Tetracentron sinense Seeds | Spike Leaf
LATIN NAME: Tetracentron sinense
COMMON NAME: Spike Leaf
Plant Profile
Tetracentron sinense is a tree of cool, wet mountain forest, and it is interesting for something that cannot be seen from the path. The wood contains no vessels. Water moves through long tracheids, as it does in conifers, which is a feature the flowering plants lost early and this species kept. A cut stem under a hand lens shows the difference at once.
The tree grows to twenty metres with a straight trunk and a crown of long-stalked leaves. The leaves are heart-shaped with a long drip tip and a finely toothed edge, and the veins run in a pattern that shows the leaf’s age as a group rather than as a modern one. The flowers are tiny, green and packed into a hanging spike, and the fruit is a small follicle that splits along one side.
Science & Biotechnology
Tetracentron and Trochodendron are the only two genera in the family, and both lack vessels. Molecular work places them near the base of the eudicots, which makes them useful for understanding how flowering plants solved the problem of water transport before vessels evolved. The tracheids are long and have bordered pits, and flow through them is slower than through a vessel, which suits a tree of cool, humid forest rather than a seasonal one.
The genus was once much wider. Fossils assigned to Tetracentron and to related forms occur in the Tertiary of Europe and North America, and the living species is a relic of a range that shrank with the climate. That history is why the tree is protected in China and why seed collections are regulated.
Uses & Benefits
The timber is light, fine-grained and easy to work, and it is used locally for furniture and for small implements, though the tree is too rare to be a timber crop. The bark and the wood are used in Chinese medicine as a tonic, and the leaves are applied to swellings in local practice.
In gardens the tree is grown as a curiosity for the foliage and for the architectural habit, and it is planted in a few European collections where the climate is cool and damp enough. It is not a commercial species in any sense, and the seed that reaches the trade comes from a small number of documented trees.
Growing from Seed
Seed is short-lived and must be sown fresh. Sow on the surface of a peaty mix in autumn and leave the pot outdoors, since the seed needs cold and moisture and germinates unevenly over two springs. Do not let the compost dry at any point.
The tree wants a sheltered, humid site with deep leaf mould and no lime, and it suffers in wind and in summer drought. Plant it in light shade, mulch heavily, and water through the first three summers. It is hardy to about minus fifteen, but late frost damages the young leaves, so a site that holds cold air is a poor choice.
Our Take
A living fossil with a wood that predates the vessel, and a handsome foliage tree if you can give it cool shade and constant moisture.
Related Reading
Continue exploring with these related plants: