Syringa Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", by Walt Whitman, lilacs are a reference to Abraham Lincoln. "Syringa vulgaris" is the state flower of New Hampshire, because it "is symbolic of that hardy character of the men and women of the Granite State" (New Hampshire Revised Statute Annotated (RSA) 3:5). Several locations in North America hold annual Lilac Festivals, including: Species and subspecies currently accepted as of July 2016: Syringa Syringa (lilac) is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family (Oleaceae), native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely
A Flowering Tree: A Woman's Tale thing, asking her "to make a spectacle of herself" by displaying her secret gift. Even the first time when she herself becomes a tree to sell her flowers she makes of herself a commodity. The woman is most open to injury when she is most attractive, when she is exercising her gift of flowering. Each time she becomes a tree, she begs the one who is pouring the water to be careful not to hurt her. Yet, paradoxically, when she is mutilated, she cannot be healed directly. She can be made whole only by becoming the tree again, becoming vulnerable