Night-Flowering Jasmine

Nyctanthes arbor-tristis is a shrub or small tree up to 10 metres tall, native to South and South-East Asia. It is called night-blooming jasmine, tree of sorrow, coral jasmine, shiuli and parijata, though the page stresses it is not a true jasmine. The name tree of sorrow comes from the foliage drooping as the flowers fall in the early morning. The flowers are fragrant, with a white corolla and an orange-red centre. The leaves are used in Ayurvedic medicine and homoeopathy for sciatica, arthritis and fevers, and as a laxative, and the corolla yields an orange dye, nyctanthin, for silk. The flowers make garlands for worship. It is the state flower of West Bengal, and its flowers are offered to the goddess Durga at Durga Puja. The page says the Mahabharata and the Puranas describe the parijata as a divine tree, and Krishna is described as battling Indra to uproot it from Amaravati and plant it in Dvaraka.