Cercidiphyllum japonicum

Japanese cake tree ( Cercidiphyllum japonicum)

The katsura tree ( Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Syn: Cercidiphyllum japonicum var sinense Rehder & EHWilson, Japanese桂, Katsura ), also Japanese Katsura, gingerbread tree or just, but not uniquely, called cupcake tree, a tree species is known from only two types counting genus cake trees ( Cercidiphyllum ).

Name

The name comes cupcake tree before the smell of the foliage, and after falling in autumn. Especially in wet weather, the leaves smell of fresh pastries, caramel or gingerbread. The smell, however, is lost during the drying of the leaves.

Description

The katsura tree is a deciduous tree or large shrub, the plant height of ten to twenty, thirty rare, can reach meters and has an elongated, conical, often quite light crown of towering branches. The bark is brown -gray and smooth in young trees. Later she becomes rough or finely checkered netzadrig. The roots are flat to heart-shaped and do not form spurs.

The deciduous leaves are blowing out early in the year. They are arranged alternately along long shoots. In addition to these long shoots, there are also short shoots that grow among other things directly from the trunk. These are slightly more elongated leaves that are always individually there. The petioles are up to six inches long and usually dark red. The spreading are almost orthogonal to the petiole and are broadly oval to roundish and hand pain. At the base they are deeply incised heart-shaped, pointed forward, however. The margin is finely serrated, but sometimes even border. The leaves are hairless and have on top of a dull green color, at the bottom they are tinted blue and the lower leaf surface can also be coated. They discolour fairly rapidly after salmon pink and later to golden yellow. Just before the leaves fall, they smell like cotton candy and freshly baked cakes, from which the name derives.

The trees are dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig. The inconspicuous, reddish flowers appear in March or April before the foliage and bloom until May and are held to clusters in the axils of the leaf buds. The male flower has a lot of red, about nine millimeters long stamens that form dense clumps. The female flowers consist of a single carpel. The follicle has a light green color and is claw-like curved and contains many flat, winged, brown, four to five millimeters long, trapezoidal seeds.

Dissemination

The katsura tree native to East Asia, especially from Japan and China. Natural areas are located next to Japan in the Chinese provinces: southern and western Anhui, southern Gansu, northeastern Guizhou, southwestern Henan, Hubei, northwestern Hunan, northern Jiangxi, southern Shaanxi, southwestern Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan northeastern and northwestern Zhejiang. It grows in forests, forest edges and along rivers at altitudes 600-2700 m above sea level.

In temperate regions it is planted as a rare decorative ornamental shrub in gardens and parks, but is hardly higher than twelve meters. It grows in sparse bushes and prefers loose, humus - and nutrient-rich soil and a sunny or partially shaded spot. He is sensitive to drought.

Ornamental forms

There are the decorative forms Cercidiphyllum japonicum f pendulum and Cercidiphyllum japonicum f miquelianum and the varieties ' Red Fox ', ' Heronswood Glo ', ' Peach ', ' Raspberry ', ' Ruby', 'Strawberry ' and ' Tidal Wave'.

Pictures

Branch with male flowers

Branch end with female flowers

Bark