Pandorea Pandorana

''Pandorea pandorana'', commonly known as the wonga wonga vine or wonga-vine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Bignoniaceae and is native to Australia, Malesia and the southwestern Pacific region. It is a woody scrambler or climber with pinnate leaves, juvenile leaves differing from those of mature plants. The flowers are tubular or funnel-shaped and white with purple markings and the fruit are capsules containing winged seeds. It is easy species to germinate and is a popular garden plant. Common cultivars include the yellow-flowered ''P.'' 'Golden Showers', the white-flowered ''P.'' 'Snowbells', and the pinkish ''P.'' 'Ruby Belle'. The wood was used in making spears for woomeras in the Central and Western deserts.

Description

''Pandorea pandorana'' is a glabrous woody climber or scrambler, sometimes reaching a height of or more. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs and pinnate, those of juvenile plants long with eight to seventeen wavy-edged leaflets. Adult leaves have mostly three to nine egg-shaped leaflets on a petiole long, the leaflets long and wide on petiolules long.

The flowers are arranged in groups up to long with several to many thyrses. The flowers are pendent, tubular or funnel-shaped, each on a pedicel long and white to cream-coloured with purple markings. The sepals are long and joined at the base with lobes about long. The petal tube is long, the tubular part more or less straight and in diameter, bearded on the inside, the lobes long. Flowering occurs from June to December followed in summer by oblong capsules long and wide containing a large number of winged seeds.

Taxonomy

Wonga wonga vine was first formally described in 1800 by English botanist Henry Cranke Andrews who gave it the name ''Bignonia pandorana'' in ''The Botanist's Repository for New, and Rare Plants'' from specimens grown in London by Lee and Kennedy from seed collected on Norfolk Island by Colonel Paterson. In 1928 Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis gave the species its present name. Both the generic and specific name are derived from Greek mythological figure Pandora. The Scottish botanist Robert Brown had described it as ''Tecoma australis'' but this name was ruled invalid.

In 1862, Louis Édouard Bureau formally described ''Tecoma austrocaledonica'' in the '' Bulletin de la Société botanique de France'', later reduced to ''Pandorea pandorana'' subsp. ''austrocaledonica'' by Peter Shaw Green, but that name is not accepted by the Australian Plant Census.

Distribution and habitat

A highly variable species, it is found across continental Australia in every state. It is also found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. It is also found on Flinders Island in Bass Strait, but not on mainland Tasmania. In New Zealand the species has become naturalised within disturbed native vegetation near parks and gardens in which it is cultivated.

It occurs in many habitats, from rainforest, to dry sclerophyll forest, to dry scrub and rocky outcrops in arid regions. It can grow in either clay or sand-based soils.

Uses

Uses by Indigenous Australians

The highly flexible wood of ''Pandorea pandorana'' was the most sought-after for use in woomera-cast spears among the people of the Central and Western Deserts. Its versatility allowed short pieces to be spliced together if longer ones could not be found. Due to its cultural significance, a group of mythological women with slender and flexible bodies were named after it.

Use in horticulture

''Pandorea pandorana'' was first raised in England in 1793 by Lee and Kennedy at their nursery in Hammersmith and had flowered in cultivation by 1805. Material was also sent to the garden of the Château de Malmaison under the auspices of Joséphine de Beauharnais. Its floral display makes it a popular and widely grown garden plant. It is an evergreen, half-hardy (hardy to about minus 5 °C once established), twining plant with lovely foliage, particularly so on young plants when it is very finely cut and somewhat fern-like. It is suitable for indoor or outdoor planting. Pruning is necessary to control the quick growing plant, which can overwhelm other plants in a small garden. The plant prefers full-sun to partial shade. It has been argued that the more sun it receives, the more flowers will bloom as a result. The species may be propagated by fresh seed, layering or semi-hardwood tip cuttings.

The Nursery and Garden Industry in Australia promoted ''P. pandorana'' as a native alternative to the invasive garden climber Black-eyed Susan (''Thunbergia alata'').

Cultivars

Several different coloured cultivars are available, including:
*'Golden Showers' - a long-flowering vigorous form with brown-tinted yellow flowers originally selected from a plant growing near Kempsey on the New South Wales mid-north coast Initially called "Golden Rain", it was registered by ACRA in 1987.
*'Ruby Belle' has a red-pink flower with cream throat
*'Ruby Heart' has a cream-coloured flower with a deep ruby–maroon blotch at the throat
*'Snowbells' - a vigorous cream-white flowered form, with profuse fragrant flowers

Cultural reference

Judith Wright had her poem, "Wonga vine" published in '' The Bulletin'' on 22 December 1948.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7130740

pandorana
Vines
Lamiales of Australia
Flora of Queensland
Flora of South Australia
Flora of Tasmania
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Victoria (Australia)
Eudicots of Western Australia
Flora of the Lesser Sunda Islands
Flora of the Maluku Islands
Flora of New Caledonia
Flora of Papuasia
Flora of Vanuatu
Garden plants of Australia
Plants described in 1800
Taxa named by Henry Cranke Andrews