Sinomenium acutum (Thunb.) Rehd. & Wils.

A deciduous climber, up to 20 ft high, with twining stems. Leaves very variable in shape, perhaps normally ovate-cordate and entire, but sometimes almost kidney-shaped, sometimes lobed like Catalpa ovata, sometimes deeply three- or five-lobed (with lanceolate lobes), sometimes shallowly so; often with a lobe on one side only; the base often truncate; 2 to 6 in. long, 11⁄4 to 41⁄2 in. wide; deep bright green, glabrous, with three or five conspicuous veins radiating from the base; stalk slender, 2 to 6 in. long. Flowers small, yellow, unisexual, about 1⁄6 in. wide; sepals six, in two series of three each, downy beneath; petals very small; the flowers are borne in slenderly pyramidal panicles 6 to 12 in. long, the main and secondary flower-stalks downy. Fruit about the size of a small pea, globose, black, covered with blue bloom.

Native of E. Asia. Although described by Thunberg in 1784 from a Japanese plant, it does not appear to have been introduced to cultivation until Wilson sent seeds from China to Veitch’s Coombe Wood nursery in 1901. It is perfectly hardy, and a vigorous grower.