blue sausage fruit

Photo: MPF — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 5 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ Honestly: bland, watery, mildly sweet — grown for the extraordinary blue pods, not the taste.

Hardiness

Zone 5–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Autumn

Mature size

Shrub 3–5 m

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Montane

Native range

Western China — Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei and Gansu — in montane woodland and scrub at 900–3,600 m.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

300 cm (118 in) apart — about 9 m² (97 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Very large alternate pinnate leaves 50–90 cm long with 13–25 ovate leaflets, on thick, sparsely branched, almost unbranched stems — the whole plant looks more like a young ailanthus than a shrub.

Root system

Deep and fleshy, sparsely branched to match the stems above; it resents disturbance and is best planted young and left alone.

Fruit description

The reason to grow it: hanging sausage-shaped pods 5–10 cm in an extraordinary metallic blue, splitting to show white pulp around black seeds. ⚠ Honestly, the pulp is bland, watery and only mildly sweet — a texture like melon jelly with very little flavour. The pods are the point; the eating is a bonus.

Propagation

Seed sown fresh in autumn, or after cold stratification — much the easiest route, and seedlings grow quickly. Cuttings are difficult.

Pollination

Self-fertile

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.