Campsis radicans, the trumpet vine,[ (also known in North America as cow-itch vine]
Description
C. radicans is a vine that climbs on trees, other plants, or structures or trails along the ground and can grow to a length of up to . From the main vine, rigid or woody arching vines up to long extend outward. The plant can form a dense groundcover or an aggressive liana covering plants or buildings. The leaves are opposite and odd-pinnate compound, meaning there is an odd number of leaflets, with one terminal leaflet.
C. radicans climbs through aerial rootlets and twining stems; these stems grow upwards of 12 m in length.[Wennerberg, S. (2006). Plant Fact Sheet: Trumpet Creeper Campsis radicans. N.R.C.S. United States Department of Agriculture. Baton Rouge, LA. ] Its bark is tan in color, and shreds easily.[ Weakley, A. S. (2015). Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Herbarium. ]
Leaves are up to long with 7 to 13 leaflets that are each about long and wide. The leaflets are emerald green when new, maturing into a shiny dark green. They are ovate to broadly lanceolate and the edges are coarsely serrate.
Inflorescences
The flowers come in terminal cymes of two to eight. Each flower is up to long and trumpet shaped. They are orange to reddish orange in color with a yellowish throat and 5 shallow lobes bending backward. They generally appear after several months of warm weather. The flowers have no floral scent. After flowering, a long seed capsule about long appears, eventually splitting in two to disperse its seeds.
Taxonomy
The flamboyant flowering of Campsis radicans made it obvious to even the least botanically-minded of the first English colonists in Virginia. Consequently, the plant quickly made its way to England early in the 17th century.
Its botanical parentage, as a hardy member of a mostly subtropical group, made its naming problematic: according to John Parkinson, the Virginia settlers were at first calling it a jasmine or a honeysuckle, and then a bellflower; he classed it in the genus Apocynum (dogbane). Joseph Pitton de Tournefort erected a catch-all genus Bignonia in 1700, from which it has since been extricated.[Alice M. Coats, Garden Shrubs and Their Histories (1964) 1992, s.v. "Campsis".]
Etymology
The Latin specific epithet radicans means 'with stems that take root'.
Distribution
Campsis radicans is native to the eastern United States and extreme southern Ontario in Canada. It is naturalized in parts of the western United States as well as in Ontario and Quebec, parts of Europe, and scattered locations in Latin America.[ Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families][ Biota of North America Program, 2013 county distribution map]
Ecology
In the pre-Columbian landscape, C. radicans was mostly limited to bottomlands in swamps, but has since become a successful colonizer of thickets, fencerows, and abandoned farmland.[ Weakley, A. S. (2015). Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Herbarium. ] C. radicans can also be found in floodplain forests, including along their edges, and on river banks.[Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: March 2019. Collectors: Jame Amoroso, Loran C. Anderson, Kurt E. Blum, Michael B. Brooks, R. Buchanan, Andre F. Clewell, R. F. Doren, Wm. H. Ellis, Robert K. Godfrey, Norlan C. Henderson, Brenda Herring, Clarke Hudson, Ed Keppner, Lisa Keppner, R. Komarek, Elmo Law, S. J. Lombardo, Karen MacClendon, Sidney McDaniel, Richard S. Mitchell, J. B. Nelson, R. A. Norris, Sara J. Noyes, Kevin Oakes, Elmer C. Prichard, A. E. Radford, Gwynn W. Ramsey, Paul L. Redfearn, Jr., R. R. Smith, Charles S. Wallis, D. B. Ward, S. S. Ward, Roomie Wilson, D. R. Windler, and Jean W. Wooten. States and Counties: Florida: Bay, Calhoun, Columbia, Dixie, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor, Volusia, Wakulla, and Washington. Georgia: Grady. Illinois: White. Kansas: Allen. Louisiana: Lafayette and Tangipahoa. Maryland: Cecil. Mississippi: Jackson and Wilkinson. Missouri: Douglas. North Carolina: Caldwell. Oklahoma: Latimer. South Carolina: Oconee. Tennessee: Rutherford. Texas: Knox and Taylor.]
The flowers bloom in the summer for about three months[ while many types of birds like to nest in the dense foliage. Halictidae, flies, and ants also feed on the nectar of the plant's extra-floral nectaries.][ Certain with elongate proboscises are able to successfully feed on trumpet vines while hovering in front of the flower.]
The flowers are followed by large seed pods. As these mature, they dry and split. Hundreds of thin, brown, paper-like seeds are released. These are easily grown when stratified. Larvae of Clydonopteron sacculana (the trumpet vine moth) feed on the seed pods.
C. radicans occasionally acts as a food source for large mammals.[ USDA Plant Database [3] ] However, the plant is slightly toxic if ingested, and contact with flowers and leaves can result in swelling and skin redness.
C. radicans is sometimes considered a weedy species.
Cultivation
The trumpet vine grows vigorously. In warm weather, it puts out aerial rootlets that grab onto every available surface, and eventually expand into heavy woody stems several centimeters in diameter. It grows well on arbors, fences, telephone poles, and trees, although it may dismember them in the process. Ruthless pruning is recommended.
Away from summer heat, C. radicans is less profuse of flower. A larger-flowered hybrid 'Mme Galen' was introduced about 1889 by the Tagliabue nurserymen of Lainate near Milan.
The form C. radicans f. flava has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
A deeper red form "Flamenco" is available.
Toxicity
The plant can cause contact dermatitis.
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