Flora of North America species comparison

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Nerium oleander

Nerium

common oleander, oleander

oleander
Habit Shrubs or small trees; latex clear.
Stems

erect, unarmed, glabrous or eglandular-pubescent especially on younger growth.
Leaves

petiole 2–7 mm, sparsely pubescent or glabrous;

blade oblong-lanceolate, 2–15(–30) × 0.5–2.5(–3.5) cm, coriaceous, base cuneate, margins revolute, apex acuminate, surfaces pubescent abaxially, very sparsely pubescent or glabrous adaxially.

persistent, whorled or occasionally opposite, petiolate;

stipular colleters intrapetiolar;

laminar colleters absent.
Inflorescences

terminal, thyrsiform, pedunculate.
Peduncles

3–6 cm, sparsely pubescent.

Pedicels

5–8 mm, pubescent.

Flowers

calyx lobes lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 5–7 mm, pubescent;

corolla glabrous abaxially, eglandular-pubescent adaxially, tube 8–12 × 2–3 mm, throat 5–10 × 4–7 mm, lobes spreading, obliquely obovate, 15–25 × 10–20 mm.

calycine colleters present;

corolla white, pink, red, purple, or rarely orange-pink, funnelform, aestivation dextrorse;

corolline corona lacerate;

androecium and gynoecium not united into a gynostegium;

stamens inserted at top of corolla tube;

anthers connivent, adherent to stigma, connectives appendiculate, elongate pubescent appendages intertwined, locules 4;

pollen free, not massed into pollinia, translators absent;

nectaries absent.
Fruits

follicles, solitary or paired, erect, reddish brown, slender, terete or slightly compressed, truncate, surface striate, glabrous.
Seeds

7–10 × 1.5–2 mm, densely pubescent.

oblong, slightly flattened, not winged, not beaked, comose, not arillate.
Follicles

8–15 × 1–1.5 cm.

x

= 11.
2n

= 22.

Nerium oleander

Nerium
Phenology Flowering spring–summer; fruiting summer–fall.
Habitat Disturbed areas, roadsides, old homesites.
Elevation 0–600 m. (0–2000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AZ; CA; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Eurasia; Africa; widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
Eurasia; Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also nearly worldwide]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Nerium oleander is cultivated in warmer parts of the United States and has become sporadically naturalized from North Carolina to Florida and Texas, and in Arizona and California. The plant is widely recognized as one of the most poisonous cultivated species due to the presence of cardiac glycosides that can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, cardiac arrhythmia, and potassium imbalance (V. Bandara et al. 2010), although the number of human fatalities resulting from accidental ingestion of leaves and/or flowers is surprisingly small (S. D. Langford and P. J. Boor 1996).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 1.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 14. FNA vol. 14. Author: David E. Lemke.
Parent taxa Apocynaceae > Nerium Apocynaceae
Subordinate taxa
N. oleander
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 209. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 209. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 99. (1754)
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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