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Red Cestrum

Cestrum elegans

Photo by Dirga SP
Published on Project Noah
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-6.7429, 107.007

Field Notes

Description:

Cestrum elegans is a graceful, scrambling shrub with a long flowering season. It is an evergreen plant with soft hairy leaves in warm temperate conditions. The leaves have a distasteful smell while the flowers are sweetly scented. The flowers are held in terminal clusters and vary from purple-red to deep pink. Each 2cm long flower is tubular, swelling to a constricted mouth and five reflexed lobes. It is drought tolerant and pollinated by hummingbirds.

Habitat:

Cestrum elegans is now well established in several warm temperate countries where it has become listed as an invasive alien.

Notes:

Cestrum is a member of the Solanaceae, with 175 species; most of them are poisonous with strong alkaloids. Almost all grow in the warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from Florida to central Chile. A few, such as Cestrum parqui and Cestrum psittacinum from more temperate areas, will grow in sheltered borders in the milder areas of Britain.

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