Floridata: Cestrum nocturnum

Welcome (homepage)

Member Pages
Register (free!)
Login

Plant Encyclopedia
Plant List
Plant Tag Lists
Site Search

More Floridata
Resources/Articles
Write Us
About Floridata
Privacy Policy

Community
Forums
Directories
Members
Businesses
Organizations

Shop
Bookshop
Marketplace

#28 Cestrum nocturnum
Common Names: night blooming jasmine, night jessamine, night-blooming cestrum
Family: Solanaceae (nightshade Family)

Get link to this Profile or click for data record #28

The intensely fragrant blossoms open in the evening producing a cloud of perfume that can overwhelm the senses in high concentrations.

The flowers are followed by white pea-sized fruits.

Description
This sprawling shrub has glossy, smooth, simple leaves 4-8 in (10-20 cm) long. The long vinelike stems can form a mound up to 12 ft (3.6 m) across, but it seldom gets more than a 4 ft (1.2 m) across in cultivation. Night blooming jessamine blooms periodically throughout warm weather. Little greenish white tubular flowers rise from above the leaves all along the stem, followed by shiny white, fleshy berries. Although the flowers are not particularly showy to the eye, their sweet scent is heavenly.

Location
Cestrum nocturnum is native to tropical America and the West Indies.

Culture
Night blooming jessamine grows best in light, sandy soil. It is not salt tolerant, but is otherwise adaptable to a variety of conditions and usually requires little care except for frost protection.
Light: For best performance, night blooming jessamine should be grown in full to filtered sun. It tolerates light shade, but blooms best in good sun.
Moisture: Provide average to moist soil, but don't let it get waterlogged.
Hardiness: USDA Zone 8-11. Night blooming jessamine will die to the ground after a freeze, but it comes back in spring in zones 8 and 9. The day blooming jessamine (Cestrum diurnum) is slightly hardier.
Propagation: Night blooming jessamine is very easy to start from young, fast growing stem cuttings.

Night blooming cestrum is a fast grower that produces long vine-like stems stems that sprawl and climb.

Usage
This is a popular landscape plant in warm climates. For a mixed border, background, or as a free standing specimen, night blooming jessamine is attractive and unpretentious. Use it in butterfly gardens, as night blooming jessamine provides food for some caterpillars.

Features
This shrub really makes itself noticed in the evenings when in bloom. No fragrance garden should be without a night blooming jessamine! The smell is so strong, some people find it overpowering. Not me! I have one that reaches up in front of the deck and fills the summer evening air with sweet perfume.

05/31/97; updated Steve Christman 05/15/06, 12/16/07

Copyright 1996 - 2009 Floridata.com LC Tallahassee, Florida USA