Myrica rubra

Fruits of Myrica rubra

Myrica rubra is a subtropical tree, whose sweet, purple to dark purple-red, edible fruits are used as food. It is native mainly in East Asia and China, but also in Japan and Southeast Asia. In the Chinese language the fruit as Yangmei (Chinese杨梅, Pinyin Yangmei, Poplar plum ') is called and in the Japanese language as Yamamomo (山桃orヤマモモ, German " mountain peach ").

Description

Vegetative characteristics

Myrica rubra is an evergreen, dioecious tree reaching a height of up to 15 meters and a trunk diameter of up to 60 centimeters. Its bark is gray, twigs and buds are smooth. The leaves are petiolate with 2 to 10 millimeters long petioles, the leaf blades are wedge - obovate or narrowly elliptic - obovate shaped, leathery pale green on the underside and sparsely to moderately occupied golden glandular, the upper surface is dark green. They are 5-14 inches long and 1-4 inches wide, the base cuneate, the apex obtuse to acute, the leaf margin is entire or serrated in the front half.

Flowers and inflorescences

The male inflorescences are simple or branched inconspicuous ears that stand alone or occasionally in groups of a few inflorescences in the leaf axils. They are 1-3 inches long, the inflorescence stems are glabrous, the bracts are nearly circular and 1 millimeter long and busy gold - glandular on the bottom. The male flowers are accompanied by two to four egg-shaped, sparsely ciliated continue reading. Each flower contains four to six stamens with dark red, elliptical anthers.

The female inflorescences are individually in the axils standing, many flowers -containing spikes from 0.5 to 1.5 centimeters in length. The rachis is hairy and glandular. The bracts overlap each other, are hairless and only inconspicuous glandular. The female flowers are accompanied by four continue reading. The ovary is hairy velvety, the two scars are stained bright red.

Fruits

The fruits are dark red or purple - red, spherical drupes with a diameter of 1 to 1.5 centimeters; cultivated plant crops can form with a diameter of up to 3 centimeters.

Occurrence

The species occurs in China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines, and grows in forests on mountain slopes and in valleys at altitudes between 100 and 1500 meters. Often it is cultivated for its fruit.

Use

The ripe fruits are edible. They can be preserved in sugar or processed into juices.

589494
de