Fiji's National Flower

Will you be posting that legend yourself ??

The legend of the Tagimaucia
On the higher altitudes of Taveuni is a rare and beautiful plant - a flowering vine - called the Tagimoucia (tahng-ee-moh-theea). It is found mainly on Taveuni though does occur in just one spot on the island of Vanua Levu. It blooms only at certain times of the year (around December) and is truly beautiful, with rich red teardrop shaped 'buds' opening to reveal a white bell-like crown of petals, with central stamens of purple. The flowers grow around the remote crater Lake Tagimoucia, and can be found climbing up around the trunks of the rainforest trees.

Associated with the flower is a romantic tale of love lost and found ...

Once upon a time, a princess was about to be forced by her father to marry a man she did not love - an arranged marriage. This greatly distressed the young girl, as she was in love with another man - a young boy in the village. In an act of desperation, she ran from the village into the mountains above the village where, finally exhausted, she fell asleep on the edge of the lake. While she was sleeping she cried and when her father and his followers found her the next morning, they saw that the tears had trickled down over her cheeks and turned into the beautiful red flowers. The father - out of love for his daughter - allowed her to marry the man of her choice. Tagimaucia means "to cry in your sleep".

Interesting.
Do you have these flowers in your garden, would love to see a picture.

Brilliant Vukawa, we have spent five holidays in Hawaii and we have seen some absolutely lovely flowers just like your pictures. Welcome to GoY.

Louise. The tagimoucia flower grows only in one place in Fiji...in a crater lake of an extinct volcano. It grows nowehere else in Fiji or in the world. Attempts to grow it outside of its immediate environment or ecosystem have failed. Thought members here might be interested in this flower and its associated legend.

You'd think that scientists/botanists would have found a way to recreate (meddle!) it outside of its environment wouldn't you ?
They seem to be able to do this with so very many other things !

Yes, I guess nowadays they are almost ready to clone a human being in a test tube....so I guess a humble plant woud be easy

dose any one have a photo of the so called fiji national flower from the volcano?

what is the flower called?

The flower in the above illustration is called ”tagimucia”