Pink tecoma, pink trumpet vine (Podranea ricasoliana)
Known as pink tecoma locally, this ornamental, evergreen and woody vine is known elsewhere as Port St. John’s Creeper, Zimbabwe creeper or pink trumpet vine. It flowers in the summer and autumn and is not uncommon in our gardens and along roadsides where, sometimes, long branches can be seen cascading fifteen to twenty feet down a cliff or wall.
Pink tecoma is probably a fairly recent introduction to the island and may have been introduced between 1918 when N.L. Britton’s Flora of Bermuda was published, and 1955 when The Bermuda Garden was published and where it first seems to have been noted.
Pink tecoma is a vigorous climbing vine but does not have tendrils. It will happily grow either up a trellis or through surrounding plants and then send long branches down again.
It is a fast grower and may quickly grow out of control. Its leaves are made up of seven to nine small toothed and pointed leaflets. Large clusters of flowers (photo) are borne at the end of the branches in the summer and autumn. The very mildly fragrant flowers are pink with red streaks, smooth inside, and two inches long. Each flower is cupped at the base by a balloon-shaped structure. It is visited by hawkmoths at night but, to my knowledge, it doesn’t produce fruit in Bermuda.
Its scientific name is an anagram of Pandorea, another plant to which it is related and resembles very closely; ricasoliana honours Vincenzo Ricasoli, a nineteenth century Italian general and patron of horticulture.
Other members of this family grown in Bermuda include many ornamentals, among them cat’s claw vine, white cedar, African tulip tree, cape honeysuckle, calabash, garlic vine, jacaranda, candle tree, and sausage tree.
Bermuda’s Flora Volume 1 & Volume 2 by Lisa Green are both available at the Bermuda Bookstore.
