weigela
[wahy-gee-luh, -jee-, wahy-guh-luh]
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Weigela is a small genus of about 12 species of deciduous shrubs in the family Caprifoliaceae, growing to 1-5 m tall. All are natives of eastern Asia.
The leaves are 5-15 cm long, ovate-oblong with an acuminate tip, and with a serrated margin. The flowers are 2-4 cm long, with a five-lobed white, pink, or red (rarely yellow) corolla, produced in small corymbs of several together in early summer. The fruit is a dry capsule containing numerous small winged seeds.
Weigela species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Brown-tail.
The genus is named after the German scientist Christian Ehrenfried Weigel.
The British Weigela national collection is held at Sheffield Botanical Gardens; along with the national collection of the closely related Diervilla genus. 
The german Weigela national collection is held at Sichtungsgarten Weigela in Buckow, Maerkische Schweiz Species:
- Weigela coraeensis
- Weigela decora
- Weigela floribunda
- Weigela florida
- Weigela hortensis
- Weigela japonica
- Weigela maximowiczii
- Weigela middendorfiana
- Weigela praecox
- Weigela x wagnerii
- Weigela subsessilis
Cultivation
Several of the species are very popular ornamental shrubs in gardens, although species have been mostly superseded by hybrids (crosses between W. florida and other Asiatic species).External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday September 25, 2008 at 13:56:21 PDT (GMT -0700)
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