Campsis radicans (L.) Seem.

  • Authority

    Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bignoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Campsis radicans (L.) Bureau

  • Type

    Type. Specimen without data (Bignonia 6) (LINN).

  • Synonyms

    Bignonia radicans L., Tecoma radicans, Campsis curtisii Seem.

  • Description

    Species Description - Vine, often climbing by adventitious rootlets, the branchlets inconspicuously lepidote to varyingly puberulous. Leaves 5-11-foliolate, the leaflets elliptic to ovate-elliptic, acuminate, truncate or obtuse to cuneate at base, sharply and rather coarsely serrate, 1.5-8 cm long, 0.8-3.5 cm wide, sparsely pubescent with long flexuous simple trichomes along main veins and sometimes over surface below, above puberulous at least at base of midvein; petiolules 0.5 mm long, longer on basal leaflets. Inflorescence a few-flowered terminal panicle, occasionally reduced to a short raceme. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, 12-25 mm long, 9-14 mm wide, sharply and evenly 5-dentate, the teeth acuminate or apiculate, glabrous or inconspicuously lepidote-glandular, with a few plate-shaped glands near base of teeth; corolla orange or red-orange (rarely yellow), tubular-campanulate above a narrowly cylindric base, 5.5-8 cm long, 1.4-2.5 cm wide at mouth of tube, the lobes 1-1.5 cm long, glabrous outside and inside except the shortly ciliate lobes and short-stalked lepidote glands at stamen insertion, the lobes inside also with a minutely glandular surface; stamens didynamous, included, the thecae divaricate, 3-4 mm long, held not far below mouth of tube; pistil 4.5-7 cm long, the ovary flattened-ellipsoid, lepidote, 4-5 mm long, 2 mm wide, slightly narrowing at base into top of conical-pulvinate disk, this ca. 2 mm long and 4 mm wide. Fruit a narrowly oblong to linear-ellipsoid capsule, stipitate, acuminate at apex, the valves smooth and subwoody, 10-28 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, glabrous except for inconspicuous lepidote scales and scattered plate-shaped glands; seeds thin, bialate, ca. 0.5-0.6 mm long, 12-20 mm wide, the membranaceous wings brownish-hyaline.

  • Distribution

    Native to eastern North America; infrequently cultivated in the montane Neotropics and in South Temperate South America.

    North America|