Jasminum laurifolium Roxb. ex Hornem.

Subtropical Himalaya (Kumaun to Nepal, ?Bhutan), Khasia, Burma, W. China.

500 m

Jasminum laurifolium Roxburgh

Jasminum laurifolium Roxburgh, Hort. Beng., 3, 1814 [nom. nud.]; Fl. Ind., 1:91, 1820.

Jasminum angustifolium var. laurifolium Ker, Bot. Reg., 7: t. 521, 1821.

Jasminum nitidum Auct. [non Skan], Kew Bull., 1898:225, 1898.

Shrub or climber, twigs appressed puberulent; leaves unifoliolate ovate to ovate lanceolate, 5–9 × 2–3.5 cm, apex strongly acuminate, bases rounded to acutish, glabrous above except for puberulence on main nerves especially beneath, a principal pair of veins from at or near base and strongly ascending make the leaf appear trinervate, 2–4 weaker veins on each side farther up, anastomosing into an obscure coarse network, petiole 4–6 mm long, strongly appressed pubescent, articulated at about the middle, the lower half persistent after the leaflet has fallen; flowers slightly fragrant, 1–7 in short terminal racemes, lower pedicels occasionally dichasioid-ramified, pedicels 1.5–2 cm long, puberulent, patent to ascending; calyx tube campanulate, to 3 mm long, lobes 6, filiform-subulate, sparsely puberulent, about 1 to 1.5 cm long, patent to ascending, straight; corolla salverform, white within, reddish purple without, tube 15–20 mm long, 1–1.5 mm thick, almost imperceptibly dilated in upper third, lobes 9–11 not or scarcely contorted in bud, buds sharply pointed, lobes about equaling tube, linear lanceolate, acute to acuminate, stamens and style included in corolla tube, stigma exserted; fruit unavailable.

A pantropically distributed cultivated species native to India. Cultivated in Tahiti where it is called jasmin-étoile.

SPECIMENS SEEN.—Uahuka I.: Vaipae’e, cultivated, 1–10 m, Decker 1466 (US, P). Hivaoa I.: Atuona, planted in garden, 5 m, Sachet 1286 (US).

Jasminum laurifolium, the angel-wing jasmine, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Jasminum, native to the Himalayas, Nepal, Assam, Bangladesh, Tibet, south-central and southeast China, Hainan, Myanmar, and Thailand. Its putative form Jasminum laurifolium f. nitidum has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.