This section is from the book "The Standard Cyclopedia Of Horticulture Vol2", by L. H. Bailey. See also: Western Garden Book: More than 8,000 Plants - The Right Plants for Your Climate - Tips from Western Garden Experts.
(Kelastros, ancient Greek name). Cel-astracese. Woody plants grown chiefly for their brightly colored fruit; some also for their handsome foliage.
Shrubs, usually climbing, with alternate, petioled, usually deciduous and serrate glabrous leaves: flowers polygamous, 5-merous, inconspicuous, greenish white, in axillary or terminal panicles or racemes; calyx 5-parted; petals small, oblong-ovate; disk entire or crenate; stamens short; ovary superior; style short with 3-lobed stigma: fruit a caps, dehiscent into 3 valves, each containing 1 or 2 seeds, inclosed in a fleshy crimson aril. -More than 30 species in S. and E. Asia, Austral, and Amer. The species with perfect flowers in axillary cymes and with evergreen leaves, being rigid and often spiny shrubs, are now included under Gymnosporia, which see.
These shrubs are hardy and ornamental, very effective with their bright-colored fruit remaining usually throughout the winter; C. angulatus is also worth growing for its large handsome foliage. They are very valuable for covering trelliswork, trees or rocks and walls: they grow in almost any soil and situation, and as well in shaded as in sunny positions. Propagated by seeds, sown in fall or stratified, and by root-cuttings or layers; suckers are freely produced, and become sometimes a nuisance in nurseries; they also can be increased by cuttings of mature and of soft wood.
a. Under side of leaves green.
b. Leaves 2-4 in. long: branchlets terete.
c. Flowers and fruit in axillary few-flowered cymes along the branches.
Thunb. (C. articuldtus, Thunb.). Fig. 854. High-climbing shrub: leaves cuneate, suborbicular to oblong or obovate, acute or acuminate, crenate-ser-rate, 2-3 in. long: fruit globular, orange-yellow, with crimson seeds. Japan, China. B.M. 7599. G.F. 3:550 (adapted in Fig. 854). A.F. 9:534. G.C. III. 23:29; 43:242. Gng. 5:119. M.D.G. 1902:306. variety punc-tatus, Rehd. (C. punctatus, Thunb.). A less vigorous grower, with smaller, elliptic leaves - C. orbiculatus is of more vigorous growth than the following species, and fruits very profusely, but the fruits are hidden by the foliage, and are not very conspicuous until the leaves have fallen, while C. scandens bears its fruits above the leaves
cc. Flowers and fruit in terminal panicles.
Linn. False Bitter-sweet. Wax-Work. Fig. 855. High, climbing to 20 ft.: leaves cuneate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, crenate-serrate, glabrous, 2-4 in. long: flowers in terminal, many-fid. panicles or racemes 2-4 in. long: fruit about 3 1/3in. diam., orange-yellow, with crimson seeds. Canada to S. D. and New Mex. Em. 545. A.G. 11:29, 31. G.F. 5:569 (adapted in Fig. 855). Gng. 5:119. A.F. 9:534. V. 3:315. Gn. 33, p. 393 (habit).
Fig. 854. Celastrus orbiculatus. (X 1/2)
Willd. (C. dependens, Wall.). Branches brown with numerous small white lenticels, pendulous: leaves ovate-oblong or obovate, sometimes to 5 in. long: flowers in terminal pendulous panicles 4-8 in. long. Himalayas. - Not hardy N.
Fig. 855. Celastrus scandens. (X 1/2) bb. Leaves 4~6 in. long and 3-5 in. broad: branchlets angular.
Maxim. (C. latifolius, Hemsl.). Glabrous shrub, climbing to 20 ft.: branchlets angular, finely lenticellate: leaves broadly ovate or roundish, abruptly short-acuminate, crenately serrate: terminal panicles 4-6 in. long: fruit subglobose, nearly 1/2 in. thick, on thick short stalks, yellow with orange seeds. N.W. and Cent. China. H.I. 23:2206. - Even without fruit effective on account of its large foliage; has proved hardy at the Arnold Arboretum.
aa. Under side of the leaves bluish white.
Warb. (C. hypoglauca, Hemsl. Erythro-spermum hypoleucum, Oliver). Glabrous shrub with terete brown branches scarcely lenticellate: leaves elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 2-4 in. long, short-acuminate, remotely serrulate: terminal panicles 2-5 in. long, loose: fruit about 1/3in. thick on slender stalks, 1/3- 1/2 in.long. Cent. China. H.I. 19:1899.
C. flagellaria, Rupr. Allied to C. orbiculatus. Branches with persistent spiny stipules, sometimes rooting: leaves ovate or oval, small, finely serrulate, slender-petioled: fruit axillary, small. N. China, Korea, Japan. Quite hardy, but not so handsome as C. orbiculatus. - C. nutans, Hort. Reasoner, not Roxbg.=Quisqualis indica. - C. Orixa, Sieb. & Zucc.= Orixa japonica.
Alfred Rehder.
 
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