Phil Bendle Collection:Stachyurus himalaicus

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Crossosomatales
Family: Stachyuraceae
Genus: Stachyurus
Species: S. himalaicus
Binominal name: Stachyurus himalaicus
Synonyms: Stachyurus sigeyoii, Stachyurus himalaicus subsp. Purpureus, Stachyurus himalaicus var. microphyllus, Stachyurus himalaicus var. microphyllus, Stachyurus himalaicus var. dasyrachis, Stachyurus himalaicus var. alatipes.
Stachyurus himalaicus

Stachyurus himalaicus is a shrub or small tree of the broad-leaved forests and thickets of Xizang Tibet, Yunnan China, Bhutan South Asia, Northern India, Northern Myanmar and Nepal. Found at attitudes of 400-3000 m.
It is a shrub or small tree that grows up to 3-5 m tall. Branches are drooping. The leaves are lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, finely-pointed and are up to 7cm long. The leaves margins are finely serrated. It is semi-evergreen that is it keeps some of its foliage all year. 
Over winter S. himalaicus it produces pendent racemes of flower buds. Its chartreuse flowers appear late spring/early summer on spikes. 
The infrutescences can be up to 17 cm in length. The subglobose fruit are about 7-8 cm in diameter and hang on infrutescences that can be 18 cc in length. 
It is a rare plant in cultivation.

Photographed at Tupare Garden, New Plymouth, Taranaki[1]

[2]

New developing flower buds late March.

The flowers (October)
[3]

The pendent racemes of flowers 
[4]

The infrutescences can be up to 17 cm in length. 
[5]

A hanging group of fruit.
[6]

Photographed at Tupare Gardens, New Plymouth, Taranaki.

Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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