Azara dentata
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
Jane Furse
Credits
Martin F. Gardner & Sabina G. Knees (2025)
Recommended citation
Gardner, M.F. & Knees, S.G. (2025), 'Azara dentata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Corcolén
Shrub to 2 m tall with densely downy shoots. Leaves 1.5–4 × 1–2.5 cm, elliptic to broadly elliptic, apex obtuse, base rounded densely, downy beneath, margin regularly toothed, matt-green. Flowers dull orange-yellow, borne in corymbs. Sepals 4–6, c. 1–2 mm long, pointed, downy outside. Stamens 30–40, the outer often sterile. Nectaries 2 or 3. Flowering June–July in the wild. Berry globose, 6–9 mm across, yellow; few-seeded. (Cullen et al. 2011; Rodríguez & Marticorena 2019; Sleumer 1977).
Distribution Chile Regions of: Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Metropolitan, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Maule, Ñuble, Biobío
Habitat Azara dentata is endemic to Chile, mainly in the Mediterranean zone which prevails in the centre of the country. It is a classic component of sclerophyllous forest and the more scrubby matorral vegetation of both the coastal mountain range and the Andes where it has an altitudinal range of between 10 and 2360 m. The steep rocky slopes where it normally occurs have a rich flora and can include evergreen trees such as Cryptocarya alba, Maytenus boaria, Peumus boldus and Quillaja saponaria. Sclerophyllous shrub associates can include Escallonia illinita, E. pulverulenta, Kageneckia oblonga, Lithraea caustica, Puya alpestris subsp. zoellneri and the cactus, Leucostele chiloensis.
USDA Hardiness Zone 9a
RHS Hardiness Rating H4
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
Azara dentata was first described by Hipólito Ruiz López and José Antonio Pavón Jiménez (Ruiz & Pavón 1798), along with A. integrifolia and A. serrata. These were the first Azara species to be named and were all collected in the vicinity of the coastal port of Concepción in Chile. The date of introduction to cultivation for A. dentata is given as 1830, but because it has long been confused with A. serrata in horticulture, there is some uncertainty which of these two species this date actually refers to. Unfortunately, confusion still persists today both in gardens and in the horticultural trade. In 1957 a plant of A. serrata was exhibited by Windsor Great Park at a Royal Horticultural Society show under the name A. dentata and given an Award of Merit (Anon 1957), but the plant description included key characters of both taxa. The differences between these two species are very clear in that in A. dentata the undersurface of the leaves is covered with dense hairs while those of A. serrata are glabrous. A further difference is that the fruits of A. dentata are orange while those of A. serrata are pearly-white. The leaves of A. dentata are bitter to the taste (pers. obs.). From a horticultural point of view, A. dentata is a far less attractive shrub with fewer, relatively insignificant dull orange-yellow flowers and it is less winter hardy. A recent evaluation of A. dentata in cultivation, where all cultivated specimens were verified from images, found that in most cases the plants in question were in fact A. serrata (pers. obs.).
Azara dentata is tender (far more so than A. serrata). Bean (1976) states ‘It is only hardy against a wall at Kew, and was killed or badly damaged in many gardens in the cold winters of 1961–63. Today there are three plants of A. dentata growing at RBG Kew as undershrubs of about 1.5 m tall; the oldest dating back to 1992 (D. Baggy pers. comm. 2025). RBG Edinburgh has records going back to 1945 for the cultivation of A. dentata and according to Bean (1976) a c. 6 m plant (planted in a sheltered position) survived the harsh winter of 1962–63. A collection of A. dentata (GMO 325) made in 2011 through RBG Edinburgh, from Cerro Tabaco (Valparaíso Region), where it was growing with the most northerly population of Austrocedrus chilensis (which has since been badly affected by fire), represents one of the few known wild origin collections in cultivation. Cuttings have been successfully rooted from the plant at RBG Edinburgh and are being distributed to other gardens in the UK. The only plant listed by the Tree Register is a 6 m tall (in 2017) specimen at The University of Exeter (The Tree Register 2025).
