Orange cherry
| Orange cherry | ||||||||||||
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Idesia polycarpa var. Vestida |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Idesia | ||||||||||||
| Maxim. | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Idesia polycarpa | ||||||||||||
| Maxim. |
The orange cherry ( Idesia polycarpa ) is the only plant species of the monotypical genus Idesia from the willow family (Salicaceae). The genus Idesia was assigned to the former family of the Flacourtiaceae.
Their natural range is East Asia in China , Japan , Korea and Taiwan . In Europe this species is occasionally planted as an ornamental wood.
description
In Idesia polycarpa is a deciduous tree , which reaches a height from 8 to 21 meters. The bark is relatively smooth to slightly cracked and greyish.
The alternately arranged, heart-shaped and long-stemmed, slightly to slightly hairy, slightly leathery leaves are between 6 and 20 cm long and 4 and 20 cm wide. The leaves are "frosted" underneath and pale green. They are located on a partly reddish, slightly hairy and 2 to 20 cm long petiole with nectar glands. The leaf margin is usually finely to coarsely sawn to whole and the tip is pointed to pointed. The stipules are small and sloping.
Idesia polycarpa is dioecious separate sexes ( diocesan ) - d. H. there are male and female individuals. The small, yellow-greenish, fragrant and stalked flowers stand in 13 to 30 cm long, more or less hairy and hanging, loose, panicle inflorescences . Small, mostly sloping bracts are present on the slightly hairy pedicel . The functionally unisexual flowers have a simple perimeter, the petals are missing. There are usually five (rarely four to seven) petaloids and outside and partly inside fine-haired, green to yellow sepals . The slightly larger male flowers contain many free stamens , with hairy stamens at the base and a pestle can be present. The female flowers contain an upper, spherical, single-chambered and green, bare ovary with usually five (rarely four to six) fused pistils with cephalic scars and many small staminodes . There are small, rounded nectar glands on each of the flowers. The flowering time is in spring.
Orange to reddish, smooth and multi-seeded berries with a diameter of 6 to 10 mm with a small, beige stylus scar at the tip are formed. They can stay on the tree through the winter until well into the next spring. The dark brown, egg-shaped to round seeds are up to 2 mm in size.
The berries are edible both raw and cooked and have a spicy-bitter taste.
Female flower of Idesia polycarpa
Male inflorescences and leaves of Idesia polycarpa
fruit
swell
- Qiner Yang & Sue Zmarzty: Flacourtiaceae in the Flora of China. Volume 13, p. 112, Idesia - online (section description).
- Idesia polycarpa in the Flora of North America, Vol. 13.
literature
- Marilena Idžojtić: Dendrology. Academic Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-12-819644-1 , p. 344.
Web links
- Idesia polycarpa from TER: RAIN - Taranaki Educational Resource, accessed September 9, 2019.
- Idesia polycarpa var. Vestita on svenlandrein.com, Living Collection Virtual Herbarium, accessed on September 9 of 2019.