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Gardenia thunbergia
Also called Cape Jessamine, Forest Gardenia, Starry Gardenia, Wild Gardenia
Gardenia thunbergia is a sturdy large shrub or small tree endemic to the southern and eastern regions of South Africa and neighbouring territories such as Eswatini. It grows largely in forest or on forest margins, occurring in the Eastern Cape, Natal and Transkei in South Africa. It is densely twiggy and rigid with smooth light-grey bark, and is horticulturally valuable, being easy to grow as a strong hedge, but more usually as a specimen plant, striking in appearance and long lived. The abundant and extremely fragrant flowers are about 70 mm in diameter with long tubes only accessible to the proboscises of nocturnal hawkmoths. The leaves are smooth, shiny, whorled and entire, and clustered at the ends of branchlets.
Gardenia actinocarpa · Gardenia anapetes · Gardenia angkorensis · Gardenia barnesii · Forest gardenia · Gardenia candida · Tonga gardenia · Gardenia dacryoides · Gardenia elata · Gardenia erubescens · Gardenia ewartii · Gardenia faucicola
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gardenia thunbergia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
