Bark
Smooth, grey to light brown on older stems; young branchlets green and glabrous.
Gardenia jasminoides
Syn. Gardenia augusta
IUCN Red List
Least Concern
(LC)
Local name
- Gardenia / Cape Jasmine (English)
- Gandhraj (Hindi)
- Anant / Gandhraj (Marathi)
Shrub type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Rubiaceae
3m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
The leaves are elliptic-oblong, glossy and leathery. Mature shrubs usually look round, and have a medium texture. It blooms in mid-spring to early summer over a fairly long season.
Flower
The flowers are white, turning to creamy yellow as they age, and have a waxy feel. Wild plants have single flowers, and cultivated forms include double-flowered varieties.
Fruit / Seeds
An ovoid to ellipsoid, ribbed berry 2–4 cm long, green when immature and turning orange to reddish-orange when ripe; contains numerous small seeds embedded in a fleshy pulp.
Did you know?
The genus was named by botanist John Ellis in honor of Dr. Alexander Garden (1730–1791), a Scottish-born American physician and naturalist living in Charleston, South Carolina.
Distribution
East Himalaya to Central & South China and Indo-China, South Central & South Japan.