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Pyracantha coccinea Roem.

Pyracanth, Buisson Ardent

Modern name

Pyracantha coccinea M.Roem.

Synonyms

Mespilus pyracantha L.; Crataegus pyracantha (L.) Med.; Cotoneaster pyracantha (L.) Spach

An evergreen shrub or small tree up to 15 ft high, of very dense, leafy habit; young shoots covered with grey down, the slender thorns 12 to 34 in. long; branches often thorn-tipped. Leaves narrowly obovate or oval, tapered at both ends, blunt-toothed; 1 to 212 in. long on the barren shoots, 12 to 112 in. long on the flowering ones, varying from 14 to 34 in. wide; dark glossy green above, paler beneath, glabrous except at the margins near the base; stalk 13 in. or less long, downy. Flowers white, 13 in. across, very numerously borne in early June in corymbs terminating short twigs which, springing from the shoots of the previous year, form one large panicle; flower-stalks and calyx slightly downy; calyx-lobes broadly triangular. Fruits brilliant coral-red, orange-shaped, about 14 in. across.

Native of S. Europe and the Near East (including the Crimea and Caucasus); its western limit as a truly wild plant is uncertain; in cultivation in Britain 1629.

This well-known evergreen is more often seen growing against a wall than in the open, and no doubt bears fruit more abundantly there. It is, in fact, one of the most desirable of evergreen wall shrubs. But when once established it is quite hardy in the open; at Kew there are specimens 15 ft high that bear fruit profusely. The shrubs have to be netted, as birds (blackbirds especially) are very greedy for the fruits. The pyracanth should be used more than it is as an evergreen shrub. It bears pruning well, and its only defect is that it transplants badly except when young.

cv. ‘Kasan’. – This variety, raised in Russia, is valued in the coldest parts of the Continent because of its great hardiness. In this country it is unlikely to be a success.

cv. ‘Lalandei’. – This was raised from seed by M. Lalande of Angers about 1874. It is of more vigorous, upright growth than the type, and has leaves of proportionately greater width on the average, as well as larger fruits of a more yellowish red, or orange. Award of Garden Merit 1925.


Genus

Pyracantha

Other species in the genus