Picture by Michelle Johnson

Due to shorter days and longer nights during the winter, many people go without any winter color in their gardens. But there are certain flowering plants that flourish in the South during these times such as Jasminum nudiflorum, commonly known as Winter Jasmine. Winter Jasmine was first introduced into America in 1844, but the plant is a native of China.

"This charming relative of the Olive tree is native to China. It is a spreading fountain of arching branches that creates a rounded, many stemmed shrub about four feet high to six or seven feet wide. The fine, willowy stems are bright grass green, a refreshing character in itself in winter, but from January to early spring, the branches are sparkling with lemon yellow, Forsythia-like blooms. Winter Jasmines's flowers are more pastel yellow that Forsythia and open more gradually throughout the blooming period and so have less of that visual freight train effect that masses of Forsythia often create. The foliage of Winter Jasmine is also quite lovely. The glossy, emerald green leaves are divided into three leaflets and cover the branches as if they had been sprinkled with shamrocks in the spring, summer and fall." (See Reference #1)

To give a more technical description of Winter Jasmine, the leaves are "opposite, pinnately compound, 3 leaflets, each leaflet ovate to oblong-ovate, 1/2 to 1/4" long, [and] one third to half as wide" (See Reference #2). The leaves are "narrowed at [the] ends, mucronulate, entire, ciliolate, [and] deep lustrous green [with] petiole[s] 1/3" long" (ref. 2).

Sketch by Michael Dirr, see ref. 2.