Carolina or Yellow Jessamine is defined by the New International Encyclopedia as "A climbing plant which grows upon trees and fences and bears a profusion of yellow, funnel-shaped flowers an inch in diameter, with a fragrance similar to that of the true Jasmine."
Its odor on a damp evening or morning fills the atmosphere with a rare and delicate sweetness.
Officially adopted as the state flower by the General Assembly of South Carolina on February 1, 1924, for the following reasons:
it is indigenous to every nook and corner of the State;
it is the first premonitor of coming Spring;
its fragrance greets us first in the woodland and its delicate flower suggests the pureness of gold;
its perpetual return out of the dead Winter suggests the lesson of constancy in, loyalty to and patriotism in the service of the State.
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