Chaenomeles cathayensis Seeds | Cathay Quince
LATIN NAME: Chaenomeles cathayensis
COMMON NAME: Cathay Quince
Plant Profile
Cathay quince is the largest-fruited species in its genus, and that single fact shapes both the way it is grown and the way its fruit is used. It is a thorny, spreading deciduous shrub, two to three metres high, with arching branches that carry glossy, deeply toothed leaves and, in early spring, clusters of pink to white cup-shaped flowers along the bare wood. The flowers open before the leaves, which is why the shrub reads as a cloud of colour against a grey hedge.
The fruit is a large, hard, green to yellow pome, often ten to fifteen centimetres long and shaped like an irregular pear, ripening in autumn and filling with a fierce, clean fragrance. It is far too hard and acid to eat raw, but it cooks down into a fine, deep pink jelly and a firm, aromatic paste, and a single fruit will scent a room for weeks.
The species is native to the thickets, forest edges and stream sides of western and central China, from Gansu and Shaanxi through Sichuan and Yunnan, and it is one of the parents of some of the ornamental flowering quinces in the trade. It is hardier and more vigorous than the Japanese quince, and it tolerates more shade and wetter soil.
In Chinese practice the fruit is used as a regional substitute for Mu Gua, the medicinal quince, though the pharmacopoeia source of that drug is Chaenomeles speciosa, not this species. That distinction is worth making clearly, because the three quinces in cultivation are routinely confused, and their fruit is not interchangeable.
Science & Biotechnology
The genus is small, with three or four species, and it has been shaped by hybridisation and by centuries of selection for flower colour and form. Cathay quince is the tetraploid member of the group in some treatments, larger in every part than its relatives, and it is one of the parents of the hybrid flowering quinces sold as Chaenomeles x superba. That larger size is not an accident of cultivation; it reflects a different chromosome complement.
The fruit chemistry is dominated by organic acids, mainly malic and citric, with a high pectin content and a characteristic aroma built from esters and lactones. The acidity is what makes the fruit useful for jelly, since pectin sets best in an acid medium, and it is also what makes the raw fruit unpleasant. Studies of the phenolic content have found flavonoids and phenolic acids with antioxidant activity, consistent with the rest of the rose family.
The medicinal use is based on the same chemistry. Mu Gua, the dried fruit, is used in Chinese medicine to relax tense muscles, to relieve joint pain and to aid digestion, and the pharmacology has been studied in some detail, with anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity demonstrated in animal models. The pharmacopoeia species is Chaenomeles speciosa, and Cathay quince is a regional substitute rather than the standard source.
Taxonomically the species is well defined, but garden material is often of hybrid origin, and seed from cultivated plants may not breed true. Anyone wanting the true species should look for wild-collected seed or for plants of documented provenance.
Uses & Benefits
The fruit is the main use. It is made into jelly, paste, syrup and a traditional sweet conserve, and in parts of western China it is sliced, dried and sold as a medicinal. The jelly is excellent, with a clear pink colour and a sharp, aromatic flavour, and it needs nothing but sugar and water because the fruit carries its own pectin.
In the garden the shrub is a useful early-flowering subject for a mixed border, a hedge or a wall, where the flowers open before most other things and the fruit follows in autumn. It is thorny enough to make a stock-proof hedge, and it tolerates poor soil, shade and wet, which few flowering shrubs do. The cut branches force well indoors in late winter, which is a small but real pleasure.
The fruit is also used as a fixative and a scent in the home, and in some regions it is placed in wardrobes and cupboards to perfume linen. The hard, woody fruit lasts for months and does not rot quickly, which is why the practice persists.
For a gardener, the species is a better choice than the Japanese quince where space allows, because it is larger, hardier, more tolerant of wet soil and produces a genuinely useful crop. It should be planted where the thorns will not catch passing sleeves, and it should be given room, since it spreads by suckers.
Growing from Seed
Seed needs cold stratification. Mix it with damp sand or vermiculite and keep it at two to five degrees for eight to twelve weeks, then sow at one to two centimetres depth in a loose, well-drained mix at fifteen to twenty degrees. Germination is usually four to eight weeks after the cold period, and it can be uneven, so leave the tray for a second season before discarding it.
Grow the seedlings on in a nursery bed or in pots for two years before planting out, since the young plants are slow to establish and vulnerable to drought. Plant into ordinary, well-drained soil in sun or light shade, and water through the first two summers. The shrub suckers once settled, and a thicket can be kept in bounds by mowing the edges or by lifting the runners in autumn.
Our Take
Cathay quince is the quince for a gardener who wants a real crop as well as spring flowers, and it is the toughest of the three species in cultivation. Give it room, accept the thorns, and you will have blossom in March, fruit in October and jelly in November. Just do not call it Mu Gua in a herbalist’s shop, because that name belongs to a different species.
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