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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Ruscus hypoglossum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
An evergreen shrub, 8 to 18 in. high, forming compact tufts, and increasing by new sucker growths from the sides; stem somewhat arching, as thick as a lead pencil, scarcely woody, unbranched, green. Cladodes not spiny, the lower ones narrow-oval, the upper ones oblanceolate, tapered at both ends; glabrous and glossy on both sides, with prominent longitudinal veins, 3 to 41⁄2 in. long, 1 to 11⁄2 in. wide. On the upper side is borne a leaf-like bract, lanceolate, 1 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. wide, in the axil of which a few small, yellowish flowers appear in April and May. Berry red, globose, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. wide.
Native of S. Europe, the Danube region and Asiatic Turkey; cultivated in Britain since the 16th century. No evergreen shrub thrives better than this in shade and in competition with the roots of greedy trees; in this is its chief value in gardens. It flowers in cultivation, but does not fruit unless both sexes are grown, being completely dioecious. Because of its large bracts it was once known as the ‘Bislingua’ or ‘Double Tongue’, one ‘tongue’ being the bract, the other the cladode.