| Lifespan: | ⌛ | perennial |
|---|---|---|
| Origin: | ✈ | unknown (perhaps S Asia) |
| Exposure: | ☼ | full sun"full sun" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property. |
|---|---|---|
| Water: | ◍ | regular"regular" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property., drought tolerant"drought tolerant" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property. |
| Features: | ✓ | edible fruit"Edible fruit" is not in the list (evergreen, deciduous, flowers, fragrance, edible, fruit, naturalizes, invasive, foliage, birds, ...) of allowed values for the "Features" property. |
|
Ziziphus > |
zizyphus > |
Small deciduous tree with spines, grows fast, popular from S Europe to China. Serrated leaves are oval to lance-shaped serrated. Gives tiny (5mm) cream-colored flowers in late spring, which are followed by plum-like fruit (1.5-3 cm) which become dark red when ripe, and has one hard stone in it, like that of the olive.
- More information about this species can be found on the genus page.
Cultivation
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Tolerant of a wide range of temperatures and water, but won't give good fruit without summer heat and water during fruit development. Very drought tolerant if fruit is not important. Does well in desert with some water, can take extreme heat, down to -15C temperatures.
Propagation
Pests and diseases
No serious pests in the USA. Witch's brooms are a wide problem in China and Korea.
Cultivars
There are over 400 cultivars of the Jujube. Here are a few selections:
Early Ripening
- Li - Large, round fruit up to 3 ounces in mid-August. May be picked at the yellow-green stage. Tree is many-branched, yet narrow and upright. Best eaten fresh. Best first tree to have.
Mid Season
- Ed Hegard - Very similar to the Lang and Thornless.
- GA-866 - An outstandingly sweet selection out of the Chico Research program. Large, elongated fruit.
- Jin - An excellent elongated fruit. Very chewy when allowed to dry on the tree.
- Globe - A new, Chinese introduction.
- Honey Jar - Another new, Chinese introduction.
- Lang - Large, pear-shaped fruit which must be fully colored to be best eating. This fruit is best to let dry on the tree. Tree is upright and virtually spineless.
- Redlands #4 - Collected at an old homestead in Redlands, California. Very large, sweet, round fruit.
- So - A tree of most beautiful shape. At each node of the stem the branch decides to go off in a new direction. Hence, a very zig-zag branching pattern which casts a beautiful shadow in the wintertime. Tree is somewhat dwarfed.
- Sugar Cane - Small to medium fruit which can be round to elongated. Extremely sweet fruit but on a very spiny plant. The fruit is worth the spines!
- Thornless - Just as the name implies. Very few, if any spines occur. A fruit very similar to the Lang.
Late Season
- Admiral Wilkes - Collected on a South Seas expedition in the 1840's and planted on the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. Elongated fruit which has been the very last to ripen, generally in mid to late November.
- Chico (GI 7-62) - Fruit is round but flattened on the bottom. Looks like small apples. Excellent either fresh or dried.
- GI-1183 - Another cultivar from the Chico program. Large, sweet fruit.
- Sherwood - A seedling plant from Louisiana. The fruit is very dense and sweet. Tree is very narrow and upright with leaves that are weeping in habit.
- Silverhill - An elongated fruit which has cropped well even in northern Florida. Virtually spineless.
- Tigerstooth - Very similar to Silverhill.
- Topeka - From eastern Kansas and an excellent, late cropping fruit.
Gallery
Jujube tree
Dried red jujube fruits
References
- http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/jujube.html
- Flora: The Gardener's Bible, by Sean Hogan. Global Book Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0881926248