General Information

COMMON NAMES: Night-blooming Cestrum, Queen-of-the-night, Lady-of-the-night, Night Queen, Night Jessamine TRADITIONAL NAMES: Tiare Ariki-va‘ine (RR AK), Ariki-va‘ine (MG); Other Polynesian - Teine O Le Pō, Ali‘i O Le Pō (SAM) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Caribbean - C.America COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, Naturalised; S.Group only (incl. very common on Rarotonga); Land, lowlands - mountains (++++) SIGNIFICANCE LIST: Ornamental flowers; Invasive - serious (Rarotonga - only), Weed - moderate (Rarotonga - only) KEY FEATURES: Sprawling shrub to 4m. LEAVES alternate, narrow-oval, to 12cm, tip long and sharp. FLOWERS in dense clusters, nocturnal, fragrant; greenish-white, slender, 2cm long. FRUIT white, oval to round, to 1cmØ SIMILAR SPECIES: Day Cestrum (Cestrum diurnum) flowers during the day (vs at night), petals blunt (vs sharp), fruit black (vs white).

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: -
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
++++	++	-	-	-	?	-	-	-

Northern Group: -
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-	-	-	-	-	-

Cestrum nocturnum Linnaeus
TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); MAGNOLIOPSIDA (=Dicotyledones); ASTERIDAE; Solanales; SOLANACEAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
POSITIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Ornamental flowers. Comments: Grown for the heavily scented, night blooming,white flowers.
NEGATIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Invasive - serious (Rarotonga - only), Weed - moderate (Rarotonga - only). Comments: One of the major invasive shrub of forests of inland Rarotonga, to about 400m elevation. Interferes with the natural regeneration of the native forest. Locally common in the horticultural belt in waste and fallow areas. Requires constant control.

IDENTIFICATION: Sprawling shrub to 4m. LEAVES alternate, narrow-oval, to 12x4cm, dark green, edges smooth, tip sharp. FLOWERS dense clusters, nocturnal, strongly fragrant; slender, greenish-white, 2x1cm(LxØ); petals 5, sharp. FRUIT loose clusters, white, oval to round, to 1cmØ.

Vouchers:
None Recorded.

References:
p.1254 Wagner et al.- Flowering Plants of Hawaii
p.751 Neal - In Gardens of Hawaii
p.253 Hortus 3rd
p.237 Royal Hort. Soc. Index of Garden Plants
p.895 Tropica
p.5/036 A.C.Smith - Flora Vitiensis Nova
p.402e Whistler - Ethnobotany of the Cook Islands
p.101 McCormack/Kunzle - Rarotonga's Mountain Tracks and Plants

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM03a, zupM05a, zD03a

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