My Sophora japonica Is Fruiting after 25 Years!
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- Subject: My Sophora japonica Is Fruiting after 25 Years!
- From: H* D* B* M* U*
- Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 10:28:06 -0400
As I look down from my second-floor window at a disanthus this raining
morning, I see, at eye-level to my right, the lower part of the canopy of a
pagoda tree (Sophora japonica) that I planted almost thirty years ago. It
surprised me this year with its first HUGE crop of flowers. Now it has
hundreds and hundreds of clusters of fruits, reminiscent of both loose
panicles of grapes and bunches of chinaberries. The fruits are almost
round, like green peas, and are borne almost an inch apart along the stems
of multi-stemmed panicles, with as many as thirty or more fruit per cluster.
I'm almost astounded this year by its enormous production. It was alive
with bees for most of August, and the fallen flowers made a carpet
underneath. I'd long ago forgotten that it would some day produce flowers
and fruits, and it is certainly making up for lost time. After seventy
years, I still have vivid recollections of deliberately walking barefooted
through the masses of decaying pulpy mush under chinaberry trees, enjoying
the pleasure of having the stinking paste ooze up between my toes, a
pleasure enjoyed mainly by small boys at that time (and, I hope, still). We
didn't know they were poisonous, but the aroma kept us safe from
experimental tasting. This morning I find, with considerable relief, Donald
Wyman's statement "The fruits ... may hang on the tree a greater part of the
winter." That could be very beautiful. I'm hoping that those that fall to
the ground early will not take on the character of rotting chinaberries, as
some of the cravings of my youth are mercifully diminished.
Harry Dewey, Beltsville, Maryland
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