Picrasma quassioides (D. Don) Bennett

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Credits

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

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

Synonyms

  • Simaba quassioides D. Don
  • Picrasma ailanthoides Planch.

Other taxa in genus

    Glossary

    alternate
    Attached singly along the axis not in pairs or whorls.
    apex
    (pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
    berry
    Fleshy indehiscent fruit with seed(s) immersed in pulp.
    calyx
    (pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
    corymb
    Unbranched inflorescence with lateral flowers the pedicels of which are of different lengths making the inflorescence appear flat-topped.
    glabrous
    Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
    lax
    Loose or open.
    ovate
    Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
    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

    There are no active references in this article.

    Credits

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

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

    A slender, deciduous tree 20 to 40 ft high, with very handsome young bark of a reddish brown, conspicuously marked with yellow spots. Leaves alternate, pinnate, 10 to 15 in. long, glabrous, consisting of nine to thirteen leaflets, which are glossy green, 1 to 4 in. long, ovate, unequal at the base, round or pointed at the apex, sharp-toothed at the margin, and with a very short stalk. Flowers green, 13 in. across, in a lax, branching corymb 6 to 8 in. long, and often nearly as wide; stalks downy. Fruit a berry, about the size of a pea, red, rather obovoid, with the calyx still attached. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 279.

    This tree is widespread in the wild state, from Japan and Korea through China to the Himalaya. The above description is based on trees growing at Kew which were introduced from Japan in 1890. They have flowered and borne fruit several times, and young plants have been raised from the seed. They have no beauty of flower or fruit, but of the foliage in autumn Sargent observes, ‘few Japanese plants I saw are as beautiful as this small tree’. The leaves turn first orange then scarlet. The whole tree is permeated by a singularly bitter principle.

    P. quassioides is rare in cultivation, the following being the only sizeable ones on record: Kew, near the Stone Pine, 29 × 5 ft at 6 in. (1967); Wakehurst Place, Sussex, a many-stemmed plant 20 ft high; University Botanic Garden, Cambridge, pl. 1923, 18 × 112 ft at 3 ft (1969); Westonbirt, Glos., Mitchell Drive (East), pl. 1919, 26 × 1 ft (1967).

    From the Supplement (Vol. V)

    specimens: Kew, near Stone Pine, 28 × 512 ft at 12 ft (1981); Wakehurst Place, Sussex, 20 ft high, many-stemmed (1968); University Botanic Garden, Cambridge, pl. 1923, 20 × 2 ft at 3 ft (1982); Westonbirt, Glos., Mitchell Drive (East), pl. 1919, 30 ft, on three stems each 114 ft (1980).