A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Tripterygium regelii Sprague & Takeda

Modern name

Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f.

Synonyms

T. wilfordii sens. Reg., not Hook. f.

A deciduous shrub of rambling or climbing habit, with angular, warted stems. Leaves alternate, oval or ovate, broadly wedge-shaped to rounded at the base, tapered at the apex to a long and slender point, 212 to 6 in. long, 112 to 4 in. wide, the margin set with rounded, blunt, incurved teeth, dark green above, and except for minute down on the midrib when quite young; stalk 14 to 34 in. long. Flowers yellowish white, about 13 in. wide, produced in a panicle at the end of the shoot, supplemented by clusters in the axils of the terminal leaves, the whole forming an inflorescence up to 8 or 9 in. long and 2 or 3 in. wide, petals five, roundish obovate; calyx small, with five rounded lobes; stamens five. Fruits three-angled, each angle conspicuously winged; the wings erect, about 58 in. long, 14 in. wide, membranous. The whole inflorescence is covered with short brown felt.

Native of the main and southern islands of Japan, and of Korea and Manchuria; introduced to the Arnold Arboretum by J. G. Jack in 1905 and thence to Kew. It is hardy, but not so fine a species as T. wilfordii. The fruits are greenish and rather like those of a wych elm with an extra wing.


Genus

Tripterygium

Other species in the genus