Click on any image to open the slideshow
Campsis radicans
Trumpet Creeper
Florida native
A common vine of floodplain forests and disturbed sites throughout north Florida and the peninsula, south into Brevard County on the east coast, Highlands County inland and Collier County on the west coast. The range extends through much of the central and eastern United States as far as New York & New Hampshire in the northeast, west to Texas through North Dakota, plus Colorado, Utah, California and Washington state. Also found in Ontario.
Trumpet creeper has showy red to orange tubular flowers, 6-8 cm (2-1/3 ~ 3 in.) long, appearing in the spring and summer. There are four stamens that curve around the inside of the floral tube positioning the anthers at the top of the tube in front of a single infertile staminode. The compound leaves are alternate with at least 7 and up to 15 leaflets, usually 7 to 11. The serrate(toothed) leaflets are ovate to broadly lanceolate, tapering to a point and typically 4 cm (~1-1/2") wide and 8 cm (~3") long. The fruit is an elongated bean-like capsule 10 - 20 cm (4 - 8 in.) long, containing many flat winged seeds.
Campsis radicans can easily be distinguished from the similar Bignonia capreolata - crossvine - as the latter has flowers that are yellow on the inside and opposite leaves that have only two leaflets that are entire(untoothed).
The species name radicans refers to the rooting stems.
Campsis radicans is a member of the Bignoniaceae - Trumpet-creeper family.
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified: Dec 18, 2022
