Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Sophora davidii

 
Sophora davidii
shrub pagoda tree

Synonym(s) Sophora viciifolia
Common name shrub pagoda tree
Family fabaceae
Life cycle shrub (Z4-7)
Flowers white/blue (May)
Size 4-6'
From seed scarify seeds, then germinate at room temperature
detailed seed-starting info below

After I grew this from seed several years ago, I lost it amid a bunch of sophora affinis plants raised the same year, only to refind it a couple years later, when it showed itself as quite distinct both in foliage and in flower. The flowers appear white from a distance, but the dusky purple calyces make for an interesting two-tone contrast a little closer up. The compound foliage is quite refined, although thus far the shrub as a whole still has a bit of a gangly habit in our garden. The single specimen has since found its way out of our nursery area to the edge of our curve garden, and has flowered more profusely every year since I saw that first bloom.

Sophora davidii
shrub pagoda tree
Curiously, our specimen sprouted some tender new growth one year in late December, after weather had been cold for some time, but before hard freezes had arrived. Is our sophora climatically confused?
Sophora davidii
I love the fuzzy new growth – this photo reminded me of a nestful of fledglings on their first flight
shrub pagoda tree
Seedling, a couple months old
Sophora davidii
Seedpods like a snake who has eaten at regular intervals, in July
shrub pagoda tree
and a little browner a month later

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

Seed for this plant is included on my seed trade list

One or more images of this plant are included in my stock photo catalog

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Sophora davidii


Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from HPS/MAG '02/'03 exchange. Knife-nicked, baggy 70F (100%G, 8d)
  2. Seed from '14 garden. Sandpapered, baggy 70F (80%G, 5-19d)


I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments