When did the yellow jasmine become the state flower?

Answer 1

The yellow jasmine is NOT the SC state flower. The South Carolina State flower is the Yellow Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens. Refer to the web site: http://www.50states.com/flower/southcarolina.htm from which the following extract is taken.

"On March 14, 1923, the South Carolina General Assembly took its first steps toward the adoption of an official state flower when they approved Joint Resolution No. 534. The resolution set out the provisions, by which a commission would be appointed to recommend an appropriate flower to represent the state. The resolution specified that the commission be comprised of "...two members from the House of Representatives, to be appointed by the Speaker, and one member from the Senate to be appointed by the President of the Senate." The commission completed their work and presented their report to the General Assembly the following year in February 1924. According to the Legislative Manual of the Seventy-seventh General Assembly of South Carolina, at Columbia, First Session..., "...on the report of a select legislative commission consisting of Senator T. B. Butler of Gaffney, and Representatives G. B. Ellison, of Columbia, and T. S. Heyward, of Buffton, the General Assembly on February 1, 1924, adopted as the State flower the yellow jessamine, called also the Carolina jessamine [Gelsemium sempervirens]." The report of the commission and their recommendation that the yellow jessamine be named the official flower of South Carolina was approved by the General Assembly on February 1, 1924. Reasons given for adoption of the yellow jessamine were that, "...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." South Carolina has two official flowers. In 2003, the state adopted the goldenrod as the official state wildflower." Many people incorrectly use the word jasmine, perhaps because it is more familiar.