Wall.
Description
Jasminum dispermum is a scandent or climbing jasmine widely distributed across the Himalaya and montane south-east Asia, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and Bhutan, with outlying records (ID, KR, RU, ZZ) reflecting cultivation and herbarium material. Of more than 400 georeferenced collections, the core range lies along the subtropical-to-temperate forest belt of the Himalayan foothills. It grows in forest margins, scrub, ravines and along streams, scrambling over rocks and shrubs in the warm-temperate zone. The photographed plant from above the Meta-Khola in Nepal at 2250 m, flowering in April, is typical of its lower montane habitat and its spring flowering ahead of the monsoon.
It is a woody, twining shrub or liana with terete, often pubescent branchlets. The leaves are opposite and pinnately compound, usually with five to seven leaflets (sometimes reduced to three or trifoliolate uppermost ones), the leaflets ovate to lanceolate, acuminate and entire. The fragrant flowers are borne in terminal and axillary cymose panicles; each has a small, toothed calyx and a salverform corolla with a slender tube and spreading lobes, white within and frequently flushed pink or rose-purple on the outside in bud. Two stamens are inserted in the corolla tube. The fruit, reflected in the epithet dispermum, is a paired or two-seeded berry that ripens black.
Jasminum is a large Old World genus of the olive family centred on tropical and warm-temperate Asia and Africa, many species prized for their scent. J. dispermum is a vigorous, ornamentally attractive climber, occasionally cultivated, and remains common throughout its native range with no conservation concern. Its nocturnally fragrant, pale flowers suggest pollination by long-tongued moths and other nectar-seeking insects.
Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Green's Synopsis of the Oleaceae