View source for Tropaeolum

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Tropaeolum (from Greek word for trophy; the leaves are shield-shaped and the flowers helmet-shaped). Tropaeolaceae. Nasturtium of gardens (but not of botanists). Climbing or rarely diffuse soft-growing herbs, grown in the garden for their showy flowers.

Roots fusiform, sometimes tuberous: lvs. alternate, peltate or palmately angulate, lobed or dissected; stipules none or rarely minute, bristle-like or dissected: peduncles axillary, 1-fld.: fls. irregular, usually orange or yellow, rarely purple or blue, but the garden forms now show a great range of color; sepals 5, connate at their base, posterior produced into a long slender spur; petals 5 or fewer by abortion, usually narrowed into distinct claws, two upper smaller or dissimilar and inserted in the mouth of the spur; stamens 8, free, unequal, with declined usually curving filaments; ovary 3-lobed, 3-celled, ripening into 3 1-seeded indehiscent carpels (these constitute the "seed" of commerce).—About 45 species, S. Amer., chiefly from the cooler parts of Peru and Chile. Monographed in 1902 by Buchenau in Engler's Pflanzenreich hft. 10 (IV. 131).

The common species, T. minus and T. majus, are also grown for their young pods and seeds, which are made into pickles. The peppery-tasting leaves are sometimes used like cress, in salads, whence the name "Indian cress" in England. In America this use of the plant is little known. Certain kinds, particularly T. tuberosum, produce edible subterranean tubers.

Tropaeolums thrive in any warm sunny fairly moist place. The tops are tender to frost. For early effects, seeds may be started indoors in pots or boxes. The common climbing species are T. majus and T. peltophorum, both of which are very useful for window-boxes, balconies, for covering banks and walls, and for growing amongst shrubbery. The common dwarf species, T. minus, is earlier and usually more floriferous, and is very useful for the front row in the border. On rich soils, nasturtiums produce very heavy foliage that overtops the bloom. T. peregrinum, the canary-bird flower, is grown either indoors or in the open. Probably most species are perennial. Many of them are tuberous and withstand some frost at the root; but the half-hardy species are little known in this country.

T. digitatum, Karst. Climber, with root fibrous: lvs. peltate 5-7-lobed: fls. yellow, 1 in. diam., the spur long and red, the petals fimbriate. Venezuela.—T. leptophyllum, Don (T. edule, Paxt.). Climber: lvs. orbicular, with 5 or 6 narrow lfts.: fls. in shape like those of T. majus but smaller, yellow. Produces tuberous edible roots. Chile. P.M. 9:127.—T. Lindenii. Wallis. Beautiful climber with large, peltate, undulate-lobed lvs. that are purplish beneath and beautifully veined with white above: fls. on long pedicels, the long tube red and the calyx-lobes green. Colombia. I.H. 41:17.
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==Cultivation==
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==Species==
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==Gallery==
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==References==
*[[Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture]], by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
<!--- xxxxx  *Flora: The Gardener's Bible, by Sean Hogan. Global Book Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0881925381  -->
<!--- xxxxx  *American Horticultural Society: A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, by Christopher Brickell, Judith D. Zuk. 1996. ISBN 0789419432  -->
<!--- xxxxx  *Sunset National Garden Book. Sunset Books, Inc., 1997. ISBN 0376038608  -->

==External links==
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