When many folks get together for the holidays, their families are so large, finding a place to house and feed them becomes problematic. Such is not the case for Sarcandra glabra, or for that matter, any of the plants in the Chloranthaceae family. Not only is the family itself quite small and quite old…prehistoric, in fact, but it’s also unrelated to any other existing plant family. Family get togethers are never as issue since that would include only four small genera.
We’ve written in the past about one of our favorite family members, the odd genus, Chloranthus. Sarcandra glabra, also known as Zhong Jie Feng, is its close cousin. Unlike Chloranthus, which has no showy fruits, that’s not the case with Sarcandra glabra. Despite its amazing fall show, I expect few people have ever heard of or grown this interesting Asian native perennial in their garden.
I’ve been fascinated with Sarcandra, after first studying it when I worked in the JC Raulston Arboretum lath house in the 1980s and 1990s, but when I tried it back then, our winters were simply too severe for it to survive. Now that we’re officially in Zone 8a, we can now grow it fine in our garden, as you can see from the photo below. The fruiting season begins for us in November, when the 2′ tall x 3′ wide, evergreen clumps are adorned with loose clusters of bright red fruit. It has been long valued in traditional Chinese medicine as a treatment for bruises, fractured bones, joint pain, sore throat, upper respiratory tract infection, and now to treat tumors. As the climate continues to warm, perhaps more of us can grow this amazing plant. (Hardiness Zone 8a-10b)
I’ve had two Sarcandra glabra plants growing on a partly shaded hillside in Chapel Hill for 4 years now. They’ve been trouble-free, although some small animal, perhaps a squirrel, eventually gets around to eating the red berries before the winter is through.
Excellent to know…thanks.
Dave Creech shared a couple of plants several years ago (early 2000s?). One planted in the Tyler Botanical Garden and the other at my home in Tyler. I really like this plant, but I think we have finally lost both (will have to double check the Botanical Garden). Moderate hard freezes often mess up the winter display, and these had been killed to the ground at least 3 times. I think the last one was the death knoll. Not sure if SFA Gardens still has them. Great plant but wish winter hardiness was better.
It would be interesting to know if it made it through the Texas polar vortex of -3F at SFASU
I’ll check. We had about a foot of snow (at least here in Tyler) so that helped insulate the crown of many plants that would otherwise be totally dead.
One photo is after a freeze in the low teens in January 2018.