# Tabernaemontana

Tabernaemontana is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. It has a pan-tropical distribution, found in Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America, and a wide assortment of oceanic islands. These plants are evergreen shrubs and small trees growing to 1–15 m tall. The leaves are opposite, 3–25 cm long, with milky sap; hence it is one of the diverse plant genera commonly called "milkwood". The flowers are fragrant, white, 1–5 cm in diameter.
The cultivar T. divaricata cv. 'Plena', with doubled-petaled flowers, is a popular houseplant.
Some members of the genus Tabernaemontana are used as additives to some versions of the psychedelic drink ayahuasca; the genus is known to contain ibogaine (e.g. in bëcchëte, T. undulata), conolidine (present in minor concentration in T. divaricata) and voacangine (T. alba, T. arborea, T. africana). Because of presence of coronaridine and voacangine in Mexican Tabernaemontana species, those plant could be used in economic production of anti-addictive alkaloids especially ibogaine and ibogamine. T. sananho preparations are used in native medicine to treat eye injuries and as an anxiolytic, and T. heterophylla is used to treat dementia in the elderly. Conolidine may be developed as a new class of pain killer. Caterpillars of the oleander hawk-moth (Daphnis nerii) have been found to feed on the pinwheelflower (T. divaricata).

## Taxonomy
### Publication

The genus was described by Carl Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum 1: 210–211 in 1753. The type species is T. citrifolia.

### Etymology

The genus name commemorates the "father of German botany" Jakob Theodor von Bergzabern, a.k.a. Jacobus Theodorus Tabernaemontanus, Tabernaemontanus being a compressed form of the original Medieval Latin name (Tabernae Montanus) of the botanist's home town of Bergzabern - both the Latin and the German forms of the town's name meaning "tavern(s) in the mountains".

### Species

* Tabernaemontana abbreviata - Costa Rica
* Tabernaemontana africana - tropical Africa
* Tabernaemontana alba - Central America, Mexico, Florida, Cuba, Colombia
* Tabernaemontana alfaroi - Costa Rica, Panama
* Tabernaemontana allenii - Panama
* Tabernaemontana alternifolia - S India
* Tabernaemontana amplifolia - Colombia, Ecuador
* Tabernaemontana amygdalifolia - S Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Haiti, NW South America
* Tabernaemontana angulata - NE Brazil
* Tabernaemontana antheonycta - Borneo
* Tabernaemontana apoda - Cuba
* Tabernaemontana arborea - S Mexico, C America, Colombia
* Tabernaemontana attenuata - Trinidad, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana
* Tabernaemontana aurantiaca - Maluku, Papuasia, Vanuatu, Micronesia
* Tabernaemontana bouquetii - Congo, Gabon
* Tabernaemontana bovina - S China, N Indochina
* Tabernaemontana brachyantha - C Africa
* Tabernaemontana brasiliensis - Brazil (Pará)
* Tabernaemontana bufalina - S China, Indochina, W Malaysia
* Tabernaemontana calcarea - Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana capuronii - Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana catharinensis - S South America
* Tabernaemontana cerea - Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname
* Tabernaemontana cerifera - New Caledonia
* Tabernaemontana chocoensis - Colombia
* Tabernaemontana ciliata - N Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana citrifolia - West Indies
* Tabernaemontana coffeoides - Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana columbiensis - SE Central America, NW South America
* Tabernaemontana contorta - Cameroon
* Tabernaemontana cordata - Philippines (Mindanao)
* Tabernaemontana coriacea - W Brazil, Peru, Bolivia
* Tabernaemontana corymbosa - S China, SE Asia
* Tabernaemontana crassa - W + C Africa
* Tabernaemontana crassifolia - N Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana cumata - Brazil ( Amazonas)
* Tabernaemontana cuspidata - NW South America
* Tabernaemontana cymosa - N South America
* Tabernaemontana debrayi - N Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana dichotoma - Sri Lanka
* Tabernaemontana disticha - N South America
* Tabernaemontana divaricata - S China, Himalayas, N Indochina
* Tabernaemontana donnell-smithii - Mexico, Central America
* Tabernaemontana eglandulosa - Benin to Angola
* Tabernaemontana elegans - Somalia to South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal)
* Tabernaemontana eubracteata - S Mexico, NE Central America
* Tabernaemontana eusepala - NE Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana eusepaloides - NE Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana flavicans - NW South America
* Tabernaemontana gamblei - S India
* Tabernaemontana glabra - Mexico, Central America, NW South America
* Tabernaemontana glandulosa - Guinea to Republic of the Congo
* Tabernaemontana grandiflora - SE Central America, N South America
* Tabernaemontana hallei - Gabon, Cameroon
* Tabernaemontana hannae - Mexico (Chiapas), Costa Rica
* Tabernaemontana heterophylla - SE Central America, N + C South America
* Tabernaemontana humblotii - Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana hystrix - Brazil
* Tabernaemontana inconspicua - Cameroon to Angola
* Tabernaemontana laeta - Brazil
* Tabernaemontana lagenaria - Fr Guinea, N Brazil, Peru
* Tabernaemontana laurifolia - Cayman Is., Jamaica
* Tabernaemontana leeuwenbergiana - Colombia
* Tabernaemontana letestui - Republic of the Congo, Gabon
* Tabernaemontana linkii - N + W South America
* Tabernaemontana litoralis - S Mexico, C America, Colombia
* Tabernaemontana longipes - SE C America, NW S America
* Tabernaemontana lorifera - N Brazil, Guyana, Suriname
* Tabernaemontana macrocalyx - N South America
* Tabernaemontana macrocarpa - Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra
* Tabernaemontana markgrafiana - Panama, NW South America
* Tabernaemontana maxima - NW South America
* Tabernaemontana mocquerysii - Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana muricata - Brazil (Amazonas)
* Tabernaemontana oaxacana - Mexico (Oaxaca)
* Tabernaemontana ochroleuca - Jamaica
* Tabernaemontana odoratissima - Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania
* Tabernaemontana oppositifolia - Puerto Rico
* Tabernaemontana ovalifolia - Jamaica
* Tabernaemontana pachysiphon - tropical C + E + S Africa
* Tabernaemontana palustris - NW South America
* Tabernaemontana panamensis - Panama, Colombia, Ecuador
* Tabernaemontana pandacaqui - S China, SE Asia, N Australia, Papuasia, Micronesia, French Polynesia
* Tabernaemontana pauciflora - SE Asia
* Tabernaemontana pauli - Costa Rica
* Tabernaemontana peduncularis - Indochina, W Malaysia
* Tabernaemontana penduliflora - Nigeria to Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Tabernaemontana persicariifolia - Mauritius, Réunion
* Tabernaemontana peschiera - N Brazil, Suriname, Fr Guinea
* Tabernaemontana phymata - N Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana polyneura - W Malaysia
* Tabernaemontana psorocarpa - W Africa
* Tabernaemontana remota - Indonesia (Sulawesi, Rossel Island)
* Tabernaemontana retusa - Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana robinsonii - Colombia, Central America
* Tabernaemontana rostrata - Bangladesh to Philippines
* Tabernaemontana rotensis - Guam, Rota
* Tabernaemontana rupicola - N South America
* Tabernaemontana salomonensis - Solomon Islands
* Tabernaemontana salzmannii - E Brazil
* Tabernaemontana sambiranensis - N Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana sananho - N South America
* Tabernaemontana sessilifolia - Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana simulans - Panama, Costa Rica
* Tabernaemontana siphilitica - N South America.
* Tabernaemontana solanifolia - Brazil
* Tabernaemontana sphaerocarpa - Java to Maluku
* Tabernaemontana stapfiana - Burundi to Zimbabwe
* Tabernaemontana stellata - Madagascar
* Tabernaemontana stenoptera - Mexico (Colima)
* Tabernaemontana stenosiphon - São Tomé and Príncipe
* Tabernaemontana ternifolia - Philippines (Palawan)
* Tabernaemontana thurstonii - Fiji
* Tabernaemontana tomentosa - Mexico
* Tabernaemontana undulata - Costa Rica to Fr Guiana + Bolivia
* Tabernaemontana vanheurckii - NW South America
* Tabernaemontana ventricosa - Nigeria to South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal)
* Tabernaemontana venusta - Mexico (Oaxaca)
* Tabernaemontana wullschlaegelii - Jamaica

## Gallery

* Ornamental pinwheelflower (T. divaricata) cv. 'Plena'
* Habitus of T. divaricata
* T. elegans (toad tree) : undehisced fruit
* Tabernaemontana catharinensis: dehiscence of paired, ripe fruits, revealing black seeds in deep orange pulp.
* T. pandacaqui (banana bush)
* T. pachysiphon