Starry gardenia
Gardenia thunbergia Thunb.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 3.4 m
- wide
- 2.1 m
Rubiaceae
Also called Forest Gardenia, Cape Jessamine, Starry Gardenia, White Gardenia, Wild Gardenia
Formerly Caquepiria bergkia, Gardenia appendiculata, Gardenia macrocarpa, Gardenia medicinalis, and 1 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Shrub or treeKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- SubtropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- S. Mozambique to Cape Prov.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from SANBI PlantZAfrica, Missouri Botanical Garden and UF/IFAS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by 2 of 3 sources. Sources differ: SANBI PlantZAfrica full, part; Missouri Botanical Garden part; UF/IFAS full
- Height
- 1.8 m to 5.0 mRead from SANBI PlantZAfrica, Missouri Botanical Garden and UF/IFAS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by 2 of 3 sources. Sources differ: SANBI PlantZAfrica 2–5 m; Missouri Botanical Garden 6–15 ft; UF/IFAS 6–20 ft
- Spread
- 1.2 m to 3.0 mRead from Missouri Botanical Garden, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from Missouri Botanical Garden and SANBI PlantZAfrica, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Flowers
- WhiteRead from RHS, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -1 °C (USDA zone 10a)Read from SANBI PlantZAfrica and Missouri Botanical Garden, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: SANBI PlantZAfrica -1 °C; Missouri Botanical Garden -1.1 °C
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (6)
- Chinese (China)
- 南非栀子
- Chinese
- 南非梔子, 樹梔子
- Afrikaans
- boskatjiepiering, Buffelsbal, Katjiepiering
- root
- mulemajungwa, umvalasangwane, kilindila-mgunda
- Russian
- Гардения Тунберга
- Spanish
- Gardenia silvestre
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- SANBI PlantZAfrica, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Missouri Botanical Garden, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- UF/IFAS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-24, Public domain
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- 3D model: Gardenia thunbergia (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.