#496 (W3) GOAT HORN TREE
Carrierea calycina
Planted: 2016
This tree is at the east end of the American Section, near the Burnmill Road fence.
| Distribution: | Native to China, found in forest glades and margins; 1300 -1600m. Common name in Mandarin is yang jiao shu. Named in honour of the French botanist Elie Carriere (1817 – 1896). |
| Supplier: | Pan-Global Plants, Frampton-on Severn, Gloucestershire. Purchased and planted by Market Harborough Gardeners. Germinated from seed collected by Peter Warton in 1994 (PW84) |
| Growth Habit: | A tree to 16 m tall, with one or several straight stems from the base |
| Bark: | Bark brownish-grey, smooth, with darker lenticels. |
| Leaf: | Leaf thinly leathery, waxy-surfaced on both sides, deep green above and paler beneath. Ovate or oblong, 9 to 14 cm long by 4 to 6 cm wide in 4 or 5 pairs, with 3 veins from the base. Margin with large, rounded, regular teeth, each tipped with a conspicuous pale gland. Flushing reddish on a 3 to 7 cm petiole. |
| Flowers: | Fragrant pale green cup-shaped flowers, 30 mm long. Maturing to greenish white or yellowish; rarely blush-pink. Flowers May to June, in the wild. |
| Seeds: | Fruit capsule, slightly curved, 3 to 8 cm. Woolly seed, including wing, 10 to 15 mm long. Fruits July to October, in the wild. |
| Uses: | Primarily used for its wood for furniture and tools. Seeds processed for oil. A potential, but rare, ornamental. In the wild, a pioneer species in woodland areas. |
| Plant Hunter: | The first seed was collected by Ernest Wilson in Sichuan in 1908, successfully germinated at Veitch’s Nursery in England. Some specimens flowered immediately but others took some considerable time to do so; one taking 91 years to do so. The species lost favour and its introduction to the west died out. Reintroduced by Peter Wharton (1951-2008), Curator of the David C. Lam Asian Garden at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. In 1994 he organised an expedition to the Dashahe Cathaya Reserve in the Dalou Mountains of northern Guizhou, whose specific aim was to re-introduce Carrierea calycina to the west. Our specimen is grown from one of the two batches of seed he collected on that expedition (PW84). |
| Introduction Date: | 1908 and 1994 |
| Citation: | Johnson, O. (2022), ‘Carrierea calycina’ from the website Trees and Shrubs Online |