Ziziphus jujuba
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Credits
Owen Johnson (2024)
Recommended citation
Johnson, O. (2024), 'Ziziphus jujuba' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Common Names
- Jujube
- Chinese Jujube
- Chinese Date
- Guiggiolo
Synonyms
- Rhamnus zizyphus L.
- Ziziphus sativa Gaertn.
- Ziziphus vulgaris Lam.
- Ziziphus zizyphus (L.) H.Karst.
Infraspecifics
- 'Abbeville'
- 'Admiral Wilkes'
- 'Ant Admire'
- BLACK SEATM
- 'Bok Jo'
- 'Chico'
- COCOTM
- CONFETTITM
- 'Davis'
- 'Don Polenski'
- 'Dongzao'
- 'Ed Hegard'
- 'GA 866'
- 'Geant Sloboda'
- 'GI-1183'
- 'Globe'
- 'Honey Jar'
- 'Jin'
- 'Kitaiski 60'
- 'Lang'
- 'Li'
- 'Li 2'
- 'Mango Dong Zho'
- MASSANDRATM
- 'Meliforme'
- 'Mu'
- 'Porterville'
- 'Qi Yue Xian'
- 'Redlands 4'
- 'Sandia'
- 'Shanxi Li'
- 'Sherwood'
- 'Shui Men'
- 'Sihong'
- 'So'
- 'Sugar Cane'
- 'Texas Tart'
- 'Tiger Tooth'
- 'Topeka'
- 'Wang-dae-choo'
- 'Xu Zhou'
- 'Yu'
- ZIGZAGTM
Other taxa in genus
Tree to 10(–18) m tall, or shrubby, often gnarled and crooked; suckering. Bark greyish, with rugged or scaly, predominantly vertical ridges. Twigs glabrous, ziz-zag; deciduous shoots pendulous. Spines paired, one erect and to 3cm long, one shorter and hooked downwards; sometimes absent. Leaves deciduous but quite glossy and leathery, ovate to elliptic-oblong, 30–70 × 15–40 mm, margin crenate to serrate; petiole 1–10 mm long. Flowers solitary or densely clustered in axillary cymes, each flower c. 5 mm across, intensely fragrant. Fruit ripening from shiny green to wrinkled brown or red or purplish to blackish, ovate, c. 2–4 × 1–2 cm but larger and/or spherical in some cultivated forms; stone with 1 or 2 seeds, elongated, rough-surfaced; seeds c. 10 × 8 mm. (Chen & Schirarend 2007; Bean 1976).
Distribution China Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang.
Habitat Dry sunny places, to 1700 m.
USDA Hardiness Zone 6
RHS Hardiness Rating H5
Conservation status Least concern (LC)
Taxonomic note This well-known tree has a fraught nomenclatural history, the twists and turns of which may offer some comfort to gardeners as they learn yet another new botanical name for a plant they grow. Linnaeus described the species in 1753 as Rhamnus zizyphus (zizyphon being the ancient Greek name for the fruit, perhaps deriving from the Persian zizafun). Appreciating that Linnaeus’ concept of Rhamnus was too broad, Philip Miller in 1768 resurrected the pre-Linnaean botanist Joseph de Tournefort’s conception from 1700 of Ziziphus (sic) as a genus, but he felt that ‘Ziziphus zizyphus’ would be too nearly tautonymous and created a new specific name ‘jujuba’ (the medieval Latin name for the tree and itself probably a corruption of zizyphon). In 1882, Herman Karsten posited that the different spellings meant that Ziziphus zizyphus was not in fact a tautonym and that Linnaeus’ specific name should have precedence. This tree therefore became widely known as Ziziphus zizyphus until 2006–7 when J. H. Kirkbride, John Wiersema and Nicholas Turland successfully argued that this was still too nearly a tautonym to be allowed, and in 2011 Miller’s Ziziphus jujuba was reinstated. (This is a simplification; Plants of the World Online (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2024) in fact lists 46 synonyms for Z. jujuba. Meanwhile, the name Ziziphus jujuba (L.) Gaertn. (not Mill.) probably describes a different species, the Indian Jujube Z. mauritiana Lam.) (Chen & Schirarend 2007; Wikipedia 2024; Jacobson 1996).
The Jujube tree has been cultivated for too long for its original, wild distribution to be at all clear. The species’ heartland is certainly in China, where it is considered one of the five major fruit trees (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024). Archaeological evidence suggests that it was domesticated in the Yellow River area of China over 6000 years ago, with selection for larger and sweeter fruit mirrored by the progressively narrower stones preserved in Neolithic sediments (Li et al. 2024). Jujube trees were already in Mediterranean Europe by classical times – ‘zizyphon’ is the ancient Greek name for the fruit – suggesting to some people that its native distribution may have extended westwards via the Himalaya to south-west Asia (Wikipedia 2024). ‘Jujube’ is derived from a medieval Latin word and should not lead to confusion with the Jojoba, Simmondsia chinensis, an unrelated bush which – despite its specific name – is native to the southwestern United States.
Jujube trees can begin to fruit from their second or third year; they grow a deep taproot, aiding their drought tolerance, and will tolerate lime in the soil, although they will struggle in clay because of its water-retentive qualities. Given a long warm growing season they can withstand considerable winter cold (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024). The hardiness zones suggested above are misleading: even a mild winter is likely to kill a Jujube if the summer has not been long, hot and dry enough for its new growths to ripen. At the Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Kentucky, meanwhile, one specimen was able to withstand – just – 30°C of frost (Dirr 2009).) Jujubes generally suffer from few significant pests and diseases.
Although the fragrant yellow flowers, pollinated by bees and by smaller insects, can open over a long period from spring into summer, the individual blooms are only fertile for a day. To limit self-pollination, the flowers of some trees shed their pollen through the morning while the ovary becomes receptive in the afternoon; in others the sequence is reversed. Most trees are able to ripen fruit without pollination, but these fruit tend to be smaller (Adams 2020). In cultivated selections the fruit can be more than five cm long, and pear-shaped to apple-shaped, and at its heart is an elongated stone with a very rough surface, containing one or two seeds. As it ripens, the fruit is green and shiny and develops a crisp texture and a variably tart, apple-like flavour. If left to ‘blet’ on the tree – to borrow an old English word describing a comparable process in the fruit of the Medlar, Mespilus germanica – the skin turns patchily and progressively brown or reddish and dries and wrinkles; the jujube’s texture becomes more chewy and the flavour grows richer and date-like. If summers are too short for the fruit to reach this stage, it can sometimes be picked green and then ripened indoors, with the old Chinese cultivar ‘Li’ being recommended for this treatment. In China the most popular way of preparing the fruits is to boil them with sugar and honey, but their culinary uses across East Asia are varied (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024). In addition to their nutritional value, jujubes are also of increasing interest for their complex pharmaceutical benefits (Lu et al. 2021).
The leaves, with their short stalks and three conspicuous veins from the base, and the zig-zag shoot with paired spines at each node – the longer straight and erect, the shorter hooked downwards – closely suggest the related Paliurus spina-christi, but Ziziphus jujuba is a taller plant – sometimes an 18 m tree (Dirr 2009) – and Paliurus species bear dry, inedible, winged drupes. The leaves of Ziziphus jujuba are also rather longer and narrower than those of Paliurus spina-christi. Autumn colour, in ‘continental’ climates in the United States at least, can be a good yellow (Dirr 2009).
As the most northerly representative of a largely tropical genus, and one which excels in arid and even desert conditions, the Jujube is right at the limits of its tolerance in northern Europe. Although it has been tried in Britain for centuries it has probably never reached tree-size here; in the Philip Miller Walk at the Chelsea Physic Garden, at the heart of the London ‘heat island’, it survives as a rather unprepossessing five-metre bush (Tree Register 2024). Ziziphus jujuba was, however, one of the species to be selected by Barcham Trees for sale at standard size in the UK as a street tree potentially suitable for a rapidly warming climate. (Barcham sell the plant as ‘Ziziphus guiggiolo’ which is not a botanical name: guiggiolo is simply the Italian word for this tree.) Any attempt to broaden the range of species available to local authorities for planting as large standards in public places is to be lauded, but this particular experiment has proved less than successful, and, whenever they are sought out, documented plantings of Barcham’s (inevitably expensive) Jujubes generally turn out to have come to grief. One exception is a specimen well-sited under a south-facing wall in a pavement in De Beauvoir Town in north-east London, which in September 2018 carried a few half-ripe fruit but seemed scarcely to have grown since it was planted out (pers. obs.). Although Ziziphus jujuba is only going to be the last tree on your list to plant if that list is alphabetical, it does seem that cultivating one in Northern Europe will remain something of an act of faith, for decades to come.
The Jujube’s prospects are better in the more continental climate of much of the United States. Robert Chisholm first cultivated the species in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1837, and G. P. Rixford introduced stock from Mediterranean France to California’s Sonoma Valley in 1876. By the start of the 20th century, Ziziphus jujuba had begun to naturalise along the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Louisiana (Azam-Ali et al. 2006). (The suckering habit makes it potentially an invasive tree wherever conditions suit it, and the same problem is reported in Madagascar (Wikipedia 2024).) Early introductions to the United States were of indifferent fruiting forms, but in 1908 the plant-hunter Frank Meyer introduced some of the best Chinese cultivars at the time, ‘Li’, ‘Lang’, ‘Shui men’, ‘Mu’, ‘So’ and ‘Yu’ (Azam-Ali et al. 2006; Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020). In the Oregon Garden, as far north as Silverton, Oregon, the species is fairly happy, but here the jujubes need to be picked green and ripened indoors (Oregon State University 2024). A specimen in the United States Capitol grounds in Washington DC is reported to have reached the remarkable height of 18.5 m (Dirr 2009).
Many hundreds of cultivars have been bred over the millennia, in east Asia but also in the Crimea, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Mediterranean Europe (Azam-Ali et al. 2006; Agroforestry Research Trust 2024). Major producing countries also include Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Algeria (Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020). Castanea 2020 – as part of a ‘work in progress’ – details 155 clones bred or grown in the United States, although the Jujube remains a relatively minor crop species here.
The list below confines itself to a short selection of fruiting Jujubes, nearly all of which are commercially available in Europe, Australia or the United States. Some of these variants are thornless, and the varietal name inermis (Bunge) Rehder has also been published to cover this group.
'Abbeville'
A clone from Louisiana which performs well in the climate of the south-western United States (Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020; Yao, Huang & Heyduck 2015).
'Admiral Wilkes'
Fruit elongated, to 5 cm, very late to ripen. This cultivar was collected by the United States explorer Charles Wilkes during his South Seas Expedition in 1838–42 and planted in the Capitol Grounds in Washington DC (The Food Forest 2024).
'Ant Admire'
A Chinese selection with narrow, medium-sized but very sweet chocolate-brown fruit, ripening early to mid-season and remaining crisp after picking (Planting Justice 2024; Agroforestry Research Trust 2024). A vigorous tree that benefits from pruning after each fruiting season. The curious name is a rather literal translation from the Chinese: ants are particularly attracted to the fruit (Adams 2020).
BLACK SEATM
Bred at at the Nikita Botanic Garden in the Crimea for its hardiness; the early-ripening very sweet fruit is produced from an early age (Cultivar 2024; SymbiOp 2024).
'Bok Jo'
A large-leaved and hardy Korean selection which fruits from an early age (Cultivar 2024).
'Chico'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba 'GI 7-62'
One of several selections bred at the USDA Agricultural Station at Chico, California, probably as a seedling from the old Chinese clone ‘Li’; a thorny plant bearing small round fruits with a round (rather than elongated) seed, or often seedless, good to eat when raw and with a piquant acidity, and remaining crisp for a while after the fruit browns; ‘Chico’ has become popular in Australia (Adams 2020; Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; Castanea 2020; Flora Fauna Farm 2024).
COCOTM
A hardy selection from the Nikita Botanic Garden, Crimea, whose abundantly carried golden brown fruit contains a faint flavour of coconut (Cultivar 2024; One Green World 2024).
CONFETTITM
A hardy selection imported from the Nikita Botanic Garden, Crimea, in the 1990s; medium-size, very sweet, crisp and juicy fruit ripening quite early (Planting Justice 2024).
'Davis'
A selection from the University of California at Davis: richly flavoured fruit, freely produced (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024).
'Don Polenski'
A Californian selection also popular in Australia; an improvement on ‘Lang’ with denser flavour (Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020).
'Dongzao'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba 'Dong'
A fast-growing and very popular Chinese selection, with large round fruit ripening brown. Recently this clone has been promoted as possibly suitable for growing as far north as the UK (Jurassic Plants 2024).
'Ed Hegard'
A thornless selection from Alabama, similar to ‘Lang’ (The Food Forest 2024; Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020).
'GA 866'
A selection from the USDA Agricultural Station at Chico, California: elongated fruit to 5 cm long, ripening mid-season and outstandingly sweet; an almost thornless tree (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024).
'Geant Sloboda'
A selection from south-west Asia (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024).
'GI-1183'
A selection from the USDA Agricultural Station at Chico, California, with large sweet fruit (The Food Forest 2024).
'Globe'
A recent introduction from China with exceptionally spherical fruit (The Food Forest 2024; Cultivar 2024).
'Honey Jar'
A recent Chinese cultivar with round, small fruit (less than 25 mm wide), possibly the sweetest of any jujube though with an interesting, tart undertaste (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; Adams 2020; The Food Forest 2024).
'Jin'
A form with elongated fruit at least 5 cm long and very small stones; quite early-ripening but very chewy when allowed to dry on the tree (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024); probably bred in China but distributed from California (Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020).
'Kitaiski 60'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba 'Russian 2'
A clone from the former Soviet Union with sweet, teardrop-shaped fruit that ripens very early in the season (Adams 2020).
'Lang'
A strong-growing and almost thornless old Chinese cultivar; fruit pear-shaped, to 6 cm long, early-ripening but best when let to dry on the tree (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024).
'Li'
An old Chinese clone which remains one of the most popular jujubes: very large round fruit (5 cm wide), with a good sweet flavour and a crisp texture; best eaten at the yellow-green stage but will continue to ripen after picking. A vigorous but narrow tree, prone to sucker (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024). ‘Li’ does not need cross-pollination and its seeds are very seldom fertile (Adams 2020).
'Li 2'
Similar to the old clone ‘Li’ but with larger and longer fruit; a plant which does not need to be cross-pollinated (Adams 2020).
'Mango Dong Zho'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba WINTER DELIGHTTM
One of the latest-ripening jujubes, with crisp, oval fruit 5 cm long (Cultivar 2024). A hardy, compact form, popular in northern China (One Green World 2024).
MASSANDRATM
A hardy selection from Nikita Botanic Garden in the Ukraine with small, ‘tiger-tooth’ shaped fruit, ripening early to mid-season (One Green World 2024; Cultivar 2024).
'Meliforme'
The commonest fruiting selection in Italy, with small ‘apple-shaped’ fruit; reliably self-fertile (Belfiore Vivai 2024).
Other forms sold in Italy include ‘Olivaceo’ (‘olive-shaped’), ‘Gigante meliforme’ (‘giant apple-shaped’), ‘Gigante Periforme’ (‘giant pear-shaped’) and ‘Gigante tardivo periforme’ (‘giant late pear-shaped’) (Belfiore Vivai 2024).
'Mu'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba 'Mu Shing Hong'
An old Chinese selection with large fruit, used by the Chico breeding programme in California but subsequently believed extinct until discovered as one old tree by Roger Meyer, who did much to popularise Jujubes as orchard trees in the United States (Adams 2020; Yao 2013).
'Porterville'
A seedling found at Porterville, California; large unusually lumpy and pumpkin-shaped fruit, not produced abundantly (Ladybird Fruit Tree Nursery 2024; Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020).
'Qi Yue Xian'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba 'Alcalde 1'
Ziziphus jujuba AUTUMN BEAUTYTM
Ziziphus jujuba XIAN BEAUTYTM
Round fruit up to 5 cm wide; early ripening. Trees take a few years to begin to crop well (Cultivar 2024).
'Redlands 4'
Round fruit even larger than that of ‘Li’, richly flavoured and crisp in texture; a tree found at an old homestead at Redlands, California (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024).
'Sandia'
Common Names
Winter Jujube
A particularly late-ripening clone recently introduced from China. Medium-sized round fruit with a creamy texture and rich sweet flavour (Flora Fauna Farm 2024).
'Shanxi Li'
A variant of ‘Li’ from Shanxi province, China, with perhaps the largest fruit of any jujube, crisp and tasty (Planting Justice 2024). The tree does not need to be cross-pollinated, and is small in stature (Adams 2020).
'Sherwood'
A seedling found in Louisiana by the late Sherwood Akin, with large fruit more than 4 cm long, carried abundantly and ripening very late. A small thornless tree, upright in habit but with drooping foliage (Adams 2020; Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024). It may take more than a decade before it crops well (Cultivar 2024).
'Shui Men'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba 'Shuimen'
Ziziphus jujuba 'Suimen'
Ziziphus jujuba 'Sui'
An old Chinese selection with rather small, elongated, slighlty acid fruit, ripening mid-season in abundance and best eaten fresh. A vigorous tree with only small thorns (Adams 2020; Agroforestry Research Trust 2024).
'Sihong'
A cultivar popular in Australia, with large round but slightly lopsided dark-coloured fruit, good for eating fresh or dried; the exceptionally dense flesh has a slight caramel flavour (Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020; Flora Fauna Farm 2024; Cultivar 2024). A vigorous tree that benefits from pruning after each fruiting (Adams 2020).
'So'
A Chinese form notable for its picturesquely zig-zag branching and low stature. The fruit is round and richly-flavoured and ripens mid-season (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024). This is an agressively spiny plant which can also sucker vigorously (Adams 2020).
Similar trees in central China, with long fruiting pedicels but generally narrow fruit, have been described as f. tortuosa C. Y. Cheng & M. J. Liu (Chen & Schirarend 2007).
'Sugar Cane'
A Californian selection, with smallish (c. 25 mm long) rounded to oval fruit, very sweet and with a dense, crunchy texture and small stones. A particularly thorny form (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024). This one of the earliest Jujubes to fruit, making it suitable for areas with shorter summers (Cultivar 2024).
'Texas Tart'
A highly acid form selected in Texas (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024).
'Tiger Tooth'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba 'Silverhill'
A cultivar (or group of very similar clones) from Georgia or Alabama with very elongated fruit (c. 45 × 25 mm), ripening mid- to late-season; ‘Silverhill Round’ has broader fruit. Vigorous trees with very few thorns or suckers (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024; The Food Forest 2024; Shahrajabian, Sun & Cheng 2020).
'Topeka'
A selection from eastern Kansas with excellent, late-ripening fruit (The Food Forest 2024).
'Wang-dae-choo'
Synonyms / alternative names
Ziziphus jujuba EMPRESS GEETM
A relect selection from South Korea with exceptionally large fruit, sweet and ripening dark brown; a compact tree (One Green World 2024).
'Xu Zhou'
A Chinese form which crops from a very early age; the elongated fruit is late to ripen (Cultivar 2024).
'Yu'
A Chinese cultivar with large fruit tapering towards the bottom, and firm sweet flesh; similar to ‘Tiger Tooth’. A tall-growing plant with large leaves and few thorns (Agroforestry Research Trust 2024).
ZIGZAGTM
A compact selection with attractively zig-zagging shoots and large chocolate-brown fruit (One Green World 2024).