Keshav Jeev-Van FoundationHarmony in Diversity
Join the Biodiversity CircleExplore Our Programmes

Plant

Oleander

Nerium oleander

हिन्दी: कनेर

IUCN: Least Concern
Oleander (Nerium oleander) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Jhalana Doongri, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Oleander (Nerium oleander) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Thana, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name
Nerium oleander
Hindi name
कनेर
Family
Apocynaceae, order Gentianales
Group
Plant
Conservation status
Least Concern

A beautiful shrub with a bitter secret.

  • Spot it Narrow leathery leaves in threes and pink-white flowers.
  • Home Dry gardens and roadsides.
  • Food web Hawkmoth caterpillars eat the leaves; most grazers avoid it.
  • Why it matters Hosts hawkmoth caterpillars, feeds bees, and its dense growth holds roadside soil in hot, dry places.

Read more: Nerium on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 4 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2009 and 2026, in Jaipur.[20]

Sources

  1. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (species pages linked on each entry) (database). Global conservation status. Every species page was opened.
  2. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  3. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  5. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

More in Flowering plants