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Vinca
Also called Periwinkles [plants], Periwinkles, European Periwinkles
Vinca is a genus of trailing evergreen subshrubs (plus one herbaceous species) grown mainly as ground cover, most often Vinca minor and V. major. It spreads quickly by rooting where stems touch soil, so give it room or contain it.
Vinca (; from Latin vincire "to bind, fetter") is an Old World genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. The English name periwinkle is shared with the related genus Catharanthus (and with the mollusc Littorina littorea). Some Vinca species are cultivated but have also spread invasively. Additionally, some species have medicinal uses. The most widespread species is Vinca minor.
Vinca major and V. minor are extensively cultivated as flowering evergreen ornamental plants. Because the plants are low and spread quickly, they are often used as ground cover in garden landscapes and container gardens. They are also traditionally used in older cemeteries as an evergreen maintenance-free ground cover. Many cultivars are available, with different plant, leaf, and flower colours, sizes, and habits.
The genus is native to Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia.
The vinca alkaloids include at least 86 alkaloids extracted from plants in the genus Vinca. The chemotherapy agent vincristine is extracted from a closely related species, Catharanthus roseus, and is used to treat some leukemias, lymphomas, and childhood cancers, as well as several other types of cancer and some non-cancerous conditions. Vinblastine is a chemical analogue of vincristine and is also used to treat various forms of cancer. Dimeric alkaloids such as vincristine and vinblastine are produced by the coupling the smaller indole alkaloids vindoline and catharanthine. In addition, the nootropic agent vincamine is derived from V. minor. Vinorelbine, a newer semi-synthetic chemotherapeutic agent, is used in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer and is prepared either from the natural products leurosine or catharanthine and vindoline, in both cases by first preparing anhydrovinblastine.
Intermediate Periwinkle · Herbaceous periwinkle · Greater Periwinkle · Lesser Periwinkle
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vinca 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.
