Wisteria floribunda (Japanese wisteria, "Fuji")

Japanese name: フジ （藤）
Scientific name: Wisteria floribunda

[Overview]
A climbing deciduous woody plant growing to about 20 m long.
It is found at forest edges and in bright woods in the mountains.
The vine twines to the right (clockwise when seen from above) and climbs by winding around other objects.
The leaves are alternate and odd-pinnately compound, 20–30 cm long, with 11–19 leaflets.
The leaflets are narrowly ovate, 4–10 cm long, with entire margins.
The leaves are hairy at first but become almost hairless when mature.
Drooping racemes 20–90 cm long arise from the leaf axils at the branch tips and bear many flowers.
The flowers are purple to pale pink pea-shaped flowers that face sideways, and they open in sequence from the base of the raceme toward the tip.
The raceme axis and the pedicels are densely covered with short white hairs.
The fruit is a flat pod 10–19 cm long and 2–2.5 cm wide, densely covered with short velvety hairs.
The pod is hard, and when it dries in winter it splits with a twist and flings out the seeds forcefully.
The seeds are flat and round, 11–12 mm across, and glossy brown.

[History]
It appears in the Kojiki, and 26 poems about Fuji are included in the Man'yoshu.
It has also long been used as a pattern and design motif, and as a family crest.

[Uses]
In the past, clothing was made from its fibers.
The young leaves, vines and flowers are used as wild vegetables.
The vines are used as craft material for chairs, baskets and the like.
The seeds are used as a folk medicine.

[Cultivation]
Propagate by cuttings or grafting.
Plants grown from seed take several decades to flower.
It prefers a sunny site with slightly heavy, moist soil.
It dislikes dryness.
When planted in the ground in a suitable place, no particular watering is needed.
For potted plants, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries.
Apply fertilizer in winter and additional fertilizer after flowering, but too much nitrogen reduces flowering.
Even old trees can be transplanted if dug up carefully without cutting the thick roots.
Pests and diseases include crown gall, leaf spot, rust, gall disease, Fuji-no-kikuimushi, leaf beetles and scarab beetles.

[Notes]
The alternate name Noda-fuji comes from a famous site in Noda, Settsu Province (now Fukushima Ward, Osaka).
There are old trees designated as natural monuments.

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