The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of Campsis radicans and was discovered as a branch sport in a controlled planting of Campsis radicans in Sakaino, Takarazuka City, Japan. The varietal denomination of the new variety is `TAKARAZUKA VARIEGATED`.
The genus Campsis is included in the family Bignoniaceae which comprises about 110 genera and 750 species of trees, shrubs, woody vines growing in the northern and southern hemispheres. The genus Campsis comprises 2 species, one native to North America and the other to East Asia, of deciduous shrubs climbing by aerial rootlets. In the landscape it can be used as a vine, both species possess desirable ornamental characteristics.
Campsis radicans (Linnaeus) B.C. Seemmann ex. Bureau is widespread and common throughout much of the Eastern United States from Pennsylvania to Missouri, Florida and Texas. It generally has opposite, odd-pinnately compound leaves about 15 to 40 cm long, about 2 to 10 cm wide, with an acuminate apex, lustrous dark green above and glabrous, pubescent beneath. The plant is deciduous. Flowers of Camsis radicans are perfect, with a wide-mouthed corolla, about 5 to 6 cm wide, borne 4 to 12 in terminal cymes from May until October. Flower color is yellow to orange to scarlet depending on the variety. The calyx teeth are short, triangular being much shorter than the flower tube. Of the varieties of Campsis radicans previously known to the inventor, all have green foliage ,and none exhibit variegated foliage.