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Gelsemium sempervirens (L.)J.St.-Hil.
Yellow Jessamine
Carolina Jessamine
Evening Trumpetflower
Florida native
A frequent evergreen vine of flatwoods, hammocks and disturbed sites throughout most of Florida except for the southernmost peninsula. The range extends through the southeast, west into Texas and Arkansas, north into Tennessee and Virginia.
Often high-climbing, this vine produces yellow trumpet-shaped flowers, usually appearing between December and April in Florida. The flowers are on short pedicels and may be solitary, or in axillary clusters of 2 to 3. The flower tube is 2.5-3.8 cm (1 to 1-1/2 in.) long with five spreading corolla lobes. The sepals are obtuse - having blunt or rounded apices. The leaves are opposite, simple, entire and lanceolate, 6-9 cm (2-1/2 to 3-1/2 in.) long and 1.5 cm (2/3 in.) wide with a long tapering tip. Fruit is an oblong capsle 1.4-2.5 cm (1/2 to 1 in.) long and 0.8-1.2 cm (<1/2 in.) wide.
All parts of this plant are poisonous. Ingestion can cause death and skin contact can cause dermatitis, prompting another common name, cow itch.
There are two vines in the trumpet creeper (Bignoniaceae) family with opposite leaves each with two leaflets. One is the non-native catclaw vine (Dolichandra unguis-cati), which has flowers that are yellow and the tendril between the leaflets divides into three curved parts (the claw). Another is crossvine (Bignonia capreolata), with tendrils that do not split into three, claw-like parts and it's flowers are reddish-orange.
Gelsemium sempervirens is a member of the Gelsemiaceae - Allspince Jasmine family.
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
iNaturalist profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified: Dec 26, 2025
