Wisteria sinensis, Chinese wisteria, seeds

Wisteria sinensis seeds

Wisteria sinensis (Chinese wisteria) is a woody, deciduous, perennial climbing vine in the genus, native to China. While this plant is a climbing vine, it can be trained into a tree-like shape, usually with a wavy trunk and a flattened top.

It can grow 20–30 m long over supporting trees by twining stems. The leaves are shiny, green, pinnately compound, 10–30 cm in length, with 9-13 oblong leaflets that are each 2–6 cm long. The flowers are white, violet, or blue, produced on 15–20 cm racemes in spring, usually reaching their peak in mid-May. The flowers on each raceme open simultaneously before the foliage has expanded, and have a distinctive fragrance similar to that of grapes.  The fruit is a flattened, brown, velvety, bean-like pod 5–10 cm long with thick disk-like seeds around 1 cm in diameter spaced evenly inside; they mature in summer and crack and twist open to release the seeds; the empty pods often persist until winter.

All parts of the plant contain a glycoside called wisterine which is toxic if ingested.

It is a hardy plant!

Growing from seeds:

for good results it is necessary to do a stratification by storing the seeds at cool temperature of about 3-5°C, together with moist soil, for about 3-4 weeks. This can easily be done by putting them into the fridge.

afterwards keep seeds in moist soil at a warm place (20°C + ) until germination starts after about 4-5 weeks. Plant prefers a sunny place.