Thunbergias and other vines
- To: "Janet B" , "Medit-plants" <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
- Subject: Thunbergias and other vines
- From: M* C*
- Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 13:58:47 -0400
Janet Blenkinship asked for posts on vines and since it is much too wet
to work outside this very rainy day here are some comments on creepers
from the usually sunny Caribbean.
There are several reasons why our one-storey house was largely demolished
and rebuilt as a two-storey house a few years ago but a not
inconsequential one was my predilection for vining plants. Though not
primarily to furnish shade as the roof overhangs are substantial and the
galleries (verandahs) are continuous around the house on both levels
making it easy to be in a shaded area at any time of day.
Most of the two dozen concrete columns holding up the second-storey have
wooden 'ladders' affixed to them on which are growing such vines (usually
two different kinds to each column) as Thunbergia grandiflora, T.
mysorensis, Petrea volubilis, Luffa cylindrica, Bougainvillea, Allamanda
cathartica, Calonycton aculeatum (= Ipomoea alba), Norantea guianensis,
Dolichos lablab, Ipomoea horsfalliae, Strongylodon macrobotrys, several
spp. of Philodendron and Monstera, Vanilla planifolia, and my present
favorite, Quisqualis indica (Rangoon creeper).
This latter plant is naturalized here and viewed with awe and alarm by
most of the populace - visitors repeatedly warn me against it - as it is
a rampant grower which can overwhelm a small house very quickly. My plant
is but a year old and has already reached the top of the balustrade on
the upper storey sixteen feet above the ground and has spread almost
twenty feet along the balustrade. Blooming all year round, Q. indica
flowers open white in the morning, turning first pink then red by
afternoon and nocturnally fragrant.
Thunbergia mysorenis and Strongylodon macrobotrys are also young plants,
less than a year old, and are growing well though not rapidly and have
yet to flower.
The wooden 'ladders', by the way, were built of pressure-treated
(Wolmanized) pine to keep the termites at bay and the chemical compounds
in such treated lumber seems in no way detrimental to the vines growing
on them.
Growing on an arbor beside my shop/garage building are Stephanotis
floribunda, Clitorea terneata, Thunbergia alata, Senecio confusus, and
Clerodendrum thomsoniae. There are some other vines on the property,
notably Hylocereus undatus (night-blooming cactus) along several hundred
feet of stone walls and into several of the adjacent trees, Cryptostegia
grandiflora (Malay rubber vine) along the fences, and a most unwelcome
one that the wind blows in from time to time: Dodder or Strangle Weed
(Cuscuta sp.), known locally as lop-lop.
Last year a pool was built and to give the bathers some shade, but more
importantly to give me more scope to plant additional vines, a pergola
was erected at the far (western) end of the pool. But, alas, this past
winter (or what passes for winter in the Caribbean) complaints were heard
of the pool being too cold when the water temperature was 24C (75F) and
the northeast trade winds were briskly blowing. So the top of the pergola
is being sacrificed to solar heating mats to warm the pool during the
cooler months and the vines to be planted will be of the less robust
kinds that will not climb above the latticed back and sides of the
pergola.
Ours, of course, is not a Mediterranean climate, but a tropical one with
a temperature range of 21-35C (70-95F), an average relative humidity of
75%, and an annual rainfall averaging 1250mm (50 inches). Nevis thus is a
semi-arid island by tropical standards, in marked contrast to our near
and larger neighbors as Dominica, Guadaloupe, and Martinique, parts of
which receive more than 6 metres (20 feet) of rain a year.
Those interested in vines will find a great deal of pleasure and much
useful information in Edwin Menninger's 'Flowering Vines of the World'
(Hearthside Press, New York, 1970).
Warm regards,
William Glover
**********************
William Glover
Mango Corners, Jones Estate
NEVIS, West Indies (Antilles)
wmglover@caribsurf.com
