Trumpet Vine Identification

Size and Form

• The trumpet vine is a quick-growing plant, extending as far as 30 to 40 feet up a tree or along the ground. A woody vine, it holds fast to any surface by using its clinging aerial rootlets to attach itself. Trumpet vine can spread out as wide as 10 feet with its stems and foliage. In the Deep South especially, trumpet vine becomes very aggressive in the right situation, escaping cultivation and naturalizing in certain spots. In fields, its stems that grow along the ground have the nickname of "devil's shoestrings."

Foliage

• The leaves of the trumpet vine are compound leaves, growing opposite one another from the stems. A central stem as long as 15 inches holds seven, nine or 11 leaflets, with each leaflet up to 2 1/2 inches in length. The leaflets are a shiny green and fall off the vine before winter across all but the warmest parts of the trumpet vine's range. The fall color of the leaflets -- a yellow tint of green -- is not highly ornamental.

Flowers

• The scarlet to orange flowers that emerge on a trumpet vine during July and August are showy and quickly become the highlight of this species. Hummingbirds and butterflies flock to the blooms, seeking nectar from the tubular flowers. The flowers occur in clusters, with as many as 12 at the end of a twig. They are as long as 3 inches and as wide as 1 1/2 inches.

More Features

• The seedpods, closely resembling beans, which develop from a trumpet vine's flowers, are between 3 and 5 inches long. They will split apart once they are ripe, changing from a green to a tan before doing so. The many seeds inside float away with the breeze; the seeds are flat and appear to have wings. The bark of the trumpet vine is tan. On the larger and older specimens, the bark peels away in strips. Look for trumpet vines from Ontario southward through Florida, and as far westward as Texas and the Great Plains. It grows in woodlands, fields, thickets, clearings and waste places.