Callerya gentiliana seed

LATIN NAME: Callerya gentiliana

COMMON NAME: Gentil’s Callerya

The Gentil’s callerya is a handsome, twining, woody climbing shrub or vine of the warm forests, and its fine, pinnate leaves of the many oval leaflets and its drooping heads of the many small, purple or violet, pea-like flowers have made it a treasured and striking plant of the warm garden. It grows as a twining, woody climbing shrub or vine, reaching up to several metres or more, with the slender, twining, climbing stems bearing the alternate, pinnate leaves of the many oval, pointed leaflets and, through the spring, the drooping heads of the many small, purple or violet, pea-like flowers, followed by the long, narrow, brown pods of the few hard seeds. It is a species of the flowering vine in the pea family, and it is native to the warm forests of the south-eastern Asia, while it is prized for its fine, purple, pea-like flowers, and it is known as the Gentil’s callerya.

In the pea family it is the purple-flowered climber of the warm forests, a vine that turns the trellis into a curtain of violet blossom.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Gentil’s callerya turns up in the forest-ecology papers of the south-eastern Asia as a fine subject of the warm forest study, and the botanists have mapped its place in the pea family and the regional flora. The natural-product chemists have looked at the parts of the vine for the constituents behind the traditional use of the region, and the horticulturists have studied the drooping heads of the purple, pea-like flowers for the warm garden and the trellis. It is a vine that carries the forest colour into the garden, and the growers of the warm-region climbers keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm garden, the Gentil’s callerya is the violet curtain of the pergola. Its drooping heads of the purple, pea-like flowers feed the bees, and the twining, leafy growth gives cover and shelter along the trellis and the garden wall. It is treasured for the many-flowered, purple display and the ease of the warm, sunny, well-drained ground. Purple, twining and free-flowering.

Drop the seeds into a cup of warm water and leave them to soak for a day, then sow them at a shallow depth in pots of sandy, free-draining soil, keep the pots warm and bright and water them regularly, and the first shoots will appear before long.