Distribution and Habitat: Native of South America and   West Indies, often planted in India.                                     

Botany: A large, evergreen, glabrous shrub or small tree, 4.5-6 m high, 15 cm diameter. Juice milky poisonous. 

• Leaves:  Spirally arranged. 7.5-12.5 x 0.6-1 cm, crowded, linear, narrowed at both ends, bright green and shining above, margins slightly recurved. Petioles minute.
• Flowers: 5 cm across yellow in terminal cymes. Peduncle usually very short, pedicels about 2.5 cm long, bracts variable. Calyx 6 mm long, divided almost to the base, segments 5, narrow, persistent and spreading in fruit, refluxed when the fruit is ripe. Corolla 5 cm long, tube 1.3 cm long, lobes 5, overlapping to the left in bud. Stamens 5, inserted at the base of the corolla throat, anthers incumbent on the stigma. Ovary superior, stigma broad, ovules 2 in each carpel.
• Fruit: Obovate in longitudinal section 3.2 cm long, exocarp fleshy, black when ripe, mesocarp bony, endocarp thin, corky. Seeds 4 or fewer by suppression.

Properties: emetic, purgative

Chemical constituents: thevetin A, thevetin B, neriifolin, peruvoside and ruvoside

Uses: It is used in skin diseases, leucoderma, eye troubles, bronchitis, intermittent fevers. The plant since contains cardia glycosides is considered as toxic too.

Formulations:     Malatyadi tailam, Mustamriadi churnum   

Propagation: By seeds and stem cuttings.