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Periwinkle
Catharanthus
Catharanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. Like the genus Vinca, they are known commonly as periwinkles. It is a perennial herb and a subshrub endemic to Madagascar, with the exception of Catharanthus pusillus (commonly known as the tiny periwinkle), which is found in India and Sri Lanka. The most widely known species is Catharanthus roseus due to its usage in traditional and modern medicine, specifically as a source of cancer-treating alkaloid chemicals.
8 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Madagascar Periwinkle
speciesCatharanthus roseus
Catharanthus ovalis
speciesCatharanthus ovalis
Tiny Periwinkle
speciesCatharanthus pusillus
Catharanthus lanceus
speciesCatharanthus lanceus
Catharanthus trichophyllus
speciesCatharanthus trichophyllus
Catharanthus scitulus
speciesCatharanthus scitulus
Catharanthus coriaceus
speciesCatharanthus coriaceus
Catharanthus longifolius
speciesCatharanthus longifolius
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Catharanthus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 62926.