Striving for Diversity: Japanese Blueberry Tree

A young specimen of Japanese blueberry tree (Elaeocarpus decipiens). Author's photographs

Japanese blueberry tree (Elaeocarpus decipiens) is a beautiful, broad-leaved evergreen from East Asia. Its compact form, lush growth, and elegant branching pattern make this tree a great lawn, garden, or street tree with almost year-round appeal. In spring, bronze-colored leaves emerge and soon mature to a luxuriant, shiny dark green. Before the previous season’s leaves fall, their chlorophyll degrades, revealing a brilliant reddish orange color in the dying leaves. This colorful ornamental effect lasts for several months; the leaves shed slowly, leaving the canopy and ground below dotted with the vibrantly colored older leaves. In summer, lantern-shaped, fragrant, cream-colored flowers with delicately fringed petals, appear inconspicuously witihin the canopy and under the foliage. These small flowers are harbingers of the interesting fruits that follow.

Fruits of Japanese blueberry tree (Elaeocarpus decipiens)

The common name for this species i...