Pterocarya rhoifolia seed

LATIN NAME: Pterocarya rhoifolia

COMMON NAME: Japanese Wingnut

The Japanese wingnut is a handsome, upright, spreading, deciduous tree of the moist woodlands, and its fine, pinnate leaves of the many oval leaflets and its long, slender, dangling clusters of the small, greenish flowers, followed by the long, dangling chains of the small, round, winged, papery fruits, have made it a treasured and fine tree of the region. It grows as an upright, spreading, deciduous tree, reaching up to thirty metres or more, with the upright, branching trunk bearing the alternate, pinnate leaves of the many oval, pointed, toothed leaflets and, through the spring, the long, slender, dangling clusters of the small, greenish flowers, followed by the long, dangling chains of the small, round, flat, winged, papery fruits. It is a species of the flowering tree in the walnut family, and it is native to the moist woodlands of the eastern Asia, while it is prized for its fine, dangling chains of the winged fruits, and it is known as the Japanese wingnut.

In the walnut family it is the riverside tree of the hanging chains, a species whose winged fruits dangle like little wind-catchers all through the autumn.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Japanese wingnut appears in the riverside-ecology papers of the eastern Asia as a fine subject of the moist woodland study, and the botanists have mapped its place in the walnut family and the regional flora. The study of the small, round, flat, papery fruits has drawn the attention of the botanists of the seed-dispersal, since the winged fruits are spread on both the wind and the water. It is a tree of the broad, generous kind, and the growers of the park and the riverside garden keep it in their catalogues for the pinnate leaves and the hanging chains.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the riverside garden, the Japanese wingnut is the broad tree of the hanging chains. Its long, dangling flower clusters feed the insects, its winged fruits feed the birds, and the broad, leafy crown gives the garden a deep, generous shade. It is treasured for the long, dangling chains of the papery fruits and the easy growth in the moist, rich ground of the waterside. Pinnate-leaved, winged-fruited and broad.

Give the winged seeds a cold, damp rest in a bag of moist sand in the fridge, then sow them shallowly in 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 come up steadily.