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Eucryphia

Family

Eucryphiaceae

A genus of four or five species – two native of Chile and two of Australasia – and four hybrids, all of great interest and beauty. One of the species is occasionally a tree 80 to 100 ft high, another gets to be 50 ft or more, the others are smallish trees or large shrubs. All are evergreen and each continent has one species with pinnate leaves and one with simple leaves. The leaves are opposite, the flowers axillary and large; sepals and petals four; and the stamens in a brush-like mass. Fruit a woody or leathery capsule, usually requiring more than twelve months to ripen.

E. glutinosa (pinnatifolia) is the only species hardy in our average climate, but E. cordifolia is a success thirty miles or more south of London. They seem on the whole to prefer a soil pretty free from lime, although E. × nymansensis grows quite well near Worthing on the chalk at Highdown, on the south slope of the South Downs; but E. glutinosa is a failure there. So too is E. cordifolia, but for climatic reasons: this species is quite tolerant of chalky soils. All the species are admirable in the great rhododendron gardens of the south and south-west. All need plenty of light to flower freely and will tolerate almost full sun if the soil is cool and moist.


From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The eucryphias are discussed by David Wright in The Plantsman, Vol. 5(3), pp. 169-78 (1983).

Species articles