Floridata: Jasminum nitidum

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#186 Jasminum nitidum
Common Names: star jasmine, angelwing jasmine, confederate jasmine, eindmill jasmine
Family: Oleaceae (olive Family)

Get link to this Profile or click for data record #186

Angelwing jasmine's rich green, glossy leaves provide a handsome backdrop for the fragrant white flowers.

Description
Angelwing jasmine is an evergreen or semi-evergreen vine or shrub with sweetly fragrant, snow-white, pinwheel shaped flowers to almost 2 in (5.1 cm) across. The flowers start out as purplish buds and retain some pinkish-purple on the calyx. They bloom at night from late spring and throughout the summer. The leaves are glossy, leathery, elliptic to lance-shaped. They're about 2 in (5.1 cm) long and arranged in pairs opposite each other on the stem. This is a fast-growing, twining vine, that becomes woody with age. It can grow to 20 ft (6.1 m) long but in the garden is often trimmed as a bushy shrub that gets little more than 2-4 ft (0.6-1.2 m) tall.

Location
Jasminum nitidum, the angelwing jasmine is native to Papua New Guinea's Admiralty Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

Culture
Light: Full sun to almost full sun. Angelwing jasmine doesn't do well in shade.
Moisture: Needs regular watering, especially during the growing season.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 10 - 11. Angelwing jasmine is frost-tender. It can be grown with winter protection in zone 9. In Zone 8 it freezes to the ground. If mulched the vine will regrow in the Spring and flower by late summer.
Propagation: Propagated from semi-hard cuttings in late spring and summer, and by layering.

Usage
Angelwing jasmine is one of the most popular landscaping shrubs in south Florida. It responds very well to heavy pruning. Use it in hedges, as a foundation plant, or as a shrubby ground cover. Angelwing jasmine is best as a rather loose, informal shrub, since it needs a lot of pruning to keep it compact. Angelwing jasmine also makes a fine container plant. Use it in a planter box on the deck or near the home entrance where its intense sweet fragrance can be appreciated. Allowed to climb, angelwing jasmine can be used to cover a fence or trellis. It has moderate salt tolerance and is adaptable to most any soil.

Features
There are about 200 species of jasmines, all native to the Old World. Jasmine perfumes are made from the flowers of several species, including the aptly named Jasminum odoratissimum, an evergreen shrub from the Canary Islands. Jasmine tea is flavored with the flowers of Arabian jasmine (Jasminum sambac), which, despite its common name, is thought to have come from southeastern Asia, but has been in cultivation for so long that no one is sure where it originated.

Members of the genus Jasminum are the true jasmines, but many unrelated plants with strongly fragrant flowers are also called jasmine. Confederate jasmine, which also is called star jasmine, (Trachelospermum jasminoides) is an evergreen vine in the Apocynaceae or dogbane family. Chilean jasmine (Mandevilla laxa) also is in the dogbane family. Night-blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) is a nightshade (Solanaceae). South Carolina's state flower, Carolina jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens), is in the Loganiaceae.

Steve Christman 1/16/00; updated 8/10/04

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