#52 CHINESE BEAN TREE
Tetradium daniellii (aka Euodia hupehensis)
County Champion
This tree can be found to the south of the South Loop.
| Distribution: | In mountain woods of Hubei Province of China, and also Korea |
| Planting Date: | March 1926 from Hillier Nurseries, Romsey, Hampshire |
| Growth Habit: | Small tree |
| Bark: | Light grey, smooth with raised pores/lenticels (that allow gas exchange between atmosphere and internal tissue). Branchlets downy when young becoming reddish brown and glabrous. Wrinkles and creases develop where branches bend. |
| Leaf: | Glossy, opposite, 5-7 pinnate leaflets, 23 cm to 38 cm long. Ovate to ovate oblong, pointed at tip. |
| Flowers: | Pungently fragrant terminal corymbs on current year’s growth in mid to late March. Small, unisexual flowers with 5 white sepals and yellow anthers. |
| Fruit: | Red to purple-ish capsule of 4 or 5 carpels which split from the top to reveal shining black seed, the size of gun shot. |
| Tree size: | Height 11 m and girth 126 cm |
| Uses: | Oil from fruit sometimes used for cooking. |
| Plant Hunter: | Specimen collected by William Daniell, a surgeon with British forces stationed in Tientsin, China in 1860-62. Seed collected by Ernest Wilson in 1905 China and 1907 Shandong province, China. |
| Introduction Date: | Officially 1908. Introduced to Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in 1907 from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, U.S., which had received the seed from Korea in 1905 |
| Comments: | Rated County Champion by height and girth in April 2023 by The Tree Register. |