Tagar (Chandni) Plant

Tagar  A milky white small flower with five petals and a thin light green peduncle (stem) which is popularly known as 'Tagar' is widely used in flower offerings to gods.

 Since white colored flowers may be offered to most of the gods, so its presence is common in flower basket for worship. The white petals are not simple but slightly curved in outer portion to give it a beautiful look. It resembles a pinwheel so at some places it is also known aspinwheel flower. 'Tagar' plant is a shrub which may reach a height of 4-5 m with a dense canopy. In the rainy season it flowers well with somewhat healthy looking flowers and fills the outer side of canopy evenly. This look of the plant given by white flower and green leaves is awesome. But if this plant happens to be in a temple premises or hedge, only unreachable flowers remain to show their beauty. At the dawn when people go for morning walk,

it is a common scene to see people (for personal 'puja' offerings) or flower-sellersfor selling at flower shop) plucking 'Tagar' flowers from that part of the plant which hang outside of the boundaries. If the house owner is not present at the time, they may be seen plucking it even inside of the boundary wall/ fence as far as their hands reach. In the old colony ofGardanibagh area of Patna, the 'Tagar' plant was widely used as hedge along woven wire fencing. In most of the quarters they were not regularly cut to shape, so they used to grow to a good height and flowered abundantly. The flower sellers would start in plucking business  right from 4 AM in the morning and had a good harvest. Another reason of its popularity is that it flowers nearly whole of the years. In summer when water is scarce, one may notice that the size and number of the flowers have diminished.