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
New developing flower buds late March.
The flowers (October)
The pendent racemes of flowers
The infrutescences can be up to 17 cm in length.
A hanging group of fruit.
Photographed at Tupare Gardens, New Plymouth, Taranaki.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
