Thunbergia fragrans – White Lady
Plant Name
Scientific Name: Thunbergia fragrans
Synonym: Thunbergia volubilis
Common Names: White Lady, Whitelady, White Thunbergia, Sweet Clock-vine, White Clock-vine
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Vine
Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized ornamental garden plant is native to India and other parts of Asia.
Flower Color: White
Flowering Season: This plant blooms year-round.
Height: Up to 10 feet (3 m) tall, but often trailing or climbing over low vegetation
Description: The tubular, 2 inch (5 cm) wide flowers rest in 2 small, green, heart-shaped bracts and have 5 ruffled, square-tipped lobes. The flowers are not fragrant and become wilted by late in the day. The flowers are followed by beaked seed capsules that resemble a bird's head. The leaves are green, opposite, and egg-shaped to arrowhead-shaped and hastately-lobed. The stems are slender, green, and twining.
Here in Hawaii, White Lady is a common, attractive weed in wet to mesic (moderately wet) coastal areas.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Scrophulariales
Family: Acanthaceae – Acanthus family
Genus: Thunbergia Retz. – thunbergia
Species: Thunbergia fragrans Roxb. – whitelady
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