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Gelsemiaceae
Carolina Jessamine
Gelsemium sempervirens
Springtime, hospitality, southern charm.
- Family
- Gelsemiaceae
- Genus
- Gelsemium
- Native to
- Southeastern United States
- Bloom season
- Winter, Spring
- Type
- Evergreen vine
- Height
- 3–6 m (10–20 ft) climbing
- Sunlight
- Full sun to part shade
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- 7–10
- Lifespan
- Long-lived perennial
Did you know
- Carolina jessamine is the state flower of South Carolina—chosen because its fragrant golden trumpets are the very first flowers to announce spring across the entire South.
- Despite its sweet honey scent and innocent appearance, every part of the plant is dangerously toxic—it contains gelsemine, an alkaloid related to strychnine, and even nectar-eating honeybees can die from gathering its pollen.
- Children in old Southern villages were warned never to suck the sweet nectar from the trumpet flowers, no matter how tempting—it could cause paralysis and death.
- The vine is famously evergreen and one of the very few flowering vines that bloom in late January and February in Southern climates, when nothing else is awake.
- Despite its toxicity, the plant was historically used in tiny doses by 19th-century homeopaths as a treatment for migraines and neuralgia—now considered too dangerous for medicinal use.
Color meanings
0
springtime
1
hospitality
2
southern charm