kutamaya

Most flower lovers are familiar with edelweiss -- a protected white flower that can be found only in mountainous areas 2,000 meters above sea level.

A tourist purchases a pot of edelweiss from a flower vendor at the Sinila Crater tourist site in Banjarnegara, Central Java. (JP/Agus Maryono)

If you want to see this flower but find the thought of scaling a mountain daunting, you can easily find it in Sikidang and Sinila Crater tourist sites in the area of Mount Perahu, Banjarnegara, Central Java.

Edelweiss is usually associated with mountaineering. It is also known as a flower that symbolizes a boy's love for his girlfriend, or vice versa.

For a mountaineer, edelweiss is proof that he or she has tackled a high mountain. Meanwhile, for a person in love, edelweiss is symbolic of the heights one would climb and the distances one would travel to prove their love for another.

"Edelweiss can remain on the stem for 25 years. The color changes but the flower remains beautiful," said Karso, 30, a mountaineer from Baturaden, Banyumas, Central Java.

In several locations, he added, edelweiss is a protected species, and freely picking the flower is prohibited.

"However, in certain places, it is not forbidden to pick edelweiss. In fact, this flower is freely sold (in those places)," said Karso, who claimed to have picked the flower from the top of Mount Slamet.

Edelweiss is quite expensive if you buy it far from where it is usually found.

However, in the Sikidang and Sinila Crater tourist sites of Banjarnegara, for example, edelweiss is sold at a very low price. A pot of edelweiss in these locations can be purchased for around Rp 2,000. If you buy three pots, a discount applies and the total amount payable is only Rp 5,000.

In locations further away, however, a pot of edelweiss can cost anywhere from Rp 50,000 up.

Other flowers that grow on Mount Perahu, which is close to the Sikidang and Sinila Crater sites, are also available at a low price. These include the flowers locally called bunga cemara lumut (mossy fern flower) and bunga palem gunung (mountain palm flower)

"Yes, we have a large supply of edelweiss here and can always meet an order no matter how big it is," Siti, one of the vendors selling flowers at the tourist site, told The Jakarta Post recently.

There are about 10 other flower vendors selling rare flowers in the area.

Siti said she can sell between 20 and 30 pots of edelweiss plus 10 pots of other flowers per day during the holiday season.

"Indeed, most people seek edelweiss. I don't know why. Perhaps edelweiss is considered the most beautiful.

"For me, however, it is just the same as other flowers," she said.

Those who wish to prove their love for another no longer need to take a strenuous mountain hike to pick their own edelweiss -- they can simply purchase it from vendors like Siti. [kutamaya]