Wisteria snacks are a delight, and eating them till you are exhausted

In mid-April, between Qingming and Guyu, the wisteria flowers bloomed like clouds and mist. In the UK, wisteria plants are probably the most East Asian vines you can see here. They come from the other side of the Eurasian continent, but they decorate the most beautiful English gardens here.

The two most common types of wisteria are Wisteria sinensis from China and Wisteria floribunda from Japan.

Wisteria multiflora | Yu Tianyi

In the name of "vine"

In Japanese, the name of multi-flowered wisteria is simply "藤" . Just as "紫藤" in Chinese can be a synonym for plants of the genus Wisteria, "藤" in Japanese can refer to both the genus Wisteria and the species of multi-flowered wisteria. In the oldest existing collection of poetry in Japan, "Manyoshu" (written around the 7th to 8th century AD), there is a mention of "藤", but at that time multi-flowered wisteria and mountain wisteria were both confusedly called "藤", and the two plants were not completely distinguished until modern times.

"Fujiwara", one of the oldest noble surnames in Japan, and the "Sixteen Fuji" surnames derived from the Fujiwara clan (such as Sato, Ito, Saito, Kato, Goto, Kondo, Endo, Kudo, etc.), among which the character "Fuji" refers to the multi-flowered wisteria.

Two famous "藤" generations | "Initial D"; "Detective Conan"

The Fujiwara family crest is also an artistic branch of multi-flowered wisteria, composed of three leaflets at the top of the compound leaves and two or more inflorescences. Japanese family crests often use plant images for transformation and design, such as the chrysanthemum crest and paulownia crest ("paulownia" refers to Paulownia tomentosa) representing the royal family, and the sunflower crest ("Sunflower" refers to Asarum caulescens) representing the Tokugawa family and other families.

From top to bottom, from left to right: rattan pattern, sunflower pattern, chrysanthemum pattern and paulownia pattern | Mukai & Baile Tu & Philip Nilsson & Zagyoso / wikimedia

Left or right?

The multiflora wisteria is very similar to the domestic wisteria, but the difference is that the multiflora wisteria has more flowers on its inflorescence (this is really no nonsense), and the inflorescence is also longer; in addition, the multiflora wisteria usually has flowers and leaves at the same time, while the inflorescence of wisteria grows earlier than the leaf sequence, and blooms before the leaves unfold. The flower colors of multiflora wisteria and wisteria are quite varied , and Japan has also cultivated varieties with dark purple, pink, white and other colors, so judging by flower color is not reliable.

The long inflorescence of Wisteria multiflora | Yu Tianyi

White and pink-purple wisteria (W. sinensis) | RedCoat & Emőke Dénes / wikimedia

In addition to the two most common wisterias, other species of the genus Wisteria can occasionally be seen in some botanical gardens, bonsai gardens or specialized gardens. Brachybotrys is native to Japan and may be a horticultural type of wisteria. Its inflorescence is shorter than that of wisteria . Venusta may be a white variant of Brachybotrys, but it now exists as a separate species. In addition to the white flower color, its inflorescence is as short as that of Brachybotrys, which is easy to distinguish from Wisteria.

Mountain Wisteria | wikimedia

White wisteria | warners.com.au

Another important identifying feature of Wisteria is the chirality of the stem. The word "chirality" in lianas refers to the direction of rotation of the stem, with clockwise being right-handed (dextrorotatory) and counterclockwise being left-handed (levorotatory).

Makino Tomitaro, the father of Japanese botany, was the first botanist in Japan to introduce the Linnaean binomial nomenclature as the standard scientific name. He also named many plants endemic to Japan, including two species of wisteria in Japan. He used chirality as a distinction, naming the right-handed one Wisteria floribunda and the left-handed one Wisteria brachybotrys, which is also the most easily distinguishable feature of the two plants. The stems of Chinese wisteria rotate counterclockwise (left-handedness/left-handedness) , which can also be used to distinguish wisteria from floribunda.

You can refer to your left and right hands, which are mirror images of each other, but cannot completely overlap. Pictured is a diagram of the rotation direction of the stem of a vine plant | Botanical Latin

The best way to promote flowering

It takes many years for Wisteria seedlings (seedlings) to bloom. Wisteria native to China even takes seven to eight years to bloom, and it will bloom after twenty years of full maturity. Asexually propagated seedlings such as cuttings, high-layered seedlings or root-grown seedlings will bloom much faster.

When cultivated, both multi-flowered wisteria and wisteria prefer open and sunny environments. People in China and Japan like to let wisteria climb on climbing frames. The British also like to plant wisteria on the south wall of the small building, letting it slowly climb all over the wall. When it blooms, the whole wall seems to be shrouded in a purple mist, which is very spectacular.

Wisteria "Waterfall" | TANAKA Juuyoh / flickr

Wisteria Wall | Patrick Roper

Pruning of wisteria is very important . If it is not done properly in autumn, wisteria will grow branches and leaves crazily in the next year. At this time, the vegetative body grows too vigorously, which will consume nutrients and inhibit the growth of the reproductive body , making wisteria bloom less. Sometimes older wisteria plants don't like to bloom or even don't bloom at all, especially old potted wisteria. At this time, you can prune the roots in autumn and winter to inhibit the growth of the vegetative body, which can effectively promote flowering.

It’s okay to force flowers to bloom, but don’t destroy them | pxhere

Snacks are good for your mood, but overeating is bad for your health

Although it is a common ornamental plant with super abundant flowers, wisteria cannot escape the question of "how good can it be". Indeed, wisteria flowers are traditional edible flowers in China and Japan. In China, they are nothing more than scrambled eggs, and in Japan, they are nothing more than fried tempura . However, wisteria is quite toxic. Their fruits and seeds are notoriously toxic . The main toxic substances are saponins and lectins such as wisterin. The flowers of wisteria are also poisonous, but they are much less toxic than seeds and fruits. So eating a small amount of wisteria is enjoyable, but eating too much may really cause poisoning - in the manga "Demon Slayer", the poison of wisteria flowers can be used to drive away demons. (Research on the toxicity of wisteria flowers is still insufficient, and there is still controversy over whether the concentration of toxic substances in wisteria flowers will cause poisoning - of course, it is better to be careful.)

In our impression, legumes produce a lot of food and crops, but most species are poisonous. The saponin-like toxic substances and lectins contained in Wisteria are also common in most legume species.

As a legume, how can we miss the legumes | Roger Culos

In the UK, the flowering period of wisteria is about half a month earlier than that of multiflora wisteria . Now the earliest wisteria has bloomed, while multiflora wisteria is still in the process of blooming. Since February, the UK has failed to enter spring, with the lowest temperature always hovering between 0℃ and 5℃, and the wisteria is always about to bloom but not yet. In Shanghai, which entered spring earlier than the UK, wisteria and white wisteria bloomed about a week ago, and now the flowering period is about to end, while multiflora wisteria has already begun to bloom.

The Jiading Wisteria Garden in Shanghai is the best place in China to appreciate multi-flowered wisteria. Several multi-flowered wisteria varieties of different colors and flower shapes are cultivated here, all of which were donated by the former mayor of Wake Town, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The park was built in 1997. More than 20 years have passed. The multi-flowered wisteria here has become quite lush, allowing us to feel the shock brought by the waterfall-like wisteria flowers in China.

Wisteria flowers in Shanghai Jiading Wisteria Garden | Oriental IC

Author: Yu Tianyi

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)