First, the inedible flowers. In Bahasa Malaysia, flowers on tyres does not mean the pretty part of a plant enveloped by delicate petals. When a traffic policeman warns you that there are “no flowers” on your tyres, he is actually saying the tyres are so badly worn that he himself cannot see the tread patterns anymore. Oh, oh! You are in trouble with the Malaysian traffic law. At the end of a financial year, employees look forward to “flowers” from Malaysian bosses. Most probably, an extra month’s bonus of salary is as beautiful as flowers in their eyes. The same thought applies to “flowers” given by the banks, in this case, it is the interest. The lucky worker who receives “flowers” from his boss and bank can afford to buy “fiery flowers”. He ignites the fuse of a “fiery flower” to send it shooting high up into the sky where it blossoms into a grand display of fireworks.

As with other cultures, the female gender is considered a figurative flower in Bahasa Malaysia. A teenage girl is a “bud” who soon matures into “a flower in the garden” meaning she is single and available to be picked as a wife. If a man chooses her to be “the flower adorning” his hair, he marries her. By using beauty products flooding the Malaysian market, a married woman doesn’t have to go out of shape after having children. She can still be “the flower” of a social gathering, that is, the fairest of them all.

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