• Scientific Name: Cascabela thevetia (L.) Lippold
• Ref: Feddes Repert. 91:52. 1980
• Synonyms:
  • Cascabela peruviana (Pers.) Raf.
  • Cerbera linearifolia Stokes
  • C. peruviana Pers.
  • C. thevetia L.
  • Thevetia linearis Raf.
  • T. neriifolia Juss. ex A.DC.
  • T. neriifolia var. hirsuta Müll.Arg.
  • T. neriifolia var. leucantha Müll.Arg.
  • T. neriifolia var. pubescens Müll.Arg.
  • T. peruviana (Pers.) K.Schum.
  • T. peruviana f. aurantiaca H.St.John
• English Common Name: yellow oleander, lucky nut
• Chinese Common Name: 黄花夹竹桃 huánghuā jiázhútáo, 黄花状元竹 huánghuā zhuàngyuán∙zhú, 酒杯花 [粤]zau2 bui1 faa1
• Japanese Common Name: キバナキョウチクトウ [黄花夾竹桃] kibanakyōchikutō
• Family: Apocynaceae
• Genus: Cascabela
• Distribution: Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to Central and South America]
• Photo: 06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden, Guangdong. Cascabela thevetia ‘Aurantiaca’ (红酒杯花), a cultivar with orange-red flower.

Trees to 6 m tall. Bark chocolate-brown, lenticellate; lower branches pendulous, young branches greenish gray. Petiole ca. 3 mm; leaf blades lustrous green adaxially, light green abaxially, very narrowly oblong, 10-15 X 0.5-1.2 cm, somewhat leathery, glabrous, apex acuminate, lateral veins obscure. Pedicel 2.5-5 cm. Flowers fragrant. Sepals green, narrowly triangular, apex acuminate. Corolla 6-7 X 4.5-5.5 cm; tube 4-5 cm, shorter than lobes; corona scales present, connected by a transverse row of long white hairs, lobes obliquely obovate. Drupes compressed triangular-globose, 2.5-4 cm in diam. Seeds light gray, lenticular, ca. 2 X 3.5 cm. Fl. May-Dec. 2n = 20. (Flora of China)

06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden. Cascabela thevetia ‘Aurantiaca’ (红酒杯花)