Pronounciation: Cal-lay-EE-um ma-crop-TER-um

Hardiness zones:
Sunset 12-24
USDA 8 (will sustain foliage and stem freeze damage most winters), 9-11

Landscape Use: Heat tolerant vine for fully exposed desert green or hard walls, accent vine that needs support.

Form & Character: Informal, upright vining, twining, spreading, gentle looking, but tough as nails.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, woody, broadleaf perennial vine in Phoenix, will freeze to ground, but quickly recover in colder climate. Moderate growth to 30 feet, requires support for upright habit, or else it will sprawl.

Foliage/Texture: Simple, smooth and entire glaborous, opposite leaves, ovate to elliptic, green, to 2-inches long and one inch wide; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Clusters of 5 petaled, yellow flowers. Fruits paper thin and shaped like butterflies, lime green when immature changing to cinnamon-brown when mature.

Seasonal Color: Flower and fruits profusely throughout the year so that both flowers and fruit adorn this wonderful vine simultaneously.

Temperature: Heat loving, but damaged by cold lower than 24^oF, quickly recovers.

Light: Full sun to filtered shade.

Soil: Grows well in amended, well drained desert soils. Avoid heavy clay soils.

Watering: Must have regular deep irrigations in Phoenix. Drip irrigation is best. Yellow butterfly vine might become aggressive and spread in flood irrigated Phoenix landscapes.

Pruning: Only light pruning to control spread and direct growth is necessary.

Propagation: Easy from seed or semi-softwood cuttings taken in late spring or early fall.

Disease and Pests: None

Additional comments: Yellow butterfly vine is a delicate looking, but very tough vine for arid Phoenix landscapes. This awesome vine should be used more in Phoenix landscapes!

Very minor factoid: "Pterum" is latin for wing and "macro" is big. Thus, macropterum means big wing, referring to the appearance of this vine's fruit.