Sargentodoxa cuneata
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Sargentodoxa cuneata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Holboellia cuneata Oliv.
Other taxa in genus
A unisexual, twining, deciduous climber 25 ft or more high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves dark glossy green, alternate, glabrous, composed of three leaflets borne on a common stalk 2 to 4 in. long. Side leaflets stalkless, obliquely ovate (or like a heart-shaped leaf halved lengthwise), pointed, up to 41⁄2 in. long, half as much wide; middle leaflet obovate, oval, or lozenge-shaped, smaller than the side ones and on a stalk 1⁄2 in. long. Male flowers greenish yellow, fragrant, borne numerously in pendulous racemes 4 to 6 in. long; each flower has six petal-like, narrowly oblong sepals 1⁄2 in. long, 1⁄8 in. wide, and is borne on a stalk 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long; stamens six. Female flowers (borne on separate plants) also in pendulous racemes up to 4 in. long, with six similar greenish yellow, petal-like sepals, and the carpels crowded on a central cone 1⁄4 in. high. When these carpels mature each develops into a roundish dark purplish blue ‘berry’ 1⁄4 in. wide, carrying a single black seed and borne on a stalk from 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. This stalk is the elongated base of the carpel. Bot. Mag., t. 9111, 9112.
Native of Central China; discovered by Henry about 1887; introduced by Wilson in 1907. It first flowered in this country with C. J. Lucas at Warnham Court, Horsham, in May 1922. It may need the protection of a wall in many places. In the shape of its leaflets it is distinct from any other hardy climbing shrub except Sinofranchetia, to which it has much resemblance.
