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Flora and Fauna
Don't Let the Laurels Confuse You: They're Really Oleanders
By Virginia Vickers Braun

Pink and white oleanders line the median on Avenida Corregidor in La Molina. (Photo by Virginia Braun)

In Lima, even common plants can be confusing. While the gladiolas always looked familiar, they grow so tall here that at first I didn't recognize them. And the poinsettias, which I've known only as potted Christmas plants, are literally tall as trees. So when I heard that oleanders, those large, colorful shrubs that line the streets, were called laurels, I wasn't sure which name was correct. Officially, their name is Nerium oleander L., but in Lima, they're known as laurels, perhaps because a common name for them in Spanish is laurel rosa.

Nerium comes from Greek, and oleander is from the Italian “oleandro” or “leandro.” The “L.” at the end is for Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), a Swedish naturalist who named the genus Nerium in 1737, a reference to its similarity to olive leaves. Although prolific in Peru, oleanders are native to northern Africa, the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia, including Japan. Closely related to the beautiful and fragrant plumeria (Hawaiian lei flower), which is also blooming now, they belong to the Apocynaceae, or dogbane (dog poison), family.

Oleanders can be dated back to the Nile Valley in 3400-2475 B.C., and there are references to the plants in the Bible. The Phoenicians brought oleanders to Spain, and the English have been growing them for more than 400 years, when they brought seeds from Spain. Spanish settlers brought oleanders to Florida in 1565, and presumably they were also introduced by the Spanish to South America. The plants were first brought to Galveston, Texas on a trading ship, and Galveston is now known as “The Oleander City.”

An evergreen shrub with narrow, dark-green, leather-like leaves, oleanders grow rapidly and can reach heights of 20 feet (6.1 meters) and widths up to 12 feet. The dwarf variety grows to about 4 feet (1.5 meters). Flowers, either single or double, appear in clusters at the ends of the branches. They come in a variety of colors including pink, red, white, salmon and pale yellow. Although the flowers are described as sweet-smelling with a delicate odor of talcum powder, I could detect a fragrance in only the double pink variety. The plants are very attractive to hummingbirds. Shrubs with white or pink flowers are supposed to be the fastest growing, while the red variety is the slowest but most resistant to frost.

Oleanders are very hardy, inexpensive, low maintenance and long blooming. They like bright sun, require little water and bloom from early summer to mid fall. Oleanders are often used as windbreaks, hedges and street plants, since they tolerate heat and exhaust fumes. You can buy them for as little as S/.5.90, but they are easily propagated from cuttings placed in water to root. It's a good idea to prune them once or twice a year so they don't become too “leggy.” You should wear protective gloves while pruning and should not burn the wood, as all parts of the plant are poisonous, including its smoke. It's probably not wise to plant oleander in yards where young children and pets play. One leaf is said to be enough to kill an adult, and I found so many warnings on websites about children being poisoned from using oleander twigs to cook hot dogs over campfires that it seems to have grown into an urban legend. In reality, oleander is so bitter that unintentional poisonings are rare.

White Oleander, a popular novel by Janet Fitch about a woman who killed her lover using poison made from oleander flowers, was a an Oprah Book Club selection in May 1999. A movie based on the book featuring Alison Lohman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Penn Wright and Renee Zellweger followed in 2002. “Majolica Jar with Branches of Oleanders,” painted by Vincent van Gough in 1888, is one of two paintings the famous artist made of oleanders.

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