crimson kadsura

Photo: Fumikas Sagisavas — CC0 · source

Survives zone 7 through 9

Harvest calendar

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

Unlike its harsh, medicinal relative Schisandra chinensis, this is a genuinely sweet dessert fruit — sourish-sweet with a citrus-like, grapefruit-or-langsat flavor and a faint floral aroma, sold in local markets in southern China and Southeast Asia and eaten fresh raw.

Hardiness

Zone 7–9

Habit

Vine

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Autumn

Mature size

Twining vine 6–9 m, needs trellis

Light

Partial — montane forest vine

Soil pH

5.5–7.0 (rich, moist)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Southern China, north-east India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam — montane and subtropical forest, where it climbs into the canopy.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate to fast once established

Spacing

250 cm (98 in) apart — about 6.3 m² (67 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, leathery and evergreen, elliptic to oblong 5–13 cm, dark glossy green with a paler underside — a much heavier, more tropical-looking leaf than the deciduous Schisandra vines.

Root system

Shallow, fibrous and wide-spreading, almost all of it in the top 30 cm, and it will not take drying out — this is a forest-floor root that expects leaf litter and shade. Mulch it, keep the root run cool, and give the top growth the light; the usual failure with these vines is a hot, bare, dry root zone.

Fruit description

The striking thing about this plant: a single compound fruit 6–12 cm across, like a scarlet or crimson pine cone made of soft fleshy segments, each segment a separate berry fused into the head and weighing up to half a kilo. Sourish-sweet and genuinely good, with a grapefruit-or-langsat character — unlike Schisandra, this is a dessert fruit.

Propagation

Seed after a long cold stratification — three months at least, and germination is still erratic. Softwood cuttings in early summer under mist are more dependable, and layering works. Since the plants are dioecious, cuttings are the only way to be sure what sex you are planting.

Pollination

DIOECIOUS — needs male and female plants

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.