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Polianthes tuberosa

Common name:	Tuberose	Family:	Agavaceae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Southern N. America - Mexico.
Habitat:	Not known in a truly wild situation[200].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	1	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Double Pearl Tuberose [H], Sedap Malam [E], Sundal Malam [E], Teber [E], Tuberose [P,E], Tutya Cicegi [E],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	tuberosa = tuberous;
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Liliales. Century-plant family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Malaya; Mexico; Mexico(Aztec); Turkey

Physical Characteristics

Bulb growing to 1m by 0.15m . It is hardy to zone 9 and is frost tender. The scented flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). We rate it 1/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

By Walls, By South Wall, By East Wall, By West Wall.

Edible Uses

Flowers.

Flowers - cooked. Used in vegetable soups or added to the substrate of 'kecap', an Indonesian soy sauce[46, 177, 183].
The flowers are the source of tuberosa-flower water[183]. No further details are given.

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

Essential.

An essential oil is obtained from the flowers. It is used in high grade perfumery[46, 61, 171]. 1150kg of flowers yield 1kg absolute essential oil[46, 61].

Cultivation details

Requires a warm sheltered position[200] and a well-drained soil[188]. When grown in pots it is best to use a fibrous loam enriched with compost and some silver sand for drainage[245]. Plants require copious amounts of moisture when starting into growth[245].
Not very hardy outdoors in Britain, this species is often grown in the greenhouse where it can be induced to flower at almost any time of the year[1]. It can also be grown outdoors in warm areas of Britain, planting out the bulbs in spring, harvesting them in the autumn and storing them in sand overwinter in a cool but frost-free place[200].
This species is sometimes cultivated for its edible flowers[183]. They are very strongly scented[200]. The flowers are perhaps the most powerfully scented of all flowers. The perfume is almost intoxicating, especially when the plant is grown in gentle heat when it is heavy and sickly almost to the point of unpleasantness[245]. A double-flowered cultivar, 'The Pearl' has an even more pronounced fragrance[245].
The plant is cultivated for its essential oil in China[61].

Propagation

Seed - we have no information on this species but suggest sowing the seed in spring in a sunny position in a greenhouse. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts.
Division of offsets after the plant has finished flowering in late summer.

Scent

Flowers: Fresh: The flowers are perhaps the most powerfully scented of all flowers. The perfume is almost intoxicating, especially when the plant is grown in gentle heat[245].

Cultivars

'': There are some named forms for this species, but these have been developed for their ornamental value and not for their other uses. Unless you particularly require the special characteristics of any of these cultivars, we would generally recommend that you grow the natural species for its useful properties. We have, therefore, not listed the cultivars in this database[K].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[PHARM] Phytochemical Data (common names, uses, countries) from Dr Duke's Phytochemical Database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[171] Hill. A. F. Economic Botany. The Maple Press 1952
Not very comprehensive, but it is quite readable and goes into some a bit of detail about the plants it does cover.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[188] Brickell. C. The RHS Gardener's Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd. 1990 ISBN 0-86318-386-7
Excellent range of photographs, some cultivation details but very little information on plant uses.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[245] Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World. Robert Hale. London. 1994 ISBN 0-7090-5440-8
An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

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Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Polianthes+tuberosa
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