With a scent that can reportedly travel between 300-500 ft, it has been called the world’s strongest smelling plant. The Night Blooming Jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) flowers up to four times a year with bats and moths as the primary pollinators. It is a subtropical plant, now grown in gardens even in temperate climates due to its magically sweet scent.
Night-Blooming Jasmines are known in some cultures to have psychoactive effects, and there is some concern for toxicity (it is a member of the nightshade family, after all). It is said that deeply inhaling enough of the scent is enough to produce an altered state. Yet, normally enjoying the scent waft through the air will not harm you. Another practice is placing the flowers in a vase on the nightstand in order to induce vivid dreams.
#ethnobotany #ethnopharm #nightbloomingjasmine #cestrumnocturnum #psychoactive #hallucination #Mayan #westindies #Southamerica #centralamerica #tropical #gardening #aromatherapy
Photo by SKsiddhartthan