Early last week I was headed home from work and I began noticing a few bright yellow flowers on and around some of the roadside fence lines (I had seen some smaller yellow flowers on the ground a couple weeks earlier). As the week progressed, the patches of flowers kept getting larger and larger. There was one spot in particular where there was almost a blanket of yellow flowers draped over one of the fence. Of course, this bunch of them was right on a curve with very little shoulder, so I had to go find a safe place to park and walk nearly a mile to get back to them. While I was walking along the roadside I also noticed quite a few other flowers just getting started growing and blossoming on the side of that road. If there was any doubt (which in my mind there wasn’t), it’s definitely safe to say spring has begun in north central Florida!

When I made it back to the flowers I was looking for (there were several smaller patches along the way) it was much easier to see that the lush yellow blanket was made up of hundreds of about 1 inch long, trumpet shaped flowers. The flowers were on a vine that had spread across the grass from the edge of the woods and then twined itself around the fence and fence posts. It kind of reminded me of the Alamo vine, the way it climbed. There was a layer of flowers on the ground, and you could see the vine and flowers wrapping around two large pine trees. Many of the flowers were open, but about two thirds of them were still buds getting near to opening. Once I was up close to them (and not going 55 mph), I recognized them right away as Carolina jessamine also known as yellow jessamine. Over the years I’ve known several people who have used it in their gardens to climb and hide fences or go up trellises. I had never realized that it would also grow wild, though.

When I did a little research (check out gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu for loads of great information about Florida plants), I found out that not only does Carolina jessamine grow wild in Florida, but it is actually a native plant! It is naturally found from Virginia south into Mexico and South America and west into Arkansas and Texas. It is actually the state flower of South Carolina. I also learned that it is considered highly toxic to people, livestock, and most domestic pets. Like most other toxic plants, most animals won’t eat it unless there is nothing else available since it has a high alkaloid content and isn’t palatable. Interestingly, it is toxic enough that it can kill honey bees if they ingest too much of the nectar, and honey made from the nectar can be toxic to people! The flowers have a sweet fragrance that is definitely attractive to most wasps, butterflies, ants, and other pollinating insects, but seems to be harmless to all but bees.

Carolina jessamine is a plant that definitely likes a lot of sun, so in the wild it is usually found at the edges of the woods or in clearings. In areas with tall trees, it will actually climb the trees and spread through the canopies to maximize the amounts of sunlight it gets. Another favorite area for jessamine to grow is along the roadside (where I found it) again because of there being plenty of sun. My research also indicated that Carolina jessamine does tend to be one of the first things to flower in the spring, too. It’s always kind of gratifying to find out that what you noticed is also what the experts have seen!