Pseudocydonia sinensis Seeds | Chinese Quince
LATIN NAME: Pseudocydonia sinensis
COMMON NAME: Chinese Quince
Plant Profile
Chinese quince is a small deciduous tree, six to ten metres in a garden and occasionally taller in the wild, and it is grown for three things that rarely come together: spring flowers, autumn fruit and bark that looks like camouflage. The trunk is smooth and grey-green when young, then begins to peel in irregular plates that reveal patches of orange, olive, brown and grey beneath, so that an old tree looks as though it has been painted by someone with a limited palette and a free hand.
The leaves are glossy, oblong, finely toothed and arranged alternately along the twig, and they turn a dull yellow in autumn. The flowers are pale pink, five-petalled and about three centimetres across, opening in spring with the new leaves rather than before them, which makes the display softer and less dramatic than that of the flowering quinces.
The fruit is large, golden-yellow, hard, oblong and extremely fragrant, ripening in late autumn and hanging on the tree until the leaves have gone. It is too hard and acid to eat fresh, but it makes a clear, firm jelly and a fragrant paste, and a single fruit will scent a room for months. The fruit is also the source of Guang Pi Mu Gua, the peeled and dried quince of Chinese medicine.
The species is native to the hill forest of central and eastern China, and it has been cultivated there for so long that wild populations are hard to distinguish from planted ones. It is a single-species genus, formerly placed in Chaenomeles, and that reclassification is the source of much of the confusion around its common names.
Science & Biotechnology
Pseudocydonia is a monotypic genus, and its separation from Chaenomeles is based on a combination of fruit anatomy, chromosome number and molecular data. The fruit has a different core structure, the leaves are arranged differently, and the plant is a tree rather than a shrub. The change is accepted by most taxonomists but has not yet reached the nursery trade, where the plant is still widely sold as Chaenomeles sinensis.
The fruit chemistry is the reason for its medicinal use. It is rich in organic acids, pectin and volatile aromatic compounds, and it contains triterpenes and phenolic acids that have shown anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity in laboratory studies. The drug Guang Pi Mu Gua is used in Chinese medicine for rheumatic pain, digestive complaints and swelling, and it is distinguished in the pharmacopoeia from the wrinkled-fruited Mu Gua of Chaenomeles speciosa.
The bark is more than decorative. It peels in a pattern that is thought to deter climbing and to shed epiphytes, and the same kind of exfoliating bark appears in several unrelated trees, from plane to eucalyptus. In Chinese quince the peeling starts after a few years and continues for the life of the tree, and the pattern is individual to each specimen, which is why no two old trees look alike.
The species is self-fertile and sets fruit readily in cultivation, and the seed is orthodox and easy to store, unlike the recalcitrant seed of so many of the trees in this part of the site. That makes it a straightforward subject for propagation and for seed banking.
Uses & Benefits
The fruit is the primary use. It is made into jelly, paste, syrup and a traditional sweet, and it is sliced and dried for medicine. Because the fruit is high in pectin and acid, the jelly sets easily and keeps well, and the flavour is sharp, floral and distinctly quince-like. In China the fruit is also placed in rooms and in wardrobes for its scent, and it is used as a fixative in sachets.
The tree is a good ornamental for a small garden, where its spring flowers, autumn fruit and winter bark give three seasons of interest without taking much space. It is hardy, tolerant of most soils, and it can be grown as a specimen, in a mixed border or against a wall. It is also a useful tree for a wildlife garden, since the flowers feed early bees and the fruit is taken by birds once it softens.
The medicinal use is well documented in Chinese practice, where the dried fruit is used for joint pain, muscle tension and digestive weakness. It is a mild remedy, usually taken as a decoction or in formula, and it is not a substitute for treatment of inflammatory arthritis. The distinction between this species and Chaenomeles speciosa matters in a clinical context, and the two are not interchangeable in the pharmacopoeia.
Growing from Seed
Seed needs cold stratification for eight to twelve weeks at two to five degrees, then sowing at one to two centimetres depth in a loose, well-drained mix at fifteen to twenty degrees. Germination is usually four to eight weeks and reasonably even, and the seed can be stored dry and cool for a year or more if necessary, which makes it easier to handle than most of the fleshy-fruited trees on this site.
Grow the seedlings on in pots or a nursery bed for two years, then plant out into ordinary, well-drained soil in sun or light shade. Irrigate for the first two summers, then let the tree fend for itself. The tree needs little pruning beyond the removal of crossing branches and the shortening of long shoots in winter, and it should be trained to a single leader when young if a clear trunk is wanted for the bark.
Our Take
Chinese quince is one of the best small trees for a temperate garden that wants something more than flowers: it gives blossom, a useful and fragrant crop, and bark that is worth walking out to look at in January. Grow it for the trunk as much as for the fruit, and give it a place where you will see it in winter, when the camouflage is the only colour in the border.
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