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TreeCultivatedPerennialMedicinal

Cascabela thevetia (L.) Lippold

Peeli kaner
Synonyms: Thevetia peruviana (Pers.) K.Schum.; Thevetia neriifolia Juss. ex Steud

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Description

Cascabela thevetia is an evergreen shrub or small tree, usually 3–8 m tall, exuding abundant white milky latex when injured. The trunk is slender with smooth greyish bark, and the branches are green and freely branched. Leaves are simple, alternate, narrowly linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, leathery, glossy dark green, with entire margins, an acute to long-acuminate apex, and a short petiole. Flowers are solitary or borne in small terminal clusters. They are large, funnel-shaped, fragrant, bright yellow (occasionally orange or cream), with five overlapping corolla lobes. The fruit is a somewhat fleshy, broadly ovoid to subglobose drupe, green when immature and becoming black at maturity, usually containing one or two hard seeds enclosed within a thick endocarp.

Diagnostic Characters

Vegetative
Evergreen shrub or small tree with abundant milky latex and long, narrow, glossy leaves.
Floral
Large, bright yellow, funnel-shaped fragrant flowers with five overlapping lobes.
Fruit & Seed
Rounded fleshy drupes turning black at maturity, enclosing one or two hard seeds.

Distribution

Native range: Tropical America, especially Mexico and Central America.

Introduced range: Widely cultivated and naturalized throughout tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Pacific.

In Pakistan: Commonly cultivated throughout Pakistan, in parks, gardens, roadsides, and institutional landscapes.

Phenology

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Flowering
Fruiting
Flowering: Throughout the year, with peak flowering from March to November Fruiting: Throughout the year

Ethnobotany & Uses

Ornamental Uses
Widely planted as an ornamental shrub or small tree because of its attractive evergreen foliage and abundant bright yellow flowers.
Traditional Medicine
Various plant parts have been used traditionally in small controlled quantities for treating fever, skin diseases, and heart ailments. The plant contains potent cardiac glycosides, including thevetin A, thevetin B, and peruvoside, which have attracted pharmaceutical interest.
Toxicity
All parts of the plant, particularly the seeds, are highly poisonous if ingested. Poisoning can cause severe gastrointestinal and cardiac complications; therefore, medicinal use should only occur under expert supervision.
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Where it grows on campus

West Campus2
2
individuals mapped across 1 zone
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Taxonomic Notes

Cascabela thevetia was formerly treated as Thevetia peruviana, a name still widely encountered in horticultural and older botanical literature. Modern molecular and morphological studies support its placement in the genus Cascabela, and this treatment is accepted by Flora of Pakistan, Plants of the World Online (POWO), and World Flora Online (WFO). The species is readily distinguished from Nerium oleander by its alternate, narrow leaves, solitary bright yellow flowers, and rounded drupaceous fruits rather than paired follicles.