Lithocarpus litseifolius Seeds | Sweet Tea Stone Oak
LATIN NAME: Lithocarpus litseifolius
COMMON NAME: Sweet Tea Stone Oak
Plant Profile
Sweet tea stone oak is an evergreen tree of the beech family from the hills of southern China, where its young leaves are picked and dried for a sweet infusion that needs no sugar. The tree grows ten to fifteen metres tall, with a dense crown of glossy, lance-shaped leaves that flush bronze in spring and darken through summer. Its catkins open in early summer, and the acorns that follow sit in shallow, scaly cups and ripen the following autumn. In its native range it is a tree of ravine sides and forest margins, often on granite-derived soils, and old specimens are protected in village feng shui woods, which is where the largest ones survive.
Science & Biotechnology
The sweetness of the leaf comes from dihydrochalcone glycosides, chiefly trilobatin and phlorizin, compounds that taste sweet to humans but are not sugars and do not raise blood glucose. That chemistry has made the species a subject in the search for natural sweeteners and for additives that blunt the bitterness of other foods. Trilobatin has also been studied for its effects on glucose uptake and for antioxidant activity in cell models, work that is promising but still mostly at the bench stage. Botanically the species sits in the Lithocarpus section with flat, overlapping cup scales, and its leaf venation, a dense network of parallel lateral veins, is one of the characters used to separate it from related stone oaks. Populations in Guangxi and Fujian differ in leaf size and sweetness, which suggests local chemotypes worth conserving.
Uses & Benefits
The leaves are the crop. They are withered, rolled and dried, then brewed like tea: the liquor is pale gold, sweet at the back of the tongue, with a faint aroma of liquorice and hay. In Guangxi and Hunan it is a household drink and a small commercial industry, sold as sweet tea or as instant powder. Because the sweetness survives drying and does not ferment, it has attracted interest from the beverage trade. The tree itself is a fine shade tree for a large garden, with clean foliage and no serious pest problems. Its acorns are edible after leaching but too scarce to matter, and the wood is a useful hardwood for local construction. It is not a plant for a small plot; give it room or do not plant it.
Growing from Seed
Sow acorns fresh, in autumn, in a mix of leaf mould, coarse sand and loam, with the nut on its side and barely covered. Keep the pots cool and moist through winter; germination begins in late winter and continues into spring. The acorns are recalcitrant, so drying them out kills them, and storing them in a sealed bag in the fridge for a month or two is the limit. Seedlings tolerate half shade in their first year and prefer it. Pot on before the taproot coils, and plant out at the second spring into acid, well-drained soil. Water through the first two dry seasons, mulch with bark, and stake the stem for three years until the crown stiffens.
Our Take
A tree that makes sweet tea from its own leaves and shade for everything under it. Slow to start, then independent.
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