Helwingia japonica (Thunb.) F. Dietr.

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Helwingia japonica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/helwingia/helwingia-japonica/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Synonyms

  • Osyris japonica Thunb.

Other taxa in genus

    Glossary

    alternate
    Attached singly along the axis not in pairs or whorls.
    axil
    Angle between the upper side of a leaf and the stem.
    androdioecious
    With only male or only hermaphrodite flowers on individual plants.
    drupe
    A fleshy dehiscent or indehiscent fruit with one to several seeds each enclosed in a hard endocarp (the stone).
    glabrous
    Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
    midrib
    midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
    ovate
    Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
    simple
    (of a leaf) Unlobed or undivided.
    unisexual
    Having only male or female organs in a flower.

    References

    There are no active references in this article.

    Credits

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

    Recommended citation
    'Helwingia japonica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/helwingia/helwingia-japonica/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

    A deciduous dioecious shrub 3 to 5 ft high, with glabrous twigs. Leaves simple, alternate, ovate, tapering at both ends, long-pointed, 112 to 3 in. long, 12 to 114 in. wide, with fine, rather bristle-like teeth on the margins, quite glabrous and bright green on both surfaces; stalk 12 to 1 in. long; stipules hair-like. Flowers unisexual, very small, pale green or greenish white; females produced singly or in threes on the midrib about the centre of the upper surface of the leaf; males more numerous; they are stalkless, and of no beauty. Fruit a black drupe 14 in. long, roundish oval.

    Native of Japan, S. and W. China, and probably of Formosa; introduced to Europe by Siebold in 1830. It has not the least merit as an ornamental shrub, although the foliage in a milder climate is larger and perhaps more striking than as here described; but it is a plant of singular botanical interest. The morphological explanation of the anomalous position of the flowers in the middle of the leaf (for no true leaf ever produces flowers) is that the flower-stalk in reality originates in the axil of the leaf, but is united from end to end with the stalk and midrib. This shrub is hardy at Kew, and is propagated by cuttings of young wood.