Asian sweetleaf is a deciduous shrub native to Japan and Korea, with clusters of fluffy, fragrant white flowers in late spring and small, bright blue berries in fall. In the US it is grown in gardens and arboretums, where it is usually sold as sapphire-berry under the name Symplocos paniculata.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A wide-spreading deciduous shrub or small tree, usually 7–20 ft (2–6 m) tall, with horizontal branches.
- Leaves
- Alternate, oval leaves 1½–3 in (4–8 cm) long with a short, abrupt tip and fine teeth; the upper side feels slightly rough.
- Flowers
- Tiny white flowers about ⅓ in (7–8 mm) across form loose clusters at the branch tips. Long, numerous stamens give them a fuzzy look, and they are fragrant.
- Fruit
- Small, lopsided oval berries about ¼ in (6–7 mm) long turn a bright blue in early fall. Birds strip them soon after they color, so the show is often brief.
Look-alikes
Sapphire-berrySymplocos paniculata
In the narrow sense, S. paniculata has black berries rather than blue. Before the berries ripen, the two are very hard to tell apart in photos.
Why they get mixed upBoth are sold under the same name, and many references still treat them as one species.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- mountain woods
- stream valleys
- wet thickets
- Range
- Native to Japan and Korea. In the US it is grown in arboretums and gardens, usually labeled S. paniculata. In New York State, plants sold under that broad name have started seeding themselves into woodlands.
- Preferred conditions
- In Japan it favors moist ground along mountain streams and in wetlands.
Growing it
- Care
- Very cold-hardy, rated to USDA zone 4. Plants cannot pollinate themselves, so growing two or more seed-grown plants (not cuttings of the same clone) gives the best berry crop.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Gardeners have long lumped this shrub with Symplocos paniculata (also listed as S. chinensis). A 1993 revision of Japanese Symplocos split off the common blue-berried Japanese plant as S. sawafutagi and kept S. paniculata for black-fruited plants. Some horticultural references still treat them all as one species.
- Varieties and forms
- A white-fruited form is known from Japan.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- The species name comes from its Japanese name, sawafutagi, roughly "stream-blocker," for the way the shrub grows thickly along mountain streams.
- Blue-berried seed from Japan reached Parsons nursery in New York in the 1800s, and the Arnold Arboretum in Boston has grown this group since 1880.
More species to explore
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