Andalucia Life Fauna and Flora, Flowers of Andalucia Southern Spain

May 2006, Chinese Wisteria, Wisteria sinensis

This plant is native to China as the name suggests and was brought to the Iberian Peninsula hundreds of years ago. It favours moist woodlands where it climbs up host trees to a height of over 10 metres. The pea like flowers are fragrant and in long racemes of various shades of blue and are at their best in April and May. The seedpods are distinctively oblong in shape and downy. There is a good example growing up the monument near El Burgo on the Ronda road. Various cultivars are grown as garden plants throughout the world.