Cascabela thevetia (L.) Lippold

Etymology	Genus	Bell or rattle, former probably referring to its flowers, and latter probably due to its poisonous nature compared to a rattlesnake
	Species	After Andre Thevet, a 16th century French monk and plant collector
Family		Apocynaceae
Synonyms		Thevetia peruviana (Pers.) K.Schum.
Common Names		Yellow Oleander, Trumpet Flower, Lucky Bean, Zetung, Jepun, Jitong
Status		Exotic: Cultivated Only
Form		Tree
Native Distribution		Mexico to South America

Diagnostics:

A small tree not commonly cultivated here. It has a bushy foliage due to the linear shaped and whorled arrangement of the leaves. The flowers are yellow and funnel-shaped.

Interesting Facts:

Parts of the plant, especially the seeds are known to be poisonous, with fatalities reported after ingestion. This was due to the presence of thevetin, thevetoxin and peruvoside; glycosides which causes cardiovascular abnormalities (Bose et al., 1999).

References

Bose, T. K., Basu, R. K., Biswas, B., De, J. N., Majumdar, B. C., & Datta, S. (1999). Cardiovascular effects of yellow oleander ingestion. The Journal of the Indian Medical Association, 97(10), 407–410.

Author: Siyang
Posted: 2025-10-04 / Modified: 2025-10-06