ASIA-TEMPERATE Western Asia: Turkey
EUROPE Southeastern Europe: Albania; Italy [incl. Sicily]; Serbia; Slovenia Southwestern Europe: France; Spain
EXACT NATIVE RANGE OBSCURE
Vinca major, a member of the Dogbane Family (Apocynaceae), is a perennial, evergreen herb with erect flowering stems (0.25-0.5 m long) and trailing non-flowering stems (1 m long), which root at the nodes.
Evergreen to semievergreen vines, some-what woody, trailing or scrambling to 3 ft. (1 m) long and upright to 1 ft. (30 cm).
Foliage is opposite, glossy and hairless, some-what thick, with margins slightly rolled under. Leaves are heart-shaped to somewhat triangular to elliptic, 1.5-2.5 in. (4-6 cm) long and 1-1.5 in. (2.5-4 cm) wide.
Violet to blue lavender (to white) flowers, with five petals radiating pinwheel-like at right angles from the floral tube. Flowers from 1.5-2 in. (4-5 cm) wide with a 0.6-0.8 in. (1.5-2 cm) long tube. Five sepals long lanceo-late, about 0.4 in. (1 cm), hairy margined. Blooms April to May, then sporadically to September.
It was probably introduced to the US as an ornamental, likely in the 1700's. Commonly cultivated as an ornamental ground cover and has escaped cultivation in many places.