Phellodendron

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Phellodendron' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/phellodendron/). Accessed 2024-04-18.

Family

Rutaceae

Species in genus

Glossary

bud: Immature shoot protected by scales that develops into leaves and/or flowers.
imparipinnate: Odd-pinnate; (of a compound leaf) with a central rachis and an uneven number of leaflets due to the presence of a terminal leaflet. (Cf. paripinnate.)

References

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Phellodendron' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/phellodendron/). Accessed 2024-04-18.

The bark of a young Phellodendron at the University of Cambridge Botanic Garden in March 2014, just as the corky ridges begin to form. Many of the Phellodendron species described by W.J. Bean tend to be lumped by modern taxonomists under P. amurense. Image Owen Johnson.

A small genus of deciduous trees found in N.E. Asia, with opposite, pinnate leaves which give off a rather aromatic odour when crushed, and whose leaf-stalks, swollen at the base, completely hide the bud. The inner bark is yellow. Male and female flowers appear on different trees, but both are inconspicuous; the fruits are roundish, about the size of large peas, juicy and aromatic, with a black, tough skin. The chief attraction of the phellodendrons is in their foliage and often picturesque habit. When seeds are not available, cuttings taken from the tree in July may be rooted in gentle heat; they should be made of short twigs with a ‘heel’ of older wood. Root-cuttings taken in December are also used. These trees are gross feeders, and like a deep rich soil.

The name is derived from the Greek phellos (cork) and dendron (tree) given in reference to the corky bark of P. amurense, the species first described by Ruprecht in 1853. The species have but little beauty of blossom.

Foliage and fruit on the UK and Ireland champion Phellodendron japonicum at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. July 2022. Image Tom Christian.

Foliage on Phellodendron amurense at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, July 2018. The tree is labelled var. sachalinensis but the generally held view now is that P. amurense should be interpreted as a single, widely distributed and variable species with no infraspecific taxa. Image John Anderson.

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