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Ternstroemia gymnanthera (Wight & Arn.) Sprague

Modern name

Ternstroemia gymnanthera (Wight & Arn.) Sprague

Synonyms

Cleyera gymnanthera Wight & Arn.; T. japonica Thunb., in part

An evergreen shrub or small tree with a much-branched head, and warted, not downy branchlets. Leaves alternate, crowded at the apex of the shoot, obovate or oblanceolate, 112 to 3 in. long, 12 to 112 in. wide, tapered gradually at the base to a short, stout, purplish stalk, more abruptly tapered to a rounded or bluntish apex; they are dark varnished green, thick and leathery, and quite glabrous. Flowers fragrant, solitary on stalks about 34 in. long, nodding, of short duration, produced in July and August from the leaf-axils, and from the axils of fallen scales on the lower naked part of the shoot. Corolla yellowish white, about 13 in. across; petals five. Fruit globose, and about the size of a cherry, yellow, tinged with rose on the sunny side, the rounded sepals persisting at the base.

A species of wide distribution in E. Asia, from India eastwards, extending north as far as S. Japan and S. Korea; introduced in the early part of the 19th century but probably lost until reintroduced early in the present century. It has withstood 20° F of frost at Kew but is not reliably hardy outside the mildest parts and not of much ornamental value. It has been confused with Eurya japonica, but this has broader-ended, more distinctly obovate leaves and is dioecious. The Japanese plant named T. japonica by Thunberg is Cleyera japonica.

cv. ‘Variegata’. – Leaves with a margin of creamy white, later stained with rosy pink; centre of leaf marbled with grey.


Genus

Ternstroemia

Other species in the genus

[No species article available]