Pinwheelflower

All parts of the plant are poisonous. The roots, leaves, and flowers are used in Guangdong and Guangxi against snake and scorpion poisoning. In modern medicine, the roots are used to treat hypertension, headache, and scabies.

This species is sometimes called Tabernaemontana divaricata (L.) R. Br. or Ervatamia divaricata (L). Burke, but these names are apparently incorrect.

Shrubs or small trees 0.5-5 m tall, glabrous. Petiole 3-10 mm; leaf blade elliptic or narrowly so, 3-18 X 1-6 cm, apex acuminate; lateral veins 5-17 pairs. Cymes dichotomous, 1-8-flowered; bracts scalelike. Flower buds with an ovoid head, apex acute or obtuse. Calyx lobes often ciliate. Corolla white, tube 1.5-2.7 cm; lobes simple or double, obovate or broadly so, 1.5-2.7 X 0.8-2 cm. Stamens inserted at basal third of corolla tube. Follicles obliquely and narrowly ellipsoid, 2-7 X 0.6-1.5 cm. Fl. Apr-Sep, fr. Jul-Nov. 2n = 22*.

Shrub upto 1 m Branches divaricate, milky latex present. Young shoots green, lenticellate. Leaves opposite, 7-15 x 2.5-6 cm ± elliptic, acuminate or caudate, cuneate at the base, petiole 5-7 mm long, 6-8 pairs of lateral nerves. Inflorescence 1-few flowered cymes, axillary or terminal, peduncle c.5 cm long. Flowers 2.5-5 cm across, white; pedicel 1-1.5 cm long, bract minute or absent. Calyx lobes broad, ovate, acute c. 4 mm long. Corolla tube c. 2-2.5 cm, dialated in the middle, lobes obliquely ovate 2.5-3.75 cm long, double in cultivated form. Ovary glabrous; ovules numerous; style filiform; stigma papillose. Follicles 2.5-4x1 cm, sessile, glabrous, 1-3 ribbed, orange or bright red inside, curved to form a beak. Seeds 3-6, oblong or irregular in shape, striated.

Native of tropical Asia; cultivated throughout the tropics.

S Yunnan (cultivated in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan) [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand; cultivated in tropical and subtropical Asia].

Distribution: Native of India, wide spread in the Tropics and warmer regions of the world. Cultivated in Pakistan for its jasmine-like usually double flowers.

250-1200 m

Fl. Per.: May-October.

Montane brushwoods, sparse forests; 100-1600 m.

Nerium divaricatum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 209. 1753; Ervatamia coronaria (Jacquin) Stapf; E. divaricata (Linnaeus) Burkill; E. flabelliformis Tsiang; N. coronarium Jacquin; Tabernaemontana coronaria (Jacquin) Willdenow; T. flabelliformis (Tsiang) P. T. Li.