Gardenia candida is a species of asterid flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. This species is endemic to Fiji, where it is known from the Seanggangga Plateau on Vanua Levu. Native gardenias of the Fiji Islands and elsewhere in the paleotropics possess a diverse array of natural products. Methoxylated and oxygenated flavonols and triterpenes accumulate on the vegetative- and floral-buds as yellow to brown droplets of secreted resin. Focused phytochemical studies of these bud exudates have been published, including a population-level study of another rare, sympatric species, G. grievei.Miller, J. M. and S. Sotheeswaran. 1993. Bud exudate composition and ecogeography of Fijian Gardenia species (Rubiaceae). Biotropica 25(1): 117-122
The species was described by Albert Charles Smith in 1953.
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