Disporum trachycarpum
| Disporum trachycarpum | |
| Light: |   |
| Moisture: |  |
| Hardiness: | 5 |
| Soil pH: | 5.6-8.4 |
| Height: | 2' |
| Open Woods Forest | |
| Native to: | |
| Edible Rating: |  |
| Medicinal Rating: |  |
| Tea: | Yes |
 | |
Disporum trachycarpum (common name: fairybells)
Propagation: Seed - best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe[1]. Use a lime-free compost and keep it moist[1]. Stored seed requires 6 weeks cold stratification and should be sown as early in the year as possible[1]. Germination usually takes place within 3 - 6 months or more at 15°c[1]. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts.
Division in spring[2].
Cultivation: Best grown in partial shade in a moist peaty or woodland soil[3][1].
A very hardy plant, tolerating temperatures down to about -20°c[4].
Plants spread well by means of creeping rhizomes when they are grown in a leafy soil[4].
This species is closely related to D. smithii[5].
Range: Western N. America - British Columbia to N.E. Oregon and south along the Rockies.
Habitat: Wooded slopes, often by streams, or in aspen groves, to 3000 metres[6].
Edibility: Fruit - raw[7][8][9][10]. A sweet flavour[11]. The fruit is up to 10mm in diameter and is leathery rather than pulpy[12].
Medicinal: The seed has been used to clear foreign objects from the eye. A fresh seed was inserted and the eye closed then rubbed until the seed was watered out with the foreign object clinging to it[10]. The seeds were also placed in the eye overnight and an infusion of the bark used as an eyewash to treat snow-blindness[10].
An infusion of the leaves has been used as a wash for wounds whilst a poultice of the dampened bruised leaves has been applied to bleeding wounds[10].
Soil: Can grow in light, medium, and heavy soils.
Flower Type: Hermaphrodite
Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Bird, Alfred. Focus on Plants Volume 5. Thompson and Morgan, 1991.
- ↑ Huxley, Anthony. The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. MacMillan Press, 1992.
- ↑ Chittendon, Fred. RHS Dictionary of Plants. Oxford University Press, 1951.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Phillips, Roger and Martyn Rix. Perennials - The Definitve Reference. Pan Books, 1991.
- ↑ Thomas, Graham. Perennial Garden Plants. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1990.
- ↑ Hitchcock, Leo. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, 1955.
- ↑ Tanaka, Tyōzaburō. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing, 1976.
- ↑ Yanovsky, Elias. Food Plants of the North American Indians Publication 237. US Department of Agriculture.
- ↑ Kunkel, Günther. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books, 1984.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Moerman, Daniel. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press, 1998.
- ↑ Davis, Ray and Frank Craighead. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. The Riverside Press, 1963.
- ↑ Britton, Nathaniel and Addison Brown. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada. Dover Publications, 1970.