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Vitex negundo L.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Vitex negundo' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/vitex/vitex-negundo/). Accessed 2024-04-16.

Genus

Infraspecifics

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
inflorescence
Flower-bearing part of a plant; arrangement of flowers on the floral axis.
acuminate
Narrowing gradually to a point.
acute
Sharply pointed.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
cuneate
Wedge-shaped.
digitate
Hand-like; palmate.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
panicle
A much-branched inflorescence. paniculate Having the form of a panicle.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Vitex negundo' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/vitex/vitex-negundo/). Accessed 2024-04-16.

Vitex negundo

This plant was labelled Vitex negundo var. incisa le Jardin Botanique de la Villa Thuret, Antibes, France. 29th June 2022. Image Tom Christian.

A deciduous shrub up to 10 ft high. Leaves digitate, with three to seven, usually five, stalked leaflets, which are elliptic or narrow-elliptic or oblong to lanceolate, acute to acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, 25⁄8 to 4 in. long, 5⁄8 to 13⁄16 in. wide, margin entire or with a few large blunt lobule-like teeth. Inflorescence a loose panicle terminating the shoots of the year and made up of several spikes 6 to 9 in. long, along which the flowers are arranged in rather distant clusters. Calyx downy, deeply and sharply lobed. Corolla violet-blue, rather smaller than in V. agnus-castus.

V. negundo is widely distributed from India and Ceylon to China and Formosa, commonly in waste places near villages. Although cultivated in Europe since the 17th century, it has always been rare in Britain, where it is usually represented by the following variety:

Vitex negundo

Vitex negundo.

var. heterophylla (Franch.) Rehd.

Synonyms
V. incisa Lam.
V. negundo var. incisa (Lam.) C.B.Cl.
V. chinensis Mill.
V. incisa var. heterophylla Franch

This differs by its leaflets being smaller, 1 to 2 in. (rarely to 3{1/2} in.) long, {1/2} to {3/4} in. wide, coarsely and deeply toothed or lobulate, the divisions often reaching to the midrib or nearly so. Bot. Mag., t. 364. It is a native of the northern provinces of China. It was introduced to Paris around the middle of the 18th century by one of the French Jesuit missionaries, and to Britain (c. 1758) by Philip Miller, who ‘was favoured with some young plants by Monsieur Richard, gardener to the King at Versailles.’Although not truly tender, this is a shrub that needs abundant summer heat if it is to flower and ripen its wood, and succeeds with the protection of a wall. But being in competition with the many finer plants adapted for wall cultivation, it scarcely keeps its place in gardens.An extreme form of the var. heterophylla is ‘Multifida’, dwarf and free flowering, at least in France, with very deeply dissected leaves (Rev. Hort., 1870, p. 415).

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