Plant Family:Belongs to the Apocynaceae family, which includes the large Ditta Bark Tree (Alstonia scholaris), Frangipani or Plumeria (Plumeria rubra), and another Allamanda with a larger flower (A. hendersonii).

Description: Beautiful, quick-growing, woody shrub, sometimes trained as a clambering vine 6 m (20 ft) or more high, with poisonous milky sap; flowering and fruiting year-round; leaves in whorls, usually 4 per node, dark green and pointed, smooth, shiny, with waxy surface, 8-10 cm long (3-4 in); attractive, usually bright yellow flowers, are large, five petaled, bell shaped, 8-13 cm across (3-5 in), usually in a bunch of 3-4; purple and cream varieties also known; fruit a large, spiny capsule; all parts of plant considered toxic; leaves contain a cathartic (purgative), hence name of plant.

Natural Habitat: Grows well in most soils of tropics and sub-tropics, but becomes chlorotic in very alkaline conditions; propagation by seed and cuttings.

Origin and Distribution: Native of Brazil; now naturalized throughout Caribbean, and found in tropics and sub-tropics in general.

Uses: Ornamental specimen shrub on lawns, roadsides or on walls and trellises.

Indigenous Legends: Genus Allamanda named after Swiss physician Frederic Allamand who visited Suriname in 1756 and 1760 and sent his botanical notes back to Switzerland to Carl Linnaeus, the "Father of Taxonomy".

References:
G.W. Lennox and S.A. Seddon. Flowers of the Caribbean. Macmillan, London 1978
Dorothy P. Storer. Familiar Trees and Cultivated Plants of Jamaica. Macmillan, London 1964.
C.D. Adams. Flowering Plants of Jamaica. University of the West Indies, Mona, Glasgow University Press 1972
Plant Families. Botany Dept, Univ Hawaii, Hawaii, 2004 (botany.hawaii.edu)
Allamanda. Top Tropicals, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 2005 (toptropicals.com)
Robert A. DeFilipps. Useful Plants of the Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1998