Egyptian starcluster is a flowering shrub or subshrub from tropical Africa and Arabia, widely grown for its clusters of star-shaped pink, red, mauve or white flowers that attract butterflies. It needs warmth and plenty of sun to flower well.
Family
Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water when the top few centimetres of soil are dry; reduce in winter and avoid soggy roots.
Soil
Well-drained, fertile potting mix or garden loam.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Easy
Native range
Ethiopia to Mozambique, Comoros, Arabian Pen.
Climate
seasonally dry tropical
About
Pentas lanceolata, commonly known as Egyptian starcluster, is a species of flowering plant in the madder family, Rubiaceae that is native to tropical Africa from Sudan to Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique, as well as Saudi Arabia and Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. It is sometimes planted in butterfly gardens.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pentas lanceolata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
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.