Orange Blossom

This is a common garden plant / shrub, [ Choisya ternata].  

Commonly known as Mexican Orange Blossom or just Orange blossom.

I don’t think I saw this in Japan when I was a kids —– seemed to came

there in the 70s and I have no idea when this plant came to England.

When I saw this flower first time, I wondered why this one got a name  “Orange”  ? ? ?  

—– Flower looks similar to other Citrus plants though, I haven’t seen its “Orange” like fruits,

not only that, the leaf is completely different. ( Citrus has single leaf, not compound leaf).

Then, I remembered what Professor said = “To distinguish Citrus family is, whether the leaf

has oil-spot or not”,  when I needed to take picture of Japanese [Sanshou] and not mistake it 

with looks very similar plant [Inu-sanshou] (only genuine [Sanshou] has oil-spot on its leaf)  

= like the yellowish small dots on the leaf = on the photo right. 

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The oil-spot in Citrus family ( Rutaceae, in exact )  contain typically smelled chemical,

hence they has been used as a seasoning or flavouring  in many countries.   (On this occasion

I looked into Wiki and found that amazing spread of this “Spice” in many many region in the

world but very little in the west ! )

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Even in the same [Rutaceae] family, [Sanshou] or more commonly known [Szechuan pepper]

is completely different looks plant ( I never seen it in this country hence, no photo.  — Wiki

got only a photo of the seeds ) — any how, in Japan, [Sanshou] is strangely exclusively used to

serve with eel ( Wu-nagi no Kabayaki  🙂 )  and such as in Thai cooking,  I think their

“Tom-yam” and its distinctive flavour were given by this spice.

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The insects, especially the butterflies, their larvae eat exclusively one plant.  

In Japan, Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly only eats this [Sanshou] leaves.  

(And when those larvae of Butterfly was disterbed, they push-out a kind of tentacles out of

their body to spread the concentrated chemical they accumulated from eating the leaves

(and its oil-spot) to repel the attacker.  (The smell is diabolical. It’s a chemical weapon.  😀 )

So that, when I saw Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly in this country  (though, only once),

I astonished  ” What a hell,  where the [Sanshou] plant grow in this country ? ? ?”  

—– I wonder is there any Butterfly who eat this  Orange Blossom leaves in this country ? ? ?

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