When does yellow jessamine bloom in South Carolina?

Most often in April. Across 97 dated, research-grade observations of Gelsemium sempervirens in South Carolina, the flowering season runs roughly February to April.

Peak April In flower 97 Examined 120 State South Carolina

Flowering 97 in flower of 120 examined

63%

81%

92%

100%

Proportion of examined Gelsemium sempervirens in South Carolina in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	5	8	63%	31% to 86%
Feb	22	27	81%	63% to 92%
Mar	58	63	92%	83% to 97%
Apr	9	9	100%	70% to 100%
May	0	2	too few examined
Jun	0	2	too few examined
Jul	0	1	too few examined
Aug	0	0	too few examined
Sep	0	0	too few examined
Oct	0	0	too few examined
Nov	1	4	too few examined
Dec	2	4	too few examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Gelsemium sempervirens in South Carolina observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 97 of 120 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in South Carolina found Gelsemium sempervirens in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in South Carolina, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Gelsemium sempervirens

yellow jessamine

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in South Carolina. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.