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Paulownia fortunei (Seem.) Hemsl.

Modern name

Paulownia fortunei (Seem.) Hemsl.

Synonyms

Campsis fortunei Seem.; Paulownia duclouxii Dode

A tree reported to attain 85 ft in S.E. China, but usually only half that height or less. Leaves ovate, mostly 512 to 10 in. long, 234 to 5 in. wide, acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base, but those subtending the flower-buds much smaller and usually rounded or cuneate at the base, all densely woolly beneath; leaf­stalks 3 to 412 in. long. Cymes mostly three-flowered, shortly stalked, arranged in the form of a narrow panicle. Calyx funnel-shaped, about 34 in. long. Corolla funnel-shaped, lavender-purple in the bud and retaining that colour on the outside, but white or creamy white inside and heavily spotted with dark purple, 312 to 4 in. long, about 2 in. wide at the mouth. Capsules oblong-ellipsoid, 2 to 3 in. long, woody.

A native of S. and S.E. China, Formosa, and Indochina; described from a specimen collected by Fortune in China but not introduced by him. Young plants (of unrecorded origin) were at Kew in 1934, of which two were given in that year to Neil McEacharn of the Villa Taranto, Pallanza, Lake Maggiore, and are now one of the chief glories of the famous garden he created there. So far as is known, all the examples of P. fortunei now growing in Britain (including those at Kew) are seedlings from the Pallanza trees. A note on this species by Dr Herklots will be found in Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 89 (1964), p. 300.


Genus

Paulownia

Other species in the genus