Tabernaemontana is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. It has a pan-tropical distribution, found in Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America, and islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. These plants are evergreen shrubs and small trees growing to 1–15 m tall. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, 3–25 cm long, with milky sap; hence it is one of the diverse plant genera commonly called "milkwood". The flowers are fragrant, white, 1–5 cm in diameter.
The cultivar T. divaricata cv. 'Plena', with doubled-petaled flowers, is a popular houseplant.
Some members of the genus Tabernaemontana are used as additives to some versions of the psychedelic drink ayahuasca;[1] the genus is known to contain ibogaine (e.g. in bëcchëte, T. undulata), conolidine (present in minor concentration in T. divaricata)[2] and voacangine (T. alba, T. arborea, T. africana). Because of presence of coronaridine and voacangine in Mexican Tabernaemontana species,[3] those plant could be used in economic production of anti-addictive alkaloids especially ibogaine and ibogamine.[4] T. sananho preparations are used in native medicine to treat eye injuries and as an anxiolytic, and T. heterophylla is used to treat dementia in the elderly.[5] Conolidine may be developed as a new class of pain killer.[6] Caterpillars of the oleander hawk-moth (Daphnis nerii) have been found to feed on the pinwheelflower (T. divaricata).
The genus was described by Carl Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum 1: 210–211 in 1753. The type species is T. citrifolia.
The genus name commemorates the "father of German botany" Jakob Theodor von Bergzabern, a.k.a. Jacobus Theodorus Tabernaemontanus, Tabernaemontanus being a compressed form of the original Medieval Latin name (Tabernae Montanus) of the botanist's home town of Bergzabern - both the Latin and the German forms of the town's name meaning "tavern(s) in the mountains".
, Plants of the World Online accepts the following 126 species:
