''Cestrum diurnum'' is a species of ''

Cestrum ''Cestrum'' is a genus of — depending on authority — 150-250 species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. They are native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from the southernmost United States (Florida, Texas: day ...

'', native to

the West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater ...

. Common names include ''day-blooming cestrum'', ''day-blooming jessamine'', and ''day-blooming jasmine''. Also known as Din ka Raja (king of the day), in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

. The scent of this quick-growing and

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

woody

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

, often used for screens and borders, is released by day. Cestrum diurnum is easily propagated from the seed, which it produces in abundance.Bor & Raizada (1954)''Some beautiful Indian Climbers and Shrubs'', pp 130-131.

Description

It is an erect

woody

with numerous leafy branches. The branches, which are green and with well-marked white lenticels when young, fawn with age. The younger parts are covered with a very sparse glandular scruf. The leaves are simple, glabrous, entire, alternate, ex-stipulate, ovate-lanceolate in shape with obtuse apex and obtusely wedge-shaped below. They are dark green above and pale below and are generally 5 inches long by 1.5 inches wide. The leaves are petiolate with petioles of 0.5 inch length. The Inflorescence consists of a long axillary peduncle which bears short clusters of sweet white-smelling flowers, each cluster supported by a leaf-like bract. The individual flowers are sessile and may be with or without bracteoles. Calyx is gamo-sepalous, about 0.15 in long, somewhat puberulent, obtusely 5-ribbed and 5-lobed with obtuse, ciliate lobes. Corolla tube is narrowly infundibuliform, white, sweet-scented, about half-inch lobed with five lobes. The lobes are very obtuse and completely recurved when the flower is fully open. Stamens oblong, five in number, alternate with the corolla lobes, brown in colour, included. Filaments adnate to the tube, free for a very short distance. Ovary seated on a nectar-secreting disk. The style is filiform and glabrous. The stigmas are truncate-capitate. Cestrum diurnum has a black, nearly globular berry.

Distribution

A native of the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, it is widely cultivated in gardens throughout

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Medicinal uses

Leaves of Cestrum diurnum are reported as a sources of vitamin D3. Aerial parts are also reported to have cytotoxic and thrombolytic activities.

Toxicity

Cestrum diurnum is one of only three rangeland plants known to contain glycosides of the vitamin D metabolite 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol aka 1,25-OHD3. Consumption of glycosides of 1,25-OHD3 by grazing animals leads to a vitamin D toxicity resulting in

calcinosis Calcinosis is the formation of calcium deposits in any soft tissue. It is a rare condition that has many different causes. These range from infection and injury to systemic diseases like kidney failure. Types Dystrophic calcification The most c ...

, the deposition of excessive calcium in soft tissues.http://poisonousplants.ansci.cornell.edu/toxicagents/calglyco.html Accessed June 2021, Cornell Dept. of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Department of Animal Science: "Plants Poisonous to Livestock"

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1057574

diurnum In the Episcopal monastic tradition, diurnum is a name for the midday service of the Divine Office, which is usually the second of four services. It is alternatively known as 'Noonday' or 'Sext'. See also *Canonical hours *Vigil (liturgy) *Book o ...

Garden plants of Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus