What is the difference between gardenia and jasmine? A quick guide to tell them apart

1. Flowers

First, in terms of blooming time, although their flowers both start blooming in May and June, the former generally only blooms until August, while the latter can bloom until November. Then in terms of flower shape, the former generally bears single flowers, while the latter usually has three or more flowers blooming together; the former's calyx generally splits into 5 lobes, the latter's into 8-9.

2. Leaves

If they haven't bloomed yet, we can tell them apart by their leaves. Although both have oval leaves that are very dark green and glossy, they have one very obvious difference, which is length. The former's leaves generally grow to about 12 in length, while the latter's generally grow 3-8cm long, so from this point we can easily distinguish them.

3. Flower buds

If it's April or May when they are growing flower buds, we can also distinguish them by this. By comparison, the former's flower buds are more pointed, while the latter's are rounder.

4. Fruit

The former's fruit is egg-shaped and relatively large, 1.5-7cm long and 1.2-2cm in diameter, mostly yellow or orange-red, with straight ridges on it and a hollow cavity inside containing many seeds, while the latter's fruit is spherical and relatively small, about 1cm in diameter, and purple-black.

5. Branches

We can also part its leaves and observe its main branches to distinguish them. The former's branches are gray, while the latter's are brown.