Description:

• Shrubs or small trees 1-6 m high
• Leaves ternate, petiole 3-10 mm long; lamina coriaceous, narrowly elliptic, 50-210×10-35 mm, acuminate or acute at apex, cuneate at base
• Inflorescence terminal or axillary, thyrsoid, lax
• Flowers actinomorphic, ornamental
• Calyx free, narrowly triangular to narrowly ovate
• Corolla showy, white, pink to wine-red, yellow or salmon; tube infundibuliform; lobes in bud overlapping to the right, obovate, rounded, entire; corona of 5 truncate epipetalous parts, 3-8-lobed
• Stamens 5; filaments short, anthers 4-locular, narrowly triangular, fertile at sagittate base, introrse, with filiform apical appendages
• Ovary broadly ovoid
• Mericarps 2, follicular, narrowly oblong
• Seeds oblong with 9-12 mm long tuft of hairs at truncate apex
• x = 11

Nomenclature:

• *Nerium L.
  • Linnaeus: 209 (1753)
  • Leeuwenberg: 397 (1985)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: *Nerium oleander L., often occurs as an escape, and is a proposed declared invader, especially in rocky and gravelly, usually dry watercourses in semi-arid regions (Henderson; ### (1995)~(Page number missing - No access to the publication))

Additional Notes:

• A highly poisonous but popular, evergreen garden shrub cultivated for ornament and screening, has toxic, clear, sticky sap;