Bignoniaceae

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Scientific Names

Bignoniaceae >

Read about Bignoniaceae in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Bignoniaceae (from the genus Bignonia, named for the Abbe Jean Paul Bignon, court librarian at Paris, and a friend of the botanist Tournefort). Bignonia Family. Fig. 52. ^yoody plants, rarely herbs, usually climbing or twining in the tropical forests: leaves opposite, rarely alternate, usually compound: flowers bisexual, more or less irregular, scarcely bilabiate; calyx 5-cleft, rarely bilabiate or spathe-like, sometimes with appendages; corolla 5-lobed, gamopetalous, hypogynous, imbricated; stamens 4, didynamous, or only 2, the others staminodial, epipetalous; anthers various; hypogynous disk present; ovary superior, 2-celled, rarely 1-celled; many-ovuled; style 1; stigmas 2: fruit a woody capsule; seeds usually winged and very compressed; endosperm 0. The family contains 100 genera and from 500-600 species, principally natives of the tropics; these are most abundant in America. Three species reach the northeastern United States, from New Jersey and Ohio southward. The largest genus is Tabebuia with 80 species. The family is related to the Scrophulariaceae; but the peculiar fruit with winged seeds and the absence of endosperm are distinctive. The climbing species may or may not have foliar tendrils. These, when present, terminate in adherent disks. The woody, tropical, climbing Bignoniaceae are famed for the peculiar cambium growth which produces secondary thickening of such a nature as to give to the cross-section very odd and very diverse patterns, some of which are almost geometrical in their regularity. The wood in these patterns may be either divided into four wedges at right angles to each other, or four wedges may be superimposed on a smaller circle of wood, or the wedges may be divided toward the periphery into peculiar finger-like portions, or there may be concentric rings of wood. Catalpa and Tecoma have been used in medicine but are not officinal. Caraboa (Jacaranda Copaia) contains an aromatic resin of the odor of coumarin. Many are ornamental plants with large, handsome flowers. About 20 genera are in cultivation in North America, all as ornamental plants. Among these are: Bignonia (Trumpet Flower, Cross Vine, Quarter Vine), mostly greenhouse climbers; Catalpa, semi-hardy or hardy trees; Chilopsis (Desert Willow, Flowering Willow, Mimbres) cultivated in the South; Crescentia (Calabash Tree), cultivated South. Others are Campsis (Trumpet Creeper, T. Vine, T. Honeysuckle); Tecoma (Yellow Elder); Pandorea (Wonga-Wonga Vine; Bower Plant of Australia); Tecomaria (Cape Honeysuckle, climbing or erect shrubs or trees, cultivated mostly in the South, only one of which is fully hardy North.CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Several species are important ornamental plants, grown for their often spectacular flower displays. Genera important in horticulture include Campsis, Catalpa, Jacaranda, Kigelia, Pandorea, Spathodea, and Tabebuia.

Genera

List of some genera^wp:

Adenocalymna Amphilophium Amphitecna Anemopaegma Argylia Arrabidaea Astianthus Barnettia Bignonia Callichlamys Campsidium Campsis Catalpa Catophractes Ceratophytum Chilopsis Chitalpa (=x Chitalpa) Clytostoma Colea Crescentia Cuspidaria Cybistax Delostoma Deplanchea Digomphia Dinklageodoxa Distictella Distictis Dolichandra Dolichandrone Eccremocarpus Ekmanianthe Fernandoa Fridericia Gardnerodoxa Glaziova Godmania Haplolophium Haplophragma Heterophragma Hieris Incarvillea Jacaranda Kigelia Lamiodendron Leucocalantha Lundia Macfadyena Macranthisiphon Manaosella Mansoa Markhamia Martinella Melloa Memora Millingtonia Mussatia Neojobertia Neosepicaea Newbouldia Nyctcalos Ophiocolea Oroxylum Pajanelia Pandorea Parabiognonia Paragonia Paratecoma Parmentiera Pauldopia Perianthomega Periarrabidaea Perichlaena Phryganocydia Phyllarthron Phylloctenium Piriadacus Pithecoctenium Pleonotoma Podranea Potamoganos Pseudocatalpa Pyrostegia Radermachera Rhigozum Rhodocolea Roentgenia Romeroa Saritaea Sparattosperma Spathicalyx Spathodea Sphingiphila Spirotecoma Stereospermum Stizophyllum Tabebuia Tanaecium Tecoma Tecomanthe Tecomella Tourrettia Tynanthus Urbanolophium Xylophragma Zeyheria

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

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