Family: Bignoniaceae
Common name: Cat’s claw creeper, Dolichandra, Cat’s claw trumpet, Funnel creeper, Yellow trumpet vine
Cat’s Claw Creeper is a beautiful, fast-growing climbing vine that can transform your garden during spring, with its large clusters of bright yellow flowers, and lush green leaves.
Plant characteristics
Dolichandra plants can reach height of 10-15 meters climbing on trellises, fences, supporting structures, or nearby trees using strong twining stems and tendrils.
They can cover entire areas with their dark green leaves and flowers, making them ideal for dividers, or screens to separate areas visually. The stems can become thick and calloused over time sending out climbers in all directions. The plant also produces tubers underground which can be used for propagation.
Leaves are compound having 3-5 elliptical leaflets from one stalk, and a tendril in the shape of a cat’s claw, that helps the plant to climb. They are dark green, about 5-10 cm long, with slightly wavy or smooth edges.
During spring, the Cat’s claw creeper produces long, thick bunches of bright yellow flowers that can cover the plant, leaving everything else in your garden invisible.
There are a few weeks during the blooming season when the flowering is at its peak during which time your garden will invite birds, bees, insects, and butterflies by hundreds. These bright flowers are rich in nectar attracting pollinators that go positively crazy at the feast.
Cat’s claw creeper flowers are 5-7 cm in diameter with five overlapping petals that are fused at the based to form a funnel. This also gives the plant its name ‘Yellow trumpet vine’.
There are Blue trumpet vines or Thunbergia grandiflora, Pink trumpet vines or Podranea ricasoliana, and Golden trumpet or Allamanda cathartica, all of them characterised by trumpet-shaped flowers in varying colors. Trumpet vine seems to be a favorite common or local name for a variety of plants.
In about 3-4 weeks after flowering, the plant produces long seedpods that are 10-15 cm long with more than 100 winged seeds embedded in the pulp. Green seedpods later turn brown on maturity before they burst open to release the seeds which are dispersed by wind, water, and animals.
Gardening tips
It is easy to grow Cat’s claw creepers in your garden – plant it in a spot that gets good direct sunlight. Make sure the soil is well-drained. Throughout the year, the plant will grow vigorously and inconspicuously until the flowering season when they become the star of the show, and everybody looks at your garden with jealousy.
Regular watering is needed during the flowering season since the plants spends a lot of energy at this time. You can pretty much ignore the plant once it’s established in the soil, watering it only when the soil is dry.
If the twining stems do not have a place to get a foothold, tie them to the supporting structures with threads or twines. It is essential to provide a place for the Cat’s claw creeper to climb lest it climb on plants and trees around it, smothering them in the process.
If trained and pruned well, this plant can beautify your garden with their lush green leaves, and bright, beautiful flowers. Cat’s claw creepers have many medicinal uses in the treatment of inflammations, arthritis, muscle pains, rheumatism, fever, malaria, influenza, snake bites, and skin diseases.
Propagation is through seeds, stem cuttings, and tubers.
Photographed at: Nagavara, Bangalore
