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Thunder God Vine

Tripterygium regelii

Thunder God Vine
Photo: Qwert1234, Public domain

Tripterygium regelii is a rambling, shrubby deciduous climbing vine from northeast China, Korea and Japan, grown for its small fragrant flowers. Its close relative Thunder God Vine (T. wilfordii) is the medicinal plant, and is highly poisonous.

Family
Celastraceae (Celastr family)
Grows as
Climber, Perennial
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist during the growing season and let the top layer dry slightly before watering again.
Soil
Fertile, well-drained loam; tolerates a range of soil types.
Temperature
10–25 °C; hardy to about -20 °C in the wild range
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Toxic: All parts, especially the roots and bark, contain triterpenoid compounds (celastrol, triptolide) that are highly toxic if eaten; the closely related Thunder God Vine is documented as poisonous.
Native range
NE. China to Korea, Japan (Honshu, Kyushu)
Climate
temperate

About

Tripterygium regelii, or Regel's threewingnut (Pinyin: Dōngběi léigōng téng), is a rambling, shrubby perennial deciduous yellow vine native to Korea, Japan and Manchuria. It grows to about 200 centimetres (79 in). Small very pretty yellowish white or white flowers appear in May–June and are produced on 203–229 millimetres (8.0–9.0 in) long panicles, and smell somewhat of new-mown hay. Fruits are greenish white, 3-angled, and winged.

"Tripterygium wilfordii Hook.f., known as Leigongteng (Thunder God Vine) in traditional Chinese medicine, has attracted much attention for its applications in relieving autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, and for treating cancer. Molecular analyses of the ITS and 5S rDNA sequences indicate that T. hypoglaucum and T. doianum are not distinct from T. wilfordii, while T.

Other Tripterygium plants

Thunder God Vine

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tripterygium regelii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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