Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Gentianales > Apocynaceae > Nerium > Nerium oleander

Nerium oleander (oleander)

Synonyms: Nerion oleandrum; Nerium haquevillei; Nerium indicum var. plenum; Nerium odorum; Nerium oleander var. oleander

Wikipedia Abstract

Nerium oleander /ˈnɪəriəm ˈoʊliː.ændər/ is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, toxic in all its parts. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Nerium. It is most commonly known as oleander, from its superficial resemblance to the unrelated olive Olea. It is so widely cultivated that no precise region of origin has been identified, though southwest Asia has been suggested. The ancient city of Volubilis in Morocco may have taken its name from the Berber name oualilt for the flower. Oleander is one of the most poisonous commonly grown garden plants.
View Wikipedia Record: Nerium oleander

Infraspecies

Nerium oleander kurdicum
Nerium oleander oleander (Laurel rosado)

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Dense
Bloom Period [2]  Summer
Drought Tolerance [2]  High
Fire Tolerance [2]  High
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  7 months 20 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Multiple Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer, Fall
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Hazards [3]  The whole plant is very poisonous; Skin contact with the plant can cause irritation whilst ingestion of only one leaf has led to death in children; Death has been known to follow the use of the wood of this plant as a meat skewer;
Leaf Type [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  16 inches (41 cm)
Scent [3]  The flowers have a soft sweet perfume;
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  Low
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [4]  0.6
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [3]  The plant is used as a rat poison; The pounded leaves and bark are used as an insecticide; A green dye is obtained from the flowers; The plant is commonly used for informal hedging in the Mediterranean; The leaves contain small amounts of latex that can be used to make rubber; The plants have an extensive root system and are often used to stabilize soil in warmer areas;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Red
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Flower Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  13.12 feet (4 m)
Width [3]  13.12 feet (4 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 8 Low Temperature: 10 F° (-12.2 C°) → 20 F° (-6.7 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [2]  Low
View Plants For A Future Record : Nerium oleander

Protected Areas

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Phragmanthera usuiensis[9]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Jérôme Chave, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Timothy R. Baker, Tomás A. Easdale, Hans ter Steege, Campbell O. Webb, 2006. Regional and phylogenetic variation of wood density across 2,456 neotropical tree species. Ecological Applications 16(6), 2356 - 2367
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0