Phellodendron japonicum Massachusetts (Jamaica Plain)

Phellodendron japonicum (female). Massachusetts (Jamaica Plain) Bussey Grounds. Same history as photo. M-13. Photo. by E.H. Wilson, Nov. 29, 1923. The Phellodendron Japonicum is a cork tree with "roughly furrowed bark, green flowers tinged with pink, and dark, bluish-black berries" on the female version. There are both male and female variants of this tree, which is "dioecious," that is, having male and female flowers on separate trees. Male staminate flowers are on one plant and female pistillate flowers are on another plant. The Japanese cork is comparatively small and belongs to the Rutaceae family, which is the same family as oranges and other citrus fruits. As mentioned, these trees were raised in 1870 at the Botanic Garden at Harvard. They came from a seed at the Imperial Garden in St. Petersburg. The seed was probably collected by C.J. Maximowicz in Japan. Maximowicz was the chief botanist at the Imperial Garden in the 19th century, and he travelled to Japan to collect a large number of Japanese plants between the years 1860-1864. Sources: Helen Roca-Garcia, "The Cork Trees," Arnoldia 30-5 (1970), 162-166; and Charles Sprague Sargent, Trees and Shrubs v. 1 parts 3 and 4 (Houghton Mifflin, 1903), 202.