PlantFiles: Roving Sailor, Twining Snapdragon, Snapdragon Vine
Maurandella antirrhiniflora

This is one of my favorite native plants, and has survived container living for two years. I've planted it into the ground this year, and even after some root damage from the transplant, it is still doing well.

I have tried growing this plant from seed and cuttings several times and have had no luck - but I still love this delicate looking but tough plant.

I started my vines from seed. Very easy and fast to germinate. Blooms within 45 days of planting.

A gorgeous vine with bright purple blooms. Don't be fooled - this may look delicate but it's a hardy vine that grows quickly and blooms profusely.

I planted this in my yard hoping Buckeye butterflies will use it as a larval host...time will tell.

~ Cat

Roving sailor vines are native plants that can be found on limestone hills, slopes, sandy dunes, dry salt marshes and beach areas of the southern Texas coast through the Texas Rio Grande Plains as well as the Texas Trans-Pecos region. In addition, they are native to Arizona, California, New Mexico and and Mexico. They are adaptable to most soils that are well drained and require moderate water. Supplemental irrigation or rain will extend its blooming season and encourage faster growth. The genus is named after Catalina Pancratia Maurandy who was an 18th-century botanist from Cartagena, Spain.

A delicate vine, roving-sailor or snapdragon vine usually reaches 3 to 10 feet in length. It is a deciduous or semi-evergreen twining vine. The 0.5 to 1 inch long, lobed, medium green leaves are alternate and have a triangular, ivy-shape. The small, but showy, 5/8 to 1 inch long purple, lilac, blue-purple or rose-red blooms with white or yellow throats appear on slender pedicels from the axils of the leaves. They are snapdragon-like with 3 lobes on the lower lip and 2 paired lobes on the upper lip.

Well worth cultivating, these little vines are very attractive and can be grown from seed. Not winter hardy in most zones, they will produce small, rambling and scrambling, extensively twining vines that die back to the ground each winter. They usually reseed themselves the following spring.

The roving sailor vine is a vine that is not showy from a distance. It is a vine whose fragile beauty needs to be seen close-up. Plant it near a walkway, garden bench or an entryway. Let it climb up a small trellis or dangling from a hanging basket. Don’t be surprised if the common buckeye (Junonia coenia) butterfly shows up because this plant is one of its larval foods.