A deciduous climber 20 to 30 or more ft high; stems glabrous. Leaves pinnate, composed of seven or nine leaflets, which are ovate, 11⁄2 to 3 in. long, about half as wide, long-pointed, coarsely toothed, glabrous on both surfaces. Flowers in terminal, pendulous panicles of six or twelve, produced at the end of the current season’s growth in August and later. Corolla deep orange and red, widely trumpet-mouthed, narrowing to a funnel-shaped tube; 2 to 3 in. long and wide, with five broad, rounded lobes. Calyx 11⁄4 in. long, bell-shaped, with five slender lance-shaped lobes 1⁄2 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 1398.
Native of China, long cultivated in Japan; introduced in 1800. Even more gorgeous than C. radicans, it is, unfortunately, not so hardy. It must have a sheltered sunny wall, and even there does not with us produce so wonderful a display as it does on the continent. It is easily distinguished from the better-known radicans by the panicled inflorescence, the broader mouth of the corolla, glabrous leaves, and the much more deeply lobed calyx.
cv. ‘Thunbergii’. – Tube of corolla shorter, and the lobes more reflexed; perhaps hardier. Introduced by Siebold in 1856 as Tecoma thunbergii; figured under that name in Flore des Serres, Vol. 12, p. 181, and described by Carrière in Rev. Hort., 1876, p. 440.
C. × tagliabuana (Vis.) Rehd. Tecoma tagliabuana Vis.; T. grandiflora var. princei Dipp.; T. hybrida Dipp.; T. chinensis var. aurantiaca Koehne – This name covers hybrids between the two species of Campsis. They cross readily and no doubt the first hybrids occurred early in the nineteenth century in those parts of the continent where the warm summers permit seed to ripen, but passed as variants of one or other of the two species. The first plant to be identified as a hybrid arose in the nursery of the Tagliabue brothers near Milan, and this is the type of the group. Later, many forms were distributed by French nurseries, of which the finest and best known is ‘Mme Galen’, which was put into commerce in 1889. It resembles C. radicans in having the leaves downy beneath, the other parent in its lax truss. It is beautifully figured in Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 198, and further information will be found in the accompanying text.