Schisandra

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Schisandra' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/schisandra/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Family

  • Schisandraceae

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
connate
Fused together with a similar part. (Cf. adnate.)
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
ellipsoid
An elliptic solid.
globose
globularSpherical or globe-shaped.
simple
(of a leaf) Unlobed or undivided.
spike
Inflorescence in which flowers sessile on the main axis.
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' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/schisandra/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

A small genus of more or less aromatic twining shrubs, one species in N. America, the others in E. and S.E. Asia. Leaves simple, without stipules. Flowers unisexual, the two sexes usually borne on different plants. Floral envelope not fully differentiated into calyx and corolla but consisting of up to about sixteen imbricated segments, the outermost of which are more or less sepaloid. Stamens five to fifteen, often partly connate, sometimes united by their filaments into a fleshy head. Carpels numerous, at first crowded but later becoming separated by the elongation of the floral axis and forming when ripe a spike-like infrutescence. In the related Kadsura the ripe carpels remain clustered in a globose or ellipsoid head.

The type-species of the genus is S. glabra (Brickell) Rehd. (S. coccinea Michx.), a native of the south-eastern USA. This was introduced to Britain in 1806 and found to be moderately hardy on a wall but seems to have dropped out of cultivation. Allied to it is S. repanda (Sieb. & Zucc.) Radlkofer (S. nigra Maxim.), a native of Japan and S. Korea, a probably quite hardy species with blue-black fruits.

The species mentioned below are all hardy except S. propinqua. They like a rich garden soil and can be increased by cuttings of half-ripened wood in mild bottom heat.

The genus Schisandra was revised by A. C. Smith in Sargentia, Vol. 7 (1947). PP. 86–156.