A Guide About Dolichos Flower

These plants are native to the tropics and members of the pea family. The best-known garden species, and certainly the most ornamental, is Dolichos Lablab which—using a non-scientific term but giving the plant a description easily understood by all—is one of the few "beans" cultivated for ornamental purposes. In some tropical countries dolichos pods are also used for food, while in the United States the plants are cultivated as fodder.

Altogether, there are about fifty species diffused throughout the tropics and the Old World. The only other species grown in gardens is Dolichos lignosus.

Cultivation. Like all vigorous fast-growing climbers, dolichos require a rich soil and they need an abundance of organic fertilizer, preferably in liquid form, during their growing season. They also need an alkaline soil, and when growing them in acid soils lime should be added. Seed should be sown in April, seeds pot in an unheated greenhouse or coldframe. When the seedlings are about, high, after eliminating the two weakest ones from each pot, they can be planted out in their flowering position, taking care not to break the root ball. If fibre pots are used, the matter of planting is simplified as the pots can be planted along with the plants. In warm climates the seeds can be sown in the open ground in their flowering position, generally in early May. One should remember, however, that dolichos are of tropical origin and will not tolerate frost.

Dolichos Lablab L

Probably native to tropical Africa, but now very widely diffused. Leaves compound, trifoliate, with each section ovate but unequal in size. The leaves have considerable beauty, green with the veins and stalks violet-red. The flowers are also very attractive, borne in racemes and looking like miniature wisterias, violet-purple and scented. The seed pods are a darker violet-purple and also fragrant. It is a climber of surprisingly rapid development and is thus of great value for covering pergolas or summer-houses, wire netting, trellises, etc. It can be effectively alternated with morning glories or Thunbergia alata. Unlike the morning glories, which bloom only at certain hours, dolichos flowers remain open at all times. Among the varieties of Dolichos Lablab there is the var. albus with cream-white flowers and with leaves, stalks, and pods entirely green; and var. giganteus, of more vigorous growth and larger proportions, with bigger flowers. There is also a shrubby dwarf form.

Dolichos lignosus L.

Very similar to Dolichos Lablab, with pinkish-purple or white flowers and smaller leaves. In the United States, in Arizona and California it is used for the same purpose as Dolichos Lablab, but it has the advantage of being evergreen and really perennial, forming a true woody climbe. Originally it was native to tropical Asia, but it is now widely diffused and a most useful evergreen climber for gardens in mild climates.

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