Orixa japonica ("Kokusagi")

Japanese name: コクサギ （小臭木）
Scientific name: Orixa japonica

[Overview]
A deciduous shrub 1.5–3 m tall, found along mountain streams and in rocky places.
The whole plant has a distinctive smell.
Young branches are green, with white soft hairs arranged in two rows.
The leaves are simple and alternate in pairs, obovate, 5–13 cm long and 3–7 cm wide, with entire margins.
The leaf tip is shortly pointed, and the upper surface is glossy.
It is dioecious.
Male flowers are small, green and 4-petaled, borne in racemes 2–4 cm long arising from the leaf axils.
Female flowers are small, green and 4-petaled, borne singly in the leaf axils.
The fruit is a schizocarp; when it dries, the endocarp flicks out the seeds like a spring.

[Uses]
A decoction of the leaves was used as an insecticide.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed, by cuttings, by root cuttings, or by division.
It prefers sun to partial shade and a site that is well drained yet moisture-retentive.
Avoid strong direct sunlight and dryness in summer.
For potted plants, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries; for plants in the ground, rainfall is sufficient unless summer brings a long spell of sunny weather and the soil becomes severely dry.
Apply organic fertilizer around the plant as fertilizer in winter.
There are no particular pests or diseases, but it is a food plant of the larvae of the Japanese black swallowtail and the spangle butterfly, so the leaves may be eaten.

[Notes]
A leaf arrangement like that of Kokusagi is called "Kokusagi-type phyllotaxis."

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