Puakenikeni

Puakenikeni opens creamy white, deepens to butter yellow, then turns a rich apricot orange before it falls — three colors from a single blossom over three days.

The name means ten-cent flower, from the days when a single bloom sold for a dime at the lei stands because its perfume was worth the price. One flower can scent an entire room.

It is a lei flower of honor, strung for graduations and weddings and anyone being celebrated. The fragrance peaks in the evening, which is why the trees seem to wake up just as the day is ending.