Ochna thomasiana seed

LATIN NAME: Ochna thomasiana

COMMON NAME: Mickey Mouse Plant

The Mickey Mouse plant is a handsome, upright, much-branched, evergreen shrub of the warm places, and its fine, oval or lance-shaped, glossy, toothed leaves and its fine, bright-yellow, five-petalled flowers, followed by the fine, black, glossy berries held on the bright-red, fleshy, star-like sepals, have made it a treasured and remarkable plant of the warm garden. It grows as an upright, much-branched, evergreen shrub, reaching up to two metres or more, with the many slender, upright branches bearing the alternate, oval or lance-shaped, pointed, glossy, sharply toothed leaves and, through the warm months, the fine, bright-yellow, five-petalled flowers, followed by the fine, black, glossy berries held on the bright-red, fleshy, star-like sepals. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the ochna family, and it is native to the warm places of the south-eastern Africa, while it is treasured for its fine, yellow flowers and its fine, red-and-black fruiting, and it is known as the Mickey Mouse plant.

In the ochna family it is the red-and-black shrub of the warm garden, a species whose star-like red sepals hold the black berries up like a cheerful face.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Mickey Mouse plant appears in the warm-region ecology papers of the south-eastern Africa, and the botanists have mapped its place in the ochna family and the regional flora. The study of the fine, black berries held on the bright-red, star-like sepals has drawn the attention of the botanists of the fruit and the seed display, and the horticulturists have grown the bright, two-tone form for the warm garden and the conservatory. It is a shrub of the showy, warm-climate kind, and the growers of the conservatory plants keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm garden, the Mickey Mouse plant is the bright shrub of the sunny corner. Its yellow flowers feed the bees, its black berries feed the birds, and the glossy, evergreen growth gives cover and shelter through the year. It is treasured for the cheerful red-and-black fruit display, and it grows well in the rich, moist, well-drained ground of the warm, sheltered spot. Yellow-flowered, red-and-black and cheerful.

These seeds are best sown fresh — clean them off the black berries and press them at a shallow depth into pots of rich, moist, free-draining soil, keep the pots in a sheltered, half-shaded spot and never let them dry out, and the first shoots will appear before long.