Monday, April 21, 2008

The Wisteria That Ate Knoxville

Yesterday I showed you some very tiny flowers. Today I'm going to the opposite extreme with an enormous flowering vine. This is the largest tangle of Chinese wisteria that I have seen in town. This wisteria holds court in the not-too-photogenic edge of the parking lot of the Kroger grocery store in the Bearden neighborhood. Chinese wisteria is considered an invasive species in North America; it has no natural insect or fungal enemies here and spreads out of control, as you can see. But the purple blooms are very beautiful.

6 comments:

Raquel Sabino Pereira said...

Indeed they are beautiful!!!I love flowers and your blog, which I only now met!!!
Thanks for your visit and nice comment!!!

Raquel Sabino Pereira said...

Forgot to mention that the first song on my radio is from Portuguese singer Mafalda Veiga and is called «Um pouco de Céu» («A bit of Heaven»). I am glad you liked it!!

Ming the Merciless said...

Didn't realize there's such things as Chinese wisteria. But yeah, it looks like it has EATEN up the neighborhood. :-)

Chuck Pefley said...

Perhaps this wisteria could be encouraged to cover the dumpsters from view?

I do know how annoying any invasive plant species can be, though as I made the mistake of planting some ivy on a hillside ... now it's a constant battle to determine who is boss.

Jim Klenke said...

Thats a big one. The flowers are pretty, the ones in Terrell bloomed a few weeks ago.

Pasadena Adjacent said...

The largest wisteria vine in the world is in Sierra Madre CA.