South Carolina's state flower is beautiful, but deadly.

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. The flowers of yellow jessamine are borne in tremendous profusion; they are tubular then separate into five parts. When in bloom, the fragrance from our state flower is powerfully sweet, but it is deadly poisonous to many animals, including us, and not a favorite of invertebrates. Some native bees and butterflies visit it, but it to the Western non-native honey bee it’s toxic. Fortunately, if there are other flowers to visit, those honey bees are not especially attracted to it. Apparently, you should warn kids about this plant as once in a while they mix it up with the non-native invasive yellow honeysuckle, so fun to sip nectar from. Our native red honeysuckle, a beauty in the garden, gives the same nectar when you gently pull the style from the base of the flower.