« Already Fondling Next Year's Dahlia Catalog | Main | Borage is Good Company »
July 14, 2005
Twining up the fence
Vigna caracalla (Snail vine)
The Snail Vine (Vigna Caracalla) is a beautiful vine and well worth growing. It is not very hardy. It generally dies back in winter, doesn't really do well below 50 or 40 degrees. Being a fast grower, it catches up the following spring, growing fast when the weather turns warm and twining up everywhere.
The genus is named after Dominico Vigna an Italian botanist of the 17th century. The species is named after the city of Caracas in Venezuela.
In 1792 [Thomas] Jefferson proclaimed ... "the most beautiful bean in the world is the Caracalla bean ...." ... Jefferson likely knew of the Caracalla through Philip Miller's The Gardener's Dictionary. The 1768 edition, housed in Jefferson's library, described it as follows: ". . . a kidney-bean with a twining stalk . . .. grows naturally in the Brazils, from whence the seeds were brought to Europe." ...
Bernard McMahon included it in the lengthy appendix of the American Gardener's Calendar, which Jefferson owned. McMahon categorized it under "Hot-House Herbaceous Perennial Plants, &c." as Phaseolus caracalla --Twisted-flowered kidney-bean. Other equally unattractive names for this magnificent vine included Caracol, Snail Flower, and Corkscrew Flower.
Posted by Sue at July 14, 2005 01:01 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.downtowntomatoes.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/31