts as a guide in blending aromas. Salvattore Battaglia, author of Aromatree, a Holistic Guide to Understanding and Using Aromatherapy, 2019, published by Black Pepper Creative, promotes the meaning of plant parts as aromatics and the people-personality traits they underscore.

Resources: Aromatica, Vol. 1 & 2 by Peter Holmes, 2016. Published by Singing Dragon Press, Philadelphia & London.

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Be safe when using essential oils and products of natural origin. The information contained on this page is for informational use only and cannot substitute for the advice of your doctor or health practitioner.