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Cestrum scandens
Cestrum nocturnum, the lady of the night, night-blooming jasmine, night-blooming jessamine, night-scented jessamine, night-scented cestrum, or poisonberry,( Urdu: رات کی رانی, romanized: raat ki rani ) is a species of plant in the potato family Solanaceae. It is native to Mexico, Central America and northern South America and is naturalized in South Asia.
Despite its common name, the species is not a "true jasmine" and not of the genus Jasminum.
From the article Cestrum nocturnum on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Cestrum nocturnum is an evergreen woody shrub with slender branches growing to 4 m (13 ft) tall. The plant is multi-branched and heavily foliated. The leaves are simple, narrow lanceolate, 6–20 cm (2.4–7.9 in) long and 2–4.5 cm (0.79–1.77 in) broad, smooth and glossy, with an entire margin. Towards the front they are pointed or tapered, the base is rounded or blunt. The leaf stalks are 0.8 to 2 cm long.
Inflorescences. The flowers are greenish-white, with a slender tubular corolla 2–2.5 cm (0.79–0.98 in) long with five acute lobes, 10–13 mm (0.39–0.51 in) diameter when open at night, and are produced in cymose inflorescences. A powerful, sweet perfume is released at night. The mostly multi-flowered, drooping inflorescences are terminal or axillary. They are clustered, sparsely branched panicles, on the inflorescence axes of which there are herbaceous bracts. The five sepals are fused to form a bell-shaped, approximately 2 mm long calyx and have five pointed tips, which are slightly enlarged, ribbed and acutely pointed on the fruit. The inside and outside of the calyx are finely haired. The fruit is a white berry 10 millimetres (0.39 in) long by 5 mm (0.20 in) diameter. There is also a variety with yellowish flowers. …
Toxicity
Ingestion of C. nocturnum has not been well documented, but there is some reason to believe that caution is in order. All members of the family Solanaceae contain an alkaloid toxin called solanine, though some members of the family are routinely eaten without ill-effect. The most commonly reported problems associated with C. nocturnum are respiratory problems from the scent, and feverish symptoms following ingestion. Some people, especially those with respiratory sensitivities or asthma, have reported difficulty breathing, irritation of the nose and throat, headache, nausea, or other symptoms when exposed to the blossom's powerful scent. Some Cestrum species contain chlorogenic acid, and the presence of this potent sensitizer may be responsible for this effect in C. nocturnum. Some plant guides describe C. nocturnum as "toxic" and warn that ingesting plant parts, especially fruit, may result in elevated temperature, rapid pulse, excess salivation and gastritis. Spoerke and Smolinske (1990) noted the following: "Ingesting 15 lb of plant material caused a cow to salivate, clamp its jaws, collapse, and eventually die. A postmortem showed gastroenteritis and congestion of liver, kidneys, brain, and spinal cord. Although the berries and the sap are suspected of being toxic, several cases of ingestion of the berries have not shown them to be a problem, with one exception. …
How it is grown
Cestrum nocturnum is grown in subtropical regions as an ornamental plant for its flowers that are heavily perfumed at night. It grows best in average to moist soil that is light and sandy with a neutral pH of 6.6 to 7.5, and is hardy to hardiness zone 8. C. nocturnum can be fertilized biweekly with a weak dilution of seaweed and fish emulsion fertilizer.
Wikipedia: “Cultivation”
In human culture
The inscription on American filmmaker David Lynch's gravestone at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery reads "Night Blooming Jasmine." Rapper fakemink released a song titled "Night, Blooming Jasmine ." on 17 April 2026, as the lead single for his album Terrified.
Wikipedia: “In culture”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Cestrum scandens in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 290775.