Star Jasmine

Trachelospermum jasminoides is a flowering plant of the dogbane family, native to Japan, Korea, southern China and Vietnam, called Confederate jasmine, star jasmine, Confederate jessamine and Chinese star jessamine. It is an evergreen twining liana up to 3 metres high that sends out aerial roots on wet surfaces and, like most of its family, gives off a white latex when cut. The oval leaves are dark green in summer and bronze in winter, and the fragrant white flowers appear in spring and early summer. It is grown as an ornamental, a climber, a ground cover and a potted plant, and has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. A valuable perfume oil is taken from the steam-distilled or tinctured flowers for high-end perfumery, and in dilute form the tinctured flowers are much used in Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai incenses. The stems yield a bast fibre.