Forsythia suspensa (golden bell, "Rengyo")

Japanese name: レンギョウ （連翹）
Scientific name: Forsythia suspensa

[Overview]
A deciduous shrub reaching 3 m in height.
The branches are pale yellowish brown with round lenticels, and are hollow except at the nodes.
Young branches arch and root where they touch the ground.
The leaves are simple and opposite, broadly ovate to elliptic-ovate, 2–10 cm long and 1.5–5 cm wide, with serrate margins.
Leaves on young branches are sometimes divided into three lobes.
The leaves take on a purple tinge in autumn.
The plants are dioecious.
The flowers open before the leaves emerge and are borne singly from the axillary buds.
The flowers are golden yellow and 2.5 cm across; the corolla is deeply divided into 4, and the lobes are elliptical, 7–10 mm wide.
The flower stalk is 1–1.5 cm long.
The fruit is an oblong to ovate capsule 1.2–2.5 cm long and 0.6–1.2 cm wide, with granular lenticels on the surface.
The seeds are about 7 mm long and 2 mm wide, with a narrow wing along the edge.

[Uses]
The fruit is used medicinally.

[Cultivation]
Propagate by cuttings, layering, or division.
It prefers sunny, well-drained, well-ventilated, fertile, adequately moist soil.
It dislikes strong afternoon sun.
In dry places it grows poorly and spider mites attack it easily.
With insufficient sun, flowering is poor.
For potted plants, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries, but in summer water twice, morning and evening, to prevent drying out.
For plants in the ground, rainfall is sufficient.
Apply organic fertilizer in winter, and slow-release fertilizer after flowering.
If pruning, avoid hard pruning after June, when the flower buds for the following year begin to form.
Pests and diseases include powdery mildew, spider mites and scale insects.

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