Growing to 10 metres (33 feet), it is a vigorous, deciduous woody vine, notable for its showy trumpet-shaped flowers.

C. radicans is a vine that climbs on trees, other plants, or structures or trails along the ground and can grow to a length of up to 10 metres (33 feet).

Its botanical parentage, as a hardy member of a mostly subtropical group, made its naming problematic: according to John Parkinson, the Virginia settlers were at first calling it a jasmine or a honeysuckle, and then a bellflower; he classed it in the genus Apocynum (dogbane).

[11] The plant is commonly known as cow-itch vine because skin redness and itching is experienced by some people after coming in contact with the leaves.

[12] Campsis radicans is native to the eastern United States and extreme southern Ontario in Canada.

[9] Nectar robbing behavior has been observed to be performed by orchard orioles (Icterus spurius), which puncture and enlarge holes in the flower base to access nectaries.

[15] Certain sphinx moths with elongate proboscises are able to successfully feed on trumpet vines while hovering in front of the flower.

In warm weather, it puts out aerial rootlets that grab onto every available surface, and eventually expand into heavy woody stems several centimeters in diameter.

[10] The form C. radicans f. flava has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.