Wisteria frutescens

The American wisteria is in the pea or Fabaceae family and is native in United States from Virginia to Illinois south to Florida and Texas. In Missouri, the variety Wisteria frutescens var. macrostachya is found in the far southeastern Bootheel area. The plant can grow to 12 m long over many supports.

• It is deciduous, with odd-pinnate, dark-green leaves up to 30 cm in length, with 9-15 lance-shaped leaflets that are each 2–6 cm long; it is a woody climber, twisting anticlockwise, requiring support when grown as an ornamental, often being trained to grow up a tree or along a wall or a pergola.
• Fragrant, pea-like, lilac-purple flowers in drooping racemes to 15 cm long bloom in April-May after the leaves emerge but before they fully develop. Limited additional summer bloom may occur.
• Seed pods are narrow, flattened, smooth seed pods to 13 cm, which ripen in summer.