Flora of North America species comparison

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Cestrum nocturnum

dama-de-noche, iki he po, night cestrum, night flowering jessamine, night jasmine, night jessamine, night-blooming jessamine, queen of the night, thauthau ni mbongi
Habit Shrubs or trees, 1–12 m; young stems sparsely pubescent, hairs glandular; axillary branches not subtended by minor leaf.
Leaves

petiole 5–18 mm;

blade ovate, elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, 3.7–21 × 1.4–8.5 cm.
Inflorescences

1–3 per axil, each cluster 1–4-flowered.
Flowers

calyx 2.2–3.5 × 1.2–1.8 mm, lobes 5, erect or spreading, 0.5–1 mm;

corolla pale yellow to pale green, 16–24 mm, lobes 2–4.5 mm.
Berries

white, 5–11 × 5–9 mm.
2n

= 16.

Cestrum nocturnum
Phenology Flowering mid-summer–winter.
Habitat Secondary scrub, forest edges, roadsides.
Elevation 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; FL; LA; Mexico (Chiapas, Morelos, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Yucatán); Central America (Nicaragua, Panama); South America (Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela) [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Cestrum nocturnum is considered to be an agricultural and environmental weed (R. P. Randall 2002).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa Solanaceae > Cestrum
Sibling taxa
C. diurnum, C. parqui
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 191. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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