Greater Periwinkle

Vinca major

Description 8

More info for the terms: caudex, coma, cover, vines

Botanical description: The following descriptions cover characteristics that may be relevant to fire ecology and are not meant for identification. Keys for identification are available (e.g., for bigleaf periwinkle: [29,42,51,78,113]; for common periwinkle: [29,42,78,97,113]).Periwinkles are vines [42,113] with scrambling or trailing stolons up to 3 feet (1 m) long and vertical stems 1 foot (30 cm) high [72]. The succulent stems become somewhat woody at the caudex [72]. Bigleaf periwinkle leaves are semievergreen [78], have a waxy cuticle [10], and are heart-shaped to triangular. They are 1.5 to 2.5 inches (4 to 6 cm) long [72]. Common periwinkle leaves are evergreen [113], narrow, elliptic, and 0.8 to 1.8 inches (2 to 4.5 cm) long [72].

Periwinkle flowers are violet to blue-lavender, with 5 petals radiating pinwheel-like at right angles from floral a tube. Flowers are infrequently white. The flowers of bigleaf periwinkle are larger than those of common periwinkle [72].

Periwinkle fruits are slender, cylindrical follicles up to 2 inches (5 cm) long [72]. Follicles dry, split, and release 3 to 5 seeds (review by [72]). Periwinkle seeds are naked and without a coma [29].

Periwinkles are "fairly deep-rooted" (review by [79]). Common periwinkle plants in western Montana exhibited fibrous roots ranging from 1 to 3 inches (3-8 cm) long [96]. Further descriptions of roots were unavailable as of 2009.  


Common (left) and bigleaf (right) periwinkle flowers.

Distribution 9

Bigleaf periwinkle is native to Mediterranean Europe [1,4], Asia Minor [1], and northern Africa (review by [10]). Common periwinkle is native across all of continental Europe as far north as the Baltic States [86]. Both bigleaf [51,55,92,107] and common [29,42,50,55,97,100,103,117] periwinkle are frequently planted in North America and escape from cultivation. Periwinkles may also spread with the dumping of yard waste ([17,37], review by [10]). A review of 19th-century floras documented periwinkles in the United States by the late 1700s [112].

In the United States, bigleaf periwinkle has a U-shaped distribution from New York and Massachusetts in the east, south to Georgia, west to California, and north to Washington. Exceptions to this distributional pattern include Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, West Virginia, Florida, Oklahoma, and Nevada. Bigleaf periwinkle does not occur in the majority of the states in the Northern Great Plains or Northern and Central Rockies. Common periwinkle occurs in every state in the eastern United States from Minnesota south to Louisiana. It is discontinuously distributed in the western United States, occurring in Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. The Plants Database provides a map of bigleaf and common periwinkle distributions in North America.

Habitat characteristics 10

General site types: Bigleaf periwinkle occurs in riparian areas ([6,21,29,33,34,49,71,112], reviews by [81,111]), forests ([29], reviews by [72,111]), grasslands, and coastal dunes (review by [111]). Bigleaf periwinkle is also associated with sites linked to human activities, including old homesites ([74,78,94], review by [72]), gardens [55], roadsides [55,92], "waste" areas ([55,78], review by [72]), and other highly disturbed areas [55].

Common periwinkle occurs in forests or "wooded" areas [29,37,45,57,60,78], including both open ([42,100,115], review by [72]) and closed ([53], reviews by [72,81]) forest. Common periwinkle also occurs along forest edges ([37], review by [25]), within second-growth forest [32], and in fields or meadows [77,78,90]. Common periwinkle is found along roadsides [3,18,42,47,48,78,94,97,100,115] or trail edges [47], at homesites ([12,35,50,74,84,85,94,103], review by [72]), in gardens [55] or yards [94], cemeteries [57,97], "waste" places [3,55,78,115], and in other disturbed sites [8,55,101,117]. At an "ancient" archeological site in the oak-beech forest region of France, common periwinkle was most abundant in disturbed areas including abandoned homesites, enclosures, and agricultural terraces, but was also found to a lesser extent in areas that showed no archeological evidence of human disturbance [35].

Elevation: Periwinkles occur at a range of elevations from sea level to 7,500 feet (2,300 m). Elevation for sites with periwinkles in their nonnative ranges Species Location Elevation (feet) Bigleaf periwinkle California 7 to 650 [49] North Carolina 5 [92] Utah 5,000 [113] Common periwinkle Florida 0 [24] Utah 7,500 [113] West Virginia 1,200 to 2,500 [9,18]

Climate: In their nonnative ranges, periwinkles do best in mild climates [4,99]. Few authors report climate data for sites with periwinkles; therefore, the climate data presented here may not represent climatic conditions throughout the nonnative ranges of periwinkles. Both species occur near Washington, DC, where the average daily temperature is 55.0 °F (12.8 °C) [94]. In Arkansas, periwinkles occur in an area with hot summers and moderately cool winters; only 4 days/year have snowfall >1.0 inch (2.5 cm). The first and last frosts in this region occur in early April and late October, respectively [55]. Bigleaf periwinkle occurs in the Huachuca Mountains, where mean daily temperatures are 79 °F (26 °C) in July and 48 °F (9 °C) in January [83]. Common periwinkle occurs on sites with mean daily temperatures in January as low as -7.8 °F (-22.1 °C) in New York [93], and in July as high as 82.2 °F (27.9 °C) in southwestern Georgia [100].

Annual rainfall is variable across the nonnative ranges of periwinkles. Average annual rainfall for sites with periwinkles in their nonnative ranges Species Location Annual rainfall (mm) Both species Arkansas 1,080 [55] Washington, DC 1,114 [94] Bigleaf periwinkle Arizona 400 [83] North Carolina 1,417 [92] Common periwinkle Georgia 1,211 to 1,367 [100] Illinois 963 [88] New York 890 [93] West Virginia 1,209 [18]

Periwinkles are somewhat drought tolerant; a review suggests that bigleaf periwinkle is more tolerant of drought than common periwinkle [79]. One review reports that hot, dry weather may cause bigleaf periwinkle death [7]. All bigleaf periwinkles in a greenhouse died after exposure to drying winds and intense heat (>100° F (38° C) for more than 10 days) [114]. Cold weather may damage bigleaf periwinkle (review by [7]), though one population in Ohio survived 2 of "the most severe winters of the past century, those of 1976 to 1977 and 1977 to 1978" [4].

Soils: Periwinkles are found on soils with a range of characteristics.

Parent material: Bigleaf periwinkle occurs on soils derived from granite, gneiss, or schist in Georgia [22]. In north-central Texas, it is associated with limestone [29].

Texture: In the Huachuca Mountains, bigleaf periwinkle occurs mainly on sandy-loam and sandy clay-loam riparian soils [83]. In its native range, common periwinkle is associated with soils of varying textures [35,44,53]. Common periwinkle occurs on silt loams in Ohio [58] and Illinois [88], clayey, loamy, and sandy soils in the Northeast [68], and rocky, sandy soil in Missouri [99].

Other soil characteristics: A review states that bigleaf periwinkle grows most vigorously in moist soil with only partial sun but may grow in deep shade with "poor" soil [7]. In Georgia, bigleaf periwinkle is associated with acidic clays [22]. Common periwinkle prefers moist sites [28,76,88], though it tolerates moderately well-drained soil [68]. While some sources suggest common periwinkle prefers fertile soil ([28], review by [25]), one source states that common periwinkle tolerates soils of low fertility [68]. In the oak-beech forest region of France, common periwinkle occurred on shallow soils ranging from 5.7 to 8.7 inches (14.4-22.1 cm) deep [35]. In its nonnative range, common periwinkle occurs on acid soils [18,68,88]. In France, common periwinkle occurred on soils with pH ranging from 6.7 to 7.2 [35].

Miscellaneous details 11

"Notes: Western Ghats, Cultivated / Escape, Native of Mediterranean Region"

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Kate's Diary: Sydney, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/8445571@N02/3887496263
  2. Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Vinca_pervinca_12_maig.jpg
  3. (c) 2006 Luigi Rignanese, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=185006&one=T
  4. (c) 2007 Luigi Rignanese, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=210236&one=T
  5. (c) 2007 Luigi Rignanese, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=210241&one=T
  6. (c) Todd Ramsden, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Todd Ramsden
  7. (c) 2007 Luigi Rignanese, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=210238&one=T
  8. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24630498
  9. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24240101
  10. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24240110
  11. (c) India Biodiversity Portal, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/26345625

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