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About Wisteria

Wisteria are a family of flowering plants and are native to eastern Asia and eastern North America. Though they are related to legumes (peas and beans), they are not edible by humans. There are ten species of wisteria, one of which, the Japanese Wisteria (wisteria floribunda), sometimes called the Royal Purple Wisteria, is often considered to be the most beautiful. It was imported to the U.S. from Japan in the 1830s and is now wide-spread over here.

As can be seen in the photo above, wisteria are large climbing plants and require strong support to hold their weight when fully grown. When viewed from above, they climb by winding clockwise (except for W. sinensis) around any available support. Some species can grow to 66 feet tall.

Planted in 1894, the largest known wisteria (Chinese lavender) is in Sierra Madre, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It weighs 250 tons and covers more than an acre. It is the world's largest flowering plant and is one of the Seven Horticultural Wonders of the World. Sierra Madre holds an annual festival in its honor.

These are detailed photos of the largest wisteria.

Though wisteria are climbing plants, with patience and close attention, they can be trained to grow like a tree.

Wisteria flowers are produced in racemes up to half a meter long. The Japanese wisteria has the longest racemes.

Def. raceme: a flower cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks at equal distances along a central stem. The flowers at the base of the central stem develop first.

Blossoms can be purple, violet, pink, or white. Most Asian species bloom in the spring just before or as the leaves open. American species and W. japonica blossom mid to late summer. Some species are fragrant, most notable W. sinensis. The photo below is a white variety of W. sinensis.

Leaves are pinnate with 9 to 19 leaflets from 15 to 35 centimeters in length each. There are always an odd number of leaflets.

Def. pinnate: an arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features (leaves in this case) arising from both sides of a common axis

The pinnate leaves shown below are from the Japanese Wisteria.

Wisteria seed pods. The seeds are poisonous.

The wisteria tunnel below is located in Ashikaga Flower Park, Tochigi prefecture, Japan. All of the blossoms shown in the picture are various colors of wisteria.

This wisteria "forest" is located in Weinhein, Germany.

San Diego has its own wisteria on view. The picture below is from the Japanese Friendship Garden.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has long had a pergola covered by a large wisteria.

The following two photos are from the San Diego Zoo.

Wisteria in Art

Wisteria show up in bonsai occasionally.

Kachō-ga, Japanese for birds and flowers pictures, has been a popular in Asian art since at least 10th century China. That popularity migrated to Japan in the Muromachi Period (1336 - 1573) in the 14th century and has been prominent in Japanese art ever since. Interest in art was primarily limited to aristocrats until the advent of ukiyo-e, inexpensive woodblock prints, in the Edo Period (1603 - 1867) when it became immensely popular with the lower classes, too, with kachō-ga being one of the most prominent categories.

Kachō-ga isn't just for flowers and birds as subject matter. It deals with a wide range of natural topics, including plants whether flowering or not, fish, insects, birds, pets (dogs, cats), etc.

Three of the four paintings below, all ukiyo-e, are kachō-ga.

The ukiyo-e below of wisteria and wagtail, a kachō-ga, was done by Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849) in 1834.

The ukiyo-e print below by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was originally published in 1857. This version was re-carved at an unknown date. The print, titled Wisteria and Half Moon Bridge at Kameido - Meisho Edo Hyakkei, is part of Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo series. It is technically not kachō-ga but is included here because it uses wisteria as part of its composition.

Hiroshige also did kachō-ga prints as shown in this 1842 version of a Wisteria and White-Headed Bird below.

Kōno Bairei (1844 - 1895), originally named Yasuda Bairei, was one of the most prominent ukiyo-e artists of Japan's Meiji Period (1868 - 1912). He ran a school for artists, and several of his students became famous in their own right. Bairei's specialty was kachō-ga, and he published books of his pictures as well as series of individual prints. The following print is from a page of one of his books.