Cercidiphyllum japonicum in Belfast Botanic Gardens

This is one of a series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens compiled by the Friends group. The tree tag number relates to the small aluminium discs, usually fixed on the tree trunk, 2 to 3m above ground level.

This attractive deciduous tree comes from China and Japan. They are seldom seen of great size in the UK, but can grow to 45m. The genus name means "with leaves like Cercis". Cercis siliquastrum is the Judas tree with heart-shaped leaves and attractive pink flowers born directly on the old stem wood. C. japonicum is the single species in the genus and the genus is the only one in the family Cercidiphyllaceae. It is diocious and has rather insignificant flowers but is grown for its attractive Autumn colours. It also has a most distinctive smell like caramel or burning sugar. It is sometimes called the toffee tree or toffee-apple tree on account of the smell. This is most noticeable in Autumn and seems to emanate from the whole tree - it is not clear from smelling an individual leaf. The young tree in Belfast Botanic Gardens has not yet started to flower.


Cercidiphyllum in Belfast Botanic Gardens	Leaves of Cercidiphyllum japonicum

Leaf detail of Cercidiphyllum japonicum	Leaves of Cercis siliquastrum for comparison

Belfast Botanic Gardens Tree Archive