Argyreia pierreana Seeds | Pierre’s Silverweed Vine
LATIN NAME: Argyreia pierreana
COMMON NAME: Pierre’s Silverweed Vine
Plant Profile
Pierre’s Silverweed Vine is a woody climber of the morning-glory family, native to the seasonal forests of Indochina, where it scrambles through woodland edges and regrows after cutting. Its young shoots, buds and the backs of its leaves are covered in silver-grey hairs, which is where the common name comes from, and the large flowers open from hairy, papery bracts that look almost like bolls of cotton.
The stems twine over shrubs and small trees in its native range, putting on several metres in a season of warm, humid weather. Where frost never comes it stays evergreen; anywhere cooler it behaves as a fast summer climber and dies back, so in temperate gardens it is usually grown in a pot and overwintered frost-free.
Science & Biotechnology
Argyreia is the bracteate side of the morning-glory family: unlike the naked-flowered Ipomoea, its flowers are wrapped in large persistent bracts, a trait botanists use to separate the two genera. The silver hair layer of this species has also drawn study, since such hairs both shade the leaf and slow water loss in seasonal forests.
The genus is known to contain ergoline alkaloids, most famously in the Hawaiian baby woodrose. Seed of Argyreia species is offered strictly as ornamental planting stock and is not for consumption. Its flowers open for a single day, in the pattern of the family, and are worked by early-morning bees before the corolla folds. In nursery practice it is kept in check by pruning after flowering, since unpruned vines put growth ahead of flowers; a side shoot pinched in spring will carry a bloom in the same season.
Uses & Benefits
As a garden plant it is a climber for a warm veranda or glasshouse, where its silvered foliage and large flowers carry a long season. It covers a trellis quickly, tolerates the dry air of a conservatory better than most tropical vines, and stands out against dark backgrounds because of the pale hairs.
Outside ornamental horticulture it has little commercial use. Its value is botanical and horticultural interest: it is a collector’s morning-glory relative, and seed of the species remains scarce in the trade. Where it is happy it will flower in its second year, which is fast for a woody climber from seed.
Growing from Seed
Water runs off the seed until the coat is broken. Nick it with a file, or pour hot water over it and leave it to soak overnight, sowing only the seeds that swell.
Sow into a loose, free-draining tropical mix and keep it at 25 °C in bright, filtered light; germination usually takes two to four weeks, and the first true leaves show the silver colour at once.
Give the young vines a support immediately, pot them on before the roots reach the sides of the container, and keep them warm and humid through their first winter. Mist the foliage in dry weather, since the silver hairs cope with drought but young growth resents bone-dry air.
Our Take
A silver-leaved tropical climber for a warm glasshouse or veranda, fast from scarified seed and generous with flowers once it has a support to climb.
Related Reading
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