Bitterwood
Picrasma quassioides · Simaroubaceae · 소태나무
How to spot it
The bark and wood contain a bitter compound (quassin), so they taste bitter, and the winter buds have no bud scales but are covered with reddish-brown hairs.
Look
- Leaves
- Odd-pinnately compound leaves with 9-15 egg-shaped leaflets 4-10 cm long and 1.5-3 cm wide, glossy above with wavy-toothed margins. Turns yellow in fall.
- Flowers
- Greenish flowers bloom from late April to May in flat clusters 8-15 cm across, with 4-5 petals.
- Fruit
- An egg-round drupe (6-7 mm long) with the calyx remaining at the base, maturing dark purple from late August to mid-September.
- Bark
- Reddish brown and not cracking for a long time; it tastes bitter and has yellow lenticels.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native
- Native to
- Found throughout Korea, and abroad in China, India, Taiwan and Japan.
- Ecology
- Likes sunny places but is not particular about soil; it grows in mountain valleys and mid-slopes mixed with elm, zelkova, hornbeam and others. Strong in cold and drought.