Weigela
| Weigela | ||||||||||||
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 Weigela florida | ||||||||||||
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| About 10 species; see text |
Weigela is a small genus of about 12 species of deciduous shrubs in the family Caprifoliaceae, growing to 1-5 m tall. All are natives of eastern Asia.
The leaves are 5-15 cm long, ovate-oblong with an acuminate tip, and with a serrated margin. The flowers are 2-4 cm long, with a five-lobed white, pink, or red (rarely yellow) corolla, produced in small corymbs of several together in early summer. The fruit is a dry capsule containing numerous small winged seeds.
Weigela species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Brown-tail.
The genus is named after the German scientist Christian Ehrenfried Weigel.
The British Weigela national collection is held at Sheffield Botanical Gardens; along with the national collection of the closely related Diervilla genus.[1]
- Species
- Weigela coraeensis
- Weigela decora
- Weigela floribunda
- Weigela florida
- Weigela hortensis
- Weigela japonica
- Weigela maximowiczii
- Weigela middendorfiana
- Weigela praecox
- Weigela x wagnerii
- Weigela subsessilis
Cultivation
Several of the species are very popular ornamental shrubs in gardens, although species have been mostly superseded by hybrids (crosses between W.florida and other Asiatic species).
