Wrightia religiosa (Teijsm. & Binn.) Hook. fil.

Cultivated for medicine.

Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branchlets thin, terete, often with many lateral short branchlets, minutely puberulent. Petiole 2-4 mm; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or narrowly oblong, 2.5-7.5 X 1.5-3 cm, pubescent along midvein; lateral veins 5-7 pairs. Cymes often on short, few-leaved branches, short pedunculate, 1-13-flowered. Pedicel 1.5-2 cm, thin, finely hairy. Sepals ovate, ca. 1.5 mm. Corolla white, subrotate; tube 3-4 mm, glabrous; lobes ovate, ca. 7 mm, densely pubescent on both surfaces; corona obsolete. Stamens inserted at mouth of corolla tube. Ovaries free. Follicles linear, free, 12-17 cm. Seeds narrowly fusiform, ca. 8 mm, coma to 3.5 cm. Fl. all year. 2n = 22.

S Guangdong [Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam]

Echites religiosa Teijsmann & Binnendijk, Natuurk. Tijdschr. Ned. Indie 27: 34. 1864.

Wrightia religiosa is a species of tree in the family Apocynaceae. Its distribution includes: China (Guangdong), Indochina and Malaysia including the Philippines; no subspecies are listed in the Catalogue of Life.

This species is commonly a bonsai plant, used in pagodas of Indo-China and elsewhere. In Viet Nam, it may be called: Mai chiếu thủy, mai chấn thủy, mai trúc thủy, or lòng mức miên; in English, it has sometimes been translated as water jasmine. It produces small, pendulous white flowers that have a fragrance similar to true jasmine.