Jasmine

Plant Characteristics
Habit		vine-climber
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial
Origin:	✈	temperate/tropical Old World

Cultivation

Features:	✓	flowers, fragrance

Scientific Names
Oleaceae >	Jasminum >

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Read about Jasmine in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
Jasminium (Arabic name, from which have come Jessamine, Jasmin and Jasminum). Oleaceae. Jasmine. Jessamine. Climbing or erect shrubs, with attractive flowers, mostly very fragrant, prized for planting in mild climates and frequently grown under glass. Leaves opposite or alternate, pinnate but sometimes reduced to 1 lft.(petiole jointed): fls. on the ends of the branchlets, or twin, or in dichotomous cymes; corolla yellow or white, sometimes reddish, salver-shaped, the 4-9 or more lobes convolute in the bud, much exceeding the calyx; stamens 2, included in the corolla-tube; ovary 2-loculed, with 1-4 erect ovules: fr. a 2-lobed berry, or sometimes the carpels separate, the carpels mostly 2-seeded.—Probably upwards of 200 species, widely distributed in warm parts of Eu., Asia, Afr., and the Pacific region; nearly absent from Amer. The genus is closely allied to Ligustrum, but differs in the compound lvs. and twin-carpeled frs. Olea is also a related genus. Jasmines are of diverse horticultural groups. Some of them are hardy in the middle and southern states, whereas others are winter-flowering warmhouse plants. Most of them are known as coolhouse or temperate- house shrubs, of half-climbing habit. They are all of easy culture. They propagate readily by cuttings of nearly mature wood and by layers. The species are usually called jasmines although the word jessamine is really the same. J. officinale is the jessamine of poetry. Some of them (particularly J. grandiflorum) are grown for perfume-making. The Cape jessamine is Gardenia, although there is a Jasminum capense. Yellow or Carolina jessamine is Gelsemium. The hardiest kinds are J. humile, J. fruticans, J. floridum, J. nudiflorum, J. primulinum, J. officinale, but none of them is reliable north of Washington without protection, and even then only seldom north of Philadelphia. Index affice, 13. anastomosans, 2. angulare, 15. aureum, 17. azoricum, 12. beesianum, 11. capenae, 15. flarum, 20. floribundum, 14. floridum. 23. fruticans, 19. glabratum, 15. gracile, 1. gracillimum, 8. grandiflorum, 16. hirsutum, 7. humile, 20. ligustrifolium, 3. lucidum, 1. luleum, 19. maingayi. 10. multiflorum, 7. multipartitum, 4. nitidum, 9. nudiflorum, 17. odoratissimum, 22. officinale, 13. poeticum, 13. primulinum, 18. pubescens, 7. pubigerum, 21. reevesii, 20. revolutum, 20. rigidum, 3. sambac, 5. sieboldianum, 17. simplicifolium, 1. subulaium, 23. syriacum, 19. trifoliatum, 5. trinerve, 2. triumphans, 20. undulatum, 6. wallichianum, 20. J. auriculatum, vahl. scandent. pubescent or nearly glabrous: lvs. mostly simple but sometimes 3-foliolate and the lateral lfts. reduced to auricles: fls. white, in compound many-fld. cymes; corolla-tube 1/2in. or less long, the lobes elliptic and 1/4in. long. India. B.R. 264.—J. calcareum, Muell., is a spring- and summer- blooming Australian twining quite glabrous species with white fls. and simple, opposite, thick, 3- or 5-nerved lvs.—J. didymum, Forst. Climber: fls. small, white, in narrow axillary cymes which exceed the lvs.: lvs. opposite, ternate; Ifts. often retuse. Austral. B.M. 6349. Said to be an excellent warmhouse species.— J. Giroldii, Diels. Branches angled, hairy: lvs. alternate, 3-5-foli- olate; lfts. lanceolate, somewhat obtuse or apiculate, the terminal one longer: corymb terminal, about 3-5-fid.; calyx-segma, subulate, hispid: corolla yellow, the tube 6-8 times longer than calyx, the lobes apiculate. China. Allied to J. humile and J. pubigerum.— J. paniculalum. Roxbg. Evergreen climber, suitable for warmhouse: lvs. opposite, 3 foliolate: lfts. elliptic, obtuse: fls. white, in cymes: corolla-tube 1/2in. long. China. B.R. 690. L.B.C. 5:469.—J. polyanthum, Franch., a Chinese species in the way of J. grandiflorum, may be expected to appear in cult, in greenhouses. Fls. white inside, reddish outside, long-tubed, very fragrant: lvs. opposite, with about 5 long-acuminate lfts: sts. long and sarmentose. R.H. 1891, p. 270. L. H. B. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.