Heptacodium miconioides
| Heptacodium miconioides | |
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| H. miconioides, Mt Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Dipsacales |
| Family: | Caprifoliaceae |
| Genus: | Heptacodium |
| Species: | H. miconioides |
| Binomial name | |
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Heptacodium miconioides Rehder |
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| Synonyms | |
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Heptacodium miconioides, commonly known as the Seven Sons plant, is a member of the Caprifoliaceae family, a cousin of the Honeysuckle, and sole member of the genus Heptacodium. Endemic to China, this species was discovered in 1907 in Hubei province in central China by Ernest Wilson whilst collecting on behalf of the Arnold Arboretum. Considered rare even at that time, only nine populations are known to remain in the wild, all of them in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces and threatened by habitat loss. The species is now under second-class national protection in China. However, the Sino-American Botanical Expedition of 1980 collected viable seeds and sent them to the Arnold Arboretum where it was found to be readily cultivated. The plant is now widely grown as an ornamental around the world.
H. miconioides is a deciduous large shrub or small tree, typically growing to a height of between 4 and 8 m. The bark of the trunk is papery and thin, light tan in colour, and exfoliates in strips or sheets. The upright, spreading, quadrangular branches give the plant a rounded, often irregular shape. The dark-green cordate leaves are opposite, 8–10 cm long by 5–6 cm wide, with entire margins and deeply impressed venation running parallel to the margin. In September, H. miconioides produces large shows of small fragrant white blooms attractive to butterflies, the flowers five-petalled, < 13 mm across. When the white corollas have fallen, the calyces develop into deep red expanded lobes which persist into November.
Leaf
Flowers, close up
Calyces in late October
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