Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Chinese Wisteria - Wisteria sinensis   (Sims) de Candolle
Members of Fabaceae:
Members of Wisteria with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Fabales » Family Fabaceae
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Author(Sims) de Candolle
DistributionOccurs throughout the state. Website editors have not checked the ID of these specimens. It is likely that some of these collections may be W. x formosa, a hybrid cultivar between Japanese (W. floribunda) and Chinese Wisterias. See Weakley (2018) for information.

Native of eastern Asia; in N.A. VT to MI and MO, south to FL and TX.
AbundanceFrequent to common in the central and eastern parts of the state; uncommon to infrequent westward.
HabitatRoadside woods margins, urban and suburban street margins, wooded margins on campuses, edges of parking lots, maritime forest edge, fields, back yards. Can cause tree mortality via constriction and/or via weighing it down. This species can be quite invasive, and spread into some forests and natural areas.
PhenologyFlowering April-July; fruiting July-November.
IdentificationChinese Wisteria is a high-climbing vine with tough woody stems that wind around trunks and poles. It has 7-11 leaflets per leaf, and the flowers open almost simultaneously throughout the raceme -- versus 7-17 leaflets and the flowers opening sequentially from the base of the raceme to the top in Japanese Wisteria (W. floribunda).
Taxonomic CommentsSee Weakley (2018) for information on the hybrid cultivar.

Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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B.A. SorrieSame data, Jackson Springs. MoorePhoto_non_natural
B.A. SorrieRoadside edge of woods, NC 73, Jackson Springs, April 2016. MoorePhoto_non_natural
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