Night-blooming Jasmine
DO NOT PLANT: HPWRA Score: 17, High-Risk
Night-blooming Jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum), is a highly invasive plant in the horticultural trade. This plant has been observed growing in native koa forests, preventing new koa seedlings from establishing. It is found thriving in areas where there are no homes! Birds, attracted to the white pea-sized fruit, consume the fruit containing viable seed and fly away where they excrete the seed, which survives passage through the bird’s gut. It is tough to control in a landscape once established and considered one of Hawai’i’s worst invasive plants.
Abundant flowers. 
Thickets of night-blooming jasmine have completely taken over the understory of this koa forest in Kā‛ū.
Photos: BIISC
Impacts:
- Matures quickly and forms dense thickets
- Self-compatible
- Spread by seed and vegetatively
- Unpalatable to grazing animals
- Scent of flowers can cause respiratory issues in some people
Description:
- Fast-growing, woody, sprawling shrub that can grow 6′-20′ tall
- Branches are often long and curve downward
- Tubular, white and highly fragrant flowers
- The leaves are shiny, alternate, and elliptical shaped that can get up to 6″ long
- The fruits are white and pea-sized with a styrofoam-like texture, each containing 10 seeds
