Jasminum mesnyi Hance
primrose jasmine
Evergreen, almost glabrous, suberect or rambling shrub; stems long, green, angular, arching. Lvs opposite, 3-foliolate; petiole 1-1.5 cm long. Terminal leaflet shortly petiolulate, 3-7 × 1-2 cm, lanceolate to elliptic, entire; base narrow-cuneate; apex mucronate; lateral leaflets sessile, smaller, but otherwise similar. Fls solitary, on short peduncles bearing several leafy bracts to c. 1 cm long. Calyx 7-10 mm long, divided almost to base; lobes lanceolate or narrow-elliptic, glabrate or puberulent above, acute or mucronulate. Corolla c. 3 cm long, yellow, semi-double; tube c. 1 cm long, narrow-funnelform; lobes each divided up to 10 times, mostly 1.5-2 cm long, broad-elliptic, glabrous, almost patent, with rounded apex. Style = length of tube. Fr. not seen.
N.: Auckland area, Opotiki district (E. Bay of Plenty), Gisborne.
W. China 1981
Abandoned gardens, waste places by streams and roadsides.
FL Jan-Dec.
Primrose jasmine is abundantly cultivated in parks and gardens in warmer parts, especially N. of the Volcanic Plateau. The large rambling bushes sometimes reproduce and spread by stem layers but it is nowhere more than a minor escape from cultivation.
J. mesnyi is sometimes confused with its near relative J. nudiflorum Lindley, another cultivated, yellow-flowered jasmine with opposite lvs, but J. nudiflorum is deciduous, the fls are smaller, and it is mainly grown in colder parts of the country. J. mesnyi has previously been known in N.Z. as J. primulinum.
