The Handbook on Oleanders

Barbara Bush

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... It is strange that a little mud

should echo with sounds, syllables and letters

should rise up and call a mountain popocatapetl,

And a green-leafed wood Oleande.. .

 W.H. Turner,

Talking With Soldiers

Nomenclature

Origin of the Latin Name

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, a botanist of the late 17th century (1656-1708), established the genus Nerion in 1700; the name was later Latinized by Linnaeus who, in 1737, changed it to Nerium as it is known today.

The best description we have for the origin of the genus is from the Dutch taxonomist F.J.J. Pagen. In Part One of his book Oleanders: Nerium L. and the oleander cultivars, he tells us that the name Nerium is derived from the Greek word nerion and was used by Dioscorides to indicate the oleander. Supposedly the name refers to the Greek sea-god Nereus and his fifty daughters, the Nereides. The ancient Greek maintained holy forests planted exclusively with oleanders and garnished altars to honour the Nereides who were considered to be infallible guides. Others suggest that nerion is derived from the Greek news, meaning "moist," a reference to areas of available water where oleanders were most likely found in an arid countryside. According to Pliny, the Greeks also knew oleanders by the names Rhododendros and Rhododaphne.

The specific epithet oleander is derived from two languages; olea, in Latin, meaning olive tree (the leaves of the olive and the oleander are similar and were thus thought to be related) and dendron, the Greek term for "tree" or "shrub." Linnaeus applied the binomial Nerium oleander in his Species Plantarum in 1753.

Classification of Species

Although the literature is replete with references to numerous species, authorities today agree that the genus Nerium contains only one species, Nerium oleander L., with N. indicum Mill. and N. odorum Ait. being superseded names.

The contemporary authority A.J.M. Leeuwenberg published a series of revisions of the Apocynaceae in 1984. Pagen states that from comparative studies of several hundreds of herbarium specimens and many living plants in gardens, Leeuwenberg concludes that they all should be considered members of the single species Nerium oleander L.

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Let Woodward, house of Woodward,

rejoice with Nerium the Rose-laurel,...

Christopher Smart,

Rejoice in the Lamb, 1756-63

Traditional Common and Vernacular Names

Common names for plants, in addition to being easier to remember since they are in "plain English" rather than Latin, are often wonderfully descriptive, give us some interesting bit of information about the plant we might not otherwise have known, or spark our humorous imagination with such outrageous images as "Fairy- Elephant's-Feet". At the same time, common names can sometimes be confusing or misleading since the same name may be used for several completely different, unrelated plants or the same plant may be known by several totally different names. For example, of the twenty-four plants listed in Hortus III with "jasmine" in the common name, half are not of the genus Jasminum, and of the 206 "lilies" listed, only seventy-two are actually Lilium. On the other hand, the popular house plant usually known as a Ficus Tree is also known as Benjamin Tree, Weeping Ficus, Java Ficus, Laurel, Tropic Laurel, Weeping Laurel and Small-leafed Rubber Plant, and this just in the United States!

There is a wealth of common names for the oleander in other languages, too, as it is so well known in many different countries. In addition to being called "oleander" m many areas of the world, here are some vernacular names:

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An interesting note from Nerium News, (Winter 1988): In Tuscany, Italy, the oleander is known as St. Joseph's Staff which was said to have burst into flower when the Angel announced that he was to marry the Virgin Mary.

In Nature’s infinite book of secrecy

A little I can read,...

Shakespeare,

Athony and Cleopatra

Erroneous Common Names

While developing the Matrimandir Gardens in Auroville, India, we had the opportunity to collect seeds and plant material of many genera listed under the common name Oleander, some of which were truly oleanders and some not. Hundreds of years ago plant explorers and collectors did not have the benefit of ready reference to the work of others in the field, often identifying flora in the same country. The identification of taxa is easier today in our age of almost instantaneous data access and much of the confusion in synonymy of genera and species is being clarified as taxonomists access global databases. At the same time, we are experiencing an explosion of new plant cultivars and plants are being transported around the globe in ever greater numbers. Keeping up with the names of new cultivars as they are developed and different names for the same cultivars when they are introduced into different areas of the country, or into different countries, presents a challenge.

The following is a list of some of the plants commonly known as Oleanders:

(Note the specific epithets for the last two in the list; "nerii", referring to Nerium and "folius" or "folium", referring to foliage, tell us that the plant has leaves similar to oleanders.)

There is a language, "little known”,

Lovers claim it as their own,

Its symbols smile upon the land,

Wrought by Nature’s wondrous hand;

And in their silent beauty speak,

Of life and joy, to those who seek

For Love Divine and sunny hours

In the language of the flowers.

J.W.H. (1913)

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