Wikimedia Commons
Fabaceae
Jade Vine
Strongylodon macrobotrys
Rarity, exotic wonder, dreamlike beauty.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Genus
- Strongylodon
- Native to
- Philippines
- Bloom season
- Spring, Summer
- Type
- Evergreen woody vine
- Height
- Vine to 20 m
- Sunlight
- Full sun to part shade
- Soil
- Rich, well-drained
- Water
- High; high humidity
- Hardiness
- 10–11
- Lifespan
- Long-lived vine
Did you know
- Jade vine produces flowers in one of the rarest colors in the entire plant world — a luminous, almost glowing turquoise-jade that's nearly impossible to find anywhere else in nature.
- The flower color is created by a unique combination of two pigments — anthocyanin and a yellow flavone — interacting under just-right alkaline conditions in the petal cells.
- The huge cascading flower clusters can reach 3 meters (10 feet) long, hanging like surreal turquoise chandeliers from the vine.
- In the wild, jade vine is pollinated by bats that hang upside-down from the flower clusters and lap up nectar from the flowers' specially shaped keels.
- Jade vine is now critically endangered in its native Philippine rainforests due to deforestation, and most cultivated specimens are kept in tropical greenhouses around the world.
Color meanings
Turquoise
Once-in-a-lifetime sight