Distylium chinense seed

LATIN NAME: Distylium chinense

COMMON NAME: Chinese Distylium

The Chinese distylium is a handsome, low, dense, much-branched, evergreen shrub of the warm woodlands, and its fine, oval or oblong, leathery, dark-green leaves and its small, inconspicuous, reddish or greenish flowers of the early spring, followed by the small, woody capsules, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the garden. It grows as a low, dense, much-branched, evergreen shrub, reaching up to four metres or so, with the many slender, dense branches bearing the alternate, oval or oblong, pointed, leathery, dark-green leaves and, through the early spring, the small, inconspicuous, reddish or greenish flowers without the true petals, followed by the small, round, woody capsules of the few seeds. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the witch hazel family, and it is native to the warm woodlands of the eastern Asia, while it is treasured for its fine, dense, evergreen form, and it is known as the Chinese distylium.

In the witch hazel family it is the dense, leathery-leaved distylium of the warm woodlands, a shrub that asks for little and gives a solid, evergreen screen.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Chinese distylium appears in the woodland-ecology papers of the eastern Asia, and the botanists have mapped its place in the witch hazel family and the regional flora. The study of the small, petal-less flowers of the early spring has drawn the attention of the botanists of the quiet flowering, and the horticulturists have grown the dense, leathery, dark-green form for the hedge, the screen and the garden. It is a shrub of the quiet, dependable kind, and the growers of the evergreen hedging keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the garden, the Chinese distylium is the dense, evergreen shrub of the hedge and the screen. Its small, petal-less flowers feed the insects of the early spring, and the dense, leathery growth gives cover and shelter to the birds through the year. It is treasured for the solid, dark-green screen that needs no fussing, and it grows well in the moist, well-drained ground of the sheltered spot. Dense, leathery and dependable.

These are fresh-loving seeds — sow them straight away at a shallow depth in pots of gritty, free-draining soil, keep the pots in a sheltered, half-shaded spot and never let them dry out, and the first shoots will push through in good time.