Catharanthus

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

  • Family

    Apocynaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Catharanthus

  • Description

    Description - Herbs or low shrubs, with opposite leaves, and large axillary flowers, solitary or 2 together. Calyx eglandular, 5-cleft, the lobes narrow. Corolla salverform, its cylindric tube slightly enlarged above, its 5 broad lobes sinistrorse. Stamens included; anthers not appendaged. Disk of 2 large glands. Carpels 2, distinct; style very slender; stigma thick, pilose; ovules many in each carpel. Follicles narrowly cylindric, many-seeded. Seeds small, unappendaged. [Greek, pure flower.] Three known species, the following typical one native of tropical America, widely distributed through cultivation, one East Tndian, the other of Madagascar.