Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north of Iran. They were later introduced to France, Germany and various other countries in Europe. Some species are popular ornamental plants.
The botanist Thomas Nuttall said he named the genus Wisteria in memory of the American physician and anatomist Caspar Wistar (1761–1818).[1][2] Both men were living in Philadelphia at the time, where Wistar was a professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.[3] Questioned about the spelling later, Nuttall said it was for "euphony", but his biographer speculated that it may have something to do with Nuttall's friend Charles Jones Wister Sr., of Grumblethorpe, the grandson of the merchant John Wister.[4] Various sources assert that the naming occurred in Philadelphia.[5]

Another source claims that the person who named Wisteria after Caspar Wistar was the Portuguese botanist and geologist José Francisco Correia da Serra, who lived in Philadelphia beginning in 1812, four years before his appointment as ambassador of Portugal to the United States. Correia became a close friend of Wistar, "took tea at his home daily, and named the vine 'Wisteria' to commemorate this friendship."[6]

As the spelling is apparently deliberate, there is no justification for changing the genus name under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.[7] However, some spell the plant's common name "wistaria".[8][9]

When they were introduced to France, Germany and various other countries in Western and Central Europe where they are known not as Wisteria but by the German name of the plant, Glyzinien (French: Fleur de Glycine, German: Glyzinienbaum, Russian: Цветок глициний, romanized: Tsvetok glitsiniy)
@ Wikipedia

Wisteria

• Category: Plant
• Photo by: Doris Holzmann
• Add Date: 05.06.2022 13:26

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