Berchemia lineata
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Berchemia lineata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Rhamnus lineata L.
A deciduous climbing shrub of elegant growth; young shoots finely downy. Leaves oval, often inclined to ovate, 1⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 to 5⁄8 in. wide, rounded at the base, often also at the apex except for the mucronate tip; dark green above, pale beneath, but distinctly and prettily marked with four to six parallel veins running out from the midrib to the margin; stalk very short. Flowers white, 3⁄16 in. long, produced in terminal clusters and in the terminal leaf-axils of slender, lateral, often short twigs, each flower on a slender stalk 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long; sepals erect, linear, enclosing the other parts. Fruit a cylindrical or oval drupe, 3⁄16 to 1⁄4 in. long, blue-black when ripe.
Native of S. and S.E. China, Formosa, N. India. An elegant climber, very distinct in its abundant, parallel-veined leaves and its tiny blue fruits.
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
Some plants that have been grown under this name are really B. edgeworthii M. A. Laws., which is part of B. lineata as once understood by some botanists. It is a more western species, ranging from Afghanistan and Baluchistan to Bhutan. In B. lineata the young shoots are downy, the stipules are thread-like and barely 1⁄10 in. long, and the flowers are crowded at the ends of the branches, the terminal clusters of three to four flowers being supplemented by others borne singly or two together in the uppermost leaf-axils. In B. edgeworthii the young stems are glabrous, the stipules are ovate to lanceolate and about 1⁄8 in. long, and the flowers are borne in the leaf-axils in clusters of three or four in each.
