Lottah Nursery Tasmania, Australia
Reported to be almost identical to Daphne acutiloba which we have not had the pleasure of meeting, this is native to Tibet and the Yunnan province of China.
This is an evergreen shrub with slender stems reported to grow to 1.5 m although our 7 year old plant stands no more than 600 mm high. Since longilobata is usually raised from seed there can be variability in habit, flower color and fragrance. Seedlings are vigorous, usually coming into flower in the second season. Experience elsewhere suggests this daphne is shade tolerant.
Leaves: lanceolate, 130 x 20 mm on vigorous seedlings but considerably smaller on mature fruiting plants; petiole 5 mm long.
Inflorescence: late Spring and Summer in terminal clusters of up to 10 flowers; individual flowers have green perianth tubes of 13 x 4 mm with purplish base, flaring into 2 pairs of decidedly uneven creamy white triangular lobes, the outer pair extending to 18 mm in width. Set of four anthers are exposed at opening of tube and a further set of four are hidden lower down.
Fruit: fleshy reddish berries around 10 x 6 mm, much relished by birds.
For many years we considered Daphne longilobata to be without fragrance until we discovered from White's book that the fragrance on some of the seedlings was apparent only in the evening, and confirmed this to be the case on our own specimens. At some stage we will probably select clones for fragrance.
(click on thumbnails for larger images)
50401-7545 (2, 4, 23, 342)