Schinus polygama (Cav.) Cabrera var. dentata

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘Professor Engler, in his able monograph of the Anacardiaceae, has shown that the long-established genus Duvaua, of Kunth, can only be regarded as a subgenus of the older Schinus.  Though previously placed wide apart in the Order, the only character by which they could be separated was that of leaves simple in Duvaua and compound in Schinus, which of itself is insufficient for the establishment of two genera.  S. dependens has a very wide range in the west coast of South America, from Valdivia in latitude 400 S. to 190 S. in Bolivia, where it ascends to 13,000 ft. elevation.  It also extends over a great portion of the Argentine Republic, Paraguay and Uruguay.  Its northern limit in the east coast of America is the province of Rio Grande do Sul, in the extreme south of Brazil.  According to the late Dr. Gillies (confirmed by. C. Gay) the Indians of the Mendozan Andes distil an intoxicating liquor from the fruit.  The bark yields a balsam used as a vulnerary, and other parts of the plant afford medicines formerly much in use in Chili.  Its native name is Huingan.  S. dependens was introduced into the Garden of the Royal Horticultural Society before the year 1833, when it was figured in the “Botanical Register ” by Lindley, who states that it will not bear the climate of London without protection from frost, but would probably succeed in crevices of rocks in Devonshire and Cornwall.  The specimen here figured is from a plant raised at Kew from seeds sent from the Botanical Gardens of Santiago, Chili, in 1885; and which has proved to be perfectly hardy.  It flowers in May.’  [BM t.7406/1895].

History at Camden Park

Only listed in the 1843 catalogue.  Possibly recognised as longifolia in the 1845 edition.

Notes