Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens

Tree of the month series - this series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens is compiled by members of the Friends group and Gardens staff. The series will gradually build up to a comprehensive archive of information about the trees in Belfast Botanic gardens. Each article will illustrate the tree in Belfast together with information from a range of sources elsewhere. Click here for the rest of the trees

Tree of the Month, March 2009

Azara microphylla

by Barbara Pilcher

Azara is a member of the family Flacourtiaceae, a fascinating family of mostly tropical and sub-tropical trees and shrubs little known in gardens of the UK apart from a few individuals such as Azara spp and the lovely climber Berberidopsis corallina.
There are around 10 species of Azara, native to S. America (Chile and Argentina); most are suitable for milder parts of Ireland and the UK.
The specimen that is worth a second glance or two in the Belfast Botanic Gardens is Azara microphylla, to be found just inside the Botanic Avenue gate to the Gardens
Usually a shrub or elegant small tree, this specimen is slender and has adopted a multo-stemmed tree form.

Azara microphylla is an evergreen somewhat resembling Lonicera nitida with its small neat leaves. These are pleasantly glossy and arranged alternately along the stem in two opposite rows. Smaller, about one third the leaf size, foliose (leaf-like) stipules are attached at most nodes giving the appearance of leaves borne in unequal pairs. The yellow flowers are very small, often going unnoticed, but distinguished for their vanilla fragrance so early in the year, February to April, when they open. It is the cluster of stamens that is the most obvious characteristic of the flowers which appear on the underside of the twigs, so it is worth getting up close and searching for them. The scent spills out into the air.
A variety A. microphylla ‘Variegata’ of garden origin has leaves edged with an irregular band of creamy yellow and has proved a popular garden shrub or wall plant.

Large Azara near Botanic Avenue gate of the Belfast Botanic Gardens	Flowering branch of Azara microphylla
Cluster of flowers of Azara. The flowers have no visible petals; the yellow colour comes from the stamens	The small leaf-like structures attached to one side of the true leaves are stipules
The individual small flowers of Azara have 4 stamens symmetrically about a single stigma	The variagated form of Azara microphylla makes a fine garden tree, lighting up a shady corner. Photo at Rowallane garden

Photos taken in 2009 in Belfast Botanic Gardens and Rowallane Garden. Copyright Jon Pilcher