Decumaria sinensis Oliver

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Decumaria sinensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/decumaria/decumaria-sinensis/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
appressed
Lying flat against an object.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Decumaria sinensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/decumaria/decumaria-sinensis/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

An evergreen climber growing probably 10 to 15 ft high; young shoots slightly furnished with appressed hairs at first, becoming grey; winter buds downy. Leaves opposite, mostly narrowly obovate or oval, rounded and blunt at the apex, more or less tapered at the base, entire or slightly toothed, 1 to 312 in. long, 12 to 134 in. wide, shining green and quite glabrous; stalk 14 to 34 in. long, often with appressed hairs near the base. Flowers yellowish white, produced in terminal, broadly pyramidal panicles 112 to 312 in. high and wide; petals seven to ten to each flower, oblong, up to 316 in. long, blunt at the apex; stamens twenty to thirty, conspicuous; flower-stalks slender, sometimes downy. Bot. Mag., t. 9429.

Native of Central China; discovered in the Ichang Gorge by Henry; introduced by Wilson in 1908. It is interesting as a Chinese representative of a genus only known previously by D. barbara, a native of eastern N. America. According to Wilson it is often found growing over rocks. The best plant I have seen was growing on a wall in the garden of the late Sir Stuart Samuel at Chelwood Vachery, near Nutley, in Sussex. It clung to the wall with a close mat of branches and in late May was sprinkled with a few flower-panicles (this plant no longer exists). Henry described it as a ‘creeper hanging down from the walls of cliffs with beautiful clusters of fragrant white flowers’, which, judging by cultivated plants, is a flattering description. The blossoms are faintly scented. It succeeds well on a south wall at Kew and in the walled garden at Wakehurst Place, Sussex.