Jasminum multiflorum
Common Names: downy jasmine, star jasmine
Family: Oleaceae (olive Family)
Description
Downy jasmine can be thought of as an evergreen, branching vine that
can be trained as a shrub, or as a spreading, vine-like shrub. It
usually appears as an open, spreading, weeping mound, 5-10 ft
(1.5-3.1 m) tall and just as wide. The stems and leaves are covered
with a downy pubescence that gives the plant an overall
grayish-green appearance. The leaves are ovate and rounded at the
base, up to 2 in (5.1 cm) long, and opposite each other on the stem.
The white, clustered, star-shaped flowers appear nearly year-round
and are not as fragrant as other jasmines.
Location
Jasminum multiflorum is native to India. The downy jasmine is a
popular landscape plant all over the world. It has escaped
cultivation and become established in disturbed areas scattered
throughout peninsular Florida.
Culture
Downy jasmine is fast-growing and easy to cultivate in acidic to
alkaline soils.
Light: Full sun to partial shade.
Moisture: Moderately drought tolerant.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 9 - 11.
Propagation: Propagate by stem cuttings in summer or fall, or by
layering.
Downy jasmine will twine like a vine to climb or can be pruned
into shrubby shapes.
Usage
Give downy jasmine plenty of room to grow in a sprawling mound, or
pinch the growing tips frequently to maintain it as an orderly
shrub. Downy jasmine is used in foundation plantings, in hedges and
borders, and in mass plantings in large landscapes. Take advantage
of its tendency to vine and sprawl by letting it cascade down a wall
or train it to clamber over a fence.
Features
There are about 200 species of jasmines (or jessamines), 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. An essential oil from
Spanish jasmine, also called common jasmine, (J. grandiflorum) is
used externally to relax the body and soothe dry skin. Jasmine tea
is flavored with the flowers of Arabian jasmine (Jasminum sambac),
which, despite its common name, is thought to have originated in SE
Asia, but has been in cultivation for so long that no one is sure
where it came from.
Many unrelated plants with strongly fragrant flowers are called
jasmine. Confederate jasmine, which also is called star jasmine, (Trachelospermum
jasminoides) is an evergreen (but not fuzzy-leaved) vine or
spreading shrub, 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).
Cape jasmine is another name for the common gardenia (Gardenia
jasminoides) in the Rubiaceae, and South Carolina's state flower,
Carolina jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens), is in the Loganiaceae. |
