Huodendron Rehder

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Arabella Lennox-Boyd

Credits

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Huodendron' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/huodendron/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Family

  • Styracaceae

Glossary

Credits

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Huodendron' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/huodendron/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

There are four species of Huodendron, occurring in China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. They are evergreen trees or shrubs with naked buds. The leaves are alternate with entire or serrate margins; stipules are absent. Inflorescences are terminal or axillary, paniculate or subcorymbose. The flowers are small, hermaphrodite and 5-merous, with a tubular calyx, free petals, reflexed after anthesis, and 8–10 stamens, exserted. The fruit is an ovoid capsule, partially surrounded by the calyx, dehiscing via two valves; the seeds do not have wings (Hwang & Grimes 1996).

The genus Huodendron is completely new to cultivation and gardeners are still very much at the stage of assessing it: it will probably be several more years before it is possible to say anything definitive about its potential and tolerances. As typical representatives of Styracaceae, however, its species can be expected to enjoy warm summers, preferably in fertile, moisture-retaining acidic soil.