Vinca [L. ]

Introduction:

Catharanthus roseus, the Madagascar periwinkle or rosy periwinkle, is an attractive small subshrub with graceful pink or white salverform flowers. Native to southeastern and eastern Madagascar, the plant is easily cultivated, and European colonists exported it widely as an ornamental. It is now grown almost worldwide, and is found naturalized in most tropical and subtropical regions following escapes from cultivation. Madagascar periwinkle was used in Madagascar, and in many of the countries to which it was later spread, as a folk treatment for diabetes. Researchers investigating its medicinal properties discovered that it contained a group of alkaloids that, though extremely toxic, had potential uses in cancer treatment. Two of these alkaloids, vincristine and vinblastine, can be used in purified form to treat common types of leukemia and lymphoma. The discovery of vincristine is credited with raising the survival rate of childhood leukemia from under 10% to over 90%. Thousands of children’s lives have therefore been saved by an extract of this humble garden plant.

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Habitat:

Madagascar periwinkle is a tolerant plant that can become established in a variety of tropical and subtropical habitats. In Madagascar, the plant’s native home, it has been collected in open woods, shrublands, grasslands, and disturbed areas, along roadsides, and on beaches and limestone rocks. It is found from sea level to 900 m altitude, on a variety of substrates.

Reference

van Bergen, M. A. 1996. Revision of Catharanthus G. Don. Series of revisions of Apocynaceae XLI. Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 96-3: 9-46.

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Rights holder/Author	Wendy L. Applequist
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Conservation:

Catharanthus roseus is not of conservation concern. Although forests in Madagascar are highly threatened by human activity, C. roseus is also able to thrive in disturbed areas, and it has become established in the wild in many other countries.

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Distribution :

Native to Madagascar, the Madagascar periwinkle has been spread worldwide as a cultivated ornamental. It may now be found naturalized in almost every tropical and subtropical region of the world, occurring on every continent except Antarctica and on many islands. No single available distribution map reflects its complete range; for example, no specimens from Papua New Guinea are present in the dataset used to generate the map on this page.

References

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

USDA PLANTS profile for Catharanthus roseus

van Bergen, M. A. 1996. Revision of Catharanthus G. Don. Series of revisions of Apocynaceae XLI. Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 96-3: 9-46.

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Rights holder/Author	Missouri Botanical Garden, Wendy L. Applequist, w3TROPICOS
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Research Resources:

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Rights holder/Author	Wendy L. Applequist
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Editor's Links:

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Rights holder/Author	Wendy L. Applequist
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Literature References:

Farnsworth, N. R. 1961. The pharmacognosy of the periwinkles: Vinca and Catharanthus. Lloydia 24: 105-138.

Kulkarni, R. N., Y. Sreevalli and K. Baskaran. 2005. Allelic differences at two loci govern different mechanisms of intraflower self-pollination in self-pollinating strains of periwinkle. J. Hered. 96: 71-77.

Moreno, P. R. H., R. van der Heijden and R. Verpoorte. 1995. Cell and tissue cultures of Catharanthus roseus: A literature survey. Plant Cell Tiss. Org. Cult. 42: 1-25.

Pacheco, J. M. 1980. Contribuicao ao estudio anatomico da especia Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don var. roseus (Apocynaceae). Rodriguesia 32: 39-54.

Plaizier, A. C. 1981. A revision of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don (Apocynaceae). Meded. Landbouwhogesch. Wageningen 81(9): 1-12.

Snoeijer, W. 1996. Catharanthus roseus, the Madagascar Periwinkle, a review of its cultivars. Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 96(3): 47-120.

Sreevalli, Y., R. N. Kulkarni and K. Baskaran. 2002. Inheritance of flower color in periwinkle: orange-red corolla and white eye. J. Hered. 93: 55-58.

Taylor, W. I. and N. R. Farnsworth, eds. 1975. The Catharanthus Alkaloids: Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Clinical Use. M. Dekker, New York.

van Bergen, M. A. 1996. Revision of Catharanthus G. Don. Series of revisions of Apocynaceae XLI. Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 96(3): 9-46.

van der Heijden, R., D. I. Jacobs, W. Snoeijer, D. Hallard and R. Verpoorte. 2004. The Catharanthus alkaloids: pharmacognosy and biotechnology. Curr. Med. Chem. 11: 607-628.

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Rights holder/Author	Wendy L. Applequist
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Nomenclatural History:

Madagascar periwinkle was initially named Vinca rosea L. The synonym Pervinca rosea (L.) Moench was published in 1794. Pervinca is a synonym of Vinca; the first species described within Pervinca were species previously and currently placed within Vinca. It eventually became clear that Linnaeus’ circumscription of Vinca had been too broad: the Madagascar periwinkle and its immediate relatives were distinct from the Vinca periwinkles and should be separated into a different genus. Upon the publication of Catharanthus for that purpose (in 1837), the correct name of the species became Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. Following that date, two other authors also described new genera to include C. roseus, creating the synonyms Lochnera rosea (L.) Rchb. ex Endl. and Ammocallis rosea (L.) Small. Because the name C. roseus is older, it has priority over these names.

References

van Bergen, M. A. 1996. Revision of Catharanthus G. Don. Series of revisions of Apocynaceae XLI. Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 96-3: 9-46.

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Image of the original publication of Vinca rosea

Image of the original publication of Catharanthus roseus

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Rights holder/Author	Wendy L. Applequist
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Physical Description:

Perennial subshrub or herb, usually erect, 30–100 cm high and at least somewhat woody at the base, sometimes sprawling. Leaves opposite, borne on short petioles, 2.5–9.0 cm long, usually elliptical to obovate, green with paler veins (at least in living plants); leaf apex rounded to acute with a tiny point extending from the midrib. Stems and leaves usually pubescent, sometimes hairless. Flowers borne in leaf axils, either singly or paired on very short stalks. Sepals 5, 2–6 mm long, narrow, usually pubescent. Corolla salverform, with a long narrow tube and lobes that spread perpendicular to the tube and almost flat (like a tray or "salver"); corolla tube greenish, usually at least 2.2 cm long, with the inside of the mouth often dark pink or sometimes yellow, pubescent inside the throat with rings of stiff hairs below the mouth and anthers; corolla lobes 5, pink to white or pinkish purple, 1.0–2.8 cm long, obovate. Anthers 5, attached to the inside of the corolla tube in the upper portion and concealed within it. Ovary split into two separate carpels, which above those are fused into a single style and a pistil head having a complicated structure, with a recurved basal veil and a densely pubescent ring below the cylinder that bears the stigma lobes. Fruit two narrow, linear-cylindrical follicles developing from the separate carpels, often only one maturing per flower, 2.0–4.7 cm long, with numerous small black seeds.

References

Forster, P. I. 1996. Apocynaceae. Fl. Australia 28: 104–196.

Li P.-T., A. J. M. Leeuwenberg, and D. J. Middleton. 1995. Apocynaceae. Pp. 143–188 in Wu Z.-Y. and P. H. Raven, eds., Flora of China vol. 16. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, MO.

Markgraf, F. 1976. Apocynacées. Fl. Madagascar 169: 1–318.

Plaizier, A. C. 1985. Catharanthus. Fl. Zambesiaca 7(2): 453–456.

van Bergen, M. A. 1996. Revision of Catharanthus G. Don. Series of revisions of Apocynaceae XLI. Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 96-3: 9–46.

License	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Rights holder/Author	Wendy L. Applequist
Source	No source database.

Nomenclature and synonymy:

In addition to the basionym or original name, Vinca rosea L., other nomenclatural synonyms of Catharanthus roseus include Ammocallis rosea (L.) Small, Lochnera rosea (L.) Rchb. ex Endl., and Pervinca rosea (L.) Moench. Vinca guilelmi-waldemarii Klotzsch was recognized as a heterotypic synonym in the most recent revision (van Bergen, 1996).

References

van Bergen, M. A. 1996. Revision of Catharanthus G. Don. Series of revisions of Apocynaceae XLI. Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 96-3: 9-46.

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