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Wisteria sinensis
Also called Chinese Glycine
Chinese wisteria is a vigorous deciduous climbing vine in the pea family, grown for its fragrant hanging flower clusters in spring. Give it a strong support and full sun, and expect it to need regular pruning to keep flowering.
Wisteria sinensis, commonly known as the Chinese wisteria, is a species of flowering plant in the pea family, native to China, in the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Yunnan. Growing 20–30 m (66–98 ft) tall, it is a deciduous vine. It is widely cultivated in temperate regions for its twisting stems and masses of scented flowers in hanging racemes, in spring.
Wisteria sinensis was unknown in the west before 1816, when several agents of the East India Company working in China sent cuttings back to England. Over the next several decades the plant became, and remains, one of the quintessential ornamental vines in temperate gardens worldwide. A 200-year-old specimen, growing at Griffin's Brewery in Chiswick, London, is often cited as the UK's oldest living wisteria plant.
It has become an invasive species in some areas of the eastern United States where the climate closely matches that of China.
Silky Wisteria · Japanese wisteria · American wisteria · Wisterias
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Wisteria sinensis 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.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
