An evergreen shrub or small tree in the witch-hazel family, grown for its showy spidery flowers and, in some cultivars, deep purple or red foliage. It does best in fertile, slightly acidic soil in full sun.
Family
Hamamelidaceae (Hamamelid family)
Grows as
Tree, Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then once the soil surface dries; avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Fertile, slightly acidic, well-drained soil.
Temperature
Hardy to -15 °C; protect young plants from frost and avoid prolonged heat stress.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Assam to S. China and N. Indo-China, Japan (Honshu, Kyushu), Taiwan
Climate
temperate
About
Loropetalum chinense, commonly known as loropetalum, Chinese fringe flower and strap flower is a shrub or small tree in the witch-hazel family, Hamamelidaceae.
How to grow it
Loropetalum chinense grows best in fertile, slightly acidic soil in full sun for deepest foliage colour and is hardy down to -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit). It is a popular ornamental plant, grown for its prolific clusters of flowers and (in the case of the pink flowering variety) deeply coloured foliage that may contain various green, copper, purple and red tones. The leaves, flowers and roots of L. chinense (Chinese: 檵木; pinyin: jìmù) are all used in traditional Chinese medicine.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Loropetalum chinense by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.