#59 AMUR CORK TREE
Phellodendron amurense
This tree can be found at the west end of the Chinese and American section.
County Champion
| Distribution: | Native of the Amur region of north China, Korea and Japan. Considered invasive in many parts of North America. |
| Planting Date: | 1916 |
| Bought from: | John St Barbe Baker, The Firs, West End, Southampton |
| Appearance: | A deciduous tree to 12 m, with a rugged, corky trunk and spreading branches; winter-buds coated with silvery hairs; young shoots glabrous. |
| Bark: | Corky – an important herbal medicine in China. |
| Leaf: | Leaves pinnate, 4 cm to 6 cm long, with five to eleven leaflets which are 1 cm to 1.8 cm long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, long-pointed, hairy only on the margin and at the base of the midrib, glossy green above. Panicles erect, 8 cm high and 4 cm to 8 cm wide; few are branched. |
| Flowers: | Flowers small, yellow green, 6 mm long. |
| Fruit: | Fruits about 12 mm. in diameter, black. |
| Tree height and girth in 2023 | Height 15 m and girth 206 cm |
| Uses: | One of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine – for the treatment of meningitis, bacillary dysentery, pneumonia, tuberculosis, tumours, jaundice and liver cirrhosis. Dye extracted from the bark was used historically across east Asia to colour paper for protection against insect damage. Amur cork tree fruit oil is extracted from the fruit. The oil has properties like pyrethrum. |
| Plant Hunter: | 1845 discovered by Friedrich Schmidt, geologist and Botanist. |
| Introduction Date: | 1885 from east Asia. |
| Anecdotes and Comments | In 2023 rated County champion by height and girth by The Tree Register. Liable to have its young shoots injured by late frosts. |