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Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda)

Japanese wisteria Synonyms: Kraunhia floribunda, Rehsonia floribunda

Common Names: Fuji, noda-fuji

Description: Brought to the U.S. from Asia in 1800s as an ornamental.

Habit: Deciduous, woody twining vine that climbs up tree trunks to heights of 60 feet or more. It twines upwards in a clockwise direction. Long-lived perennial, surviving 50 years or more.

Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound and about 1 foot in length. Slightly wavy margins.

Stems: Woody vine reaching a diameter of over 15 inches. Infrequent alternate branching. Twigs densely short hairy. Bark is white in color.

Flowers: Dangling and showy, stalked clusters (racemes) appearing when leaves emerge, 4-20 inches long and 3-3.5 inches wide. Flowers bloom gradually from base. Pealike flowers, corolla lavender to violet and fragrant.

Fruit and seeds: Flattened legume pod, irregularly oblong to oblanceolate, 2.5 to 6 inches long and 0.8-1.2 inches wide. Velvety hairy, greenish brown to golden, splitting on two sides to release 1-8 flat round brown seeds. Seeds are 0.5-1 inch in diameter.

Habitat: Native to Asia. Found primarily along forest edges, roadsides, ditches and rights-of-way.

Reproduction: Vegetative reproduction is the primary means of growth and spread. Seeds may be produced when conditions are favorable.

Similar species: American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) which is native to the southeastern U.S. to southern Virginia. Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) and Trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans).

Monitoring and rapid response: For small infestations, hand pull, making sure to remove entire tap root. For Vines, cut the stem, pull out the rooted portion and leave the vine in the tree. Cut stem and apply a concentrated systemic herbicide to vines like triclopyr or glyphosate. For large infestations, a foliar herbicide may be used.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from Invasive Plants of the Eastern United States database and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).


Common Name:

Japanese wisteria

Scientific Name:

Wisteria floribunda

Family:

Fabaceae
(Pea)

Duration:

Perennial

Habit:

Vines

USDA Symbol:

WIFL