Maurocenia frangula (Maurocenia frangula)
Description
Maurocenia frangula provides interest throughout the year; with its scarlet, new growth in winter, bright cerise edible berries in autumn, and its decorative, rounded, leathery dark green leaves. It can be used as a small tree or trained as a hedge. The bittersweet-cherry, is a small rigid tree up to 3 m in height, with a shrubby, rounded shape. The bark is greyish yellow and scaly with vertical fissures. It has a single stem. It is a slow grower, but is long lived. The dark leathery leaves are widely elliptic to almost circular. The leaves are dark green above and paler below. Each leaf has a prominent midrib which can be seen from either side, but more prominent from below. The margins of the leaves are rolled under. Attaching the leaves to the branches are stout petioles, not more than 3 mm long. The flowers are very small, ranging from white to dull yellow, and can be found growing in dense branched heads with male and female flowers usually on separate trees, from May to June (late autumn to early spring). The edible berry-like fruits first appear cerise and then turn purple when they ripen. They contain one or two seeds.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Celastrales
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Family: Celastraceae
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Genus: Maurocenia
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