Bignoniaceae Week: looking for Campsis grandiflora

[Gurcharan Singh]

Genus Campsis has been confusing me a lot for quite some time. Traditionally two species of this genus are recognized as common garden trumpet creepers:

Campsis grandiflora: leaflets 7-9; glabrous beneath; 4-7 cm long, paler green; calyx 5-lobed to middle; flowers orange to scarlet, corolla tube nearly one and half times as long as calyx, limb nearly 5-6 cm across; capsule 10-15 cm long, obtuse at apex, without beak.

 

Campsis radicans: leaflets 9-11, pubescent beneath especially along midreib and main veins, dark green above; calyx shortly 5-lobed, lobes less than 1/3 the tube; flowers orange with scarlet limb, 2-3 times as long as calyx, usually less than 4 cm across; capsule cylindric-oblong, 7-12 cm long, keeled along sutures, beaked at apex.

I have been following the specimens of Campsis in Delhi, Kashmir, California and other places and frankly have not been able to locate a true sample of C. gandiflora. Most of the samples found in Kashmir and Delhi which look like C. grandiflora do not bear fruits, flowers fall off when mature and number of leaflets varry from 7-11 (-13). This sterile hybrid is actually C. X tagliabuana, a hybrid between C. radicans and C. grandiflora. Both specimens at at FOI (C. radicans as well as C. grandiflora) i think belong to this hybrid species, which is propagated by cuttings.

I would be extremely happy if any member is able to find and can upload a true specimen of C. grandiflora (7-9 leaflets, leaflets glabrous beneath, calyx divided up to middle, corolla tube 1 1/2 times as long as calyx, more important it produces fruits which are 10-15 cm long and without beak at tip)

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Dr. Gurcharan Singh

Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089

http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/ 
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/

[Ushadi Micromini]

Thank you,  nice to remember these differences, but what confuses me more is the vast numbers of cultivars that I see in India and in American southwest and in Florida.

Usha di

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Usha di
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[Gurcharan Singh]

Ushadi

Garden breeders and cultivar developers have to keep busy to give some thing new to the plant lovers.

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Dr. Gurcharan Singh

Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089

http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/ 
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/