The genus is dedicated to Dr. Caspar Wistar, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania and President of the American Philosophical Society. The specific epithet from Sínae = China, indicates the origin. The etymology of the popular term wisteria comes from the Greek glychis = sweet, due to the fact that the flowers contain nectarine substances that attract insects.
| Common name | Wisteria |
| Origin | East Asia: China. |
Description | A climbing shrubby plant; with robust root system; hairy stems when young, then glabrous, ascending and flighty, becoming gnarled and twisted trunks with age, reaching a height/extension of 10-20 m depending on support; the bark is brownish, the leaves are deciduous, alternate, imparipinnate, with 3-5 cm petiole, composed of 7-13 ovate-lanceolate leaflets with acuminate apex, each leaf node corresponds to a small stipule. The short petiolate leaflets are densely pubescent when young, later becoming glabrous or slightly pubescent and the margin is entire, slightly wavy. The flowers are hermaphrodite, fragrant and borne on long peduncles, with a lilac-blue or mauve papilionaceous corolla; they are grouped in pendulous racemes 20-30 cm long and open almost all at once. The flowers are very showy and characteristic, having few equals of ornamental impact. The fruits are compressed, brown, velvety legumes with discoidal seeds. Curious is the characteristic of W. sinensis to grow by wrapping itself anticlockwise to the supports. The orientation derives from the fact that climbing plants native to the northern hemisphere coil anticlockwise or sinister, a phenomenon attributed to the different direction of gravity given by the Earth’s rotation. The tree grown at Villa Ormond was planted in the 1950s. The first Wisteria in Europe came from America in 1816 and the collection of wisteria in the Villa della Pergola Gardens in Alassio is considered the most important in Italy. There is also Wisteria sinensis in the C. Bicknell Museum in Bordighera, which is recognised as a Monumental plant. |