''Wisteria floribunda'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Growing to , it is a woody,

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

twining climber. It was first brought from

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the 1830s. Since then, it has become one of the most highly romanticized flowering

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

plants. It is also a common subject for

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

, along with '' Wisteria sinensis'' (Chinese wisteria). The flowering habit of Japanese wisteria is perhaps the most spectacular of the ''Wisteria'' genus. It sports the longest flower

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s of any wisteria; Some of those cultivars can reach in length. These racemes burst into great trails of clustered white, pink, violet, or blue flowers in early- to mid-

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

. The flowers carry a distinctive fragrance similar to that of

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s. The early flowering time of Japanese wisteria can cause problems in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

climates, where early

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

s can destroy the coming years' flowers. It will also flower only after passing from juvenile to

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

stage, a transition that may take many years just like its cousin Chinese wisteria. Japanese wisteria can grow over long over many supports via powerful

clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite ...

-twining stems. The foliage consists of shiny, dark-green,

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

ly compound leaves in length. The leaves bear 9-13 oblong leaflets that are each long. It also bears numerous

poisonous Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

, brown, velvety, bean-like seed pods long that mature in summer and persist until winter. Japanese wisteria prefers moist soils and full sun in

USDA plant hardiness zones A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

5-9.Purple Patches Japanese Wisteria (includes some growth conditions and US region map)
''www.monrovia.com'', accessed 13 May 2020 The plant often lives over 50 years.

Cultivars

Those marked have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. * 'Burford' — pale violet with purple keel * 'Domino' - pale lilac * or 'Rosea' - pale rose flowers tipped purple, long * ' Perfect' - light lavender flowers * or 'Royal Purple' - dark blue or violet flowers, lightly scented, long clustered bunches, long * 'Jako' or 'Ivory Tower' * 'Kimono' * - violet, scented * or 'Carnea' - pink flower * 'Lawrence' - pale violet flowers, deeper violet keel and wings Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 1

Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 1

* 'Longissima Kyushaku' - mauve-purple flowers on a raceme up to or even in length. means 9 ''

shaku Shaku may refer to: * Shaku (unit) * Shaku (ritual baton) * Buddhist surname In East Asian Buddhism, monks and nuns usually adopt a Buddhist surname and a Dharma name, which are combined in the surname-first East-Asian naming order. Since the 4th c ...

'' and in the

International System of Units The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. E ...

it means . The origin of this cultivar is a 1200 year-old wisteria tree in Ushijima, Kasukabe City, which had racemes about long in the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

. Also known as or . * 'Macrobotrys' or 'Longissima' - reddish-violet flower clusters or longer * 'Macrobotrys Cascade' - white and pinkish-purple flowers, vigorous grower * 'Nana Richins Purple' - purple flowers * - variegated foliage * 'Plena' or 'Violaceae Plena' - double blue flowers in dense clusters * 'Praecox' or 'Domino' - purple flowers * 'Purpurea' - unknown - may be ''Wisteria sinensis'' 'Consequa', sometimes labeled purpurea * 'Rubra' - unknown - may be 'Honbeni' - sometimes labeled as Rubrum - deep pink to red flowers * (''W. floribunda'' f' ''alba'') - long white flower clusters * 'Texas Purple' - may be a ''sinensis'' or a hybrid, short racemes, purple flowers, produced while the plant is still young * 'Violacea Plena' - double violet flowers, rosette-shaped * 'White with Blue Eye' - also known as 'Sekines Blue' - very fragrant *

Gallery

Wisteria floribunda2.jpg, Racemes with flower buds Wisteria_floribunda8.jpg, Wisteria floribunda flowers Wisteria floribunda MHNT.BOT.2008.1.38.jpg, Wisteria floribunda seeds 足利の藤 (Wisteria trellises in Ashikaga) 29 Apr, 2009 - panoramio.jpg, A great blossoms at

Ashikaga Flower Park Ashikaga (足利) may refer to: * Ashikaga clan (足利氏 ''Ashikaga-shi''), a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Minamoto clan; and that formed the basis of the eponymous shogunate ** Ashikaga shogunate (足利幕府 ''Ashikaga bakufu''), a ...

Ashikaga, Tochigi is a city located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 143,653, in 62,123 households and a population density of 810 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Ashikaga is located in the ...

. The largest wisteria in Japan, it is dated to 1870 and covered approximately . Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 4.jpg, Purple wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 3.jpg, Purple wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 7.jpg, White wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 8.jpg, White wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 9.jpg, Bridge of light pink wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 10.jpg, Light pink wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park Japanese wisteria, Ashikaga Flower Park 11.jpg, Double flowered wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park

References

External links

Japanese Wisteria at MSU

Japanese Wisteria as a pest

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1329209 floribunda Flora of Japan Garden plants of Asia Plants used in bonsai Vines