Wrightia antidysenterica is a shrub or small tree from Sri Lanka, grown for its white, fragrant flowers and used in traditional medicine. It is sometimes confused with Holarrhena pubescens, so check the name before buying.
Family
Apocynaceae (Dogbane family)
Grows as
Tree, Shrub
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then let the top of the soil dry between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained loamy or sandy soil
Temperature
18–35 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Sri Lanka
Climate
wet tropical
About
Wrightia antidysenterica, the coral swirl, white angel or snowflake, is a flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is native to Sri Lanka. Wrightia antidysenterica is sometimes confused with the species Holarrhena pubescens due to a second, taxonomically invalid publication of the name Holarrhena pubescens. It is known in Sanskrit as kuṭaja or ambikā.
Uses
The juice of this plant is a potent ingredient for a mixture of wall plaster, according to the Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra, which is a Sanskrit treatise dealing with Śilpaśāstra (Hindu science of art and construction).
[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 Wrightia antidysenterica 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.