Champak

Champak is a large evergreen tree of the magnolia family, once classified as Michelia champaca, native to South and Southeast Asia and southern China. It grows to 50 metres or more, and its strongly fragrant flowers range from cream to yellow-orange. In South Asia the flowers are mainly used in worship, at home and in temples, and are worn in the hair as ornament and perfume, floated in water to scent rooms, and strung into garlands. The tree gave fragrant hair and massage oils, and its essential oil figures in Jean Patou's perfume Joy. Its timber is dark brown and olive and used for furniture. Some groves are sacred to Hindus and Buddhists. In Theravada Buddhism it was the Bodhi tree of the fourteenth Buddha.