Japanese Wisteria

Japanese wisteria (日本紫籐) bears the longest flower racemes of any wisteria; they can reach nearly half a meter in length. These racemes burst into great trails of clustered white, violet, or blue flowers in early- to mid-spring. The flowers carry a distinctive fragrance similar to that of grapes.
Japanese wisteria can grow over 30m long over many supports via powerful clockwise-twining stems. From a distance, it looks like a waterfall.

The foliage consists of shiny, dark-green, pinnately compound leaves 10–30 cm in length. The leaves bear 9-13 oblong leaflets that are each 2–6 cm long. It also bears numerous poisonous, brown, velvety, bean-like seed pods, 5–10 cm long that mature in summer and persist until winter. Japanese wisteria prefers moist soils and full sun. It is amazing that the plant often lives over fifty years.