the.com/lilac
a two-week diva that perfumes the whole spring then ghosts you for a year
means A shrub or small tree bearing fragrant clusters of pale purple flowers, or the soft purple color named for those blooms.
from From French 'lilac,' borrowed from Spanish 'lilac,' which came from Arabic 'lilak' — itself adopted from Persian 'nilak,' meaning 'bluish,' a diminutive of 'nil,' 'blue' or 'indigo.' So the word traveled west across centuries, carrying the memory of a blue-violet color before it ever settled on this particular fragrant bush, which Europeans first encountered via the Ottoman world.
- family ties
- Botanically related to the olive tree
- bloom window
- Flowers barely two weeks per year
- presidential fan
- Washington and Jefferson both planted them
- scent named after it
- Lilac is also a named color in English
- old age
- Plants can live over 100 years
syringa vulgaris — the common lilac species, native to southeastern europe, produces purple flowers in spring
rouen lilac festival — annual may celebration in rouen, france featuring thousands of lilac plants and varieties
lilac sunday — new york botanical garden event each may where visitors can see over 600 lilac varieties in bloom