Gardenia is a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Madagascar, Pacific Islands,[1] and Australia.

[1][5][6][7][8] The flowers, particularly in the species most commonly grown in gardens, may be large and showy and white, cream or pale yellow in color, with a pleasant and strong, sometimes overpowering scent that may be more noticeable at night, something quite typical of moth-pollinated plants.

The flowers vary across species, but most commonly have a funnel- or cylindrical-shaped corolla tube, normally elongated and narrow distally, surrounded by 5-12 or more lobes (petals) contorted or arranged in an overlapping pattern.

[13] Gordonin is a novel methoxylated flavonol secreted in golden-colored resinous droplets of Gardenia gordonii,[citation needed] which is one of several critically endangered species of the Fiji Islands.

Methoxylated and oxygenated flavonols, flavones, and triterpenes accumulate on the vegetative and floral buds as yellow to brown droplets of secreted resins.

Its fruit is used as a yellow dye,[19] used on fabric and food (including the Korean mung bean jelly called hwangpomuk).

In The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton suggests it was customary for upper-class men from New York City to wear a gardenia in their buttonhole during the Gilded Age.,[21] Sigmund Freud remarked to the poet H.D.

Trader Vic frequently used the gardenia as a flower garnish in his tiki drinks, such as in the scorpion and outrigger tiara cocktails.