Garrya

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
'Garrya' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/garrya/). Accessed 2024-09-09.

Family

Garryaceae

Species in genus

Glossary

herbarium: A collection of preserved plant specimens; also the building in which such specimens are housed.
pistillate: Female referring to female plants (dioecy) or flowers (monoecy) or the female parts of a hermaphrodite flower.
apex: (pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
berry: Fleshy indehiscent fruit with seed(s) immersed in pulp.
calyx: (pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
androdioecious: With only male or only hermaphrodite flowers on individual plants.
family: A group of genera more closely related to each other than to genera in other families. Names of families are identified by the suffix ‘-aceae’ (e.g. Myrtaceae) with a few traditional exceptions (e.g. Leguminosae).
ovary: Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
simple: (of a leaf) Unlobed or undivided.
staminate: Male referring to male plants (dioecy) or flowers (monoecy) or the male parts of a hermaphrodite 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
'Garrya' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/garrya/). Accessed 2024-09-09.

Garrya elliptica in full flower at Lambeth Palace, London, January 2020. Image John Grimshaw.

A genus of about twelve species of dioecious evergreen trees and shrubs, natives of western N. America, Mexico, and Guatemala, and the West Indies. Leaves simple, opposite, without stipules. Flowers apetalous, borne in pendulous catkin-like racemes; staminate flowers consisting of four sepals and four stamens. Pistillate flowers with an inferior ovary bearing (in some species) a few small calyx-lobes near the apex; styles two. Fruit a berry, with one or two seeds. The family Garryaceae, of which this genus is the only member, is allied to the Cornaceae, and more particularly to Griselinia and Aucuba.

With the exception of G. elliptica the garryas have not much value in gardens, being more or less tender and with little flower beauty. In the coldest parts of the British Isles all the species treated here will need wall protection, but in the south of Britain G. elliptica and G. × thuretii are hardy, in sheltered positions in the open ground. Propagation is by cuttings of half-woody twigs in gentle heat.

The genus was named by Douglas, in honour of Nicholas Garry of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who helped him in his plant-collecting expeditions in western North America.

From the Supplement (Vol.V)

The latest study of the genus is: Gerald V. Dahling, ‘Systematics and Evolution of Garrya’, Contrib. Gray Herbarium, No. 209 (1978).

Garrya fremontii in the Rogue River Valley, Oregon, March 2010. Image John Grimshaw.

Garrya × thuretii is a cross between Garrya elliptica and the very rare G. fadyenii made by Gustave Thuret in Villa Thuret, southern France. Botanical Garden of Ghent University. 20 April 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.