Morella rubra (Chinese bayberry, "Yamamomo")

Japanese name: ヤマモモ （山桃）
Scientific name: Morella rubra

[Overview]
Found in evergreen forests, an evergreen tree 6–10 m tall, reaching 20 m in large specimens.
The trunk and branches are rather thick and short.
Young branches are often tinged with red.
On old branches the leaf scars remain as knobs.
The leaves are simple and alternate, tend to cluster at the branch tips, and are oblong to lanceolate, 5–10 cm long and 1.5–3 cm wide.
The leaf base gradually narrows into a petiole 3–8 mm long.
Young plants have toothed leaf margins, but on mature trees the margins are entire.
The plant is dioecious.
Both male and female flowers are borne in spikes from the leaf axils and have no petals.
The male inflorescence is 2–3.5 cm long and bears many male flowers.
The female inflorescence is 1 cm long and bears the female flowers rather sparsely; the styles of the female flowers are red.
The fruit is spherical, 1.5–2 cm in diameter, ripens red, is sweet and sour, and is edible.

[Uses]
The fruit is eaten raw or processed into fruit wine, jelly and other products.
The bark of the trunk is used as a crude drug called yobaihi.
A dye obtained from the bark is used to dye fishing nets and the like.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed.
Cuttings and grafting are difficult.
The suitable growing area is the warm regions south of the Kanto region.
It prefers a sunny, well-drained, well-ventilated, fertile soil with deep topsoil, but it also grows in poor soil.
For potted plants, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries; for plants in the ground, rainfall is sufficient.
After the fruit is harvested, apply organic fertilizer around the plant as a thank-you fertilizer.
Basically no pruning is done; just thin out unneeded branches.
Pests and diseases include brown spot, knot disease, Yamamomo-hamaki, Cha-hamaki, scale insects and Akajima-madoga.

[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from the fact that it grows in the mountains and its fruit can be eaten like a peach.

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