Mexican Orange                CHOIZ-e-a ter-NA-ta

• Broadleaf evergreen shrub, 5-8 ft (1.5-2.4 m), dense and rounded.  Leaves opposite, palmately compound, 3 leaflets (ternata = in threes), each 2.5-7.5 cm long, glossy, sessile, rounded, lustrous green, when crushed they emit a pungent odor.  Flowers fragrant, white, (each ca. 2.5 cm wide) in 3-6 flowered-clusters (corymbs) at end of shoots.  Blooms for an extended period.
• Sun.  Well-drained, acid, moist soil.  In the Pacific Northwest an established plant does not need summer water.
• The cultivar ‘Sundance’ has golden yellow foliage and grows at a slower rate.  A few other cultivars are mentioned in the woody plant literature but they rather difficult to located in US commerce.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 7    Native to Mexico.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: on the west side of the south entrance to Dearborn on Campus Way.