Carolina or yellow jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, is a stunning evergreen vine native to the southern U.S. and Mexico south to Guatemala. In Virginia, Carolina jessamine is a coastal beauty, common along the southern and central Coastal Plain north to Lancaster and Northampton counties but rare in the adjacent outer Piedmont. This twining vine is often seen along our roadsides in late March and April in low woods and thickets festooning loblolly trees or scrambling over shrubs or fences. It grows naturally in low flatwoods, swamps, thickets and maritime forests….
