Japanese raisin tree
Japanese raisin tree | ||||||||||||
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Japanese raisin tree ( Hovenia dulcis ) |
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Hovenia dulcis | ||||||||||||
Thunb. |
The Japanese raisin tree or Quaffbirne and Japanese mahogany ( Hovenia dulcis , Syn. : Hovenia acerba . Lindl , Hovenia inequalis . DC ) is a plant from the family of the Buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae).
description
The Japanese raisin tree is a small, deciduous, relatively fast-growing tree or shrub that reaches heights of growth of around 10 meters. The smooth bark of the fragile twigs is reddish-brown to purple. The bark is grayish-brown, furrowed or cracked and scaly and flakes off in smaller plates.
The alternately arranged, simple, large, shiny leaves taper to a point and are about 7 to 17 cm long and 4 to 11 cm wide. The petiole is 2 to 4.5 cm long. They are ovate to elliptical and blunt to slightly heart-shaped at the base. The leaf margin is more or less serrated to toothed, the leaves are almost bare and only sometimes a little hairy on the lower main veins. The veins raised underneath are threefold.
The trees usually bring terminal, asymmetrical, from May to July zymös- panicles inflorescences produced. The small, cream-colored, yellowish-green to light green and fragrant, hermaphrodite , five-fold flowers have a diameter of 6 to 8 mm with a double perianth . The egg-shaped, internally keeled sepals are 2.2 to 2.5 mm long and 1.6 to 2 mm wide. The spatulate petals are 2.4 to 2.6 mm long and 1.8 to 2.1 mm wide, they each envelop the stamens. There is only one circle with five free stamens . The draft tube ovary is half inferior dreiästigen with a stylus , the scars are small, capitate and dull. The plump discus is hairy.
The actual fruit, a hemispherical, smooth and pointed, three-part, dark brown, leathery, septicidal capsule fruit (or nut) with a permanent, cup-shaped flower base , has a diameter of 6.5 to 7.5 mm, is edible and contains three Seeds . But the fruit stalk or the side axes of the inflorescence swell in the lower part red-brownish, fleshy and thereby an edible false fruit is formed. The smooth, brownish to blackish, flattened seeds are 3.5 to 5 mm in size. The fruits are ripe from August to October.
Illustration from Flora Japonica 1870, 1 part
by Philipp Franz von Siebold and Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini
Occurrence
The distribution area of Hovenia dulcis stretches from Japan through Korea and south-east, south-central China to the Himalayas and India as well as to north Vietnam and north Thailand . It usually grows at altitudes between 200 and 1400 m, up to 2000 m, preferably in sunny locations with moist loamy or sandy soils .
use
Outside of its natural range, it is planted as a hardy ornamental wood. In parks and gardens, Hovenia dulcis is seldom used as a slow-growing ornamental wood.
Furniture is made from the fine, hard wood . The wood is also known as Japanese mahogany.
The sweet, fragrant fruit stalks can be eaten raw or cooked. When dried, they resemble raisins in taste and appearance . A sweetener is obtained from them . The wood of the tree is soaked in alcohol or boiled into tea and sold as a remedy in Korea, for example, which helps against discomfort when traveling or after drinking alcohol. The active ingredient responsible for this is the flavonoid dihydromyricetin .
literature
- Marilena Idžojtić: Dendrology: Cones, Flowers, Fruits and Seeds. Academic Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-12-819644-1 , p. 329.
- TK Lim: Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants. Volume 5: Fruits , Springer, 2013, ISBN 978-94-007-5652-6 , pp. 568-577.
- Janice Kerby: Tree seeds and seedlings for restoring forests in northern Thailand. Forest Restoration Research Unit, 2000, ISBN 974-85306-6-3 , p. 88.
- Klaus Kubitzki : The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol VI: Flowering Plants Dicotyledons , Springer, 2004, ISBN 978-3-642-05714-4 , pp. 324-327.
- S. Macoboy: What tree is that? 1991, ISBN 1-86302-131-0 .
- A. Huxley: The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. MacMillan Press 1992, ISBN 0-333-47494-5 .
- Description in Flora of China Vol. 12
Web links
- Hovenia dulcis on Useful Tropical Plants
- Japanese raisintree at Virginia Tech (February 6, 2011 memento on the Internet Archive )
- Profile on biologie.uni-ulm.de (engl.)