Chocolate Vine, Akebia quinata

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As I went outside the front door this morning I noticed fat buds on the new Chocolate Vine (Akebia quinata) that we bought and planted last autumn. They look like flower rather than leaf buds, which is rather exciting.

In 2011, when we were planting Grapes Hill Community Garden, I was introduced to this lovely climber and we planted two young plants against the trellis that surrounds the garden on two sides. The combination of purple, vanilla scented flowers borne in April and the possibility of edible, chocolate-flavoured fruit in Autumn was very enticing. Sadly, however, the plants haven’t flowered – I think it is too shady for them. I eventually saw my first flowering Chocolate Vines growing on an east-facing house wall near the top of Helena Road and a fine specimen growing up the pergola in Heigham Park, both near where we live in Norwich.

Akebia quinata

Chocolate Vine, Akebia quinata, in Heigham Park, Norwich

Akebia quinata is in the family Lardizabalaceae and comes from China, Korea and Japan. It can be rather vigorous and the comments on the Gardeners’ World website include the terms “beast” and “rampant thug”, so beware if you’re planning to grow it with other climbers or if you’re short of space. Our house faces south and the soil is rather poor, so I’ll be happy if ours does well. I added some good garden compost to the planting hole and will probably have to water it in the summer. The Chocolate Vine took the place of a climbing rose which was very beautiful but suffered in the intense heat, so I moved it to a cooler spot in the back garden, where it will hopefully do better.

We won’t have any fruits, sadly, as although the plants bear both male and female flowers, the flowers need to be cross-pollinated with another individual of the same species to set fruit. That’s a shame, as the fruits have a delicate flavour and a soft, juicy texture, according to the Plants for a Future website. Maybe, if the first plant is a success, we’ll find space for another.

A Moss and Liverwort Walk in Earlham Cemetery

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Today dawned cold but dry and, provided you were well wrapped up against the cold, it turned out to be an ideal morning for a walk in Norwich’s Earlham Cemetery looking at mosses and liverworts.

Cryphaea heteromalla

Cryphaea heteromalla, on an oak branch, just one of our finds.

About twenty people came along, evenly split between Friends of Earlham Cemetery and the Norfolk and Suffolk Bryological Group, one of the local groups of the British Bryological Society. Members of the Bryological Group did the identification but kindly let us tag along. A hand lens proved to be useful to pick out details of leaves and capsules and I took home a couple of small specimens in envelopes for a closer look at home.

I had forgotten how interesting mosses and liverworts (bryophytes) are. About thirty years ago I spent a week in the west of Scotland studying these plants during the day (and drinking in the evenings) but I’ve not spent much time looking at them since. Today brought back good memories, with familiar yet exotic names such as Atrichum undulatum, Dicranium scoparium and Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus reminding me of more youthful days. Nowadays English names exist for these mosses (Common Smoothcap, Broom Fork-moss, Springy Turf-moss respectively) but I think I’ll stick to the scientific names, as those are what I learnt.

In the afternoon it rained heavily and I was glad to be sitting indoors. But on the next free, dry day it’ll definitely be time for me to take another look at these lovely plants.

Earlham Cemetery mosses and liverworts walk, 31st January 2015.

Earlham Cemetery mosses and liverworts walk, 31st January 2015.

The list of Moss and Liverwort species found in Earlham Cemetery is on the Friends of Earlham Cemetery website. (At time of writing today’s specimens still need to be added.)

Information sheets on individual moss and liverwort species can be found on the British Bryological Society website.

Winter Heliotrope, Petasites fragrans

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A few days ago I wrote about my Heritage Seed Library order, an early Christmas present. Another Christmas present from the Plant Kingdom is one I bought for myself back in the summer, a Winter Heliotrope plant. It is now in flower, in time for Christmas.

Winter Heliotrope

Winter Heliotrope, Petasites fragrans, is a member of the Daisy Family, the Asteraceae, and a close relative of Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, which I wrote about back in March 2012. (It is sometimes known as Sweet-scented Coltsfoot or Sweet Colt’s-foot.)

It has kidney-shaped, bright green leaves, which are hairless above and hairy on their undersides. They look a bit like Coltsfoot or Butterbur leaves but are shinier and greener than those of Coltsfoot, without the scalloped edges, and are smaller and rounder than Butterbur leaves.

The plant can be found in hedge banks and by roadsides and on waste ground. It prefers wetter ground, and often grows by streams. I have usually found it growing close to habitation and this is not surprising, as it is not a British native but has escaped from gardens. It was introduced in the early 19th Century from the shores of the Mediterranean. It is native to south-western and south-eastern Europe and North Africa but now grows through much of lowland Britain, though it is scarcer in Scotland. Good sites to see it locally include the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich and to the west of Norwich, not far from Runhall Church.

In the open ground Winter Heliotrope can be invasive, as it spreads by branching underground stems (rather like Coltsfoot) and it can form large patches, where its leaves shade out other plants. Mine is in a pot and I don’t intend to let it escape, though since I bought it the plant has already reached the edges of the pot in a bid for freedom.

It is the flowers that make the Winter Heliotrope (see the Wildflower Finder website for some lovely photographs). They are subtly pretty – in pale pink clusters on the end of short spikes. Only male flowers are produced in the British Isles, so the plant cannot spread by seed.

The fact that the plant is in flower in the depths of winter is one reason why I love this plant but the main reason is the delicious vanilla scent of the flowers. On Christmas morning I will venture outside to my plant and take a long, deep sniff.