Parrotia persica Seeds | Persian Parrotia
LATIN NAME: Parrotia persica
COMMON NAME: Persian Parrotia
Plant Profile
Persian parrotia is a small tree of the Caspian forests of northern Iran, and it earns its place in three separate seasons. It usually grows as a multi-stemmed shrub or a small tree, five to fifteen metres, with a broad, spreading crown and branches that arch outward and then turn up at the tips. The leaves are obovate, four to ten centimetres, with a wavy, coarsely toothed margin, dark green above and paler beneath.
Autumn is the first event: the foliage turns through yellow to orange, scarlet and finally deep purple, often with several colours on the same branch, and it holds for weeks. Winter brings the second: small, rounded heads of crimson stamens open on the bare twigs in February and March, before anything else is flowering, and they are easy to miss unless the tree is sited where it can be seen from a window. The third is the bark, which flakes in patches of grey, green and cream like a plane tree.
Science & Biotechnology
The genus is named for Friedrich Parrot, the nineteenth-century naturalist who collected in the Caucasus, and it contains a single species, which makes it a relic of the ancient Hyrcanian forest that survives in a narrow belt between the Caspian Sea and the Elburz mountains. That forest is one of the oldest unglaciated woodland systems in the world, and it holds a high proportion of endemic plants, so Parrotia is a biogeographical document as much as a garden tree.
The flowers are wind-pollinated and apetalous, with the red colour coming from the stamens rather than petals, which is why they read as a haze rather than a bloom. The fruit is a small woody capsule that splits to release shiny brown seeds, and seed set is often poor in cultivation because the flowering period is early and frost-sensitive. The species is also unusual in tolerating both heavy clay and summer drought once established.
Uses & Benefits
Persian parrotia is planted for its autumn colour above all, and in that role it has few equals among small trees, since it combines reliable scarlet with a graceful, wide crown that shows the foliage well. It is also a good tree for a lawn, a woodland edge or a street, because it tolerates air pollution, compaction and a range of soils, and it needs no pruning to keep a good shape.
The wood is extremely hard and dense, which is where the common name ironwood comes from, and it has been used for tool handles and turnery in its native range, though never in quantity. In the garden the winter flowers and the flaking bark give it interest when the colour is gone, and it combines well with early bulbs and hellebores, which pick up the same season and the same scale. It is slow to establish but long-lived once it does.
Growing from Seed
Seed is doubly dormant and slow. Give it three months of warmth at about twenty degrees, then three months of cold at four degrees, and sow in a lime-free, humus-rich mix. Germination can be erratic and may take until the second spring, so sow more than you need and be patient.
The seedlings are slow for the first two years and are best grown on in pots until they are thirty centimetres. Plant out in autumn into deep, fertile soil in sun or light shade, and mulch for the first three summers. The tree tolerates clay but not waterlogging, and it prefers shelter from late frost, which can blacken the young growth and the flowers.
Our Take
Three seasons of interest in one small tree, and autumn colour that justifies the wait from seed. It is slow to settle but long-lived, so plant it where it can stay.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Persian Parrotia often pair it with these related subjects: