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- ›Periwinkles and allies
Periwinkle
Catharanthus
Catharanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. Like genus Vinca, they are known commonly as periwinkles. There are eight known species. Seven are endemic to Madagascar, though one, C. roseus, is widely naturalized around the world. The eighth species, C. pusillus, is native to India and Sri Lanka. The name Catharanthus comes from the Greek for "pure flower".
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.