Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Cestrum diurnum; photograph (c) Josiah Londerée, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Josiah Londerée, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-15

Cestrum diurnum L.

Day jessamine; Day flowering jessamine; Wild Jasmine; Day queen

Solanaceae · Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +4

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Cestrum diurnum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCestrum diurnum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCestrum diurnum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCestrum diurnum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCestrum diurnum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCestrum diurnum, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 53 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.9°C
Record low 11.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,303mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cestrum diurnum is a species of Cestrum, native to the West Indies. Common names include day-blooming cestrum, day-blooming jessamine, and day-blooming jasmine. Also known as Din ka Raja (king of the day), in Urdu and Hindi. The scent of this quick-growing and evergreen woody shrub, often used for screens and borders, is released by day. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cestrum diurnum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Cestrum

Cestrum is a genus of — depending on authority — 150-250 species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. They are native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from the southernmost United States south to the Bío-Bío Region in central Chile. They are colloquially known as cestrums or jessamines.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cestrum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (829 mm of 1,167 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.3 °C against a yearly mean of 25.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,167 mm in the median year at the habitat, 829 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 198 mm, driest month February at 33 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 716 mm to 1,454 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,303 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,167 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.9 °C, the absolute minimum 11.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 14.8 °C to 22.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.6 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -20 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cestrum diurnum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.3 °C; 1,167 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 24–43RH 58–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 51 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 23–2927 / 25–3028 / 26–3331 / 27–3531 / 28–3631 / 28–3432 / 28–3432 / 29–3431 / 28–3329 / 28–3128 / 27–3027 / 23–29
Night °C19 / 15–2320 / 16–2321 / 17–2423 / 20–2524 / 22–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 23–2623 / 21–2622 / 18–2520 / 16–24
Rain mm36 / 23–7833 / 20–5934 / 12–5943 / 17–7899 / 55–166175 / 120–249157 / 97–208156 / 97–242198 / 127–245143 / 80–20153 / 35–10640 / 27–77
DLI26 / 24–2831 / 29–3337 / 34–3943 / 39–4442 / 40–4440 / 36–4242 / 38–4440 / 37–4135 / 33–3731 / 29–3227 / 25–2924 / 23–27
RH %59 / 58–6159 / 57–6158 / 55–6058 / 54–6160 / 55–6363 / 59–6562 / 59–6563 / 60–6564 / 63–6663 / 61–6561 / 58–6360 / 58–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 51 grid cells holding the 64 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1337:1955 (23.125, -82.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 51 distinct grid cells holding 64 of the 64 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1337:1955 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_-82.500, lapse-corrected -20 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 29 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Cuba · introduced: Kenya, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Florida, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker20.967, -89.622 · in the densest population, 80 records (70% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 114 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 64 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 98 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 509 km away. 532 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 50 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 114 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cestrum diurnum, photograph 1did not loadCestrum diurnum, photograph 2did not loadCestrum diurnum, photograph 3did not loadCestrum diurnum, photograph 4did not loadCestrum diurnum, photograph 5did not loadCestrum diurnum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Angelonia angustifolia Angelonia angustifolia Narrowleaf angelon Photo: CC BY, saltyhikerProsthechea boothiana Prosthechea boothiana Dollar orchid Photo: CC BY-SA, Jalil R.Piscidia piscipula Piscidia piscipula Florida fishpoison tree Photo: CC BY, Sebastián de Jesús Herrera BuenfilJacquemontia pentanthos Jacquemontia pentanthos Skyblue clustervine Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCallicarpa acuminata Callicarpa acuminata Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffMorinda royoc Morinda royoc Redgal Photo: CC BY, Tom Field

Other Cestrum 17 in the reference

Cestrum alternifolium Alternateleaf jessamine Cestrum aurantiacum Cestrum aurantiacum Orange cestrum Photo: CC BY, Angus CampbellCestrum auriculatum Cestrum auriculatum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, CbresciaCestrum buxifolium Cestrum buxifolium Black beauty cestrum Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeCestrum elegans Cestrum elegans Purple cestrum Photo: CC0, author not statedCestrum fasciculatum Cestrum fasciculatum Early jessamine Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelCestrum glanduliferum Cestrum glanduliferum Glandbearing cestrum Photo: CC BY, José Belem Hernández DíazCestrum laevigatum Cestrum laevigatum Inkberry Bush Photo: CC0, author not statedCestrum mutisii Cestrum mutisii Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos TorrenteCestrum nocturnum Cestrum nocturnum Night jessamine Photo: CC BY, Will CornwellCestrum parqui Cestrum parqui Green cestrum Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda Pose Cestrum psittacinum Solanaceae all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cestrum album; Cestrum diurnum var. diurnum; Cestrum diurnum var. fasciatiflorum; Cestrum diurnum var. fastigiatum; Cestrum diurnum var. marcianum and 13 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Cestrum nocturnum Griseb. is an older name of this species, not Cestrum nocturnum, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest +3
Wild records
114 in range · 98 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 30 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (25 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_-82.500, lapse-corrected -20 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 66 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…