Duranta erecta 'Variegata'

This variegated cultivated form of a species native from Mexico to northern South America and from southern Florida through the Caribbean is an evergreen shrub with a dense canopy and arching branches. Its opposite, oval leaves are green with cream to pale yellow margins. Small, five-lobed blue to purple flowers grow in drooping clusters and have a light, vanilla-like fragrance. Round orange-yellow fruits develop in hanging clusters. The shrub is grown for its foliage, flowers and fruit and is used for hedges, screens and container planting. Its leaves and fruits are toxic if eaten. The species has escaped cultivation in coastal Queensland, Australia, where birds spread its seeds into bushland. Photographed in Cali, Colombia.