This plant is commonly known as the yellow jasmine, because it is highly scented. It is a winter-flowering evergreen plant that can climb up to six metres high. It is native to the USA and new in cultivation. The plant can stand cool conditions, even a little bit of frost. It is tuberous-rooted, producing a tap root. The leaves, roots and flowers are poisonous when ingested. Gelsemium is an ideal plant for in the full sun, but it will also grow and flower well in the shade. In the wild, it attracts hummingbirds and swallow-tail butterflies.
The flowers look very similar to those of Adeniums and Pachypodiums, but it is not in the Apocynaceae family, but in the Gelsemiaceae. The plant can be propagated by seed or softwood cuttings. The latter method is more likely to be used because the seed, when ripe, explodes and is thrown all over the greenhouse in a similar way to the seed of ruellias. Two plants are needed for pollination.
As I have not had this plant for very long, I do not yet know which pests might be a problem.
Gelsemium sempervirens
Gelsemium sempervirens
Paul Shirley Succulents 