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Ouabain

Strophanthus gratus

Also called Climbing Oleander, Poison Arrowvine, Spider Tresses

In Singapore: Cream Fruit, Climbing Oleander, Indian Rubber Vine, Strofantus Ungu (Grown in Singapore)

Strophanthus gratus is a woody climbing liana from tropical Africa, grown occasionally for its fragrant flowers. It is a highly poisonous plant, and growing it is mainly of interest to botanists and collectors.

Family: Apocynaceae (Dogbane family)
Grows as: Shrub, Climber
Light: Full sun, Part shade
Water: Water moderately during the growing season and let the top of the soil dry between waterings.
Soil: Well-drained, fertile soil or a loam-based mix.
Temperature: 18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy: Moderate
Safety: Toxic: Seeds and all other parts contain cardiac glycosides such as ouabain, which can cause severe heart rhythm disturbances and can be fatal if ingested.
Native range: W. & WC. Trop. Africa
Climate: seasonally dry tropical

About

Strophanthus gratus is a plant in the dogbane family Apocynaceae.

Where it grows

Strophanthus gratus is native to tropical Africa: from Senegal in the west, east and south to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is naturalized in Taiwan and also Trinidad and Tobago.

Uses

Strophanthus gratus has been used in local traditional medicine: ouabain derived from the plant's seeds is used as a treatment for heart failure. It has also been used as arrow poison.

Other Strophanthus plants

Elephant Vine · Wood Shaving Flower · Tailless Tail Flower · Goat Horns · Emin's strophanthus · Kombe arrow poison · Preuss' strophanthus · Strophanthus · Forest Poisonrope · Strophanthus welwitschii · Strophanthus

[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 Strophanthus gratus 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.

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Know any plant.Grow it well.