Trumpet creeper, crossvine or trumpet honeysuckle: telling them apart
How to tell trumpet vine, crossvine and trumpet honeysuckle apart by leaf, bloom and fruit, how each climbs, which spreads by suckers, and what to grow each on.
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How to tell the three apartWhen each one flowersWhich one is hard to keep in boundsWhat each one should climbCommon questionsSourcesTrumpet creeper, crossvine and trumpet honeysuckle all hang red or orange trumpets for hummingbirds, and their leaves tell them apart from spring to fall. A trumpet creeper leaf carries 7 to 11 toothed leaflets, and a crossvine leaf just two, with a branched tendril. Trumpet honeysuckle has single leaves, and the pair under each flower cluster joins into one disk around the stem. Crossvine blooms in early spring, trumpet honeysuckle from spring into summer and trumpet creeper all summer. Trumpet creeper is the one that is hard to keep in bounds.
How to tell the three apart
The table sets the three side by side by what can be checked on the vine itself:
| Vine | Leaves | Flowers | Fruit | How it climbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trumpet creeper | 7 to 11 toothed leaflets on a leaf up to 15 inches long | Orange to red trumpets up to 3 inches long, June into September | Bean-like pods 3 to 6 inches long | Rootlets along the stems |
| Crossvine | Two smooth-edged leaflets and a branched tendril | Trumpets 2 inches long, reddish orange outside and yellow within, March into May | Flat pods 4 to 7 inches long | Tendrils tipped with sticky pads |
| Trumpet honeysuckle | Single, smooth-edged leaves, the pair under each flower cluster joined into one disk | Slim red tubes 1.5 to 2 inches long, yellow inside, March into July | Red berries about a quarter inch across | Stems that twine around a support |
All three hold their leaves in opposite pairs along the stem, so the shape of the leaf is the tell. Many toothed leaflets on one stalk mean trumpet creeper. Two leaflets and a tendril mean crossvine. Single leaves, with the top pair joined around the stem, mean trumpet honeysuckle.
A crossvine stem cut crosswise shows a cross, the mark that gave the vine its name. Its leaves also hang on through mild winters, turned reddish purple, while trumpet creeper drops its leaves in fall, leaving bare stems lined with rows of rootlets. Trumpet honeysuckle keeps its leaves through winter in the Deep South and drops them farther north.
Poison ivy also climbs by rootlets, so many that its stem looks hairy, but each of its leaves has three leaflets, as poison ivy and its native look-alikes shows. For a vine that matches none of these, the tree identification tool offers up to three names from a photo of a leaf, a flower or the fruit.
When each one flowers
Bloom time sorts them from a distance. Crossvine blooms in late winter and early spring, and its early flowers are a critical food for hummingbirds. Trumpet honeysuckle opens in spring as ruby-throated hummingbirds return north, and it goes on into July with a few flowers later. Trumpet creeper waits for summer and flowers from June into September. Planted together, they flower from March into September, as the bloom and fruit calendar shows month by month.
Up close the flowers differ too. Trumpet creeper’s are the largest, up to 3 inches long, in clusters at the branch tips. Crossvine’s hang in clusters of two to five, reddish orange outside and yellow within, and the wild form smells of mocha. Trumpet honeysuckle’s are slim tubes in whorls at the stem tips, red outside and yellow inside, with no scent.
Fruit settles it in late summer and fall. Trumpet creeper and crossvine belong to the trumpet creeper family, and both ripen long pods packed with winged seeds. Trumpet honeysuckle is a true honeysuckle, and its fruit is a small red berry that robins, finches, thrushes and quail eat.
Which one is hard to keep in bounds
Trumpet creeper is the vine to plant with care. It suckers from its roots and sows itself, and an unchecked vine forms thickets that choke out the plants around it:
“The challenge with species plants is usually not how to grow them but how to restrain them, in large part because they sucker profusely from underground runners and freely self-seed, often forming impenetrable colonies that can choke out other plants.” (NC State Extension, Campsis radicans)
It has escaped from gardens far beyond its native range. Plant it beside concrete or a lawn you mow, since mowing keeps the suckers down. It flowers on new wood, so a hard pruning in late winter, back to a few buds, costs no flowers. Touching its leaves reddens and itches some people’s skin, which is why it is also called cow-itch vine.
Crossvine spreads by root suckers and seed as well, and an unchecked vine can crowd out other plants. Pulling the suckers as they appear keeps it where it was planted.
Trumpet honeysuckle grows fast too, and one plant fills 3 to 6 feet of fence. Yet it stays well behaved:
“This vine is vigorous, but not aggressive like some species of honeysuckle.” (The Morton Arboretum, Trumpet honeysuckle)
The aggressive vine among them is Japanese honeysuckle, an invasive from Asia. It can smother the plants it climbs, and its stems are hollow inside, where those of every native honeysuckle are solid. How to clear it from a yard or a woodland is in invasive vines and shrubs.
What each one should climb
Each climbs its own way, and the way decides its support:
- Trumpet creeper clings by rootlets that can damage wood siding, shingles and mortar, and a grown vine is heavy. Give it a sturdy arbor, pergola or metal fence of its own, 10 feet from any wall, never a wooden fence or a living tree. On a bank, its suckers help hold the soil against erosion. Zones 4 to 10, 30 to 40 feet.
- Crossvine climbs brick, stone and fences without support, by the sticky pads at its tendrils’ tips. The pads can damage stucco, so on a house it goes on a trellis 5 feet from the wall. A fence, a stone wall or a tall pine in sun gives the most flowers, and it grows in shade too. Zones 5 to 9, 30 to 50 feet.
- Trumpet honeysuckle twines, and it cannot grip a flat wall. Give it a trellis, an arbor, wires or a chain-link fence, set 3 feet from a wall. It takes salt, which suits it to coastal gardens. Zones 4 to 10, 10 to 20 feet.
All three flower best in full sun. Blue Whale Trees grows all three from seed and offers each as saplings and as seed, among our native shrubs.
Common questions
Is trumpet honeysuckle the same as trumpet vine?
No. Trumpet vine is another name for trumpet creeper, which clings by rootlets and carries leaves of many toothed leaflets, summer trumpets and long pods. Trumpet honeysuckle twines, with single leaves, spring flowers and red berries.
What is the difference between trumpet vine and crossvine?
Trumpet vine, or trumpet creeper, has 7 to 11 toothed leaflets to a leaf, flowers in summer and drops its leaves in fall. Crossvine has two leaflets and a tendril, flowers in early spring and keeps its leaves through mild winters. A crossvine stem cut crosswise shows a cross.
Is tangerine crossvine the same as trumpet vine?
No: tangerine crossvine is ‘Tangerine Beauty’, one of several crossvine selections with improved flower color. It has crossvine’s two leaflets and tendrils, and it lacks the wild crossvine’s mocha scent.
Is coral honeysuckle the same as trumpet honeysuckle?
Yes: coral honeysuckle, trumpet honeysuckle and scarlet honeysuckle are names for one native vine, Lonicera sempervirens. It is not the invasive Japanese honeysuckle, whose stems are hollow inside.
Sources
(7 references)
- Campsis radicans: NC State Extension, North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, with its pages Bignonia capreolata and Lonicera sempervirens: the quotation, trumpet creeper’s opposite leaves of 7 to 11 serrated leaflets, its clinging aerial rootlets, red trumpets to 3 inches in clusters at the stem tips from June to September, a sturdy structure for a heavy vine, concrete or mowing against the suckers, early spring pruning on new growth, and cow-itch vine’s itching leaves; crossvine’s two leaflets and branched tendril, its early bloom as critical food for hummingbirds, clusters of two to five, the cross in a cut stem, ‘Tangerine Beauty’ among the selections of improved color, and root suckers pulled as they appear; trumpet honeysuckle’s simple, smooth-edged opposite leaves with the pair below the flowers joined into a disk, its non-fragrant tubes in whorls at the stem ends, its twining stems, and its salt tolerance.
- trumpet creeper: Virginia Tech Dendrology, with its crossvine fact sheet: trumpet creeper’s opposite, pinnately compound leaves of 7 to 11 coarsely serrated leaflets, pods 3 to 6 inches long full of winged seeds, and aerial roots in rows on the twig; crossvine’s opposite leaves of two smooth-edged leaflets ending in a branched tendril, bronze red in winter, its tendrils ending in suction cups, its flat capsules 4 to 7 inches long with winged seeds, and the cross in a cut twig.
- Bignonia capreolata: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin, with its pages Campsis radicans and Lonicera sempervirens and the Ask Mr. Smarty Plants answer Will Crossvine damage stucco walls?: holdfasts at the tendril tips that cling to stone, bricks and fences without support, the leaf of two leaflets and a tendril, crossvine’s evergreen leaves, holdfasts that damage stucco, trumpet creeper’s escape from cultivation, and the birds that eat trumpet honeysuckle’s berries.
- Trumpet honeysuckle: The Morton Arboretum, with its page Trumpet vine: the quotation, twining vines that climb by twisting around a support and grow on trellises, arbors, wires or chain-link fences, the leaves near the stem’s end fused around it, trumpet vine’s aerial rootlets, terminal clusters of red trumpets through the summer, its need for a strong trellis, pruning back to a few buds in spring, and its spread by suckers.
- Trumpet Creeper (Trumpet Vine): Missouri Department of Conservation field guide, with its Trumpet Honeysuckle page: a cross vine stem cut crosswise showing a cross, trumpet creeper’s aggressive growth and the skin rash behind the name cow-itch, and trumpet honeysuckle’s upper leaves united into a disk, its bloom timed to the ruby-throated hummingbird’s northward migration, and its scentless flowers.
- Cross Vine: Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home and Garden Information Center (Millie Davenport): the cross pattern in the pith behind the name, the evergreen to semi-evergreen leaves, the wild form’s mocha fragrance, and ‘Tangerine Beauty’ as an older selection that lacks it.
- Honeysuckle Species in Pennsylvania: Penn State Extension (Susan Marquesen): Japanese honeysuckle as the invasive vining honeysuckle from Asia that can smother the plants it climbs, its hollow stem pith against the solid pith of every native honeysuckle, and coral honeysuckle as another name for trumpet honeysuckle.
