Vietnam - Country & People

Ban flower, the natural beauty of the northwestern mountains

Sapa is the homeland of most typical kinds of flower in the northwest of Vietnam. Among them, Ban flower is considered to be the most striking one in Sapa. With the pure and gentle beauty, Ban flower attracts a lot of tourists to visit Sapa and take a lot of photos, especially in the spring. It is such a pity if you do not spend your time to contemplate this beautiful natural scenery in your tours in Sapa.

22/06/2018 14:52

The characteristics

Ban flower means “sweet flower” according to Thai language. This kind of tree belongs to the woody plant. It is about 5 to 12 meters in height. Each branch of the tree has the brownish shell and heart-shaped leaves. Unlike most plants, the leaves of Ban flower tree distributes sparsely in a branch. Especially, Ban flower does not have only one color but it is various with the white, red, purple color or even the mix of these colors. The fragrance of Ban flower is very pleasant, it can spread through a wide range of hills in Sapa. In the winter, Ban flower tree sheds all leaves. When the warm spring is coming, the tree flushes and grows strong.

The bloom time

Every year, Ban flower starts blooming in early spring, usually in March. Its florescence is mostly in early April and it draws to an end in May. When Ban flowers on every branch fully bloom and cover up all leaves, from the far distance, the tree looks like a candy floss in big size, which creates an attractive natural picture in your Sapa Vietnam tours.

The significance in local belief

Thai people consider Ban flower to be the symbol of love. Like the sticky rice with the purple color for the loyalty and the red color for the passion and romance of love, the white color of Ban flower not only expresses the pure but also the essence of true love in bright without a mercenary motive. Thanks to this characteristic, Ban flower represents an eternal love in the local belief. Besides, Ban flower is known as a sign to predict whether this crop is abundant or not. If Ban flower blooms in a brilliant way this year, it will indicate an upcoming bumper harvest in Sapa.

The usefulness in daily life

In addition to being the beautiful scenery for tourism, Ban flower is also used in daily life. In your Sapa tours, you will see the indigenous people here make use of Ban flower to process into some famous specialties of Sapa. Some kinds of dish from Ban flower are soup, salad, fried and so on. Also, to pay homage to the ancestors, Thai people have a habit of arranging Ban flower in the altar on the occasion of New Year. Furthermore, the bark of Ban flower tree is used for treating skin diseases, healing wound and angina with high efficiency.

Source trekkingsapa

Subject: Vietnam