Sarcococca hookeriana
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Sarcococca hookeriana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Infraspecifics
An evergreen shrub up to 6 ft high, increasing by sucker growths from the base; young shoots minutely downy. Leaves narrowly lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, slenderly pointed, wedge-shaped at the base, 2 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. wide, bright green and quite glabrous; stalk about 1⁄4 in. long. Flowers small, fragrant, unisexual, white, crowded in the leaf-axils; styles three; fruit nearly globose, 1⁄4 in. wide, black. Flowers in late autumn.
A native of the eastern Himalaya, N. Assam and S.E.Tibet. Although introduced in the last century, it is less common now than its Chinese variety and rather less hardy. It received an Award of Merit when shown from Bodnant in 1936.
var. digyna Franch.
Synonyms
Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis (Stapf) Rehder & E.H.Wilson
Sarcococca humilis Stapf
Editorial Note
Sarcococca humilis has been reduced to synonymy with S. hookeriana var. digyna, but was treated separately by Bean. The text below is adapted and expanded to reflect the newer understanding of the taxonomy.
A suckering evergreen shrub up to 6 ft high, the young branches longitudinally ribbed and downy. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or narrowly oval. Inflorescence a raceme; 5–8 male flowers inserted distally, with or without two bracteoles, four tepals, the inner ones broadly elliptic, the outer ones shorter; 1–2 female flowers at base of rachis with several ovate bracteoles and tepals resembling the bracteoles. Fruits round, blue-black with persistent styles. Min & Brückner 2008, Bean 1976
A native of western China, discovered by Augustine Henry and introduced by Wilson in 1907 (the form corresponding to var. humilis) and 1908 (the var. digyna). It is of dwarfer habit than var. hookeriana, and quite hardy; it can be told from the type variety by its two (not three) styles, and the (sub)opposite rather than alternate leaflets at the tips of the branchlets (flora of china). From S. ruscifolia it is distinct in its black or blue-black fruits, that species having dark red ones. Award of Garden Merit 1963.
Var. humilis is now treated as a synonym, but was applied to a still dwarfer form with shorter, narrowly oval, relatively much broader leaves and pink (rather than cream-coloured) anthers (Bean describes it as ‘a neat little shrub sending up new stems from the ground like a butcher’s broom’).
'Purple Stem'
A variant of the var. digyna in which the young stems, petioles and midribs are dull purple.