Atraphaxis frutescens
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Atraphaxis frutescens' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Polygonum frutescens L.
- Atraphaxis lanceolata Meissn.
A deciduous mostly unarmed shrub of straggling habit 1 to 21⁄2 ft high; young wood glabrous, whitish. Leaves variable, linear-oblong or oblanceolate to lanceolate or oval; 1⁄3 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄3 in. wide; grey-green, wavy at the margin; stipules ending in long points. Flowers whitish, produced in slender, leafy racemes, from 1 to 3 in. long, at the end of short lateral twigs; flower-stalk jointed about midway; inner sepals becoming at the fruiting stage rounded, 1⁄4 in. across, and ultimately rose-coloured.
Native of S.E. Europe and the Caucasus, to Siberia and Turkestan; introduced in 1770. It flowers in August, and long remains pretty, but, like the rest of the genus, has never attracted much notice in gardens.
var. virgata Reg., found in Turkestan, has whiter and more slender twigs than the type.
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
This species does not occur in south-east Europe, as stated on page 355. Its western limit is in Russia, north-west of the Black Sea. The only species in Europe outside Russia is A. billardieri.
