Japanese Jasmine

Very common in Rawalpindi gardens for spring flowers.

Shrub twiggy, glabrous; branches 4-angled, overhanging. Leaves opposite, up to 10 cm long, petiolate, trifoliolate; leaflets sessile or subsessile, narrowly elliptic to oblong-lanceolate or oval, apiculate, dark green above, paler beneath, venation closed. Flowers scentless, solitary on axillary peduncles. Calyx short; lobes 6, c. 5 mm long. Corolla bright yellow, orange in the throat, single or double, tube stout, lobes usually 6, obovate, rounded, c. 2.5 cm long. Fruit a didymous or simple berry, ellipsoid, up to 1 cm long and 6 mm in diameter, each part containing 1 or 2 seeds.

Subshrubs erect, evergreen, 0.5-5 m. Branchlets 4-angled, glabrous. Leaves opposite, 3-foliolate or simple at base of branchlets; petiole 0.5-1.5 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate or elliptic, sometimes suborbicular, 3-5 × 1.5-2.5 cm, along with leaflet blade subleathery, glabrescent, veins obscure; leaflet blade narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, base cuneate, apex blunt and mucronulate, terminal one 2.5-6.5 × 0.5-2.2 cm, basally decurrent into a short petiolule, lateral ones sessile, 1.5-4 × 0.6-2 cm. Flowers usually solitary, axillary or rarely terminal; bracts leafy, obovate or lanceolate, 5-10 mm. Pedicel 3-8 mm. Calyx campanulate; lobes 5-8, leafy, lanceolate, 4-7 mm. Corolla yellow, funnelform, 2-4.5 cm in diam.; tube 1-1.5 cm; lobes 6-8, doubled in cultivation, broadly obovate or oblong, 1.1-1.8 cm. Berry ellipsoid, 6-8 mm in diam. Fl. Nov-Aug, fr. Mar-May. 2n = 24, 26*.

Distribution: Yunan, China. Now extensively cultivated throughout the tropical and subtropical parts of the world.

Guizhou, SW Sichuan, Yunnan.

Fl. Per: February-March.

* Ravines, woods; 500-2600 m.

Jasminum primulinum Hemsley.

Jasminum mesnyi, the primrose jasmine or Japanese jasmine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Oleaceae, native to Vietnam and southern China (Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan). It is also reportedly naturalized in Mexico, Honduras and parts of the southern United States (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona).

Jasminum mesnyi is a scrambling evergreen shrub growing to 3 m (10 ft) tall by 1–2 m (3–7 ft) wide, with fragrant yellow flowers in spring and summer. The form usually found in cultivation has semi-double flowers. It is not frost-hardy. With suitable support it can be grown as a slender climber, though in confined spaces it will require regular pruning.

Jasminum mesnyi has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Variation in flower form

Single

Semi-double