Madagascar Periwinkle

An extract from the root is used for the cure of blood cancer. Flowers are also used as a remedy for diabetes.

Cultivated for medicine. Decoction of all parts is used in the treatment of malaria, skin diseases, Hodgkin's disease, diarrhea, hypertension, and diabetes.

Perennial subshrub, woody at base, 30-60 cm tall, young branches pubescent. Leaves oblong or oblanceolate, membranous, 2.5-6 x 1.5-3 cm, entire, obtuse or mucronate, base obtuse or cuneate, glabrous or sparingly hairy specially on nerves beneath, shining green above, paler below, lateral nerves obscure; petiole short, 3-10 mm long, with many glands at the axil. Inflorescence of axillary 1-4 flowered cymes, Flowers pink or white, pedicel 1-3 mm long. Calyx tube short, lobes linear acute, 5-7 mm long, hairy. Corolla tube 20-25 mm long, sparsely pubescent above, throat densely hairy within below the stamens, lobes oblong-rounded, or obovate, 15-25 mm long spreading Disc scales higher than ovary, c. 2-3 mm long. Ovary pubescent; style c. 2.5 cm long; stigma pentagonal. Follicles 2, slender, cylindric, striated. 15-25 mm long.

Subshrubs or perennial herbs to 1 m tall, erect or decumbent. Young stems puberulent. Leaves obovate or elliptic, 2.5-9 X 1-3.5 cm, herbaceous, apex minutely apiculate; lateral veins 7-11 pairs. Corolla red to pink or white and then mostly with a pink or less often yellow eye; tube 2.5-3 cm, pilose inside, throat villous; lobes broadly obovate, 1.2-2 cm. Follicles 2-3.8 cm X ca. 3 mm. Fl. spring-autumn. 2n = 16.

Native of tropical America; widely naturalised elsewhere in the tropics.

Distribution: A native of Madagascar, widely cultivated and naturalized in tropics and subtropics of both hemisphere.

150-1500 m

Fl. Per.: Throughout the year.

Fujian, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [native to Madagascar, cultivated or naturalized in all tropical countries]

Vinca rosea Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 944. 1759; Ammocallis rosea (Linnaeus) Small; Catharanthus roseus var. albus G. Don; Lochnera rosea (Linnaeus) Reichenbach ex Endlicher; L. rosea var. alba (G. Don) Hubbard; L. rosea var. flava Tsiang; Pervinca rosea (Linnaeus) Moench; V. rosea var. alba (G. Don) Sweet.