Giant Wisteria Trees

 

Colossal Wisteria Tree of Auburn

This 100-year-old, 100-foot-tall Wisteria "bush" twists and climbs to the top of four Ponderosa pine trees located on Linden Avenue in Auburn, California. The best time to view this spectacular display of color is early April.

The trunk of the Wisteria is almost as big around as the Ponderosa pine tree that it climbs!

So far, no one has challenged our claim that this is the Tallest Wisteria in the World.

Field staff Randy was able to take the first ever picture of the entire mass of the Wisteria from ground to apex (293 KB). Preliminary tests suggest that this is not a "robo-treenenna".

Wisteria Hysteria

Auburn's famous Wisteria tree/bush/vine was featured on the April 2006 cover of Sierra Heritage Magazine. Here's an excerpt from their cover story:

"...We don't hire models to pose for us... The cover of this issue is a good example... When Kathleen Sailor showed us her shot of the beautiful century-old Wisteria vine right here in our backyard, we knew our search was over... Mrs. Francis, the original owner of the house in the background, planted the vine over 100 years ago, and she must have had some kind of green thumb, because it still seems to be growing strong..."

The Tallest Deadest Wisteria in the World

The second tallest Wisteria in the world is dead! The Giant Wisteria of Colfax climbs and twists 75-feet to the top of two Ponderosa pine trees on the east side of Ben Taylor Road across from Colfax High School. At one time it rivaled the famous Giant Wisteria of Auburn in height and beauty.

Unfortunately, the Giant Wisteria of Colfax was recently separated from its' roots due to activities associated with nearby construction which resulted in a slow death to the leaves and flowers.

Now that the world's second tallest wisteria is dead, we plan to focus more attention on the world's third tallest wisteria which is located on Meadow Vista Road in Meadow Vista.

Carnivorous Wisteria

In 1891, at around the time this giant Wisteria-to-be was planted in Auburn, an author named Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a ghost story called "The Giant Wisteria". Published in a Victorian issue of New England Magazine, the story regards a huge weird house plant out of which an infant's ghost rises. If not for that story, we wouldn't even know that giant Carnivorous Wisterias existed.  http://www.ruralmysteries.com/wisteria.shtml