code: 932
In cooler countries it attracts bees and butterflies
Family: Solanaceae
Common name: Green Cestrum, Chilean Cestrum, Willow-leaved Jessamine
Plant Classification: Hardy shrub
Minimum Height: 1.8 meters
Maximum Height: 2.7 meters
Packet Content(approx.): 6
Amidst light green shiny leaves arise sprays of small, tubular, very fragrant, yellow-green flowers on the ends of the stems, flowering from late spring to autumn, and which produce clusters of small, black, egg-shaped berries during summer and autumn. This easy, hardy, evergreen shrub is quite possibly the hardiest and longest blooming Cestrum of them all, as it perfumes the night for many months. In cooler countries it attracts bees and butterflies, and in the Americas, hummingbirds! In 2004 this species made the Royal Horticultural Society’s list of the top 200 plants of the last 200 years. Warning, all parts of this plant are poisonous, but so are a good percentage of many garden plants!
Sowing advice:
These seeds have already been thoroughly cleaned and cold-stored for several months. They should be sown into well-drained, sandy compost at any time of the year, and covered to their own depth with sand or grit. No artificial heat is needed; the seed tray is best left in a cool spot outside and kept moist. Seeds germinate very slowly indeed in the spring after a chilling in the cold compost, regardless of when they are sown. Some seeds may take more than a year to germinate.
Reproduction:
The small, black fruits of Cestrum parqui are highly attractive to birds, which play a major role in seed-dispersal, passing the seeds in their droppings: seedlings are thus often found growing under perching trees, along fencelines, and in creek banks, where it is also dispersed by water.
Medicinal:
The plant contains toxic alkaloids. It has been used in folk medicine to treat tumours and haemorrhoids and possesses sudorific (= perspiration-inducing), laxative and antispasmodic properties. Decoctions or infusions of the plant have also been administered in cases of intermittent fever
Distinguishing Characteristics
This can be a large woody shrub. Its new shoots and leaf axis may have some hairs. Mostly this plant is hairless. Small leaves/leaflets may also be found at the leaf axis. When crushed this plant has a strong, distinctive and somewhat unpleasant smell.
Leaves are alternate, narrow and lance shaped, 2-7 cm long, usually 1-3 cm wide; the leaf stem (petiole) can be up to 1 cm long. Leaves are a grey/green colour and are a paler shade underneath.
Inflorescences (groups of flowers) are formed at the end of the stems. Flowers are funnel-shaped, either sessile (have no stalk) or on pedicels (on the stalk) and greenish yellow in colour. Flowers can be found on this plant throughout the year.
Fruit is egg-shaped, to about 10-15 mm in length and is a black berry when ripe.
This plant is very difficult to kill. It usually responds best to herbicide (such as Roundup) when it is applied at 100% strength, to long scrapes along the stem. To scrape the stem: take a knife and drag it up and down the stem revealing the white inner layer. Depending on plant size, scapes could be 10cm – 30cm in length. Herbicide should be applied to the wound within 10 seconds.
