It is naturalised in many scattered locales: Mauritius, Madagascar, the Maldives, Christmas Island, Chiapas, Central America, southern Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles.

[10] The species is highly variable, possibly a result of spontaneous mutation, natural hybridization, and autopolyploidy.

Cultivated Jasminum sambac generally do not bear seeds and the plant is reproduced solely by cuttings, layering, marcotting, and other methods of asexual propagation.

Jasminum sambac (and nine other species of the genus) were spread into Arabia and Persia by man, where they were cultivated in gardens.

[18] The J. sambac species is a good source for jasmine flower-oil in terms of the quality of the fragrance and it continues to be cultivated for this purpose for the perfume industry today.

In 1753, Carl Linnaeus first described the plant as Nyctanthes sambac in the first edition of his famous book Systema Naturae.

It is widely grown throughout the tropics from the Arabian Peninsula to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands as an ornamental plant and for its strongly scented flowers.

[12] Open flowers are generally not harvested as a larger amount of them is needed to extract oils and they lose their fragrance sooner.

[6] J. sambac does not tolerate being frozen, so in temperate regions must be grown under glass, in an unheated greenhouse or conservatory.

[30][31] These garlands are available as loose strings of blossoms or as tight clusters of buds, and are commonly sold by vendors outside churches and near street intersections.

Jasminum sambac is the subject of the danza song La Flor de Manila, composed by Dolores Paterno in 1879.

[34][35]Jasminum sambac (Indonesian: melati putih) is one of the three national flowers in Indonesia, the other two being the moon orchid and the giant padma.

[25] Although the official adoption were announced only as recent as 1990 during World Environment Day and enforced by law through Presidential Decree No.

Since the formation of Indonesian republic during the reign of Sukarno, melati putih is always unofficially recognized as the national flower of Indonesia.

It also represents the beauty of modesty; a small and simple white flower that can produce such sweet fragrance.

The intricately intertwined strings of jasmine garlands are left to hang loose from the bride's head.

Jasmine is also used as floral offerings for hyangs, spirits and deities especially among Balinese Hindu, and also often present during funerals.

In South Sumatran traditional costume, the bungo melati pattern in Palembang songket fabrics depicts the jasmine to represent beauty and femininity.

[41] In addition, the flower is also used as a symbol on Mother's Day in Thailand as well which falls on August 12, birthday of Queen Sirikit.

[42][43] In China, the flower (Chinese: 茉莉花; pinyin: Mòlì huā) is processed and used as the main flavoring ingredient in jasmine tea (茉莉花茶).

[10][26] At Indian weddings, the bride often adorns her hair with garlands made of mogra, either around a bun or wrapped across a braid.