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Clytostoma callistegioides (Lavender Trumpet Vine) - An evergreen vine that grows moderately fast to 15 to 20 feet tall by as wide (or more!), climbing up on or clambering over anything that will support it with a dense foliage cover. It has an interesting leaf structure with two paired leathery bright glossy green 3 inch long by 1 1/2-inch-long leaves on either side of a long slender tendril that drops off if not clinging to something and with new flushes of foliage that are an attractive bronze color. The 3-inch-wide trumpet-shaped lavender flowers have intricate darker purple veins and appear in pairs. It is in heavy bloom in mid to late spring and then off and on in late spring through fall and sometimes (rarely in our area) the flowers are followed by an interesting spiny elongated fruit.
Plant in full sun to part shade and water moderately to occasionally - is surprisingly drought tolerant once established for such a lush looking plant. Tolerant of heavy soils and has proven hardy at our nursery down to 18 degrees F at least for short durations as it did in our December 1990 freeze - others tell us of it being hardy even a bit lower with the possibility of going deciduous in temperatures much below 20 degrees F with root hardiness to 10 degrees F - it listed by some as being plantable in a protected spot in USDA Zone 8. A great plant for covering a chain link fence, for training along a wall, overhead arbor or porch and also useful as a bank covering groundcover. It is attractive year-round but especially when the plant erupts into bloom. It is both beautiful and also attractive to pollinators such as bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. We have a 15 feet wide by 9 feet tall office wall in the nursery which is totally and thickly covered by this plant.
Clytostoma callistegioides is native to Argentina and the southern Brazil. The name for the genus is from the Greek words 'Klytos' meaning "beautiful" and 'stoma' meaning "mouth" in reference to the beautiful open moth shaped flowers. The specific epithet is in reference to this vine's similarity to Calystegia, a fast-growing vine in the Morning Glory Family, Convolvulaceae. Other common names for this beautiful vine are Chamisso, Painted Trumpet and Argentine Trumpet Vine. In current nomenclatural databases this plant has been returned to the name Bignonia callistegioides that was given to it by the French botanist and poet Adelbert von Chamisso when he originally described the plant in 1833, but we continue to list it as Clytostoma callistegioides until such time that this name gets broader usage.
This plant has long been cultivated in California; Harry Butterfield in his "Dates of Introduction of Trees and Shrubs to California" (Landscape Horticulture University of California, Davis 1964) listed the plant as being introduced into California in 1908 by the Italian botanist Emanuele Orazio Fenzi, better known under his assumed name Dr. Francesco Franceschi, however in the writings of Peter Riedel, Franceschi's partner in the California Acclimatizing Association, he noted that Franceschi observed this plant growing in Santa Barbara when he surveyed the plants of the city in 1895. Riedel however also listed it as a Franceschi introduction in 1900 so its date of introduction is not entirely clear. Randy Baldwin, the author of these San Marcos Growers web pages, grew up in South Pasadena with a large Lavender Trumpet Vine growing across the south facing roofline of a 30 foot wide patio at his childhood home and we have continuously grown this deservingly popular plant since our nurseries inception in 1979.
This information about Clytostoma callistegioides displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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