Gelsemium

Gelsemium is a genus of flowering plants belonging to family Gelsemiaceae. The genus contains three species of shrubs to straggling or twining climbers. Two species are native to North America, and one to China and Southeast Asia.

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Carolus Linnaeus first classified G. sempervirens as Bignonia sempervirens in 1753; Antoine Laurent de Jussieu renamed the genus in 1789. Gelsemium is a Latinized form of the Italian word for jasmine, gelsomino.

All three species of this genus are poisonous. Gelsemium has been shown to contain methoxyindoles.^[1]

Species

• G. elegans. Twining climber, native to India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, northern Myanmar, northern Thailand, Vietnam, and the Chinese provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang. Found in scrubby forests and thickets from 200-2000 meters elevation.
• G. rankinii. Rankin's Jessamine, Swamp Jessamine, Rankin's Trumpetflower. Native to southeastern United States.
• G. sempervirens. Yellow Jessamine, Carolina Jessamine, Evening Trumpetflower. Native to southeastern United States from Virginia to Texas and south through Mexico to Guatemala. It is commonly grown as a garden flower worldwide.

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