Carolina Jessamine
Yellow Jessamine
(Gelsemium sempervirens)
Adopted on February 1, 1924
The Carolina Jessamine,
Gelsemium sempervirens, was
officially adopted by the General
Assembly on February 1, 1924, for
the following reasons: it is
indigenous to every nook and corner
of the State; it is the first
premonitor of coming Spring; its
fragrance greets us first in the
woodland and its delicate flower
suggests the pureness of gold; its
perpetual return out of the dead
Winter suggests the lesson of
constancy in, loyalty to and
patriotism in the service of the
State.
"No flower that blooms holds such perfume,
As kindness and sympathy won.
Wherever there grows the sheltering
pine
Is clinging a Yellow Jessamine
vine."
From "Legend of the Yellow
Jessamine," by Mrs. Teresa
Strickland of Anderson, South
Carolina, when the flower was
made the emblem of Dixie
Chapter, U.D.C., about 1906.
The "Carolina or Yellow
Jessamine" is defined by the New
International Encyclopedia as "A
climbing plant which grows upon
trees and fences and bears a
profusion of yellow, funnel-shaped
flowers an inch in diameter, with a
fragrance similar to that of the
true Jasmine." Its odor on a damp
evening or morning fills the
atmosphere with a rare and delicate
sweetness.
"As fair as Southern Chivalry
As pure as truth, and shaped like
stars"
Gelsemium sempervirens belongs to
the family Loganiaceae. It grows in
the piedmont and coastal areas of
the southeastern U.S. It is an early
flowering climbing vine. The flowers
are yellow, funnel shaped, and have
a strong odor. The roots and rhizome
of yellow jessamine were
historically used to treat migraine
headaches and types of neuralgia.
- Common Names:
Carolina Jessamine, Gelber
Jasmin, Jasmin sauvage,
Sariyasemin, and Yellow
Jessamine
- Stem: Thin, wiry,
greenish to brown, glabrous.
- Size: 10 to 20'; will
climb trees or scramble over
fences, rock piles, and other
structures; can develop a 3 to
4' mound of tangled stems if
left to its own devices.
- Leaves: Opposite,
simple, evergreen, lanceolate or
oblong-lanceolate, rarely ovate,
1 to 3 3/4" long, 1/3 as wide,
acute or acuminate, rounded,
lustrous dark green and glabrous
above, entire; short-petioled.
- Leaf Color: Lustrous
dark green developing a slight
yellow-green or purple-green
cast in winter.
- Buds: Several pairs
of scales rather loosely
aggregated together.
- Flowers: Perfect,
yellow, fragrant, solitary or in
cymes, 1 1/2" long, 1" wide,
funnelform with 5 short
imbricate lobes; February into
April; often flowers again in
fall but sporadically; usually
peaks in late March
- Fruit: Compressed, 1
1/2" long, short-beaked capsule,
summer–fall, looks like an old
water bottle.
- Habitat: Twining
evergreen vine with thin, wiry
stems; becomes more dense when
sited in full sun; have used the
species as a ground cover on the
Georgia campus but plants twine
around each other and ascend
every which direction creating a
rather wild and woolly aura,
akin to my never combed hair.
Taxonomic Hierarchy
|
Kingdom |
Plantae -- Plants |
Subkingdom |
Tracheobionta --
Vascular plants |
Superdivision |
Spermatophyta --
Seed plants |
Division |
Magnoliophyta --
Flowering plants |
Class |
Magnoliopsida --
Dicotyledons |
Subclass |
Asteridae – |
Order |
Gentianales – |
Family |
Loganiaceae –
Logania family |
Genus |
Gelsemium
Juss. – trumpetflower |
Species |
Gelsemium
sempervirens (L.)
St. Hil. – evening
trumpetflower |
|