Schisandra rubriflora (Franch.) Rehd. & Wils.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Schisandra rubriflora' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/schisandra/schisandra-rubriflora/). Accessed 2025-03-15.

Family

Schisandraceae

Genus

Schisandra

Synonyms

S. chinensis var. rubriflora Franch.
S. grandiflora var. rubriflora (Franch.) Schneid.
S. grandiflora sens. Franch., not Hook. f.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

bud: Immature shoot protected by scales that develops into leaves and/or flowers.
carpel: Female reproductive organ of a flower. Composed of ovary style and stigma. Typically several carpels are fused together in each flower (syncarpous). The number of them can be of taxonomic significance; it can often be assessed by counting the stigma branches or the chambers in the fruit.
glabrous: Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
unisexual: Having only male or female organs in a 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
'Schisandra rubriflora' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/schisandra/schisandra-rubriflora/). Accessed 2025-03-15.

Schisandra rubriflora Lime Close, Oxfordshire, UK. May 2018. Image MC de Laubarède.

Editorial Note

Bean originally discussed Schisandra grandiflora, S. incarnata and S. sphaerandra beneath his account of S. rubriflora (Bean 1981). We have moved Bean’s texts for these species, unaltered, into their own articles pending a full revision of the genus. If you would like to sponsor a revision of Schisandra please contact the editors.

TC, December 2024.

A climbing deciduous shrub 10 to 20 ft high; young shoots slender, glabrous, at first reddish. Leaves mostly obovate, sometimes approaching oval, pointed, tapered at the base, toothed, 21⁄2 to 5 in. long, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. wide, quite glabrous; stalk 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. long. Flowers unisexual, solitary in the leaf-axils at the base of the new shoots, 1 in. wide, deep crimson, each on a slender, pendulous, red stalk 1 to 11⁄2 in. long. Sepals and petals five to seven in all, roundish. Fruit composed of roundish red carpels thickly disposed on the terminal half of a pendulous, red, slender stalk 3 to 6 in. long, each carpel about the size of a pea and containing two seeds. Bot. Mag., t. 9146.

Native of W. Szechwan, China, thence ranging south and west as far as N.E. India; discovered on Mt Omei by E. Faber about 1887; introduced by Wilson in 1908. This is a handsome climber as regards both flowers and fruit, the former hanging downwards and in the bud state resembling ripe cherries. It is quite hardy and is now well established in cultivation; it can be trained on a wall or up a stout stake or pole. The fruit, which seems first to have been fully developed at Aldenham, Herts, in 1925, is ripe in September. The species was given an Award of Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society on September 22, 1925. Blooms in April and May.

S. rubriflora may also be in cultivation from seeds collected by Kingdon Ward in 1928 in the Mishni Hills, Assam.

Schisandra rubriflora Lime Close, Oxfordshire, UK. May 2018. Image MC de Laubarède.

Trained on a warm wall, this very floriferous Schisandra rubriflora is a real eyecatcher. RBG Kew (1969–19803), UK. 24 May 2023. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Introduced by Wilson in 1908, Schisandra rubriflora is a quite hardy handsome climber, now well established in cultivation. RBG Kew (1969–19803), UK. 24 May 2023. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

As a dioecious climber, both sexes are required to produce the hanging red fruit on Schisandra grandiflora. Crûg Farm nursery (BSWJ 2245), north Wales. 28 September 2010. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

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