Natural History
Tubular flowers of yellow jessamine in early spring
Photo credit: Mary Keim (Flickr ID Mary Keim).
Used under a Creative Commons license. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License
Yellow jessamine is a climbing vine that is native to the southeastern United States. It is known by several names, including Carolina jessamine, poor man's rope, or yellow jasmin.
It has also been known as "The Pride of Augusta," because it is found abundantly near Augusta, Georgia. Yellow jessamine is the state flower of South Carolina and it appears on that state's quarter along with the Carolina wren and the cabbage palmetto.
Yellow jessamine is particularly noticeable because it has showy, yellow flowers that appear in late winter or early spring when few other plants are in bloom. In some strains of the plant, the flowers are very fragrant and send a sweet, prevailing scent through the wintery woods.