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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Hemiptelea davidii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A small deciduous tree, armed with stout thorns; young shoots hairy. Leaves oval, 3⁄4 to 21⁄4 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide, pointed, slightly heart-shaped at the base, with seven to fifteen teeth along each side; upper surface dark green and at first beset with pale, scattered hairs, each springing from a curious circular depression which, after the hair falls away, turns dark; lower surface glabrous except for a few scattered hairs on the midrib and chief veins at first. Fruits conical, 1⁄4 in. long, scarcely so wide, two-edged, slightly winged, shortly but distinctly stalked; stalk 1⁄12 in. long.
Native of N.E. and Central China, Manchuria, E. Mongolia, and Korea; introduced to France by Maurice de Vilmorin, and from his garden at Les Barres to Kew in 1908. The thorns in wild trees are very formidable, sometimes 4 or 5 in. long, but they become much less so on our cultivated trees.