Several species are grown as
ornamental plants for their strongly scented flowers. Numerous cultivars have been produced for garden use, of which 'Newellii' has gained the
Royal Horticultural Society's
Award of Garden Merit.
C. laevigatum is employed by
wajacas (
shamans) of the
Krahô tribe in Brazil. It is used "to see far", i.e. to aid in divination. Like the other
hallucinogenic plants consumed by them, Craós
wajacas consider it a potent
entheogen, not to be taken by the uninitiated.
Cestrum species are used as food by the
caterpillars of several
Lepidoptera species. These include the
glasswing (
Greta oto), the Antillean clearwing (
Greta diaphanus) and
Manduca afflicta, which possibly feeds only on day-blooming cestrum. It is either known or suspected that such Lepidoptera are able to sequester the toxins from the plant, making them noxious to many
predators.
Cestrum species are reported as
piscicidal. ==Selected species==