Taxon: Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don

Common names:

• bright-eyes   (Source: Aust Pl Common Names ) – English
  
• Cape periwinkle   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• graveyardplant   (Source: Aust Pl Common Names ) – English
  
• Madagascar periwinkle   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• old-maid   (Source: Hortus 3 ) – English
  
• old-maid-flower   (Source: Aust Pl Common Names ) – English
  
• pink periwinkle   (Source: Aust Pl Common Names ) – English
  
• rose periwinkle   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• rosy periwinkle   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• chang chun hua   (Source: F ChinaEng ) – Transcribed Chinese
  
• pervenche de Madagascar   (Source: F LAnt ) – French
  
• boa-noite   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• boa-tarde   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• lavadeira   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• pervinca-rosa   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• vinca-de-gato   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• vinca-de-madagascar   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• vinca-rósea   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• chatas   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• chula   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• pervinca de Madagascar   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• rosensköna   (Source: Vara kulturvaxt namn ) – Swedish
  

Economic importance:

• Harmful organism host: test organism for crop diseases   (fide Diseas Comp)
  
• Environmental: ornamental   (fide Dict Gard; Hortus 3)
  
• Gene sources: research in plant biology   (fide Science 281:331-332. 1998)
  
• Medicines: source of vinblastine & vincristine   (fide Import Medicinal Pl; Pl Res SEAs 12(1):185. 1999; CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2)
  

More:

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• AFRICA
  Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Spain - Canary Islands
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Eritrea; Ethiopia
  South Tropical Africa: Malawi; Mozambique; Zambia
  Southern Africa: Namibia; South Africa; Swaziland
  Western Indian Ocean: Mauritius; Reunion; Seychelles
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Sri Lanka
  Indo-China: Thailand
  Malesia: Malaysia; Papua New Guinea
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia
  New Zealand: New Zealand - Kermadec Islands
• NORTHERN AMERICA
  Southeastern U.S.A.: United States - Florida
  South-Central U.S.A.: United States - Texas [s.e.]
  Southwestern U.S.A.: United States - California [San Diego Co.]
  Southern Mexico: Mexico - Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatan
• PACIFIC
  North-Central Pacific: United States - Hawaii
  Northwestern Pacific: Marshall Islands; Micronesia; Northern Mariana Islands; U.S. Outlying Islands - Wake Island
  South-Central Pacific: French Polynesia
  Southwestern Pacific: American Samoa; Fiji; New Caledonia; Niue; Tonga
• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Caribbean: Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Bahamas; Barbados; Cayman Islands; Cuba; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Guadeloupe; Haiti; Jamaica; Martinique; Montserrat; Netherlands Antilles; Puerto Rico; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and Grenadines; Virgin Islands (British); Virgin Islands (U.S.)
  Mesoamerica: Belize; Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua; Panama
  Northern South America: Venezuela
  Western South America: Bolivia; Ecuador - Galapagos Islands; Peru
  Southern South America: Argentina [n.]; Paraguay; Uruguay

• EUROPE
  Southeastern Europe: Greece - Crete

• widely cultivated in tropics & subtropics

References:

• Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. et al. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78:1-581.
• Adams, C. 1972. Flowering plants of Jamaica.
• Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn - ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
• Allan, H. H. B. et al. 1961–. Flora of New Zealand.
• American Phytopathological Society. 1997. Compendium of raspberry and blackberry diseases and insects. In: American Phytopathological Society, The disease compendium series. 55.
• Bergen, M. A. van. 1996. Revision of Catharanthus G. Don, series of revisions of Apocynaceae XLI. Agric. Univ. Wageningen Pap. 96–3:32–35.
• Bosser, J. M. et al., eds. 1976–. Flores des Mascareignes.
• Brako, L. & J. L. Zarucchi. 1993. Catalogue of the flowering plants and gymnosperms of Peru. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 45.
• Chinese Academy of Sciences. 1959–. Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae.
• Correll, D. S. & H. B. Correll. 1982. Flora of the Bahama archipelago.
• Dassanayake, M. D. & F. R. Fosberg, eds. 1980–. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon.
• Davidse, G. et al., eds. 1994. Flora mesoamericana.
• DeFilipps, R. A. 1992. Ornamental garden plants of the Guianas.
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Encke, F. et al. 1984. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 13. Auflage.
• Euro+Med Editorial Committee. Euro+Med Plantbase: the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity (on-line resource).
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca.
• Farnsworth, N. R. & D. D. Soejarto. Global importance of medicinal plants (unpublished draft manuscript rev. 23, 1988)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• George, A. S., ed. 1980–. Flora of Australia.
• Germishuizen, G. & N. L. Meyer, eds. 2003. Plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist. Strelitzia 14.
• Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. [re. Brazilian common names].
• Hedberg, I. & S. Edwards. 1989–. Flora of Ethiopia. (and Eritrea. 2000)
• Hickman, J. C., ed. 1993. The Jepson manual: higher plants of California.
• Howard, R. 1974–1989. Flora of the lesser Antilles.
• Humbert, J.-H., ed. 1976. Flore de Madagascar et des Comores.
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening.
• Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER): plant threats to Pacific ecosystems (on-line resource).
• Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. 2008. Flora del Conosur. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares.
• Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS). Australian plant common name database (on-line resource).
• Jørgensen, P. M. & S. León-Yánez, eds. 1999. Catalogue of the vascular plants of Ecuador. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 75.
• Keay, R. W. J. & F. N. Hepper. 1953–1972. Flora of west tropical Africa, ed. 2.
• Kiew, R. et al., eds. 2010–. Flora of peninsular Malaysia.
• León (J. S. Sauget) & Alain (E. E. Liogier). 1946–1962. Flora de Cuba.; suppl. 1969
• Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus third.
• Liogier, A. H. 1981–. Flora of Hispaniola: Part 1; La Flora de la Española. Part II-.
• Liogier, H. A. & L. F. Martorell. 1982. Flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands: a systematic synopsis.
• Liogier, H. A. 1984–. Descriptive flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands.
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2.
• Mlot, C. 1998. Plant biology in the genome era. Science 281:331–332.
• Nasir, E. & S. I. Ali, eds. 1970–. Flora of [West] Pakistan.
• Padua, L. S. de et al., eds. 1999. Medicinal and poisonous plants 1. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). 12(1):185.
• Proctor, G. R. 1984. Flora of the Cayman Islands. Kew Bulletin Additional Series XI.
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Reitz, R., ed. 1965–. Flora ilustrada catarinense.
• Smitinand, T. & K. Larsen, eds. 1970–. Flora of Thailand.
• Snoeijer, W. 1996. Catharanthus roseus, the Madagascar periwinkle, a review of its cultivars. Agric. Univ. Wageningen Pap. 96–3:47–120.
• Steyermark, J. A. et al., eds. 1995–. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana.
• Thulin, M., ed. 1993–. Flora of Somalia.
• Turner, B. L. et al. 2003. Atlas of the vascular plants of Texas. Sida Botanical Miscellany no. 24.
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).
• Wunderlin, R. & B. Hansen. Atlas of Florida vascular plants (on-line resource).
• Webster's third new international dictionary.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Catharanthus roseus.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Catharanthus roseus.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Catharanthus roseus.

Synonyms:

• (≡) Ammocallis rosea (L.) Small
  
• (≡) Lochnera rosea (L.) Rchb.
  
• (≡) Vinca rosea L. (basionym)
  (previously associated with 5 accessions)

Check other web resources for Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don:

• PLANTS: USDA-NRCS Database of Plants of the United States and its Territories
• BONAP: North American Plant Atlas of the Biota of North America Program
• Flora del Conosur: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Conosur
• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• AVH: Australia's Virtual Herbarium
• ABRS: Australian Biological Resources Study Flora of Australia online
• SIBIS: South African National Biodiversity Institute's (SANBI) Integrated Biodiversity System
• TROPICOS: Nomenclatural and Specimen Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• GRIN Images of germplasm accessions.
• Seed: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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