Nerium oleander L.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Apocynaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree to 5 m tall, producing abundant, poisonous, clear, sticky latex. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3(-4); blades 10-30 x 2-3.5 cm, oblong, elliptic or oblanceolate, coriaceous, glabrous, the apex acuminate or acute, the base tapering, the margins entire and revolute; petioles 2-4 mm long. Flowers produced along branched, terminal, thyrsoid inflorescences; peduncle usually longer than the flower-bearing portion, obtusely 3-angular; bracts and bracteoles ca. 5 mm long with colleters at base within. Calyx 4-6 mm long, with 5 deeply parted, lanceolate lobes; corolla 3.5-5 cm long, pink (in ours), white, or red, the narrowest part of the tube 0.5-1 cm long, the lobes 5, rounded, 2-2.5 cm long (corolla double in some cultivars), spreading; corona with filiform segments, projecting beyond the corolla; stamens inserted where the tube widens, the anthers with an apical feathery appendage, connivent around the stigma; ovary ovoid, of 2 connate carpels, with a lobular nectary disk at base, the carpel with many ovules. Fruit elongate, 10-20 cm long, of 2 follicles, splitting at maturity. Seeds oblong, 4-7 mm long, with a long tuft of hairs at apex.
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Discussion
Common names: leandra, oleander.
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Distribution
Although not naturalized on St. John, it is included in this treatment because of its wide cultivation throughout the island. Coral Bay Quarter along Center Line Road (A4682). Also on Anegada, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola; native to the Mediterranean area, now widely cultivated throughout the tropics.
Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Tortola Virgin Islands South America|