Family: Solanaceae
Native to Mexico, Cestrum elegans is sparingly cultivated in Hawaiʻi. It has a leggy and sprawling appearance. Alternately arranged leaves are green in color and ovate shaped. Purple flowers are funnel-shaped with five shallowly lobed petals.
It is listed as a significant weed in parts of Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. It can invade, transform, and degrade intact forests and disturbed sites. Many seeds are produced each year, remaining viable yet dormant in a wide range of soil types for up to eight years.
The plant readily reproduces by vegetative fragments and cuttings. Seeds are dispersed by way of humans, water, and birds. All parts of the plant are poisonous to humans, and animals-livestock can die within an hour of consuming the plant.
Description and Dispersal:
- Leggy and sprawling with arching branches
- Younger stems are clothed with purple hair
- Ovate shaped green leaves with a pointed tip are alternately arranged
- Leaves emit a bad smell when crushed
- Clusters of purple funnel-shaped flowers are born at the branch tips
- Seeds are wind, water and bird dispersed
High Risk Traits:
- Thrives in high elevation tropical climates
- Naturalized in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere (but no evidence in Hawaiian Islands to date)
- An environmental weed in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
- Other Cestrum species are invasive
- Toxic to animals and people
- Shade tolerant
- Tolerates many soil types
- Climbing habit
- Forms dense thickets that prevent regeneration of native species
- Reproduces by seeds and vegetatively by suckers and stem fragments
- Able to reach maturity in <5 years
- Seeds dispersed by birds, other frugivorous animals, water and intentionally planted by people
- Dispersed by stem fragments in garden waste and by water
- Forms a persistent seed bank (up to 8 years)
- Resprouts after cutting (without herbicide treatment)
Low Risk Traits:
- Unarmed (no spines, thorns, or burrs)
- Valued as an ornamental
- Bird-pollinated; could limit seed production in areas lacking effective bird pollinators
- Herbicides may provide effective control
