Rhamnus japonica
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Rhamnus japonica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Other taxa in genus
- Rhamnus alaternus
- Rhamnus alnifolia
- Rhamnus arguta
- Rhamnus californica
- Rhamnus cathartica
- Rhamnus costata
- Rhamnus davurica
- Rhamnus fallax
- Rhamnus frangula
- Rhamnus × hybrida
- Rhamnus imeretina
- Rhamnus infectoria
- Rhamnus lanceolata
- Rhamnus pumila
- Rhamnus purshiana
- Rhamnus rupestris
- Rhamnus saxatilis
- Rhamnus tinctoria
- Rhamnus utilis
A deciduous shrub up to 8 or 9 ft high; lateral branchlets occasionally spine-tipped or reduced to short spurs with the leaves crowded at the end; young shoots glabrous. Leaves glossy pale green on both sides, obovate, always tapered at the base, broadly pointed or rounded at the apex, finely toothed except sometimes near the base, 1 to 3 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide; with three to five pairs of veins converging towards the apex; stalk 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. long, more or less downy. Flowers greenish brown, produced in May in dense hemispherical clusters at the end of the short, spur-like branches; stalks glabrous, 1⁄3 in. long; calyx-lobes four, triangular; stamens four. Fruits globose, 1⁄4 in. across.
Native of Japan; introduced in 1888. It flowers with great freedom, and the blossoms have a faint pleasant fragrance. It is distinct in its bright green, uniformly obovate leaves produced on spurs.