Plant Name

Scientific Name: Allamanda cathartica

Common Names: Allamanda, Yellow Allamanda, Golden Trumpet

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial, Evergreen

Growth Habit: Vine

Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized ornamental flowering vine is native to northern South America and Brazil.

Flower Color: Yellow

Height: To 20 feet (6 m) or more tall

Description: The flowers are up to 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) long and funnel-shaped with 5 round lobes. The flowers are sometimes followed by spiny, rounded, 1 1/2 inch (4 cm) in diameter seed capsules. The leaves are dark green, leathery, oblong-lanceolate to egg-shaped, and either opposite or in lopsided whorls of 3 or 4 around the stems. The plants either climb nearby shrubs and trees or grow as shrub-like mounds on the ground.

Here in Hawaii, Allamanda grows in wet to mesic (moderately wet) areas at lower elevations and is especially common along roadsides.

Special Characteristics

Poisonous – All parts of the plant are poisonous. If cut or damaged, the foliage oozes white latex that can irritate the skin.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Gentianales
Family: Apocynaceae – Dogbane family
Genus: Allamanda L. – allamanda
Species: Allamanda cathartica L. – golden trumpet