Schisandra, or Chinese magnolia-vine, is a twining vine from northeast Asia whose bright red berries are said to taste sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and pungent all at once—its Chinese and Korean names mean "five-flavor berry." It isn't native to the U.S., but gardeners grow it on trellises, and it's hardy in USDA Zones 4–8.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A deciduous woody vine that twines up trees and shrubs; stems usually reach about 26–30 ft (8–9 m).
- Leaves
- Simple, oval leaves about 2–4 in (5–10 cm) long, often with reddish stalks. Crushed leaves smell lemony.
- Flowers
- Small, fragrant, cream to pale pinkish flowers hang from the stems in late spring to early summer. Most plants are either male or female.
- Fruit
- Shiny red berries hang in loose clusters 2–6 in (5–15 cm) long in late summer, each with 1–2 kidney-shaped seeds.
Look-alikes
Bay starvine is the only schisandra native to the U.S. It grows wild on wooded bluffs and in ravines of the Southeast, from Louisiana to Georgia and northwestern Florida, and its petals are pink to red. A schisandra on a garden trellis is most likely an Asian species.
Why they get mixed upBoth are twining vines in the same genus with red berries.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Mixed forests
- Forest edges
- Stream valleys
- Range
- Native to northern China, the Russian Far East, Korea, and Japan. In the U.S. it's found only in cultivation.
- Preferred conditions
- Prefers loose, humus-rich, slightly acidic soil. It tolerates winter cold down to about −22°F (−30°C).
Growing it
- Propagation
- Grown from seed, layering, or cuttings. You need both a male and a female plant to get fruit, though the cultivar 'Eastern Prince' is sold as self-fertile.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- In Korea the berries are steeped into omija-cha, a tangy pink tea, and a chilled fruit punch called omija-hwachae.
- The dried berries are a long-used herb in traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese medicine.
- It was once placed in the magnolia family, which is where the name "magnolia-vine" comes from.
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