Cestrum nocturnum

Night jasmine ( Cestrum nocturnum )

The night jasmine ( Cestrum nocturnum, Syn. Cestrum suberosum Jacq ) is a plant of the genus hammer shrubs ( Cestrum ) in the nightshade family (Solanaceae ). This native to the Caribbean and Central America style is wild in many tropical and subtropical countries. Night jasmine is also used as an ornamental plant, especially because of the strong scent, which they distributed mainly at night and in the evenings.

Description

The night jasmine is an occasional climbing shrub with slender branches, reached the stature heights of up to 5 meters. The plant is weakly pubescent hairy and strongly foliated. The ganzrandigen leaves are 6-15 cm long and 2 to 4.5 cm wide. Towards the front they are tapered or pointed, base rounded or blunted. First, the leaves are finely hairy, but verkahlen in old age. The petioles are 0.8 to 2 cm long.

The most many-flowered, drooping inflorescences are terminal or in the axils. There are crowded together, sparsely branched panicles, are scattered herbaceous bracts at the inflorescence axes. The flower stalks are accompanied by linear- lanceolate bracts are 2-3 mm long. The flowers are fragrant at night very strong. The five sepals are fused into a bell-shaped, about 2 mm long calyx and staffed with five pointed lobes, which can easily zoom in on the fruit, ribbed and mucronate. Interior and exterior of the calyx are covered with fine hair. The crown is greenish or yellowish white, in dried herbarium specimens it is yellowish. The corolla tube has a length of 14 to 17 mm is occupied hairless and occasionally on the inside at the base point of the stamens on the outside with fine hairs. The five stamens are equal multiform, the stamens are free to about 3 mm in length and are clearly serrated on or just above the approach point to the crown. The scar is slightly above the crown out.

The fruit is a white, elliptical berry about 1 cm in length, which contains few seeds.

Occurrences and locations

The night jasmine is native to the West Indies and parts of Central America. The location of the type specimen is Jamaica. In many gardens throughout the tropical region the species is often taken as an ornamental plant because of its strong fragrance.

The plant grows in damp and wet locations in thickets and forests, occasionally also in open spots. It is found at altitudes below 1800 m.

System

Cestrum nocturnum is the type species of the genus of shrubs Hammer ( Cestrum ).