Triosteum aurantiacum

Description

I know the first question that must come to your mind is: who named this plant?!
The answer may involve digging deep into the mysterious matters of ‘plant common names giving’, so better let’s have a look at it.

A quite rare woodland plant in the wild, it grows up to 1 m tall with a robust appearance and produces lonicera-like, red flowers in axillary whorls. They are followed by orange berries with persistent sepals in the fall. The whole plant is covered by soft glandular hairs. An interesting species for the edge of the woodland garden; also good for the pollinators.
Medicinal uses: Indigenous People used the roots as an emetic and prepared an infusion from the herb for soaking sore feet.

Germination: The large fruits have a very hard tegument and resemble coffee beans (which explains the more reasonable common name used for the other native Triosteum perfoliatum – wild coffee); inside, there is a large seed.

For both T. aurantiacum and Triosteum pinnatifidum nicking of the fruits (or scarification with a file) followed by GA3 treatment and cold stratification gave good germination in the spring.
Please read more how to handle Triosteum ‘seeds’ here: Friday seed – or is a fruit?